BARCELONA TEST DAY ONE – Lando Norris sets the pace by seven-tenths in the closing moments
McLaren’s Lando Norris was fastest on the first day of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya. The Englishman set his fastest time a 19.568 on the C4 tyre as sparks flew in the closing moments of the afternoon to put himself almost seven-tenths faster than the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.
Ferrari set the pace for most of the day with Leclerc setting a 20.165 during his seventy-nine-lap stint during the morning. However, Norris was three tenths off Leclerc at lunch, but as ever testing can’t be seen as a reliable idea of the picture. Leclerc managed eighty laps.
Norris’s time coming on the C4 tyre while Leclerc’s time coming on the C3, these times were set at different times of day when track temperatures and conditions, which all have a big impact on outright lap times, were not comparable. Norris’s time was quicker than expected a second off last year’s FP1 time, despite the cars designed to be a bit slower to improve overtaking.
Leclerc putting himself a quarter of a second ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz and three and a half tenths ahead of the two Mercedes. Ferrari were fast, by the most important thing reliable completing the most laps of any team.
George Russell set a 20.784 in the morning run with the Mercedes once again looking reliable straight out the box with the Englishman handing the car over to teammate Lewis Hamilton for the afternoon.
Hamilton told the press conference, “You would assume that Ferrari perhaps didn’t do much development of that car and just put everything into this year’s car. So does that mean that they’re several months ahead?”
Verstappen added, “The car is completely different. I think the RB18 looks good but of course, it’s about being fast and we hope to see that. Everything worked fine, so it was a good start.”
Although it is hard to read into headline times on the opening day of preseason, McLaren and Ferrari, two famous teams hoping to break out of the F1 midfield and return to the front they had productive days in terms of mileage, which at this stage of preseason is arguably the more important measuring stick of which teams are in a good place and which are not.
Despite these cars being brand new the whole day passed without a red flag which at this early stage suggest that the teams have carried on the trend of reliability, we have seen over the last decade.
Hamilton finished the day just under a tenth and a half behind his teammate. However, he spent some time in the garage with a suspension issue, after he was bouncing significantly down the main straight in the last hour of running. In his media briefing, he once again rebuffed suggestions he considered quitting after controversially losing the title to Max Verstappen at last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, goes into this season looking for a record eighth championship.
It was a productive session for Russell, Max Verstappen and Nicholas Latifi, who all finished with over sixty-five laps to their names. Verstappen managed over two race distances in the Red Bull which caught the eye of those on the ground with its largely undercut sidepod inlet impressing a lot of observers.
Sebastian Vettel was sixth fastest following his morning run which left him three and a half tenths behind Hamilton. Despite the huge regulation change the cars on the opening day were proving to be reliable, with no stoppages on track. However, there was varying mileage from all of the teams.
Fernando Alonso put his Alpine eighth just over a tenth behind the Alpha Tauri of Yuki Tsunoda, while Valtteri Bottas had the joint lowest mileage in tenth for Alfa Romeo in tenth. Verstappen was ninth fastest completing a hundred and forty-seven laps, but his afternoon session was focused on long runs rather than pace.
Nikita Mazepin’s day was limited, he could only manage twenty laps before his day was over because of floor problems. His Haas teammate Mick Schumacher didn’t do much better, just doing three more laps setting a 22.9, which was two seconds off the pace.
Alex Albon was eleventh fastest going six tenths faster than Williams teammate Nicolas Latifi, who was fourteenth fastest with both drivers completing a race distance of sixty-six laps in Barcelona. Lance Stroll put his Aston Martin thirteenth going five-hundredths faster than Latifi, but he was two seconds slower than Vettel.
Nikita Mazepin was fifteenth going four-tenths faster than Alfa Romeo’s test driver Robert Kubica, the duo managing the least laps of any drivers, twenty and nine respectively.