Formula One Vault

Preview – Barcelona Second Test

Formula One remains in Barcelona for the second of two pre-season tests takes place in Barcelona once again. The circuit which will host the Spanish Grand Prix in May has been the proving ground for teams for many years.

This week the teams will be looking to bring updates to their cars as they continue their development programmes for 2017. The teams will be looking to get more performance and find every little bit of performance out of their cars.

McLaren will need to make up the time lost last week following the team’s limited running as they will need to look at their package. Teams at this stage in the season have very limited parts, which have already proved costly for some. Drivers will look to get as much time on track, like Mercedes who have already pushed their cars to do over five Grand Prix’s.

Pascal Wehrlein will have a lot to catch up on, as he missed the first test because of injury. However, he should be used to these Pirelli tyres having done some development for Mercedes.

Facts and Figures

Venue	Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Montmeló, Spain
Circuit Length	4.655 km (2.892 mi)
Lap Record	1:21.670 (Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari, 2008)

Last year’s pole lap (May 2016)

Lewis Hamilton launches himself right across turn 16 going to the outside of the track to start the lap. Runs perfectly into the braking zone before taking a bit of kerb into turn one hits the lower part of the kerb in the corner before angling across on the short run to T2.

Takes bit more kerb mid corner before pulling away for the run to turn three. Takes kerb on the run to T3 before pulling across the track going to the outside before turning into the long T3 runs close to the inside before launching across going through four taking kerb on the exit.

Once again runs to the outside of five before the flat out run through T6 before setting himself up for t7 & T8. Kerb on entry to seven and stays close to the outside before darting across for eight. Runs to the outside before darting again across for nine taking kerb on the exit before the long run to ten.

Heads to the inside on the run to ten turns in close to the corner before taking kerb on the short run to eleven. Then, takes kerb before crossing quickly for the long turn twelve pulls across before hitting the kerb on exit, hits the kerb on entry to thirteen before quickly crossing the track to enter fourteen. Kerb through both fourteen and fifteen, before heading to the outside for sixteen going inside before quick pulling across the track to set him up for the line and a 01:22.000.

What will we learn?

Teams will have been working over the weekend on ironing out the issues they uncovered last week in the test. Eyes will be on McLaren after the terrible first week they had with reliability and you need to hope they can. Mercedes I think will still have that lead in terms of reliability but there are some rumours that teams are holding back until Melbourne.

It will be interesting to see if teams continue the trend of tumbling lap times. We are on course now for that five seconds gain in lap times. but can we see cars going any quicker on track?  The bigger teams will be looking at their upgrade plans as they know for the next month the cars will be living in boxes, making it difficult for upgrades.

Drivers line up

Read our round up of the first test here.

DATA PROFILE