Prixview – Barcelona Testing

The first of two three-day test brings F1 to the Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya a circuit that drivers know well as it is regularly used for both testing and the Spanish Grand Prix. The circuit built in the late 1980s is the ideal test venue as it has a mixture of straights, flowing corners and a tight final sector.

The circuit despite being criticised for lack of overtaking is good for testing featuring all different types of corners and is one that requires high downforce and a bit of straight-line speed. This makes it perfect for assessing the performance of the cars and why teams like coming to the circuit for testing as well as the warmer conditions.

Along the main straight into the braking zone at Turn One. One of the important factors is the slipstream through the final corner making aerodynamic balance important as equally as speed. Testing is often for us watching is educated guesswork as we try and figure out who has the advantage.

The changing wind direction also makes set up very difficult cars can have massive aerodynamic drag and understeer on one part of the circuit in the morning, but suffer oversteer at the same part of the circuit in the afternoon. This can make qualifying and the race more difficult if teams overreact to the changing conditions, making it possible to win and lose on strategy.

This year the test has been reduced to three days and that means unlike 2020 the teams have eight hours less of track time and with the second test taking place in Bahrain, it could make it more difficult to understand who has made gains. Cooler temperatures in the morning and late afternoon can make tyre warm up more difficult.

Testing however is unreliable as teams often run different run plans and are testing changes to the cars, often overnight teams will strip and completely rebuild these cars. Also new parts and development can arrive throughout the day, often teams have to choose between going for mileage and speed.

I think it’s likely that the single lap running will be in Sakhir as that’s where the first race of the season. We always need to take the running with a pinch of salt, but we won’t likely get answers to that until the sprint qualifying or race in Bahrain. The expectation is that Mercedes will as they normally do, underperform before showing performance on the final day.

Last year in Bahrain, we saw the ‘midfield teams’ as well as McLaren and Ferrari look close on track which continued into the season. It will be interesting to see whether they can close the gap to Mercedes and Red Bull, as are still expecting them to be ahead.

You never know with regulation changes which teams are going to spring a surprise, but you need to I think wait until May’s Grand Prix and the upgrades to truly understand the pecking order. But the thing which teams will want the most is time on track to understand the new cars.

Facts and figures

Test		Formula 1 Aramco Barcelona Pre-Season Test 2022
Venue		Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Montmeló, Catalonia, Spain
Configuration		2021 Grand Prix
Circuit Length		4.675km (2.905mi)
Lap record	Race	01:18.149 (Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B, 2021)
	Qualifying	01:16.741 (Sir Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, W12, 2021)

Fast Facts

• The circuit is renowned as a true test of a car’s aerodynamic efficiency due to its mixture of corners. With a massive pit straight, long, high-speed corners such as Turn 3 and plenty of medium-speed turns, there is plenty for the drivers to sink their teeth into in Spain.
• Between 2007 and 2016 ten different drivers, Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa, Kimi Räikkönen, Jenson Button, Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel, Sir Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Max Verstappen took victory.
• Only four of the 19 races at this track between 2001 and 2019 have not been won from pole position.
• Only twelve podium finishes at this circuit have come from lower than fifth on the grid. Only three races at the track have not been won from the front row of the grid.

Event timetable

Driver line up

Correct as of Wednesday 23rd February 

What we will be looking for

This test for everyone is going to be about learning for everyone, Mercedes have always in recent years gone after reliability and that has been really the basis of their success in the hybrid era as well as the performance of the package. But don’t read too much into the test, as its only an educated guess as there are a lot of variables.

The feeling from the teams however that we may be expecting too much of a shakeup and that the likes of Mercedes and Red Bull will be the leaders, that makes the question can the midfield close up. Can McLaren and Ferrari begin to close the gap to the top two teams?

In the last two years, one thing which has emerged and then followed into the season is the close battle in the midfield and last year the closeness between Mercedes and Red Bull. Ferrari and McLaren will be looking to close that gap, after they had an extremely close battle last season.

We know that the circuit is good for giving a car a all round test, of straight line speed as well as cornering. The drivers and teams know the circuit well, meaning they have a lot of data, but when we get to the race weekend in May I use that as the time to assess how much progress the teams have made.

We will see the cars change a lot over the test, you need a good eye. You will see a lot of what the teams are going to be experimenting and the bigger teams are likely to bring daily changes to the car

There will be a lot of changes, the cars will change session to session, long runs are normally likely in the ‘race window’ around 3pm local time. The teams often take different strategy, obviously unlike race weekends, we don’t have a clear idea of the pattern we would in practice.

We won’t be getting as much information from Barcelona this year as unlike recent years F1TV has decided not to broadcast the first test on TV, meaning it will be harder to see how these cars perform on track when you are close together because the teams will not be showing the true performance.

There are serval things we should be looking for, reliability, mileage, handling at the early phase, speed I think will come on the final day in Sakhir ahead of the opening race. Reliability is the watchword, as we see across the field that is key in all the battles once we get into the season.

We also have new 18-inch tyres, which are designed to be longer-lasting and we will have the full range of compounds for the test. Again the tyre life is the thing to watch, the expectation is that these tyres won’t have the same drop off the cliff, this is something to watch, as well as can they get through the graining phase.

Race Information

2021 Lap time comparison