This Friday, the Formula 1 violence erupts, 126 days after the test days in Barcelona. There, six test days were completed by the Formula 1 teams in February. In recent years, there were eight test days, but because the season would have 22 race weekends this year, the number of test days was reduced to six. In six days, too, much could be learned about the performance of the teams. We will update you quickly.
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At the back of the field, the pecking order seemed unchanged
Williams was one of the big winners during the test weeks in Barcelona. Just the fact that it showed up on time at the circuit in Montmeló was already a victory in itself, team boss Claire Williams thought. In addition, compared to 2019, the team made up nearly a second and a half during the test weeks in 2019, but the historic British team still seems to be dangling at the very bottom of the pecking order, albeit significantly closer to the other teams in the rear than last year.
And which teams make up the rest of that rearguard? Alfa Romeo and Haas, it seems. The troubled Haas team did not send any signals during the test weeks that they have made a big leap forward compared to 2019. Alfa Romeo continued in Barcelona where it left off last year. Reliable, but without real speed to invariably compete in front of midfield.
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© Haas
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Copy, paste + a lick of pink paint?
The new Racing Point was soon renamed the ‘Pink Mercedes’, or ‘Tracing Point’ by some on the asphalt in February. Why? Because the RP20 was surprisingly similar to last season’s Mercedes W10. The British team was certainly not ashamed of it and simply admitted that indeed many influences of the 2019 champion car have been incorporated into the design of its latest creation.
And with that Racing Point showed muscles during the test weeks. Lance Stroll and especially Sergio Perez impressed with relatively fast times, so it seems as yet that Racing Point may call itself best of the rest during the Austrian Grand Prix and the rest of the midfield has to chase the pink colossus.
Behind Racing Point, especially Renault and behind it McLaren and AlphaTauri seem to be able to cross swords for the last places in the top ten during the races, just like last year, but it is very close together as in 2019.
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Ferrari either played hide and seek or had major problems
The Ferrari team was one of the most startling teams during the test weeks last February. While competitors Mercedes and Red Bull immediately demonstrated that the midfield teams can whistle for serious results for at least a year, Ferrari still gave them a glimmer of hope.
Especially in the first week it was guessing why Ferrari drove the laps on the Spanish circuit relatively slowly. “We take it easy,” the Italians said at first, but it soon turned into slightly more worrying expressions. “We are behind the competition”, “Our engine is no longer as good as last year,” was how it sounded during test week two from the Ferrari garage.
Red Bull and Mercedes doubted this, but suddenly, at the end of the second week of testing, the FIA came up with a special statement, containing a weird explanation about the Italians’ either legal or illegal engine, which they discredited in 2019. The statement was special, but in the Formula 1 paddock, connections were immediately made to Ferrari’s weak performance during the test weeks.
Has Ferrari had to reduce its power source at the insistence of the FIA? Maybe even have to develop from scratch? Or is it not all that easy and does the team just speed up the SF1000 of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc in Austria? If not, the Scuderia may have to let rivals Mercedes and Red Bull go early in the season and head over to Racing Point and co instead. look.
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© Ferrari
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Red Bull had woken up from hibernation in time
In recent seasons, Red Bull and Max Verstappen fans often came home from a cold fair after the first Grand Prix of the season. Admittedly, the test weeks have already been a few months ago, but fans of Verstappen and teammate Alexander Albon can still hope for a lot from the test weeks.
Red Bull was fast, Red Bull was reliable. Honda was fast, Honda was reliable. The drivers were fast, the drivers were reliable. Apart from some pirouettes and suspension problems here and there, there were actually no negative things in the Austrian camp. Verstappen remained calm under it. “We’ll see,” but at the same time he confirmed that it was going well and that the car felt very good.
The team is expected to start the season roughly on par with Mercedes. It does not seem that the racing stable still has to wake up from her hibernation. Formula 1 fans may well get ready for a real titanic battle between Max Verstappen and Red Bull on the one hand and Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes on the other.
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© Getty Images/Red Bull Contentpool
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Mercedes made an impression, but also seemed vulnerable
Mercedes is and will remain the team to beat in Formula 1 for the time being. After years of dominance, the Brackley team managed to surprise friend and foe with something new at the start of the seventh season of the hybrid era, namely the DAS system. Much has already been written and talked about, but what is beyond dispute is that the introduction of the innovative system shows that the team of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas will not just rest on its laurels, even after six consecutive championships.
Despite the fact that Mercedes was the most productive team during the test weeks, with the most running laps (over 900), the British-German armor still showed some hairline cracks. The racing team also tried to reach new heights in the motorcycle area, but in February that plan did not go entirely as desired. More than once a power source from Brixworth caused a lot of headaches.
Williams driver Nicholas Latifi stalled twice during the test weeks, to the annoyance of Mercedes’ troubled British customer team, who were able to use the test laps so well in the quest for sporting revenge for the disastrous run last season. Mercedes also went wrong twice in its own ranks. Both Hamilton and Bottas experienced in person that the power source of the Silver arrows is not flawless yet.
Especially in the battle against the seemingly improved Honda power unit, it will be of great importance for Mercedes to have a strong and above all reliable engine from the first Grand Prix in Austria, with a qualifying mode that they tell you against. During the test weeks, not all the cogs in the entirety of the largest Red Bull competitor seemed to be of the same, desired, high level. Time will tell if the team has been able to solve all teething problems in the past few months.
So the first tentative sketch of the pecking order for 2020 has been made. Anyway, the side note is and remains that these were test weeks and not all teams showed the back of their tongues in the Catalan sun. In addition, four months have passed since the teams left Montmeló and there will be many updates on the Red Bull Ring next week.
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