With day 3 complete, the first week of testing is officially done and dusted. Many patterns raised in the first two days were still present today, and the teams have a lot of valuable insight to take into week 2 of testing.
Morning Session
Day 3 was absent of Lando Norris, Pierre Gasly, Fernando Alonso, Charles Leclerc and Arvid Lindblad. This meant that for those 5 teams, their teammates got the luxury of having the entire day to themselves. Lewis Hamilton, Colapinto and Oscar Piastri took full advantage of this, reaching triple digits for laps completed today. For Hamilton, his morning started out on the track immediately, the Brit wasting no time making up for lost time. Instead of Flow Vis, he was rocking the Aero Rakes during the morning.
The day was graced with an early red flag when Valtteri Bottas stopped his Cadillac out on track. The new team experienced some reliability issues so far during testing, so this was not a great sign for F1’s newest team. The Finn was finally able to get back out on the circuit before the morning was up. He made the most of his time before handing the track over to teammate Sergio Perez for the afternoon.
While the drivers continue getting to grips with the new regulations, many are still finding corner entry tricky. Oscar Piastri was seen locking up quite badly, running wide. Liam Lawson running solo today in his Racing Bulls, had a slip into the final corner. Many drivers this week have had incidences into that corner, which suggests a lack of grip in that area. He wasn’t the only one to have a close call here, with Bortoletto running wide into the final corner and having save a twitch rear end.
The morning ended with George Russell leading the pack in terms of lap times. The Mercedes pulled in a 1:33.918, which was about three tenths clear of Hamilton in P2. Max Verstappen concluded the morning session over a second slower than Russell.
Afternoon Session
After the lunch break, the drivers are slow to get back out on track. It was Franco Colapinto who was the first to return to the circuit, looking to add to the 64 laps he completed during the morning. While his sessions remained relatively uneventful, the team can gain a lot from the number of laps he completed today, reaching 144 by the chequered flag.
Waiting a while to join the action was Kimi Antonelli who spent a large part of the afternoon session in the pit lane. However, when he did eventually emerge, his performance looked strong. Initially the Italian jumped to third fastest, and it wasn’t long before he hit the top of the timetable. A 1:33.9 was his first run, later improving to a 1:33.669.
Issues in certain corners continued into the evening. Liam Lawson found his car facing the wrong way, but was able to get himself going again – no damage done other than some flat spots on his tyres. More issues occurred later when the red flag was waved for the second time today. This time it was Hamilton who had parked his Ferrari on the side of the track. He concluded his day with 150 laps done, second only to Piastri’s 161. It’s unknown if his stoppage was due to issues with the car, or something simple like fuel.
The day ended with Antonelli remaining unbeaten, his teammate sat beside him with Hamilton keeping third fastest of the day. Piastri with his record number of laps for the week sat 4th fastest, and the Red Bull drivers Verstappen and Hadjar 5th and 6th. HAAS had a solid day of testing, completing 148 laps between them with no major incidences. During the practice starts, Franco Colapinto lost traction of his Alpine and came close to sliding into the wall down the start straight. Luckily no damage came to the Argentinian.
Key Takeaways from Week 1
When it comes to who’s quickest, that’s still up in the air. The top four teams are all claiming to not be the fastest, but we won’t truly know anything until qualifying at Albert Park. The midfield runners still look uncertain as the first test ends. Aston Martin end week 1 with various visible problems that they will work on improving for next week. That being said, testing times aren’t a true indication of speed.
“There were a few teams which were clearly very quick today and it looks like we are behind, so there is still a lot to improve. Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari are there at the top.” – Red Bull Technical Director Pierre Wache.
Mileage was high across the board this week. Williams opted for completing many laps to make up for their absence in the Barcelona Shake-Down. 413 laps to the British team. Ferrari seem to have had a positive week, completing a lot of mileage, topping the time sheets and having no obvious reliability issues.
Going into week 2, the teams will be aware of the recurring issues this week, such as the infamous turn 10. Many either locked up or went wide. Despite that, all 11 teams are happy with the process that they made in the first test.