1st Pre-season Test: Day 1 Report
- Farhan Khurram
- Feb 19, 2019
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 19, 2019
Ferrari and Vettel were fastest at the end of the day with a lap time of 1:18.161s and a lap count of 169.
The 1st pre-season test of the 2019 Formula 1 seasons kicked-off at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. Williams was the sole team absent from the 1st day of testing as the rest of the 9 teams racked in as much mileage as they could and clocked the fastest lap times possible.
Ferrari was fastest of the day by 1:18.161s that was set in morning by Sebastian Vettel. He ran all day long and though he didn't improve later in the day, he had strong mileage with 169 laps covered by the end of the day.
Speaking to RaceFans, Vettel expressed his feelings regarding the wider new front wings and sounded critical of the regulations. He said : “The front wing I think looks really ugly,”
“I don’t understand why it is so wide”
“I think years ago we went back because we said it’s actually bad for racing. Now we bring back wide, so maybe we forgot to take notes.
"I think if you look at the rest of the car it’s beautiful, the front wing for all the teams it looks a bit weird.” he said.
Vettel also said that today was the best day of testing he ever had with Ferrari.
"That was the best first day of testing we have ever had"
In second was Carlos Sainz who was running 3rd in the final hour but set the quickest lap of the day almost four-tenths behind Vettel after taking the place from Grosjean.
Carlos Sainz, who was at the wheel of the MCL34 today, mentioned that how everything went according to the plan. The Spaniard and Fernando Alonso's replacement, seemed quite optimistic regarding the performance of the car. Sainz and McLaren were able to cover 119 laps today, with the best lap time of 1:18.558s; just 0.397s shy of the top lap time set by Vettel.
“The hard work over the winter, the plan we put together to have the car early for the presentation and to be out on track at nine o'clock has paid off.
“I think everyone in the team has to be proud, has to be happy”
“Well, I realise the quality there is at McLaren since the day I arrived at the team,"
“That has never been a question, and even before arriving at the team, I had a lot of trust in this team.
“In six years you cannot forget how to make fast cars, although we are still far away from where we want to be.
Grosjean had a rough day as his car stopped at final chicane in first half of the day. He retired due to fuel pressure issue and stayed in for rest of the day until reappearing in second session for quick lap times. The Frenchman's best lap time was a 1:19.159s.
He slowly improved as he came to 9th and improved up to 2nd, his highest of the day, but settled in 3rd overall. Verstappen was 4th overall in terms of lap times, the Dutch doing 128 laps despite sitting in for most of the day and trying to find pace before setting a handful of quick times to finish 4th. Max lapped the circuit as quick as 1:19.426s.
Raikkonen was 5th overall in the day. The Finn really closed in on Vettel as much as three-tenths but didn't improve later in the day and tried to find reliability and ended up 5th behind Vettel, Sainz, Grosjean and Verstappen. The ace Alfa Romeo driver's quickest lap of the day was a 1:19.462s, that was just a few hundredths slower than Verstappen's time.
The 2007 world champion also ran into gravel earlier in the day, causing red flags and another red flag at the very last minute of final session as his car stopped.
Sebastian Vettel, the fastest man out on the track today, stated that: “The car was working really well, we had no issues slowing us down,”
“We actually completed the program just the way we wanted. And we’re able to squeeze a little bit more out even.”
“Obviously it’s very early, the first day and it’s meaningless in a couple of weeks. But for now I think huge compliments to everyone back in the factory.
"How they tackled the the new rules and regulations and what they put on track today is very close to perfection in the first day of driving.
“The amount of laps that we did how the team was handling the car and obviously everything is more on the edge compared to last year car and tight and so on, what you’d imagine but as I said no no major dramas.
"So from that point of view we were very, very well prepared.”
Next up were cars of Daniil Kvyat and Sergio Perez with their lap times being 1:19.464s and 1:19.944s respectively. Kvyat had a limited running of the day but finished 4th later in the day as he was finally classified 6th. Perez was quiet in the day but did a good lap to finish 7th.
Hamilton finished 8th, albeit being slower than his teammate Valtteri Bottas' lap times of the day. The 5 times world champion lapped the circuit with a personal quickest time of 1:20.135s. Bottas' lap time was quicker but no more than a margin of 0.008 secs. Both the drivers together compiled 150 laps for the Silver Arrows.
Daniel Ricciardo was last, as he failed to beat his teammate's time. But he cruised Renault team to 105 laps, being the last team to cross the 100-laps mark. The Australian sat at the bottom of the time sheets as he could only afford to record a lap time of 1:20.983s, while his German teammate finished the day 2nd last and only 0.003 secs faster.
Among the 4 engine manufacturers, Ferrari managed to amass as many as 348 laps with Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Haas running the engine. Renault was a distant 2nd, as both the factory team as well as McLaren stacked 224 laps in total.
Honda showed some promise and a highly improved reliability compared to previous years. Both the sister teams, Red Bull and Toro Rosso clocked a total of 205 laps today, ensuring a strong 1st day of testing.
The benchmark engine and the current constructors' title defenders, only managed to rack 180 laps, the least of all the 4 engine manufacturers. This was in part due to the fact that Racing Point only recorded a handful of 30 laps while Williams was absent from the testing altogether.
The 2nd day of the 1st pre-season test will commence at 08:00 GMT (13:00 PKT) on February 19th. Williams' FW42 is confirmed to be absent tomorrow as well.
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