1st Pre-season Test - Day 4 Report
- Subhan Zafar
- Feb 22, 2019
- 6 min read
Updated: Feb 25, 2019
For the 1st Pre-season Test: Day 1 Report. Click here
For the 1st Pre-season Test: Day 2 Report. Click here
For the 1st Pre-season Test: Day 3 Report. Click here
The day 4 of pre-season testing comes to an end where all the teams and drivers have clocked out all the laps and pace needed for the next testing session coming 26th of February. Nico Hulkenburg sets the fastest time of the day while Antonio Giovinazzi sets the highest laps for the day's session.
Along with Nico, who did 1:17.393, followed Alexander Albon in the Toro Rosso who was 0.244 seconds shy off the fastest lap time. Ricciardo then finishes the top 3 with almost half a second slow from Albon while the two Mercedes driver complete the top 5.
The Renault driver despite clocking the fastest time, was only able to complete 24 laps following the issue witch brought the R.S.19 to a halt. Not much else can be said for Daniel's stint as well as he also did under 50 laps before completing the the day's session.
Moving down the timing classification, Mercedes were now showing their true pace of the W10 with Bottas and Hamilton ticking under the sub 18 lap times. The Silver Arrow drivers had a relatively smooth session except for one occasion where Hamilton almost collided with Robert Kubica on the way back to the last chicane. During the lunch hour Bottas had his words out regarding the the 2019 challenger,
“It seems like, balance-wise, it’s a little bit on the knife-edge at the moment,”
“We’ve been improving massively in the first three days… [and] it’s nothing fundamentally wrong, I feel. I think there is a lot of potential, but it’s not yet quite there. But I feel a sense in the team of a bit of an excitement to discover more about the car and to improve it – because at this point, it looks like we are not miles ahead of everyone. It seems like… Ferrari are in a better place. So I think it motivates us, but obviously we would love to be ahead in Melbourne.”
“They do seem very strong, no matter which kind of fuel load or engine mode they’re running,” said Bottas. “Whatever you try to correct that for, in any case, they are quick – short runs and long runs. I think we feel, at this point, that they’re going to be a bit ahead, but obviously it’s impossible to make detailed calculation.
“With the new rules, it’s going to be a big development race. We don’t think anyone is going, with [the type of car they have] in this test, to the first race, including us – we do have new parts coming before the first race, but we can’t really know that it’s going to be enough. We need… to try and make it better, and quicker.”
Meanwhile the Mclaren driver Lando Norris finishes his stint with 132 laps and 1:18.431 best time for the day. Although strapped with air flow sensors on his MCL34, the Britian came to a stop when he understeered to Turn 5 and got stuck in the gravel trap. Fortunately enough that was the only incident that happened and finished off the session smoothly.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc looked strong clocking 138 laps with 6th fastest time on the timing board. Similarly Charles also had the same moment as Lando going into the gravel trap in Turn 5 but was able to get out on the track and continued with his stint. Also another moment happened when a sensor fell of from Charles's SF90H on the flying lap but nothing major happened since then.
“We don’t know how much the others are sandbagging, so we’ll see at the first race.
“The performance has no sense for now, because it remains testing and they (other teams) are probably not pushing, and we are not either,” Leclerc told reporters during lunchbreak on the final day of the first test.
“We don’t know how much the others are sandbagging, so we’ll see at the first race. The main aims for these tests are to do the programme of the day, and that is what we are doing, so we are happy.
“We need to keep pushing because as I said the other teams are sandbagging and we need to see how much they have but we are pretty happy with the car at the moment.
“It’s feeling very good. We have done many laps and reliability is very good. We did all the programme we wanted every day, so this is extremely important for the team. For now, we are very happy.”
Red Bull on the other hand had a fruitful day with the RB15 running quite well with the Honda power unit. Pierre Gasly was on the day with the car and covered 146 laps for the day.
“I think it’s really good,” Gasly said of Honda’s performance. “Looking at Toro Rosso, they have been really fast with the Honda engine and we are happy with it as well.
Toro Rosso, also powered by Honda had worked along and completed 4th highest no. of laps done by Albon.
Despite the new engine supplier for the 3rd best team on the grid, Gasly appears optimistic about the powertrain and the car in general.
“There is still some work to be done but I think Honda did a really good job over the winter. And there are still a few things to come next week but the first four days have been really good.”
“As for today, everything went smoothly and we acquired a good amount of data. It’s the first time in the hybrid era that we are powering two teams and at this test, we learned a lot in terms of how to operate with them both.
“There were no major issues with the power units throughout this test. We will now spend the next few days analysing all the data we have acquired here, in order to move forward with development in the final four days of testing next week prior to the first race in Australia.”
Lastly, the Williams team had a rough start and only managed to complete 88 laps total on the last day of first test week. Both George and Robert went out in their cars and finished the day with 17 and 48 laps done respectively. With not that much of data acquired from the car, there's still a lot to be learned from the car and the team already had a frustrating start for the winter testing.
“It's been quite annoying watching everybody on track and obviously as a driver, you just want to get out there,” he said. “[But because] I’ve understood how much work has been going on from all of the people building this car, it hasn't made me frustrated because I understand that we haven't got in this situation on purpose.
Following the delay on getting the car of the production process, their only hope to get any more information is through the second week of testing before the first race week in Australia.
"Everybody is upset about it and they're working their socks off to make it right, so that was refreshing for me and made me quite proud of the guys, of how much they're working. They've been up since [on Wednesday] 2:30 in the morning working all through the night to make the car ready and it’s a privilege to be a part of this team.”
It won't be for sure till the Williams team manage to get their car right till the first race. Even though they have a decent line-up considering Robert is a well experienced driver while George F2 title winner, only much can be done till the second testing week and should since they were the last team in the constructor's standing in the 2018 season.
With the testing done, Mercedes and Ferrari are going neck-a-neck in terms of delivering good performance and reliability. All the Ferrari and Mercedes powered teams are stacking good results with Honda and Renault not too far behind. It will be analyzing time for the teams with all the data acquired and wait till the next testing week before any critical data testing needs to be done. Here is the table wrapping up all the data and figures fromt the first week of testing.
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