The first week of Formula One testing ended with Scuderia Ferrari looking to be a step ahead of Mercedes. Ferrari showed good pace and reliability throughout the first four days of testing in Spain, while Mercedes didn’t look up to full speed. Although teams often avoid showing their full potential in testing, Mercedes has usually fared better at this point in previous seasons.
No matter how hard teams try to caution against reading too much into testing lap times, it never takes long for the analysis of lap times to start. It is a dangerous game – week one pacesetters Renault, it’s fair to say, haven’t suddenly developed F1’s fastest car – but on this occasion it didn’t take long for a paddock consensus to emerge about who might be 2019’s early front-runners.
On Day Four it was the turn of Red Bull’s Helmut Marko. “Ferrari are at the moment the fastest car and then it’s Red Bull and Mercedes,” Helmut told Sky Sports News. An hour later, Valtteri Bottas concurred: “At this point they’re a bit ahead.”
Analysing the plethora of lap times, Sky F1’s Mark Hughes said: “The order looks quite clear. It looks like Ferrari have got maybe four or five tenths over the rest. But when we say they are four tenths ahead it’s with the caveat that we do not know the fuel they are running…”
What is more quantifiable is what we know and have heard about the new Ferrari. The SF90 ran the second-most amount of laps across the first four days, with the car suffering no obvious technical problems. Both Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc have delivered positive impressions about the car’s handling and performance, with their long runs catching the eye.
“They do seem very strong, no matter which kind of fuel load or engine mode they’re running,” Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas said of Ferrari. “Whatever you try to correct that for, in any case, they are quick, on 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 a detailed calculation.”
Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg set the fastest time of the week on Thursday with a time of 1 minute, 17.393 seconds at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit, ahead of Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon. Hulkenberg teammate Daniel Ricciardo was third, ahead of Bottas and his Mercedes teammate, Lewis Hamilton. Charles Leclerc, who led the timesheets on Tuesday, ended sixth with Ferrari on a slower tire compound.
Hamilton and Bottas had faster overall times than Vettel and Leclerc, although their laps came on faster tires. Mercedes also ran 12 more laps than Ferrari during the four days of testing, as Sebastian Vettel was the fastest driver on Monday.
McLaren had a promising first week, being able to run more laps than in both test sessions combined last year. Williams, which started testing later than the other teams because of delays with its 2019 car, ran only 88 laps in total, the fewest among all teams. Alfa Romeo, formerly known as Sauber, had a promising week, racking up a high lap count and setting fast times.
Testing will continue Tuesday-Friday at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit, home to the Spanish Grand Prix in May.
The season-opening Australian Grand Prix is on March 17.
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