After the two weeks of pre-season testing at the Circuit De Barcelona Catalunya, for the moment it is no more blind guessing game as of January and February, but yet looking at the testing result we cannot draw a clear picture of who lies where. Certainly the new regulation changes clearly reflected in the testing. The next stop is Melbourne’s Albert Park, and here is our learning from the pre-season testing:
Ferrari
The Maranello outfit was solid and impressive throughout the 8 days of testing. Mercedes and Red Bull say that Ferrari is the team to beat in Australia, according to both Mercedes and Red Bull, Ferrari did hold their horses during the testing. This year’s power unit looks to be reliable and the SF70H accommodates some serious aero jobs. Ferrari was second busiest team in this pre-season testing after Mercedes by completing 956 laps. The time sheet’s top two spots were occupied by Ferrari drivers- Kimi Raikkonen- 1:18.634 and Sebastian Vettel- 1:19.024. Mercedes and Red Bull’s claim regarding Ferrari keeping some performance in reserve was almost true when Sebastian Vettel could actually set a time in the 1:17’s but slowed down in the final sector of a real flying lap on ultra-soft tires. Even though topping the overall time sheet, the Maranello team did find some interruption during the testing program, some glitch and a major crash by Kimi Raikkonen on the second day of test two.
If we look at the recent history Ferrari topped the pre-season testing in 2015, 2016, now 2017. But the prancing horse could not carry their pre-season momentum in to the season opener of 2015 and 2016, only time will tell if the scarlet red is impressive enough to score maximum points on 26th March.
Mercedes
The pre-season testing for Mercedes was more like a race for completing the most mileage. The team from Brackley completed 1096 laps during the 8 days testing. The pre-season testing went almost problem free for the silver outfit team. Team’s new boy Valtteri Bottas was the most busiest driver throughout the two weeks testing, he alone completed 628 laps. Mercedes slotted in the 3rd and 4th place of the overall time sheet- Valtteri Bottas with 1:19.310 and Lewis Hamilton with 1:19.352.
Mercedes is the team that spend most time in the wind tunnel for this year’s challenger (W08) since last year when everyone else were busy playing catch up game in 2016. We reckon that Mercedes was sandbagging by almost .6s per lap during the pre-season testing and and they were running 70% of the actual power form the power unit. Bagging most number of laps also indicates they were focusing on long runs which means they were running heavy on fuel. We still feel Mercedes still the fastest team at the moment.
Red Bull
The team who emerged as the biggest threat to Mercedes in the 2016 season and are still the team predicted by many to benefit the most from the new aerodynamic regulations this year maintained a low-key show. The early feeling from the two weeks testing suggests that the amount of sandbagging done by Red Bull is too damn high! They did not deliver much eye-catching performances like Mercedes and Ferrari. Keeping the performance aside the RB13 did not show much signature of design guru Adrian Newey.
Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo placed P6 and P9 respectively in the overall time sheet. The testing program did not go smooth for the Milton Keynes based team, as they encountered several reliability issues and managed to complete 684 laps. Despite falling behind Mercedes and Ferrari in the number of laps completed, Both Verstappen and Ricciardo have expressed confidence that Red Bull will match Mercedes and Ferrari’s performance level with an upgraded power unit and aero package at Albert Park. So don’t get surprised if you see a RB13 spacecraft in the Australian GP grid!
We predict that with the upgraded power unit and new aero bits for the Australian GP, they might be able to keep an upper hand on their Maranello based rival at the Albert Park.
Williams
The British outfit had a difficult first week with rookie Lance Stroll putting the FW40 in to the wall for couple of times. But things got better in the second week, with the rookie managed to bag quiet a handful number of laps and committing less mistakes. On the other hand team mate Felipe Massa completed 414 laps.
The Mercedes power unit proved to be very reliable for Williams and the team managed to complete the two weeks testing using only one power unit. Felipe Massa’s best timing 1:19.420 suggests that they can be a tough entry for the 4th fastest team at the moment.
Toro Rosso
Toro Rosso’s 2017 challenger STR12 shares a lot of characteristics of Mercedes’s W08 especially the front suspension. The two teams are the only ones to pursue a design with a slender nose and raised front suspension, whereby the upper wishbone is linked to the front uprights by a small bracket. Toro Rosso struggled with reliability issues in the first week and managed to completed only a few laps.
However, they completed more than twice as many laps in the second test as they managed in a trouble-hit first week. The ending of the pre-season test was not that bad. Team boss Franz Tost ignored the Renault power unit’s reliability issue by saying “The STR12 is a fast and competitive car”. Both Carlos Sainz Jr. and Danii l Kvyat managed to bag total 584 laps.
Like its senior team, Toro Rosso is looking for an upgraded power unit that is expected to be deliver at the Australian GP by Renault.
We have picked two dark horses for this season and Toro Rosso is one of them. with the design closed to the Mercedes it the power unit that will make the real difference. Renault had to revamp their entire engine program, they brought outside people to get on track. If Renault can improve through out the season, we can see Toro Rosso putting pressure on Williams for the 4th spot.
Force India
Force India have been the quiet team of this pre-season testing. The VJM10 looked solid on the track, the Mercedes power unit seems to be reliable, seems to be running fast- not Mercedes, Ferrari, or Red Bull fast! but Fast. Esteban Ocon was impressive with 365 laps in his bag during the pre-season test. In the time sheet there wasn’t much between the Force India drivers, less than a tenth between Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez for their individual fastest laps.
We reckon Force India can be the other dark horse of this season. We expect that throughout the season the VJM10 will get more competitive than we have seen in this winter testing.
HAAS
The American team managed to complete more laps than Renault and Honda power unit users, completing 715 laps. Once again the the 2017 Ferrari power unit seemed to be reliable. Looks like the VF-17 inherited the brake issue from its predecessor VF-16. Due to the brake issue Romain Grosjean was forced to pull up twice on the final day. HAAS’s best timing was set by their new driver Kevin Magnussen- 1:20.504.
The American team is expecting few upgrades prior to the Australian GP, hope that will help to solve some of the major issues.
Renault
Since Renault made their comeback in last season, we can fairly say they are still in their learning stage. 95% is the figure that Renault put on the newness of their power unit for this year. The yellow and black team did suffered some reliablity issue with their ERS unit.
Time set by Jolyon Plamer and Nico Hulkenberg is neither bad nor that eye catching. Renault is expected to bring an upgraded power unit to the Australian GP also will be supplying the same spec upgraded power unit to its customer teams. We reckon they will be placed somewhere in the lower position of the mid pack.
McLaren
Situation is going from very bad to even worse for McLaren-Honda. The MCL32 completed 159 laps less than any other team in this pre-season testing. As per regulation teams are restricted to four power units for the 2017 season, but McLaren have already used seven Honda power units in the space of two weeks. This years Honda power unit is not only slower than last year but terribly unreliable than last year. Throughout this two weeks testing session, their longest stint was 11 laps. Stoffel Vandoorne was the fastest from McLaren with a lap time of 1:21.348. Team mate Fernando Alonso put the blame solely on Honda power unit.
From several sources it is claimed that vibration caused the Honda power unit is triggering electronic issues which finally causing the break downs. Unlike Renault at least knowing the cause of their reliability issue (ERS), Honda is yet to find out the source of the vibration issue.
According to our learning, McLaren may find it hard to get into the 107% of the pole setting qualifying time, further more Honda power unit’s stamina to survive a race distance is a big question now. We don’t see a quick fix to their current situation, since re designing a power unit is not a quick job.
Sauber
Sauber had a horrible season last year without having sufficient financial backing to develop the car and keeping them hunt for points and eventually scoring point at the end of the season to pull them above Manor Racing and saved their embarrassment. This season their car C36 looks a bit better than last season with a year old Ferrari power unit. in terms of reliability the year old Ferrari power unit seems solid and that helped Sauber to complete 788 laps. In the time sheet the Sauber drivers weren’t that much impressive, they were placed at the bottom of the time sheet with Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein respectively. The time sheet may have reflected their weakness of using a year old power unit. According to AMUS, Sauber always drove with quite a lot of fuel and can be around 1.5 seconds per lap faster than seen in the tests. That will probably still not be enough to be faster than anyone else, but might put them within punching distance of the other teams.
If Sauber can hold on to the reliability and improve throughout the season, we reckon Sauber can actually be in better position than McLaren.
Here is our pecking order-
1- Mercedes
2- Red Bull
3- Ferrari
4- Williams
5- Toro Rosso
6- Force India
7- HAAS
8- Renault
9- Sauber
10- McLaren
-Source: www.formula1.com
Image Courtesy: formula1.com
Founder of Auto Rebellion | Guest writer for zerotohundred.com