The wait is nearly over; the 2020 Formula One season is under way with the preseason testing. The first took place today at Spain’s Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
What did we learn from the teams during testing?
For starters, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes began the defence of their respective championships in style. Hamilton beat his team mate by three-tenths of a second from team mate Valtteri Bottas as Mercedes completed 173 laps – the most of any team. Seventy-nine of those laps were completed in the morning session of Day 1 by Bottas, before Hamilton took over the new Mercedes W11 for the afternoon, completing 94 laps of the slightly chilly Barcelona track and stopping the clocks with a best time of 1m 16.976s, 0.337s quicker than Bottas.
Mercedes
World champions Lewis Hamilton is the man to beat this year and without a doubt, it seem he has also has the sharpest tools (Mercedes 11). The Silver arrow team is coming off a successful 2019 where they clinched their sixth consecutive drivers’ and constructors’ championship double. With no major changes, aside the tighter rear packaging, Mercedes will not need significant upgrades on their cars between testing and the first race.
Ferrari
Last year challengers looked good in testing but had too many issues when the races began. Their low-drag concept was fast in straight lines but lacked required pace through corners hurt them at many of the circuits. This year, Mattia Binotto, insists they have opted for a more “extreme” design of the SF1000, named after the team’s 1000th race which it will contest this season. The new improvement made is for more downforce with aggressive, tighter packaging, while attempting to maintain the straight-line speed.
Red Bull
Honda have made engine upgrades with a power unit that is closer to Mercedes and Ferrari. Red Bull are confident they have a car with an excellent start out of the box and will hope to pick up from where they finished in 2019. Max Verstappen finished third last year but he might finally be getting his wish as he aims to challenge the top two and make it a three-way fight.
McLaren
The British motor racing team finished fourth in the championship last year; their best since 2012 and they will look to build on it though the big three still look out of reach. Under new leadership, McLaren have identified weakness with last year’s car and specific improvements are expected to ensure Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris lead the battle of the rest.
The Rest….
Williams are going through the worst spell in the team’s 43-year history. They finished in the last two years with 2019 starting with an unprecedented humiliation – their car was not finished when testing began. Renault will be under the spotlight, this year the goal is fourth and the pressure is on, especially as the company considers its future in F1. Haas suffered a dismal season last year with an aero instability that caused the car to struggle with its tyres and has emerged with a model looking eerily similar to last year’s Ferrari. For the newly named Alpha Tauri (formerly Toro Rosso); Alfa Romeo and Racing Point (formerly Force India), consolidation is in order using pragmatic adaptations of last year’s cars, with Alfa’s design looking the most aggressive.
The test continues tomorrow to Friday while the next batch begins next Wednesday 26 February to 28 February 2020 as we begin countdown to Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2020 next month