“Are we crazy? Living our lives through a lens. Trapped in our white-picket fence. Like ornaments. So comfortable, we live in a bubble, a bubble. We're all chained to the rhythm. To the rhythm. To the rhythm.”
The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is not merely content with filling the air with the murmurs of Formula 1’s V6 power units, and instead opts to blast an array of music through the PA system, with Chained to The Rhythm an apt song. For once again the new Formula 1 season properly kicks into life on a chilly but sunny late February morning in an industrial estate, about half an hour north of Barcelona.
A smattering of fans have turned out for the early running, on the glance of an eye probably more than the corresponding test 12 months ago, in the nationalistically coloured red and yellow sun-kissed grandstands, the yellow faded to a creamy tinge of beige courtesy of the ravages of time.
Photographers have turned out, all keen to get their first glimpses of a 2017 Formula 1 car in action, poking camera lenses between the gaps in the fences, searching the best angles, while even some Formula 1 team members lurk around, glancing at their own machine and glimpsing at the opposition.
The grandstand at Turn 10 – the left-hander at the end of the back straight – is an ideal vantage point, for it provides a view of almost the entire final sector; the braking for Turn 10, the flick left before the medium-radius right-hander of Turn 12, the twisty chicane, after which drivers accelerate hard for the final corner – an element briefly hidden by the presence of trees.
Immediately, the cars appear aggressive, menacing and much more attractive on the eye than their 2016 counterparts. Sometimes different regulations create a period of adjustment to adapt to the new-look cars – but not this year.
Drawing conclusions from the first morning of the opening test is fruitless – though some observations can still be made. The Red Bull has already broken down, while the McLaren is stuck in the garage – thus those two cars do not appear. Valtteri Bottas, driving a Mercedes in anger for the first time, brakes, flicks down through the gears, and hits the apex sweetly, already on the throttle before he’s even thinking about the exit.
Sebastian Vettel missed the apex a few times in the SF70H, albeit with the caveat that he was on Medium tyres, with Bottas on Softs. Felipe Massa, Nico Hülkenberg and Marcus Ericsson both had minor twitchy moments on exit, while the only drama of note was Kevin Magnussen locking his brakes and electing to take to the old layout, weaving his way through the strategically-placed cones in the process. Overall, the cars immediately do look quicker, even if subconscious thoughts – for we are undoubtedly wary that they should be faster – accelerate that mindset.
But making conclusions? Don’t be silly. Even the headline-grabbing times, while forming the basis for overall session reports, are not to be taken seriously. Last year it was Ferrari on top. But what we can conclude is that Formula 1 is back. And once more, we’re chained to the rhythm.
