Formula 1’s return to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya last weekend allowed a direct comparison between how teams fared pre-season and how they managed at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Unseasonably warm weather allowed teams eight productive days in February and early March while the conditions in May were only slightly hotter, albeit that is where some similarities end.
There are many caveats. The track temperature was still warmer last weekend (18ºC during the final test day vs 22ºC on Saturday), despite it not being as hot in Spain as some years, while more rubber was laid down courtesy of 20 cars lapping, along with Formulas 2 and 3, and the Porsche Supercup.
Pirelli had all five tyre compounds available pre-season while last weekend the softest compound taken to Barcelona was the C3 – with an estimated 1.2s in lap time between that tyre and the C5 which teams used pre-season, meaning that despite statistically-accurate losses each team has still made gains.
There are also pre-season programmes to take into account, with teams at varying stages of development, running unknown fuel loads and run plans.
Most teams, though, ran what are thought to be performance laps during the closing moments of the second test while at the grand prix everyone is pushing to the maximum when it comes to qualifying.
Mercedes – 0.818s gain (tyre corrected – 2.018s gain)
Mercedes set the second-fastest time during testing but since then has dominated the opening five grands prix to leave it in a comfortable position in the championship. In testing it was Lewis Hamilton who set a time of 1:16.224s in a W10 that was practically a brand-new car for the second week in comparison to week one. In qualifying Valtteri Bottas posted a time of 1:15.406s to take pole position, with Hamilton struggling in Q3, an area he has accepted still needs work this year.
Red Bull Racing – 0.734s gain (tyre corrected – 1.934s gain)
Red Bull was subdued pre-season and has enjoyed an encouraging start to life with Honda, so a gain of 0.734s is little surprise, albeit there is a major caveat. Its fastest time pre-season was set by Pierre Gasly, whose crash wrecked the last day or so for Red Bull, denying Max Verstappen – who has since been comfortably the lead driver – a representative hot lap. That means its pure gains have probably not been as great as the black-and-white statistics suggest. But the progress, with two podiums logged already, is a boost.
Haas – 0.165s gain (tyre corrected – 1.365s gain)
Haas, at Barcelona, has managed to chip away at its overall pace and in Spain its pure performance level was outstanding – though that has not been its weakness in 2019. At the high-energy Barcelona it got its tyres into the right window, as it did pre-season, but in Bahrain, China and Azerbaijan it did not, and that cost it pace. Haas has indeed improved its VF-19 but it has not much overall relevance unless tyre gains can be displayed at low-energy venues, such as Monaco, coming up.
Ferrari – 0.051s loss (tyre corrected – 1.251s gain)
Ferrari was quickest pre-season but firmly second-best in qualifying and was relegated to the third-fastest team come race day. What was clear at the grand prix was that Ferrari is losing out through the corners, particularly in slow- and medium-speed turns, and there are suggestions its design concept has lower-hanging fruit than Mercedes’. So what’s gone wrong? Well, in the overall table it is still fourth-best compared to pre-season, while it was probably ahead of the curve, with Mercedes only truly accelerating its own progress in the second week and between the test and Australia.
Racing Point – 0.330s loss (tyre corrected – 0.870s gain)
Racing Point brought a ‘vanilla’ car to pre-season testing, owing to the late nature of its takeover in 2018, and the early signs have been promising if not outstanding. It brought one substantial upgrade package to Australia and another to Spain so it would be remiss to expect the RP19 to be fully understood, while Lance Stroll’s one-lap pace during testing is perhaps not the best indicator of true potential.
Toro Rosso – 0.361s loss (tyre corrected – 0.839s gain)
Daniil Kvyat called his qualifying lap one of the best of his career and it was an outstanding effort from the Russian, who was slower pre-season than rookie team-mate Alexander Albon. Toro Rosso is thought to have one of the midfield’s best packages and misfortune and sub-par strategies have cost the team points that belies its ninth place in the standings.
McLaren – 0.425s loss (tyre corrected – 0.775s gain)
Again – this is a team with caveats. McLaren has performed stronger at rear-limited venues in 2019 while pre-season at Barcelona it was Carlos Sainz Jr. who led the way inside the team. Lando Norris’ Q2 time was McLaren’s fastest of the weekend as a scruffy effort wrecked Sainz Jr.’s prospects, having been the quicker of the pair until that point. It’s therefore reasonable to make an assumption that Sainz Jr. would have made that 0.425s loss gap a little smaller, giving it an overall comparatively larger gain than some of its rivals.
Renault – 0.456s loss (tyre corrected – 0.744s gain)
Renault initially started 2019 as an eye-catching team but ever since the second test the mood has changed, and its focus on reliability – in the wake of its Bahrain horror show – has shifted some of the attention away from performance. Barcelona was another relatively abject weekend, with Daniel Ricciardo explaining that the R.S.19 is “a bit hard to read” and “lacks consistency”, with no real pattern on where its strengths lie.
Alfa Romeo – 0.549s loss (tyre corrected – 0.651s gain)
Under its Sauber guise Alfa Romeo was one of 2018’s big improvers as it started on a low benchmark and chipped away bit-by-bit. This year has been slightly different but it is still firmly in the ballpark. The C38 was off the pace relatively in Spain with Kimi Raikkonen suspecting that the hotter track conditions in qualifying skewered its potential. Antonio Giovinazzi, meanwhile, is still getting up to speed after two years out. Just over two-tenths covers five midfield teams, again showing the close nature of the fight and just how crucial every ounce of performance is in this gaggle of cars.
Williams – 0.942s loss (tyre corrected – 0.258s gain)
Oh. The alarming aspect of this time loss for Williams is that its FW42 was delayed pre-season, leaving it behind the opposition, while George Russell was elated with his qualifying lap on Saturday, and it also has the biggest amount of time to find compared to its rivals. And yet it was still slowest of all. One caveat on its side is that it was limited to Q1, compared to the Q2 or Q3 sessions in which its opposition can compete, while its Baku dramas means some focus has understandably shifted to repairs. It did not have as many updates in Barcelona as others – after all, a car has to be understood before it can be developed. But whereas, in theory, Williams should be one of the biggest gainers since March it is still struggling to get out of first gear.
