(© Ben Johnston 2015)
The second winter Formula One test ended on Sunday and with
just one more to go before the start of the season where do the teams stand?
(© Ben Johnston 2015)
Despite a number of small technical issues the Scuderia
Ferrari team seem to have made a big step forward with the SF15-T compared to
last years’ Kimi Raikkonen ended both of his days in the car on Friday and
Saturday in second place completing a total of 148 laps while team mate
Sebastian Vettel completed 181 laps.
(© Ben Johnston 2015)
The Williams Martini Racing Team have also appeared to have
done a good lob over the winter as the team completed a race simulation on the
final day with Valtteri Bottas behind the wheel of the FW37. The Finn completed
129 laps on the final day of testing adding to the tally from Saturday of 104
laps between Felipe Massa and Bottas.
The team completed 88 laps with Massa in the car on Friday
while Susie Wolff completed 86 laps on the opening day on Thursday. In total
the Grove based outfit completed 407 laps over the course of the four day test
despite a number of issues with the FW37.
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(© Ben Johnston 2015)
McLaren Honda completed their most number of laps in one day
on the Friday of the test as Fernando Alonso complete 59 laps on Friday and
although the team suffered a number of mechanical issues over the course of the
test they have made progress since the opening winter test in Jerez. They will
be hoping to make a further step forward in this weeks’ test before the opening
Grand Prix of the season.
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(© Ben Johnston 2015)
Following a dominant performance covering the most laps of
any team in Jerez the Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team suffered a number of
reliability issues and were also forced to call up reserve driver Pascal
Wehrlein to replace Lewis Hamilton who was ill on the opening day of the test.
Wehrlein spent the afternoon with the Brackley based outfit having been loaned
out to the Sahara Force India Formula One Team.
(© Ben Johnston 2015)
So the team showed that despite their strong start to winter
testing in Jerez their car is not bullet proof just yet.
The Barcelona Circuit de Catalunya was always going to show
up the vulnerabilities of the cars as it is tough on all the components such as
the power unit and brakes. It is also a circuit that they race at.
The Sauber F1 Team had a mixed test as the Swiss based
outfit showed that they have produced a well packaged car that appears to be
quick but once again like others is fragile and needs some fine tuning before
Melbourne.
The Sahara Force India Formula One Team were taking part in
their first test of the winter as they opted to sit out the opening test in
Jerez. The team were still running last years’ VJM07 as their new car is not
ready however they hope to run it for at least one day this week prior to it
being sent to Melbourne.
(© Ben Johnston 2015)
The teams programme consisted of trialling the new Pirelli
race tyre although they did suffer a problem with the car on the final day
which meant that Nico Hulkenberg could only manage to complete 36 laps.
Infiniti Red Bull Racing were happy with the work carried
out by both Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat with Ricciardo the only
non-Mercedes powered car to top the time sheets which came on day 2 of the
test.
The Milton Keynes based outfit are far happier with the
performance of the Renault power unit compared to this time last year.
Daniil Kvyat also put in some
great runs in the RB11 completing 214 laps over the course of his two days in
the car with a fastest time of 1m 24.941s which came on Sunday.
(© Ben Johnston 2015)
It was also a great test for the
Scuderia Toro Rosso Team as they had both Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz in
the STR10.
On his opening day in the car on
Friday Sainz ended the day in 10th place however the Spaniard who
makes his Formula One race debut in Australia completed 100 laps of the
Barcelona Circuit de Catalunya. On Sunday Sainz completed 88 laps and ended the
day in 6th place despite a crash.
(© Ben Johnston 2015)
Max Verstappen completed 223 laps
on his two days in the car on the second day the Dutch teenager who like his
team mate will make his debut in Australia topped the time sheets in the
morning but finished the session in 2nd place behind Pastor
Maldonado’s Lotus.
(© Ben Johnston 2015)
So who is looking strong? Ferrari,
Lotus, Williams, Red Bull and Mercedes all look good but still have some work
to do. Sahara Force India are an unknown quantity right now having yet to run
their new car. The Sauber F1 Team have certainly made a big step forward
compared to last season. Toro Rosso look strong too although it is going to be
interesting to see how they get on with two highly rated F1 rookies.
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(© Ben Johnston 2015)
McLaren Honda have certainly made
improvements from the opening test in Jerez and they just have to work out a
few small issues with the car for the final test.
When it comes to who will be on
top in Australia? That is a really difficult question to answer but one this is
certainly it is unlikely that Mercedes will run away with it in Melbourne
judging by their performance in Barcelona at the weekend. What do YOU think?
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