Today was one of the best test days that I've attended. Great weather certainly helped, but everybody ran, apart from Williams, and achieved a good number of laps. Organisation at the circuit was very poor this year. All entrances were closed off, bar one, and at that one the four cashiers tasked with selling tickets were also given the responsibility to capture email addresses from the purchasers, many of whom were non-Spanish speaking. Only one food outlet on the circuit this year, which sounds like it isn't important until you factor in that you cannot take in any drinks with you and the circuit is huge...
Anyway, I normally think that I've got a reasonable eye for the cars in pre-season. I had nothing today. Red Bull and Mercedes were pretty obviously running fairly high fuel and pumping in endurance laps while Ferrari were chasing the lap times but still doing decent stints. The 2019 Ferrari is beautiful - the matt red in sunlight is stunning and really does elevate a very tired old design. Speaking of which, the Red Bull looks very dated now.
Hamilton was a little more ragged than Bottas, but both were driving well within themselves. Verstappen hardly missed an apex all day, and the Red Bull never looked uncomfortable. Vettel pushed much harder, as did Kimi for a couple of stints, but didn't look unstable either. The McLaren just looked slow to me, but I think that I just see a slow car every time I see the McLaren now. I think Mercedes have a party trick down the pit lane on the limiter - a max engine noise node - very much louder than everyone else.
After a ropey start in the Toro Rosso, the Honda engines were much better in the afternoon. Haas didn't run too much and have a very odd whistle at speed.
Not much time for editing, but some photos:
Anyway, I normally think that I've got a reasonable eye for the cars in pre-season. I had nothing today. Red Bull and Mercedes were pretty obviously running fairly high fuel and pumping in endurance laps while Ferrari were chasing the lap times but still doing decent stints. The 2019 Ferrari is beautiful - the matt red in sunlight is stunning and really does elevate a very tired old design. Speaking of which, the Red Bull looks very dated now.
Hamilton was a little more ragged than Bottas, but both were driving well within themselves. Verstappen hardly missed an apex all day, and the Red Bull never looked uncomfortable. Vettel pushed much harder, as did Kimi for a couple of stints, but didn't look unstable either. The McLaren just looked slow to me, but I think that I just see a slow car every time I see the McLaren now. I think Mercedes have a party trick down the pit lane on the limiter - a max engine noise node - very much louder than everyone else.
After a ropey start in the Toro Rosso, the Honda engines were much better in the afternoon. Haas didn't run too much and have a very odd whistle at speed.
Not much time for editing, but some photos:
