F1 Testing 2020: Week 1 Barcelona (19th - 21st)

Shimmy

Shimmy

Shimmy

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Testing feeds:
https://www.autosport.com/f1/live/2922231/---barcelona-f1-test-day-three-2020
https://www.skysports.com/f1/live-blog

TV coverage:
Sky F1 8am - 12pm & 1pm - 5pm all 3 days

Weather Forecast:
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Lap Records:
2019 Pole Position - 1:15.406
2018 Fastest Race Lap - 1:18.441


Day 1 Times:
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Day 2 Times:
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Day 3 Times:
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Woop! Quite a spritely time by Perez this early on. Last year Vettel set a 1:18.161 on the first day.

And I was about to predict the Mercs won't go faster than a 1:20 as is their typical baseline regime, but Bottas has just done a 1:17.833.
 
Does anyone know what tyres Russell was on for his fastest time? I can't seem to find it mentioned anywhere. Still to be up nearly 1 second faster than 2019 qualifying looks promising. It's hard to get an idea of the tracks true pace at the moment as top 3 are ~2 seconds slower than 2019 qualifying but Perez was a few tenths quicker than 2019 qualifying. So fingers crossed Williams have found a decent gain over the midfield pack as I'd like to see them back.
 
Big laps by most teams, no proper stoppages yet, and unsurprisingly ominous form by Merc looking at the longer timed runs Hamilton has put in this afternoon. Merc powered cars generally running quite well, so maybe the improvements they've found to cooling etc have helped all the teams claw their way back past the Ferrari Missiles of last year.
 
Considering how long ago Merc started to work on this car, the addition of the Ferrari side pods and their new rear suspension, Q3 in Oz will be interesting. I'm sure all teams will want to wrap this up asap and shift focus to next year.
 
Day 1 timesheet:

Code: 
1  Hamilton       Mercedes         1m16.976s   C2
2  Bottas         Mercedes         1m17.313s   C3
3  Perez          Racing Point     1m17.375s   C3
4  Verstappen     Red Bull         1m17.516s   C3
5  Kvyat          AlphaTauri       1m17.698s   C2
6  Sainz          McLaren          1m17.842s   C2
7  Ricciardo      Renault          1m17.873s   C2
8  Ocon           Renault          1m18.004s   C3
9  Russell        Williams         1m18.168s   C3
10 Stroll         Racing Point     1m18.282s   C2
11 Leclerc        Ferrari          1m18.289s   C3
12 Latifi         Williams         1m18.382s   C4
13 Kubica         Alfa Romeo       1m18.386s   C3
14 Magnussen      Haas             1m18.466s   C3
15 Giovinazzi     Alfa Romeo       1m20.096s   C3


C numbers are the tyre compounds. C1 = hardest, C5 = softest
 
The Williams is certainly looking like a good step forward for them. Russell went almost a second faster than his Qualifying time last year on a significantly harder tyre. But just watching the side by side onboard F1 has stuck on youtube, it just looks much more stable everywhere around the track.

Reliability for day 1 is impressive. Not even any running the fuel tank to empty tests.

So who is going to cause the first red flag then? I'm still leaning towards one of the Haas cars or Stroll.
 
Wow, Mercedes have something seriously trick going on with their steering rack that looks to affect the front track moving between corners and straights.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1230424820141232130

Watch as Lewis straightens his steering, it moves towards him and at the same time the two front wheels appear toe-in on the straights perhaps for better tyre life?
Goes back to toe-out as he begins to steer with the steering wheel going back in.
 
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