F1 testing 2019 – Week 1

Ahhh… Formula 1 is back for another year. This week marked the beginning of the season with the annual testing days at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. So far there has been a number of different story lines being followed. Here are my highlights from F1 testing 2019 so far.

Day 1: Laps, laps, laps

Day 1 of winter testing is normally not about putting in quick laps, but rather making sure various parts of the car are working. The way to accomplish these tests? Laps. Lots of them. Vettel put in 169 laps and also set the quickest time of the day. Everyone except for Williams put in laps, with all teams other than Racing Point achieving more than 100 laps on the first day.

Day 2: McLaren impresses while Leclerc goes fastest

Many of the rookies got a chance to drive on day 2. Lando Norris in his McLaren were able to put together not only some quick laps, but reliably too. This should make McLaren Racing CEO Zac Brown very happy indeed after the past few disastrous seasons. Pierre Gasly put in some quick laps but spun and crashed hard into the barrier, which put an end to Red Bull’s day. LeClerc was the quickest of all with a time of 1:18:247, very close to Vettel’s best time from day 1.

Day 3: Daniel Kvyat tops the timesheets and Williams got on track.

Daniel Kvyat has had a rough F1 career so far. He has been promoted, demoted, dropped, brought back, dropped and now brought back again by Helmut Marko and the Red Bull teams. This year he is in the Torro Rosso Honda and surprisingly ended the day on top with a 1:17:704. Kimi Raikkonen finished second in the Alfa Romeo and Daniel Ricciardo finished 3rd in his Renault.

The main talking point for the day wasn’t just that Kvyat had managed to get through the day without being dropped again, but rather than Williams managed to get their car out on track for the first time all week. George Russell, the rookie driving the Williams on day 3, was 7 seconds off Kvyat’s time, though I suspect Williams was simply doing a variety of shakedown runs to make sure the car was working rather than going for all out speed.

There are still 2 more days of testing this week. Next week will bring many new parts and more action in week 2 of winter testing.

What are you thoughts about winter testing in 2019? Tell us in the comments below!

Image courtesy of Formula1.com