F1 Testing 2019 – What did we learn?
Never place your bets for Melbourne based on who’s on top in testing. That is the one thing we know for sure. What we don’t know is what this will all mean in 2 weeks when the lights go out at the first race in Australia.
The winners
It took all the way through to the end of the second week but we finally saw some pace from the top teams when on the final day of testing Ferrari ended up on top, with the two Mercedes cars close behind. I was quite happy to see how well Charles Leclerc handled the Ferrari and even topped the time sheets at times during the testing.
Reining champion Lewis Hamilton put in an impressive 638 laps over the 2 weeks – the most of any driver and more than both Williams and Racing Point put in. Hamilton also came in second on the leader board by only .003 of a second to Sebastian Vettel. I am very excited to see how the season turns out between Ferrari and Mercedes.
Renault had a strong showing and proved that they can perform just as well as their main rivals. Both Renault drivers put in a lot a laps and resulted in some quick lap times with Ricciardo putting in a total of 452 laps and a best time of 1:17:114 while Hulkenburg managed 509 laps and 1:16:834. Once Ricciardo settles into the Renault we’ll hopefully see both drivers leading the midfield and possibly challenge for podiums.
The losers
Williams was definitely the biggest disappointment of any team during testing. There were a lot of high expectation for this to be the year that Williams started it’s resurgence and to even be fighting for podiums. 2019 was supposed to be Williams’ year! But after not getting any laps in until the 4th day of the first week of testing, the test program at Williams was significantly behind. I’m hoping that even though Williams didn’t get as many laps as they would have wanted they will still be able to show up in Melbourne and be competitive. Being one of the historic teams in F1, it’s a shame to see Williams not be competitive for such a long period of time.
Racing Point also disappointed somewhat during testing. In the past few years Racing Point (formerly Force India) has been moving their way up the grid and has even fought for podiums on occasion in recent years. So it was quite disapoointing to see that both Racing Point cars were so far down the lap times and also only put in a total of 625 laps, only beating Williams for the title of the lowest number of laps completed during the 2 weeks of testing.
The surprises
There were two things that surprised me the most this year – the pace of the McLaren and the lack of pace from the Red Bull.
I was pleasantly surprised by the pace of the McLaren squad in testing this year. While it wasn’t the quickest car on the grid it definitely showed that they have the speed and reliability this year to put in a good effort. McLaren was in Dare I say it, but they may even be able to challenge for the podium on occasion. Having Alonso in the garage to help coach Sainz and Norris was probably very helpful and aided in the development of the car. Both McLarens were in the top 10 best lap times and on several occasions were in the top 3 for the day.
Red Bull on the other hand did not show pace. This should not be due to the Honda power unit as Torro Rosso, which shares the same power unit and had great pace. Red Bull is often known as having the best, or one of the best, chassis on the grid due to the genius of Adrian Newey, although maybe Red Bull didn’t quite get the interpretations of the new rules quite right. I expect that they will be able to be closer to the front in Australia, although this is F1 and anything can happen.
Image courtesy of Formula1.com
Total laps per driver
| Driver | Team | Lap Count |
|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 638 |
| Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 552 |
| Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 534 |
| Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 509 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 497 |
| Alexander Albon | Toro Rosso | 489 |
| Carlos Sainz | McLaren | 473 |
| Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 463 |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 452 |
| Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 446 |
| Pierre Gasly | Red Bull | 439 |
| Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 425 |
| Romain Grosjean | Haas | 407 |
| Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 403 |
| Lando Norris | McLaren | 400 |
| Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 394 |
| Lance Stroll | Racing Point | 336 |
| George Russell | Williams | 299 |
| Sergio Perez | Racing Point | 289 |
| Robert Kubica | Williams | 268 |
| Pietro Fittipaldi | Haas | 61 |
Best lap times
| Driver | Team | Best time | Date of best time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:16.221 | Test 2 Day 4 |
| Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:16.224 | Test 2 Day 4 |
| Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:16.231 | Test 2 Day 3 |
| Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:16.561 | Test 2 Day 4 |
| Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1:16.834 | Test 2 Day 4 |
| Alexander Albon | Toro Rosso | 1:16.882 | Test 2 Day 3 |
| Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1:16.898 | Test 2 Day 4 |
| Carlos Sainz | McLaren | 1:16.913 | Test 2 Day 4 |
| Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1:17.076 | Test 2 Day 4 |
| Lando Norris | McLaren | 1:17.084 | Test 2 Day 3 |
| Pierre Gasly | Red Bull | 1:17.091 | Test 2 Day 3 |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 1:17.114 | Test 2 Day 4 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 1:17.239 | Test 2 Day 4 |
| Lance Stroll | Racing Point | 1:17.556 | Test 2 Day 4 |
| Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:17.565 | Test 2 Day 4 |
| Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 1:17.639 | Test 2 Day 3 |
| Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:17.709 | Test 2 Day 4 |
| Sergio Perez | Racing Point | 1:17.791 | Test 2 Day 4 |
| George Russell | Williams | 1:18.130 | Test 2 Day 3 |
| Robert Kubica | Williams | 1:18.993 | Test 2 Day 4 |
| Pietro Fittipaldi | Haas | 1:19.249 | Test 1 Day 3 |
