Lap time watch: 2017 pre-season testing day two

2017 F1 season

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Kimi Raikkonen set a new fastest time of the test so far at the Circuit de Catalunya on Tuesday.

Raikkonen’s lap of 1’20.960 means the best time of the test is now 3.7 seconds quicker than the pole position time at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Have they hit the ‘five seconds faster’ target?

How do their lap times compare to 2015?

The performance gain Ferrari have found compared to the race at this circuit two years ago is typical of what we’ve seen from most of the front-running teams. However in testing teams can use tyre compounds which are not normally available in the races, making this a less useful basis for comparison.

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The comparison with the testing times from 2015 is likely to be more representative. Red Bull have made the biggest gain by this measure.

How do their lap times compare to last year?

Some of the improvement in lap time will come from the new tyre specifications which were introduced last year. Even so, already six teams have improved upon the best times they set in testing last year.

A rapid lap from Kevin Magnussen on the afternoon of day two means Haas have posted the biggest improvement over their 2016 pace so far.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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16 comments on “Lap time watch: 2017 pre-season testing day two”

  1. What exactly do you mean by 3.6 seconds faster if the pole position last year was 1:22.000?

      1. Oh that’s somewhat disappointing.

        1. At this stage the driver’s wont be pushing their limits as they do in qualifying, the engines wont be turned up to 11, like they are in qualifying, the cars wont have only a lap of fuel like qualifying, so there’s still a shed load of laptime to be had

        2. The times 2017 should be 3-5 seconds faster than the 2015 season during this new regulations and cars.

  2. still no comparison with the laptimes set during the pre-season test of 2016?

    1. Take another look @alfa145

    2. @alfa145 Yes, it’s there, third graph.

      1. sorry, I must have misread that the first time

    3. would be nice to see. but whats there is excelent.

    4. It’s not relevent with the testing times. Only how may laps the cars are driven. Times mean nothing in testing cause every one have their own scheduled testing program. First week it’s mostly Aero scanning and set up work. The second week its mor turned against performance. But I don’t thing anyone will show their cards untill Q in Australia. Perhaps some one of the smaller teams will make a Glory run to make their partners happy.

      But what day would you like to see from the 8 days of testing 2016?

      This is the 2016 Day 8 testing times

      1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m22.852s – 142 SS
      2 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso/Ferrari 1m23.134s 0.282s 133 US
      3 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes 1m23.644s 0.792s 129 SS
      4 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 1m23.721s 0.869s 60 SS
      5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m24.133s 1.281s 69 M
      6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/TAG Heuer 1m24.427s 1.575s 123 S
      7 Jenson Button McLaren/Honda 1m24.714s 1.862s 121 US
      8 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1m24.859s 2.007s 90 SS
      9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 1m25.031s 2.179s 132 S
      10 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1m25.255s 2.403s 66 S
      11 Esteban Gutierrez Haas/Ferrari 1m25.422s 2.570s 25 SS
      12 Rio Haryanto Manor/Mercedes 1m25.899s 3.047s 58 US
      13 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m26.140s 3.288s 70 M

  3. It does look grim for Sauber. Will this be an manor 2015 sitation?
    It probably was the worst possible time to stick with an outdated engine.

    1. Sauber said that they are testing the set-up and long runs according to a german magazine, so they might have some performance in hand.

    2. Sauber looks good today

  4. So in general the 2015 test times were faster than the 2015 best race-weekend time, while the opposite was true for 2016. What’s the logic behind that?

  5. The first graf shows that Mercedes is quicker by 3.7s than pole time from 2015, but Ferrari is only quicker by 2.8s even though Raikkonen is set best time in 2017 test? @keithcollantine

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