Raikkonen heads day of wet running

2017 F1 season

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Kimi Raikkonen returned to the top of the times sheets on the final day of the first test of the 2017 season.

Water tankers were deployed to soak the Circuit de Catalunya before the start of testing and during the lunch break to give teams an opportunity to conduct wet weather tyre testing. Running was largely confined to the intermediate tyres until the track dried out.

Testing day four in pictures
Despite the slippery conditions the track stayed green for the duration of the day. However for much of the time only eight teams were running.

Williams were unable to participate as their FW40 had been too badly damaged by Lance Stroll’s crash yesterday. And a Renault power unit problem for Toro Rosso confined them to the garage after a single lap. Attempts to get the car out for a final run at the end of the day proved unsuccessful.

Romain Grosjean had a much busier day in the Haas, though many of his 100-plus laps were completed when the track was damp. The team took the opportunity to give its crew practice performing pit stops with F1’s new, wider tyres.

The only team to improve their time from earlier in the test was McLaren. Stoffel Vandoorne posted a 1’22.576, a mere 0.022s faster than Fernando Alonso’s best time from yesterday.

Pos.Car numberDriverTeamModelBest timeGapLaps
17Kimi RaikkonenFerrariSF70H1’20.87292
233Max VerstappenRed BullRB131’21.7690.89785
330Jolyon PalmerRenaultRS171’21.7780.90639
48Romain GrosjeanHaasVF-171’22.3091.437118
536Antonio GiovinazziSauberC361’22.4011.52984
611Sergio PerezForce IndiaVJM101’22.5341.66282
72Stoffel VandoorneMcLarenMCL321’22.5761.70466
877Valtteri BottasMercedesW081’23.4432.57168
927Nico HulkenbergRenaultRS171’24.9744.10251
1026Daniil KvyatToro RossoSTR121

2017 F1 season

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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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45 comments on “Raikkonen heads day of wet running”

  1. Good to see Haas out there putting so many laps in. Ferrari looks like they’ve got a quick reliable power unit so far.

  2. McLaren is so awful.. Barely any running, no grip in corners and poor reliability. I really hoped this was going to be the season wherein they’d be back to challenge the front runners. It appears to be a bitter disappointment once again. I am scrapping them from my “top team” list. It has officially reached Williams level.

    1. @spafrancorchamps – I think Your last comment is unnecessarily insulting towards Williams;-)

      1. At this stage even Williams is a better team, but they have also been struggling like this not too long ago. No one sees Williams anymore as a team that can win championships this year or the next year. Maybe a podium, if lucky. I am now viewing McLaren exactly the same.

        1. For the upcoming season, I’m viewing it along the lines of Sauber.

    2. Most people still see McLaren as a big team and Williams as a small team. This is because McLaren’s a lot richer than Williams and can attract and pay the salary of a driver like Alonso. That is something Williams cannot do.

      To give a football analogy, McLaren is like Manchester United, while Williams is like AC Milan. Both fallen giants, but only one of them actually has the funds to become a top team again while the other probably doesn’t.

      1. Honda pay Alonso. No major sponsor for years and poor results means Mclaren need Honda for money. Without Honda Mclaren F1 would shrink to midfield financial. Doubt they would pull money from more successful areas of the company. Without Honda Mclaren are probably smaller than Williams. The top 3 teams are miles clear of Mclaren.

        1. petebaldwin (@)
          2nd March 2017, 20:31

          McLaren could have a title sponsor but they are obviously charging too much for anyone to sign. That’s their decision but if they needed the money, I’m sure we’d see more logos on the car.

      2. It’s actually a bit sad watching McLaren currently. Sky have a video on their site from today showing the cars and the McLaren looks all over the place. Twitchy on power from the previous corner then really unstable on breaking leading to a late turn in and bags of understeer. Out the other side of the chicane and there’s a mid corner wobble followed by the same on power twitch. Admittedly none of the cars look good on the power but the Ferrari and redbull look so calm throughout the rest of the chicane. It’s worth a watch for anyone with sky, sadly I couldn’t believe just how bad the mclaren looks.

        1. Personally I think Mac deserves more time, and I think they will make strides throughout the season. They haven’t yet hit speeds to make their car work best from an aero standpoint which would help them heat up the tires. I predict that they will end the season in better shape relative to the rest than they ended 2016.

    3. Merc/Ferrari/RBR seem to be ahead of rest. We can expect close fight behind them.

  3. Day 2: Räikkönen quickest
    Day 3: Bottas quickest
    Day 4: Räikkönen quickest

    I know times mean nothing but this has gotta be first time Finns have topped the time sheets 3 times in a row

    1. ExcitedAbout17
      2nd March 2017, 17:20

      Now I understand those ugly appendices.
      Cars with fins are faster ;)

      1. haha. good to see.

        1. To finish first, first You have to finish! (and apparently it is an advantage to be Finnish)

      2. good one!

  4. McLaren again confidently rules the lowest lap count. Only Torro Rosso and Williams had less, but they weren’t even running, so McLaren takes the bragging rights again. Pathetic…

  5. Final tally after first test:

    Team Laps Distance (km)
    Mercedes 557 2593
    Red Bull 294 1369
    Ferrari 467 2174
    Force India 278 1294
    Williams 213 992
    McLaren 207 964
    Toro Rosso 151 703
    Haas 342 1592
    Renault 293 1364
    Sauber 348 1620

    Engine Laps Distance (km)
    Mercedes (3 teams) 1048 4878
    Renault (3 teams) 738 3435
    Ferrari 2017 (2 teams) 809 3766
    Ferrari 2016 (1 team) 348 1620
    Honda (1 team) 207 964

    1. Ru Chern (@)
      2nd March 2017, 17:34

      You could have sorted it be some numbers.

      Mercedes then jump to Redbull is weird.

    2. 1.Mercedes
      2.Ferrari
      3.Sauber
      4.Haas
      5.Red Bull
      6.Renault
      7.Force India
      8.Williams
      9.McLaren
      10.Torro Rosso
      That is not an order I thought I’d see in terms of laps covered. I’m hoping Sauber have a much better year this year – they seem the only team at the moment genuinely likely to go bust and for me Sauber deserve more recognition as a long term member of the sport. It’s only Ferrari, McLaren and Williams that have been in it for longer (consecutively – I know it could be argued that Renault beat them) yet they don’t seem to get the recognition for this. I know they’ve never been title contenders but that’s still one hell of a legacy.

      1. @shadow13, in the case of Sauber, it is perhaps not unexpected that their car has been rather reliable given that the car is using 2016 spec components which have been subjected to relatively heavy durability testing, and are therefore more of a known quantity than the 2017 spec components.

        With regards to the longevity of the team, I suppose it depends how you view it. It is true that they have been present under the name of Sauber since 1993, except when there technically there was a break in ownership between 2006 and 2009 (when the team was taken over by BMW).

        However, if you open things up to allow for changes in ownership over the years, there are multiple teams on the grid whose heritage in F1 extends further back than Sauber does – the current Renault team can trace their roots back to 1981 via Toleman, Toro Rosso can trace their roots back to Minardi’s entry in 1985 and Force India started out as Jordan in 1991.

      2. Well said. 2007 they were _almost_ title contenders.

  6. Wow, Van doorne faster in the wet than Alonso in the dry. Alonso must have been running the GP2 engine.

    1. He is the GP2 engine

      1. GP2 engine, GP2! Roahhh!

    2. Lol, you’re talking rubbish. Vandoorne set his lap in the dry too. Why do you think he was using ultra soft tyres?

  7. Anyone knows how many laps was McLaren longest stint ?

    1. I think 18 or 19 laps. Not a 100% sure though.

  8. MG421982 (@)
    2nd March 2017, 18:08

    And these are the tyres used for the best lap of the day, in order:

    RAI – Soft
    VES – Soft
    PAL – Soft
    GRO – SuperSoft
    GIO – UltraSoft
    PER – SuperSoft
    VAN – UltraSoft
    BOT – Soft
    HUL – Soft

    1. Simon le Bon
      2nd March 2017, 20:25

      Correction: From now on VES will be VER. The FOM (Formula One Management) decided this earlier this week. I would have rather seen MAX instead though ;-)

      Max was leading today on the wet track, Raïkonen set his time on an almost dry track.

      1. Simon le Bon
        2nd March 2017, 20:41

        Max set the fastest time in wet conditions:
        Full wets : 1:40.191
        Intermediates : 1:29.867
        However, on Mediums/Soft Räikönen was faster today.

  9. Anyone else notice that Ricciardo was meant to run in the afternoon session but it was given to Verstappen. Perhaps because there was an issue that prevented Max from running yesterday, but Ricciardo still had issues that reduced lap time on the opening day and yesterday. A sign of things to come?

    Keith, any news on this?

    1. Micheal (@shakengandulf)
      2nd March 2017, 19:56

      Thas odd.. but from the schedule ive seen, it was ric-ves-ric-ves.

      1. On the 3rd and 4th days it was meant to be RIC-VER, then VER-RIC.

        1. @guybrushthreepwood this VER/VES thing is really annoying. why couldn’t they go with VST or MAX? also, great username! i’m selling these fine leather jackets…

  10. Its impressive to see Giovinazzi putting in so many laps for Sauber in the testing. A decent job given his entry was circumstantial and the cars are physically demanding. Would have loved to see Vandoorne get more laps.

  11. Will be interesting to see how team dynamics work at McLaren when Vandoorne – as I expect him to – begins regularly beating Alonso in races.

  12. Are they all running the mustachio wing thing?

  13. It would be good to know every team’s fastest time on the different tyre compounds used.

    I think Mercs were quickest on the Ultra softs with a 1.19.7. I believe Ferrari were fastest on the soft, with a 1:19.9. I also think Ferrari were the quickest on the Mediums. I think Red Bull was the 3rd fastest on the Softs and Mediums, but I’m not sure.

    I believe Mclaren were slowest on softs, ultra softs and Super softs. Their quickest time was a 1:22.5 set on Ultrasofts

    1. Compounded time sheet first test:

      1. BOT (Mercedes) – 1’19.705 (Ultra-Soft)
      2. VET (Ferrari) – 1’19.952 (Soft)
      3. RAI (Ferrari) – 1’20.872 (Soft)
      4. HAM (Mercedes) – 1’20.983 (Super-Soft)
      5. RIC (Red Bull) – 1’21.153 (Soft)
      6. PAL (Renault) – 1’21.396 (Soft)
      7. VER (Red Bull) – 1’21.769 (Soft)
      8. HUL (Renault) – 1’21.791 (Soft)
      9. ERI (Sauber) – 1’21.824 (Super-Soft)
      10. MAS (Williams) – 1’22.076
      11. GRO (Haas) – 1’22.118 (Soft)
      12. MAG (Haas) – 1’22.204 (Super-Soft)
      13. STR (Williams) – 1’22.351 (Soft)
      14. GIO (Sauber) – 1’22.401 (Ultra-Soft)
      15. OCO (Force India) – 1’22.509 (Super-Soft)
      16. PER (Force India) – 1’22.534 (Super-Soft)
      17. VAN (McLaren) – 1’22.576 (Ultra-Soft)
      18. ALO (McLaren) – 1’22.598 (Ultra-Soft)
      19. KVY (Toro Rosso) – 1’22.956 (Soft)
      20. SAI (Toro Rosso) – 1’23.540 (Medium)
      21. CEL (Force India) – 1’23.568 (Super-Soft)

      1. Thanks for the list. It doesn’t give us all the data for compounds, but it’s good to know the relative pecking order of the teams at the top and bottom. Although we don’t know much about fuel loads, it seems that Ferrari were awfully close to Mercedes even on harder compounds. I’m sure Mercedes are sandbagging, but I don’t think Ferrari will be starting the season way off the Merc pace.

        Although the bottom of the grid shows Toro Rosso, they haven’t set quick lap times on the Supersoft or Ultrasoft yet, and the 1:23.540 on mediums is actually quite a decent time. At the end of the 1st test, looks like Mclaren is taking the honours of slowest lap on softs, mediums, ultrasofts and super softs (I’m not including Celis’ times as he isn’t a good reflection of Force India’s pace). Honda are also taking the honours for most engines replaced and lowest mileage. This team really has turned in to Spyker.

    2. I don’t have info for all laps done on set compound :( Only fastest times.

    3. MG421982 (@)
      3rd March 2017, 7:43

      @ Todfod: you’re right, Ferrari (VET) was fastest on Softs and Mediums… so far!! They didn’t try UltraSofts at all AFAIK.

      1. MG421982 (@)
        3rd March 2017, 8:04

        Actually, it seems Ferrari didn’t try SuperSofts either!

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