Ferrari quickest again as Yas Marina test ends

2017 F1 season

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Sebastian Vettel kept Ferrari on top as Formula One’s final test of 2017 concluded at Yas Marina.

Abu Dhabi test day two in pictures
Vettel lowered the fastest time of the test to a 1’37.551, two-tenths of a second inside his team mate’s benchmark from yesterday, but over a second shy of the quickest time seen during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend. Most teams lapped at least half a second slower than they did during the race weekend with only Haas posting a fractionally quicker time during the course of the two days’ running.

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas was second-fastest and completed the second-highest mileage of the day. He logged 141 laps, seven shy of the day’s high of 148 registered by Sauber test driver Charles Leclerc.

Other teams divided their running between two drivers. Sergey Sirotkin completed the majority of Williams’ running before handing over to Robert Kubica. The latter set the seventh-quickest time with his late run on Pirelli’s new hyper-soft compound.

Force India and Toro Rosso ran both of their regular race drivers on the final day of the test. McLaren was again the only team to run two cars as it continued catching up on its missed running from its cancelled Pirelli tyre test in Brazil. Lando Norris conducted the ‘blind’ test of development tyre compounds.

Pos. Car number Driver Team Model Best time Gap Laps Tyres
1 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari SF70H 1’37.551 118 Hyper-soft
2 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes W08 1’38.490 0.939 141 Hyper-soft
3 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull RB13 1’38.736 1.185 132 Hyper-soft
4 11 Sergio Perez Force India VJM10 1’38.818 1.267 52 Super-soft
5 31 Esteban Ocon Force India VJM10 1’39.148 1.597 72 Super-soft
6 55 Carlos Sainz Jnr Renault RS17 1’39.444 1.893 109 Hyper-soft
7 40 Robert Kubica Williams FW40 1’39.485 1.934 28 Hyper-soft
8 2 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren MCL32 1’39.782 2.231 105 Hyper-soft
9 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas VF-17 1’39.810 2.259 124 Hyper-soft
10 41 Sergey Sirotkin Williams FW40 1’39.947 2.396 86 Soft
11 37 Charles Leclerc Sauber C36 1’40.666 3.115 148 Hyper-soft
12 47 Lando Norris McLaren MCL32 1’41.714 4.163 118 Test
13 28 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso STR12 1’43.345 5.794 61 Super-soft
14 10 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso STR12 1’44.827 7.276 63 Soft

This article will be updated.

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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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43 comments on “Ferrari quickest again as Yas Marina test ends”

  1. Do we know what tyres each driver was on when setting their fastest lap? @keithcollantine

    1. @tonyyeb Just had the data through from Pirelli, have updated the table now.

      1. Thanks! Now it looks like Sirotkin time are better than Kubica since he was doing it on tyres that three times harder.

        1. Not at all, you know nothing of their program, engine mode, fuel onboard, etc. If Kubica is as quick as Sainz in the Renault it look rather promising BUT read my 1st sentence again.

          Test, as opposed to free practice, does not have a traditional program to play with in term of data. It’s already very difficult to assess the perf of each car after 10 days of winter testing, so 1 day of end of year testing give us nothing, more or less.

          1. Exactly, the setup and test programs are far removed from a race weekend that comparison of drivers times is pointless, even in the same car. The full data set for each program is what matters here for the teams.

      2. Totally unimportant, but when reading the table (quickly) I missed the differentiation between Hyper Soft & Super Soft.

  2. Kubica a tenth quicker than Stroll’s time from yesterday

    1. In testing, any gap under three seconds is meaningless.

      1. It does make everybody silenced who said that he was bad. Stroll said he was going to focus on quali more than ofcourse he would have faster time while today kubica did probably to and is probably faster

    2. Wonder what’s it mean. Kubica already a tenth quicker or Kubica only a tenth quicker than Stroll’s time from yesterday… After all, Massa was seven tenth faster in average.

    3. His lap was faster than Stroll’s Quali time. Im sure their running an older worn out/turned down engine as well.

      Stroll, Robert is faster than you.

      1. @ppzzus why would they being doing that when the 2017 season is over, and the can afford to put fresh parts on it and run it to figure out the optimum performance out of the car with fresh test aero. It makes hardly any sense to evaluate a driver at a handicap. I get people dislike Stroll for various reasons, main reason being he has money to help him and those viewing it don’t and find it a weak way to join the sport, but no reason to pander so low.

        It’s a test, you nor I have any idea what kind of program was run today or yesterday and would only truly know who is faster when the season starts, that’s if Robert gets the seat.

        1. @magillagorilla That’s partially true, we don’t know for sure. What i was considering is that now they have to start paying for these engines(rather than just a flat fee per year), and they have a finite lifespan & they still get used a lot after the car gets “retired”. ie: williams running stroll and robert in 2 year the 2014 wiliams this year. I doubt they’d run it in a full on quali map but who knows.

          1. It’s testing though, we know from data collected that williams were second to mercedes in least parts used over the season. Meaning if they were using their old engines that had done the season it’d be unwise and potentially risky to the amount of mileage they’ve shown over the past two days. They can retro fit current engines to those cars, or buy parts from Mercedes for said vehicles. Since Merc has to follow the same letter to the rule of running special tests in 2 year old cars, they too probably have parts for said engine manufactured in limited number in case needed if not entire engines.

            Point is again that the ability to swap out engines in testing is immensely more easy than it is in a GP weekend over the season.

  3. I just realized that was a car Model column in the testing result table. Nice and pertinent.

  4. Seems to me like Robert’s still got it… Huzzah!

    1. Yeah Im excited about that too, to be honest I didn’t think he could pull it off.

      Kubica 2018

  5. digitalrurouni
    29th November 2017, 14:55

    Would it be correct in saying that Williams FW40 + Kubica + hyper soft with that lap time shows that the car really is not a decent car and that next year they really gotta step up their aero to be more competitive? I think FI’s 4th place will no longer be there as Renault will be taking that spot over.

    1. I think that’s been obvious all season. Mercedes power and yet lucky to score points all season, lingering out of the points most of the time, sometimes not even making it into q2.

      1. Williams were not “lucky” to score points all season.
        In the first part of the season Massa was quite quick and but for bad luck could have scored another 20+ points without punctures at Spain and Russia, and possibly max points at Baku.
        If you’re talking Stroll being lucky to score points, then maybe. Though he did have a couple of very good races.

  6. Dare I say, the Honda engine is becoming reliable.

    1. When they don’t crank it up too much maybe? But sure, I think it might be possible that they have finally at least found some reliability at some level after all this time. As much as they’ve struggled it’s hard to imagine them going backwards at this point and near impossible to imagine them not making at least some progress.

    2. @deej92 – well, of course. Alonso’s no longer running a Honda in 2018, so of course reliability and performance are to be expected in spades for Honda! ;-)

    3. Just imagine what they would have done on hyper-tests.

      1. I cannot imagine what face would Alonso have if hypothetically speaking.. Honda comes out better than Renault next season..

  7. Even though I really want him to return, I fear Kubica doesn’t quite have it in him anymore. Not just on testing results, a more general worry.

  8. Sirotkin’s fastest time was three tenths slower than Kubica, but on softs not hypersofts. Fuel etc aside, that’s not encouraging.

    1. three tenth is good news for Sirotkin; three years shy of 25 is not.

      1. Sirotkin’s fastest time was over three tenths slower than Kubica’s on super softs.
        Kubica only gained 0,1s on hypersofts at the very end of the session.

    2. The “fuel, etc.” part makes me think that comparisons by anyone other than Williams and Perelli are not entirely scientific.

  9. The word for Williams …

  10. 223 laps for Mclaren in one day. Is that a record?

    1. 443 over 2 days.
      Or 2,460km compared to 1,978km over 8 days (with 1 car) at pre-season testing.

    2. They have 2017 target pre season testing form after the 2017 season is completed.

      I wouldn’t be surprised if Honda has better reliability than Renault next year… although I would be shocked if Honda actually does find any performance. I’m expecting a 2016ish kind of season from Honda… where they have significantly improved reliability but smaller than expected gains on the performance side and a poor development curve during the year. They will still remain to be the most rubbish engine supplier in Formula 1 up until they leave the sport.

  11. Someone pointed out that drivers without a superlicence were driving with a GREEN light at the back of the car, but Kubica was driving with a RED light at the back of his car, which would indicate he has a superlicence and therefore an F1 seat.

    https://www.spot.im/s/00fFfB5l66eg

    1. This is the best indication I’ve seen so far that Kubica is moving towards that seat. Nice!

    2. You don’t need a race seat to acquire a Super Licence.

    3. Uuuuhh.. that is interesting. Thanks for putting a smile on my face, and some hope for Kibica’s comeback.

    4. But in pitstop practice video posted by F1, Kubica’s car light is coloured green.

    5. Simon White, there is an issue with that theory, which is that Kubica’s superlicence seems to have been renewed after his test for Renault in Hungary (having completed the minimum 300km of running in that test) and before he seems to have started negotiations with Williams. In other words, it seems that he originally acquired that superlicence as part of his efforts to secure a seat with Renault, not Williams, so the fact that he holds one now is not as significant as some seem to think it is.

  12. The fact that Ferrari were +/- one second faster than either Mercedes or Red Bull suggests (but doesn’t prove) that teams were using testing conditions that have little to do with racing reality for 2018.

    As to Williams, I’m maybe a little concerned that Kubica was only allowed a limited number of laps at the end of the session. I sincerely hope that this was “accidental” rather than health/strength related.

  13. I am not totally convinced that Kubica is the one for Williams…..whatever the age of the engine…type of tyres..etc etc…and even Robert himself has said he would have to work on his own shortcomings……time to look elsewhere????

    1. @jop452
      Every driver on the grid has short comings. Kubica has unique strengths to draw from, and I think those strengths are what Williams are going to ask for.
      To be clear, he is bringing money (nearly 10 000 000 euros by some accounts), marketing opportunities (F1 comeback story of the century), and talent (he is a proven was a world class driver). Add to that the sheer determination that he has shown since his “career ending” injury, and I see the best possible pick for a team who might not make it on engineering grounds alone next year.

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