Alexander Albon, Toro Rosso, Circuit de Catalunya, 2019

Albon keeps Toro Rosso ahead on morning of day four

2019 F1 season

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Toro Rosso picked up where they left off on third day of testing as Alexander Albon lowered their best time of the test so far.

Albon posted a best time of 1’17.637 on the morning of the fourth day of testing, six hundredths of a second inside team mate Daniil Kvyat’s benchmark from yesterday.

More than half of the teams have improved on their previous times today. Daniel Ricciardo put Renault second-fastest with a best time of 1’17.785, while Lewis Hamilton was just under two-tenths of a second slower in his Mercedes.

Charles Leclerc lowered Ferrari’s best time of the day to a 1’18.046 while also covering the largest individual mileage of any driver, managing 75 laps. He did, however, lose some front bodywork from his SF90 and went off at turn five.

Haas suffered no apparent repeat of their electronic problems from yesterday as Romain Grosjean set the sixth-fastest time.

Lando Norris caused the only red flag of the session when he went off at turn five shortly after testing began. His McLaren came to a stop in a gravel trap and was undamaged, and he resumed lapping soon afterwards.

Having only joined in the test yesterday, Williams managed the first serious running with its FW42. Robert Kubica put 48 laps on the chassis, running with a large array of flow-detection sensors for his early runs. Kubica, the last of this year’s race drivers to take part in testing, also had a brief spin at one point.

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2019 F1 testing day four morning times

Pos.Car numberDriverTeamModelBest timeGapLapsTyres
123Alexander AlbonToro RossoSTR141’17.63744C5
23Daniel RicciardoRenaultRS191’17.7850.14834C5
344Lewis HamiltonMercedesW101’17.9770.34058C4
416Charles LeclercFerrariSF901’18.0460.40975C3
599Antonio GiovinazziAlfa RomeoC381’18.5110.87456C3
68Romain GrosjeanHaasVF-191’18.5630.92664C3
710Pierre GaslyRed BullRB151’19.4951.85852C3
84Lando NorrisMcLarenMCL341’19.5431.90648C3
918Lance StrollRacing PointRP191’20.0262.38941C3
1088Robert KubicaWilliamsFW421’21.5423.90548C2

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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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23 comments on “Albon keeps Toro Rosso ahead on morning of day four”

  1. This testing is making me doubt all the conventional wisdoms. Toro Rosso on C4, doing that time, despite looking like one of the least good cars… Curious what potential is in the actual teams. Curious too what is stopping Merc doing better now that they’ve done actual glory runs of sorts.

    1. Toro rosso time was c5, but c5 seems hardly faster than c4, ricciardo’s time on c5 was less than 1 tenth faster than his c4 time. And Hamilton went slower on c5. So far I think ferrari, alfa romeo and torro rosso are being helped by their development choice on front wing. Renault seems surprisingly quick, maybe their motor has caught ferrari and merc quietly while everyone is obsessing about Honda because of red bull.

      1. @kpcart:
        we also dont know if any of them got a tow.
        It is just extremely tough to make any logical sense of whats happening apart from one–Williams aren’t winning the WDC/WCC.

        1. @webtel, it seems that too many people are making the mistake of looking just at the headline times and thinking that says everything…

    2. @hahostolze
      I believe Albon did that time on C5.
      And i am curious too– fuel loads, closed DRS flaps, engine modes, etc.
      Making a judgement/inferring anything seems to be an afterthought and is also moot as we know it.. Some teams would want to test out their plans in the first phase. Some teams would want to focus on the long term and be more aggressive with their plans and experiments in the second phase .
      Nevertheless, irrespective of what we have seen, all teams would want to show some amount of progress next week.

    3. Your mistake is trying to draw pace conclusions from the first testing days of the year.

      1. Plus the cars arent under Parke Ferme rules, so not all the fast times may be legal..

        1. Good point and often forgotten.

        2. @emu55 Excellent point.

  2. Of course, testing times mean nothing, but happy to see Albon at the top (so far today).
    I’m quite sceptical about him, but shall be a bit more open-minded from now on in.

  3. Ferrari on c3 was only 1 tenth slower than Mercedes on c4 faster tyre and surprisingly Renault were an equal for Mercedes in c4. The c5 tyre seems to only give a tenth or so more time on this track and track conditions. Ferrari also oy about. 5 seconds slower on c2, seems they are just plain fast. I don’t think any team will use party mode in testing, we’ll maybe torro rosso… I got a feeling they are testing the power of the Honda for red bull.

    1. “Ferrari on c3 was only 1 tenth slower than Mercedes on c4 faster tyre”

      Fuel load, amount of ballast, battery deployment, engine modes, DRS, how much the driver was pushing within himself, what lap in the stint the time was set on, etc, etc.

    2. @kpcart STR testing the power of the Honda for RBR? Yes I agree that is for sure happening. More specifically to see how much they can crank it and still remain reliable, eh? Well, really though, that will continue as long as both teams have the same Pu, as that is one of the beauties for all Pu makers having their Pu in more than one teams cars. More R&D, more data, more ideas etc etc. And when you know that likely only one team is going to have title shots, the other can be made to make some sacrifices for the sake of the knowledge.

      So far they appear to have reliability with no small amount of ‘crank.’ All relative of course, and racing in anger will be different, however, they could be having a much worse testing, they being STR and RBR and Honda. At a minimum they have gained tons of useful data to digest, to start off their season.

    3. Yeah, I think Toro Rosso is a modern equivalent of “F1 Borat – Revving Up Honda limits for Make Benefit Glorious RBR Team”

  4. Vettel Fan 17 (@)
    21st February 2019, 12:32

    Softest tyre or not, i think Red Bull and Honda can be happy so far, they aren’t struggling massively at the very least and there hasn’t been any reliability issues as far as I know. I think Red Bull does stand a good chance this year of being up with Ferrari and Mercedes.

  5. When do we get to overreact?

    1. @pratyushp276 Ahh, that really made me laugh. Anytime you want, I suppose, but there is always the option to not overreact and be rational.

  6. We can already start to celebrate 1st championship of Crashtappen.

  7. Lance stroll has did a lap 2 tenths faster then he did last year at the Spanish Grand prix qualifying for williams, on the C3 tyre as well. No wonder he’s smiling in the garage despite being 9th in the standings.

    1. For sure and as they have explained, due to the timing of the takeover of the team, they had to start their car based on what funding was secure to their best knowledge at the time. Had the timing been a bit more in their favour their car would be different, as in more advanced by now. In other words their car is a bit basic now, but I would suggest they will be constantly upgrading it throughout the season. Other teams will be too of course, but in terms of their own situation, yeah I’m sure they’re all pretty happy with their potential.

  8. Renault without DRS at runner-up is impressive. They did have unusual approach to solve the issue tough.

  9. Williams down to 1.21 – that’s a relief. Also a joy seeing Kubica on track.

  10. Stroll still at the bottom – just saying.

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