There is still little insight to be gleaned from headline testing times at this early stage in the season.
[f1tv2020testa]Alfa Romeo became the second team to beat its best time from last year, though Kimi Raikkonen did it after putting the softest C5 compound tyres on his car.
Just one-and-a-half seconds covers the teams from fastest to slowest, at a track where the difference between a full tank and a nearly empty one can be as much as three seconds per lap.
What the teams are concentrating on most at the moment is mileage. And it isn’t the team which struggled in this regard last year which is currently at the bottom of the table.
After two days of testing, all the teams so far have done more than 1,100 kilometres – with one exception. Renault is yet to cross the 1,000km threshold.
The team indicated little in the way of problems, besides Daniel Ricciardo damaging his floor at turn nine, which required repairs.
Contrast that with Mercedes, who were on the way to racking up 200 laps today before a technical problem sidelined Valtteri Bottas. Tomorrow is the last day of the first test, and with only three more days’ running next week, Renault are under more pressure than their rivals to start clocking up the laps.
2020 pre-season lap times so far by team
2020 pre-season lap times compared to last year
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2020 pre-season mileages compared to last year
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2020 F1 season
- Pictures: Wrecked chassis from Grosjean’s Bahrain fireball crash to go on display
- Bottas vs Rosberg: Hamilton’s Mercedes team mates compared after 78 races each
- F1 revenues fell by $877 million in Covid-struck 2020 season
- Hamilton and Mercedes finally announce new deal for 2021 season
- F1 audience figures “strong” in 2020 despite dip in television viewers
Dr Sven (@svend1)
20th February 2020, 19:13
According to the official F1 site, Räikkönen used the C4 tire, not the softest?
Qeki (@qeki)
20th February 2020, 20:07
@svend1 In the livestream it showed it was the supersoft
Arthur (@aegges66)
20th February 2020, 20:29
@keithcollantine I always like your stats, they are great and much appreciated!
With regards to the Pre-season total mileages at the Circuit de Catalunya, 2020 vs 2019, of course the total mileage is important, but in comparison with 2019 it could maybe be better based on the average given the difference between the number of testing days?