Carlos Sainz Jnr, Renault, Circuit de Catalunya, 2018

Very cold weather making test runs “impossible” – Sainz

2018 F1 season

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Cold conditions in testing at the Circuit de Catalunya are making it “impossible” to push Renault’s new car to the limit in testing, according to Carlos Sainz Jnr.

Track temperatures fell to just above freezing at the end of yesterday’s test, which continued unto this morning’s running. Sainz said that meant he was only able to carry out basic checks on his new Renault RS18.

“The seat has to be changed here, the throttle pedal there, just adapt a bit my steering,” he said. “On the pure feeling of the car, balance etc… I didn’t try to reach the limit of the car because it was just impossible with the temperatures: medium tyres, soft tyres…”

“It was just very difficult to reach the peak of the tyre, every lap coming faster and faster, then you have to back off a bit and the tyres were dropping and taking another five laps to come in.”

Sainz joked “my country is letting me down” after seeing the temperatures fall rapidly after he took over the team’s car from Nico Hulkenberg yesterday. “It was my turn and all of a sudden the wind came, the clouds came, the North Pole came. Suddenly Barcelona turned out to be Finland.”

Some teams have raised the possibility of extending the test so they can run in warmer conditions later in the week, which Sainz is in favour of.

“Maybe there’s solutions coming up, I don’t know if teams will discuss to extend, there’s a rumour going around.”

“Personally, on Friday, just to let you know, it’s 17C, normal Barcelona weather and sunny so I wouldn’t mind if we could have that Friday for testing and just sit out on Wednesday, for example [when] it’s apparently snowing. The option’s there and we’ll see what happens.”

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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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10 comments on “Very cold weather making test runs “impossible” – Sainz”

  1. Lewisham Milton
    27th February 2018, 10:04

    Bottas should be quickest today then!

    1. Ba dun tissssssh! Here all week? ;)

    2. @Lewisham Milton Not necessarily. Lap times don’t mean much in testing.

  2. Dude 0°C Finland weather? You should try and go to Finland.

    1. Not if they can’t take a joke

      1. I’ve been on a course in Finland, -40 degrees and they cut a hole in the ice & went swimming. They’re completely nuts (in a nice way) but the humour is sometimes, sparse at best. You have to be tough to live in Northern Finland..,

  3. Mr Sainz seems to be creating a lot of hot air which should help testing. I don’t understand his comment seeing that cars are lapping in 1:20/1:21 area. Still 1.5 secs of likely ultimate times, but respectable nevertheless.

    1. @baron Well the teams apparently want the test extended, so it makes sense they instruct their drivers to drive the point home when talking to the press.

    2. @baron Well the teams apparently want the test extended, so it makes sense they instruct their drivers to drive the point home when talking to the press.

      1. That’s a good point @patrickl. I hadn’t considered that.
        That’s a good point @patrickl. I hadn’t considered that.

        Haha, you get the picture…

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