What the final test told us about each of the teams

With the final pre-season test of the 2020 F1 season complete, here’s what the first running of the new season showed us about each of the teams.

Mercedes

The world champions demonstrated impressive performance in the first test: Valtteri Bottas’s 1’15.732 on day three remained unbeaten throughout the second week – no one else got within half a second of it. But over the final three days a potential chink in their armour appeared.

Customers Williams had already been forced to change their M11 power unit twice when Lewis Hamilton suffered a session-ending glitch on the fifth day of running. He said afterwards the team had a “difficult winter” with its power unit.

“I think we’ve had a good winter test,” he said. “It’s not been perfect. I think we found that we’ve got plenty of problems that we’re trying to iron out. I don’t know how long it will take to iron out, but that’s never a bad thing necessarily to discover them through testing.

“Otherwise I think our performance has been good in the sense of laps we’ve got, the mileage, apart from [Thursday] and the actual process and the things we’ve discovered along the way. I have no idea where we stand compared to others, the team probably will have a better idea of that.”

Their rivals probably have a good idea as well. There wasn’t a point throughout the test when it didn’t look as though Mercedes were capable of laying down a session-topping time if they chose to.

The W11 departs from its predecessor in a few significant respects, including its revised sidepods, overhauled rear suspension and, of course, innovative and boundary-pushing Dual Axis Steering system. By the end of the test, Hamilton felt he had a good handle on the new car, which doesn’t bode well for those hoping to keep him from a record-equalling seventh world title.

“I think I understand the car,” he said on the final day. “I’m comfortable, confident in terms of getting into the car in Melbourne and knowing that I’ll be able to attack an extract the most from it. Whether that’s going to be enough to be ahead of others, we’ll find out.”

Ferrari

Were Ferrari running their power unit more conservatively to ensure reliability and maximise their track time? Or have they been stung by their brush with the FIA, which has forced compromises on their latest power unit?

From the outset Ferrari said the goal of the SF1000 was for it to produce more downforce. This appears to have been achieved – Charles Leclerc pointed to their improved performance through the slow, twisty final sector, which bodes well for their performance at tracks where they struggled last year.

But that nagging question over their straight-line performance remains. Team principal Mattia Binotto stressed they are not the pace setters, but after the disappointed they suffered last year after a strong winter showing, he has every reason to play down their potential.

“I said [in week one] was not as was as optimistic as it was last year,” he said on Friday. “I think I can confirm it. We are certainly not the fastest car at least here in Barcelona during winter testing.

“I think our main competitors are certainly faster. But again, as I said last year, I think it’s only the start of the long season. There would be time I think to address in terms of develop where we believe that we are eventually in two weeks.

“We have been overall quite reliable, which was one of the goals. Obviously this session is not concluded but I think overall, that’s where we putting all the efforts through the winter and in that respect it’s positive.”

When the chequered flag came down on the test Ferrari was the only team which had not lapped quicker than either last year’s race or grand prix at the Circuit de Catalunya.

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Red Bull

[smr2020test]Red Bull left it until the afternoon of the final day of testing to tap the performance of their RB16. Once they did, they produced the kind of pace which many long suspected they had up their sleeves.

Max Verstappen did a series of runs on progressively softer tyres. His lap on C5s did not produce a session-topping time, but his C4 lap left him within touching distance of Bottas’s Mercedes.

That said rather more about the car’s potential than Verstappen did all week with his brief and vague comments. The only driver who gave less away about his car was Kimi Raikkonen, and that was because he kept cancelling his media appointments.

“I think it’s been a pretty positive pre-season for us,” summed up team principal Christian Horner. “We did plenty of mileage last week. This week we’ve been focussing on looking at some development bits and pieces, but generally it’s been a very positive experience.”

The outward signs bore that out. The car ran reliably on the whole, though one Honda power unit was changed as a precaution in week one. The team which finished the first race of last year runner-up to Mercedes look at minimum capable of doing the same again in two week’s time.

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McLaren

The McLaren drivers are wary of the threat from the ‘pink Mercedes’ and ‘white Bull’. Lando Norris struck a cautious note about the MCL35 after a tricky day in the car on Thursday, when conditions were particularly windy.

“I’m very happy with things and the progress we’ve made since last week,” he said after his last run in the car, “but because of other things like the wind it’s been very hard to get a good feeling of what the car’s like.

“But at the same time, if this is a race weekend and it’s this windy, then it’s just something you’ve got to deal with. And I think that’s one of the areas we have to work on as a team because from what I see, it’s hard to know, the other teams have strengths or less weaknesses in those areas.”

While Carlos Sainz Jnr improved the team’s lap time on Friday, the team’s concerns about the potential of Racing Point at least appeared to be borne out. Norris drew encouragement from the team’s understanding of its weaknesses.

“I’m happy,” he said. “I think we have an understanding at least of what the car’s good at, what it’s not good at. And those areas that we have to work on I think is very clear.”

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Renault

Daniel Ricciardo’s lap of 1’16.276 put Renault in among Red Bull and Ferrari at the end of testing. But that effort will look like a glory run if they’re still mired in the midfield come Melbourne. Team mate Esteban Ocon put in a lap within two-tenths of a second of his team mate, however.

Renault’s run plan apparently involved less lapping than their rivals, though they ended up neck-and-neck with Red Bull in terms of the amount of laps covered. The beginning of their 2019 campaign was badly compromised by power unit problems, but the signs are they should be in better shape this year.

“The RS20 ran well and pretty much as we expected, courtesy of the progress made by Enstone and Viry over the winter to ensure all parts were delivered to the track to a high standard and in good time,” said team principal Cyril Abiteboul. “This preparation meant we were well placed to complete all major test items with little fault over the two weeks.

“We initially concentrated on assessing the main characteristics of our package and determining reliability levels across chassis and engine, before working through different set-up options with some ideas proving interesting and others not. We can be very pleased with the reliability of the engine with one power unit being used for each us and our customer, McLaren, throughout the six days.”

The RS20 is visibly a major departure from its predecessor. Renault say their goal for this year is to begin the season having made a major step forward which will allow them to switch their efforts to the 2021 programme earlier.

Abiteboul insists the team has made the progress it expected. “Our absolute performance level is in line with our expectations from the winter gains,” he said, “a positive sign of the correlation level between our development facilities and the track, something that will be crucial for the very aggressive development plan we have in place.”

AlphaTauri

AlphaTauri showed little outward sign of improvement compared to 12 months ago (when it was Toro Rosso). Team principal Franz Tost said the AT01 is “a reasonably good car from the mechanical side” and they are “quite satisfied from the aero side.”

“Maybe we have to find something against the under-steering,” he added. “But generally speaking, the car is working as expected.”

The team expects to pick up where it left off last year in the thick of the midfield.

“It’s too early to say exactly where we think we are relative to the top three,” said technical director Jody Egginton. “But the midfield is fantastically tight and we believe we’re right in that mix there.

“Exactly how that pans out it’s difficult to say. As it was difficult to say last winter as well. But it’s a big, tight midfield, that’s for sure.”

Racing Point

Racing Point’s change of philosophy from a Red Bull-style high-rake concept to a clearly Mercedes-inspired design is a gamble for the team. But everything it has done since Lawrence Stroll took over the team in mid-2018 has been with this goal in mind.

The team is more than quietly confident that the risk has reaped rewards. “I’d be lying if we said we weren’t happy with where we were,” said technical director Andrew Green. “We are happy.

“The level of performance that we’re seeing from the car is sort of as we expected after we got the data out of the tunnel and put it in the simulator. When the drivers drove the car a couple of weeks ago, they were massively enthusiastic about it. So they were prepared for what was to come.

“We were just unsure whether we were going to realise the full potential of what we’d seen in the simulation work. Everything that we’ve seen so far suggests that we’ve transferred across from the model side to full size.”

The car’s potential has not been lost on its rivals, either. “Racing Point have been very quick the whole of the two weeks,” said Sainz. “They hit the track on the first day and they did a 17.3. And since then they haven’t improved much because I don’t think they wanted to. But that 17.3 on the first day I think impressed all of us and there are going to be quick, very quick.”

Alfa Romeo

Robert Kubica raved about the joys of experiencing downforce again after his run in the Alfa Romeo on Wednesday, when he set the team’s best time of the entire test, an outcome which must have pleased new major sponsor PKN Orlen.

However the rest of the picture is more mixed. The team ran quite reliably – which is vital as they are still operating without a simulator – but lost some running on Thursday when Antonio Giovinazzi backed his C39 into a barrier.

Both Ferrari customers ended the test at the bottom of the times, which adds more weight to the theory that the latest Maranello power unit has lost some of its edge compared to last season.

Haas

Haas has been especially cautious with its approach to testing after losing its way soon after the start of last season. There is some cautious optimism that they may have avoided falling into the same tyre performance trap as they did with the VF-19.

“It is difficult to compare because the car is different,” said team principal Guenther Steiner, “but it seems to be a lot more manageable, the tyre, with this car.

“We need to go through the data to see what did what because we started slow, we started fast and now we just need to analyse. But it seems to be a lot more you can manage it better.”

Kevin Magnussen added to the impression that however the VF-20 is, the most important thing is it’s a departure from what they had last year.

“It’s a new car, so they react different and there’s something to learn there,” he said. “But it’s kind of a good sign that it’s different, it’s not just the same.”

“It seemed like we were very, quick in the first laps and then fell off, which I guess was a little bit like last year,” he continued. “But not really, because we were very, very fast in the first couple of laps and then on one stint I held back a little bit on those first laps and then my standard was way more consistent, which wasn’t really possible last year.

“So it is different. And there’s a lot to learn because it’s different, we need to learn where we are and how to manage it.”

Williams

If Williams really are the seventh-fastest team in F1 now, as the raw times indicate, that is a massive improvement over last year. Realistically, they may have at least brought the midfield back within range, which will be a relief.

Losing a considerable amount of time due to a series of problems with its Mercedes power unit, which Williams insist were completely out of their hands, took the shine off their testing performance. But after the nightmare they went through last year, this was at least a respectable showing.

The team has addressed the major weaknesses of last year’s car with a design which is a polish evolution of it. “Certainly the one of the biggest differences is the build quality as has changed dramatically from this time last year,” said deputy team principal Claire Williams. “That’s been really great to see, bringing a car that’s in really good shape, that comes out the box to a very high standard of which we should be proud at Williams.”

The drivers gave slightly more mixed feedback. But unlike 12 months ago, Williams seems to be back in the running, instead of occupying a third tier of its own, lagging well off the pace.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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