2024 Formula 1 car pre-season tests

[Everso Biggyballies]

Bottom post of the previous page:

An hour and 30 minutes left of the morning session and guess who is fastest...... Yes it is the Flying Dutchman.

Max did a 1:33.065, so within 0.8 of P1 in the Bahrain GP last year.

Mercedes are slow off the mark and sit 10th of the 10 drivers out running this morning. Near enough 3.5 off the pace. Of course way to early to make predictions for the year but it is an ominous sign with Max fastes. Ferrari and Aston both looking good and within just under 0.2 and 0.320 respectively. Then a second back to Piastri in the McLaren and a gaggle within half a second

Alonso and Yuki T lead the way on lap count, both on 38, just ahead of Max on 37. Merc only 19 so do thy have an issue. I havent been following that closely so dont know of any stories or problems.

Anyway, an update of the times set so far today.

POS DRIVERGAP TYRE LAPS
1 Max VERSTAPPEN1:33.065 37
2 Charles LECLERC+0.182 27
3 Fernando ALONSO+0.320 38
4 Oscar PIASTRI+1.294 20
5 Valtteri BOTTAS+1.366 31
6 Yuki TSUNODA+1.422 38
7 Alexander ALBON+1.522 36
8 Esteban OCON+1.953 32
9 Kevin MAGNUSSEN+2.627 32
10 George RUSSELL+3.477 19

[Everso Biggyballies]

As soon as I posted that Max went out and knocked close to another half a second off his time. 1:32.548.
I had a look at what tyres he was on and it is the mediums. A few have been out on the softs but Max has just used hard and medium so far..

[Everso Biggyballies]

Re Russell and Merc it seems the Porpoise has returned.... at least on the slo mo I saw.

George has managed 38 laps and has jumped ahead of Haas to go 9th, so improving, but still 2.66 off Max. Albon has also only done 38 laps but I know that he had a DRS issue needing some garage time.

Fernando is pounding round and has covered over a race distance now and done 65 laps. He is running 3rd, 0.8 off Max with CLAP 2nd 0.7 shy of Max.

Half an hour left of the morning sessions

[Everso Biggyballies]

Let's make this interesting, what will be the first car to break down?

It's got to be a broken Willy.

And we have winner..... Albon has stopped off the side of the track in S1 with a broken Willy, 20 minutes before lunch.

He has pulled well off the track and testing continues under a. local yellow. No nasty sounds or smoke emanating from his Willy so dont know what is wrong. They were getting ready for Alex to pit next time round so it could be something as simple as run out of fuel.

But the bottom line is he was the first person and car of the season to stop on track and be pushed out of the way, far enough for green flags to we waved and running continue for the other nine cars.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Word from Williams is simply 'a reliability issue' stopped Albon ontracke. Which could well have something to do with "fuel starvation"..(a polite way to say ran out of petrol.)

[Everso Biggyballies]

Verstappen leads first morning

Max and Red Bull continued where they left off last year by setting the pace on the opening morning of pre-season testing. CLAP slotted into second for Ferrari, some 0.7 shy of Max , with Fernando just over a tenth further back in his Aston Martin.

McLaren with Piastri were next up in fourth place, followed by VCARB’s Yuki Tsunoda, who ran slightly wide at Turn 4 on one of his runs, while Russell rounded out the top six positions, having done a late lap just before the break to jump from 9th to 6th.

They were not happy at Mercedes spending much of the morning doing complete set up changes.

Lunch break now for an hour and we will see Max and GR stay in their cars for the afternoon but everyone else doing a driver change.

SUmmary of this morning's times.

POS DRIVERGAP TYRE LAPS
1 Max VERSTAPPEN1:32.548 66
2 Charles LECLERC+0.699 64
3 Fernando ALONSO+0.837 77
4 Oscar PIASTRI+1.110 57
5 Yuki TSUNODA+1.588 64
6 George RUSSELL+1.682 48
7 Valtteri BOTTAS+1.883 68
8 Alexander ALBON+2.039 40
9 Esteban OCON+2.129 60
10 Kevin MAGNUSSEN+3.144 66

[Everso Biggyballies]

They were not happy at Mercedes spending much of the morning doing complete set up changes.

Lunch break now for an hour and we will see Max and GR stay in their cars for the afternoon but everyone else doing a driver change.

Which equates to these drivers going out in just under hlf an hour from now for the afternoon session..:

Team Driver(s)
Red Bull - Max Verstappen

Mercedes - George Russell

Ferrari - Carlos Sainz

McLaren - Lando Norris

Aston Martin - Lance Stroll

Alpine - Pierre Gasly

Williams - Logan Sargeant

RB - Daniel Ricciardo

Kick Sauber - Zhou Guanyu

Haas - Nico Hulkenberg

[Aty]

I don't have feeling that anyone is sandbagging. There is no time for that. Ferrari of pace by 0,7 sec is more or less what was expected. (Maybe iota worse.)

[Everso Biggyballies]

Afternoon session started an hour ago. I wonder what this afternoon has in store.

Albon's problem this morning just before lunch was a fuel pump failure. Pump now changed and Logan Sargeant about to take his first laps of the season.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Joe is looking impressive relative to Bottas this morning.... Valtteri did over 80 laps with a best time set on mediums 1.95 off of Max's benchmark and 12th fastest overall..
Joe got in the car, has done just 14 laps, and has just gone round in a creditable 1.387 off Max and already 7th fastest today.

But perhaps the biggest mover of the afternoon is Lando.... Oscar put in a best lap that was 1.1 shy of Max in his 57 laps. Lando jumped in the car and after just 17 laps has set a new benchmark, 0.06 faster than Max.

Sainz also is proving his worth to those that might be evaluating Carlos for next year..... he has already posted a lap over 0.6 faster than CLAP managed.

Quick update of how they stand with two hours left for today. 18 drivers have now done laps today, with just Sergio and Lewis not having lapped.... both of them get their turn for a full day tomorrow..

As I was about to post I see Danny Ric has put in a pretty good lap to go 5th fastest overall, on the medium tyres, just 0.841 slower than Lando.


1 Lando NORRIS1:32.484 19
2 Max VERSTAPPEN+0.064 95
3 Carlos SAINZ+0.100 34
4 Charles LECLERC+0.763 64
5 Daniel RICCIARDO+0.841 16
6 Fernando ALONSO+0.901 77
7 Oscar PIASTRI+1.174 57
8 GuanyuZHOU+1.387 15
9 George RUSSELL+1.625 64
10 Yuki TSUNODA+1.652 64
11 Lance STROLL+1.708 10
12 Valtteri BOTTAS+1.947 68
13 Alexander ALBON+2.103 40
14 Esteban OCON+2.193 60
15 Logan SARGEANT+2.954 14
16 Kevin MAGNUSSEN+3.208 66
17 Nico HULKENBERG+4.554 31
18 Pierre GASLY+5.325 22

[Everso Biggyballies]

Logan just has a big high speed spin when the rear end just let go..... fortunately with all the acres of run off he was able to continue to return to pitlane and no doubt change his code brown bemished race suit. He certainly made a mess of the tyres with one of the fronts through to the canvas. The other three wont be much better!

In other achievments Stroll has improved on Alonso's morning time so clearly teams are now getting their setups nailed.

OOOOH my,..... Max has obviously not liked Lando taking over at the top of the times and has just gone round in a mighty 1:31.662, over 0.8 faster than Lando.

To put that in perspective that is faster than anyone managed in P3 last year at the GP here. In fact if he finds another tenth he will do a time that would have got him through to Q2 in qualy. Quite impressive given he is still running mediums.

[Everso Biggyballies]

I guess with the light fading now and temperatures dropping that will probably make the conditions cooler and the track possibly faster.

Looks quite pretty....


I believe Williams might have another technical issue. Some strange noises from the onboard and now the car is back in the garage with Logan out of the car.

[Ruslan]

Tentative conclusions:

1. Max will be first this year.
2. Haas will be last this year.
3. Hamilton to wise to bail on Mercedes.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Tentative conclusions:

1. Max will be first this year.
2. Haas will be last this year.
3. Hamilton to wise to bail on Mercedes.

I was having similar thoughts.
The Mercedes looks very unbalanced, very bouncy, locking brakes, and is throwing up plenty of sparks.. it is still struggling to get into the top 10.... or within close to 2.5 of Max.

On the other hand the Red Bull looks very planted, totally stable barely a spark flying

[Everso Biggyballies]

I wonder whether we will see any of the quick cars bolting on a set of softs now we are into the last hour and having a qualy sim. :Idunno:

[DoubleFart]

The Merc looked crap in testing in 2021, and in 2023, and it won the opener in 2021 and wasn't exactly a disaster in 2023.

They'll work the car out. We all know Merc build good cars, and they're competitive in the right operating window, and average outside of it. They just don't know where that window is yet.