The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will reopen this Tuesday for the Formula One teams in four more days of practice, in the second and last test round, with Mercedes as the fastest team in the first session and with McLaren with good sensations and with a more reliable engine.
Precisely, Fernando Alonso’s team completed a session last week that it had not enjoyed for years. Despite inclement weather and the accident suffered last Monday, when a McLaren wheel came off, the British team accepted the first four days, in which Alonso and Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne completed 260 laps (1,210 kilometers) .
In fact, the great objective this second week of McLaren in Montmeló is to complete race rounds to confirm the viability of the car. Alonso will get in the car on Wednesday and Friday, and Vandoorne, tomorrow, Tuesday and Thursday.
McLaren’s start this season has been quite a bit better than last year. From the outset, in the first week of the previous year, the McLaren, then powered by Honda, could only do 158 laps (265 in the second week; a total of 423 laps). In this first week at the Circuit de Barcelona, the British team was able to turn 260 laps (1,210 kilometers) with the new Renault engine.
The surprising thing in the poddock was not only the response of the Renault engine in the McLaren, but the team that rode the most in the first four-day run was Toro Rosso, which this year is powered by a Honda, with the one that has done 324 laps, a fact that has caused surprise, since the Japanese engine was a drag on McLaren in the three previous seasons.
Despite the high filming figures on the Catalan track, the first week was affected by a weather that did not help the teams almost at all, as the cold and rain took a leading role to the point that on Wednesday the day it was almost invalidated, in which only five cars ran and the one that made the most laps was Alonso’s (11). Snow and cold were responsible.
For this week, the rain remains a threat, but not the low temperatures or the snow, which have been completely ruled out.
In the time that the cars can race from tomorrow, attention will return to Mercedes, which has once again presented a racing car with an unsurpassed top speed. This was endorsed last Friday by Lewis Hamilton, who with his Mercedes lowered the time to 1: 19.333, three tenths below the best time achieved by Ferrari on Tuesday, with Sebastian Vettel at the controls (1: 19.673).
Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne (1: 19.854) also stood out in this time lapse, although this record was reached with super soft tires and at McLaren they take for granted that the purpose now is to strengthen the car in reliability, rather than boast of a good record on the track.
In the first week the Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr (Renault) also set good records, but because of the weather and some mechanical problems, the Madrid native was not on the track as long as he would have liked. In the end, his best time in the three days he rode was a 1: 20.940, which he did on Thursday, in which Hamilton set the best time (he was 1,607 behind the Briton).
The Force India, fourth team last year, have passed with more pain than glory in the first four days, in which the Mexican Sergio Pérez only got into the car one day (on Thursday), in which he did 65 laps and scored a better time of 1: 21.973, somewhat below that recorded by his teammate Esteban Ocon. Force India, with 166 laps, was the team that rode the least last week.
The third team, behind Mercedes and Ferrari, is still Red Bull, although on the last day the car with Max Verstappen was the least present on the asphalt, with problems related to combustion and a young driver leaving the track (only gave 35 laps), although the car shows manners, as its two drivers have recognized. EFE
Precisely, Fernando Alonso’s team completed a session last week that it had not enjoyed for years. Despite inclement weather and the accident suffered last Monday, when a McLaren wheel came off, the British team accepted the first four days, in which Alonso and Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne completed 260 laps (1,210 kilometers) .
In fact, the great objective this second week of McLaren in Montmeló is to complete race rounds to confirm the viability of the car. Alonso will get in the car on Wednesday and Friday, and Vandoorne, tomorrow, Tuesday and Thursday.
McLaren’s start this season has been quite a bit better than last year. From the outset, in the first week of the previous year, the McLaren, then powered by Honda, could only do 158 laps (265 in the second week; a total of 423 laps). In this first week at the Circuit de Barcelona, the British team was able to turn 260 laps (1,210 kilometers) with the new Renault engine.
The surprising thing in the poddock was not only the response of the Renault engine in the McLaren, but the team that rode the most in the first four-day run was Toro Rosso, which this year is powered by a Honda, with the one that has done 324 laps, a fact that has caused surprise, since the Japanese engine was a drag on McLaren in the three previous seasons.
Despite the high filming figures on the Catalan track, the first week was affected by a weather that did not help the teams almost at all, as the cold and rain took a leading role to the point that on Wednesday the day it was almost invalidated, in which only five cars ran and the one that made the most laps was Alonso’s (11). Snow and cold were responsible.
For this week, the rain remains a threat, but not the low temperatures or the snow, which have been completely ruled out.
In the time that the cars can race from tomorrow, attention will return to Mercedes, which has once again presented a racing car with an unsurpassed top speed. This was endorsed last Friday by Lewis Hamilton, who with his Mercedes lowered the time to 1: 19.333, three tenths below the best time achieved by Ferrari on Tuesday, with Sebastian Vettel at the controls (1: 19.673).
Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne (1: 19.854) also stood out in this time lapse, although this record was reached with super soft tires and at McLaren they take for granted that the purpose now is to strengthen the car in reliability, rather than boast of a good record on the track.
In the first week the Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr (Renault) also set good records, but because of the weather and some mechanical problems, the Madrid native was not on the track as long as he would have liked. In the end, his best time in the three days he rode was a 1: 20.940, which he did on Thursday, in which Hamilton set the best time (he was 1,607 behind the Briton).
The Force India, fourth team last year, have passed with more pain than glory in the first four days, in which the Mexican Sergio Pérez only got into the car one day (on Thursday), in which he did 65 laps and scored a better time of 1: 21.973, somewhat below that recorded by his teammate Esteban Ocon. Force India, with 166 laps, was the team that rode the least last week.
The third team, behind Mercedes and Ferrari, is still Red Bull, although on the last day the car with Max Verstappen was the least present on the asphalt, with problems related to combustion and a young driver leaving the track (only gave 35 laps), although the car shows manners, as its two drivers have recognized. EFE