After McLaren and Ferrari on Wednesday and Thursday, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell for Mercedes set the best times on Friday for the first three days of winter testing in Barcelona.
He pulled out his claws: these are only tests of course before the start of the season on March 20 in Bahrain, but the seven-time world champion was counting on scoring the coup. In the last minutes of three studious days in Catalonia, Lewis Hamilton took the best mark. For three days, with varying fates, the teams were able to show off the brand new single-seaters with modified aerodynamics in 2022, the season of a profound change in the regulations supposed to reduce the performance gap between teams. But for the moment, it is clear that we find the same ones at the front, the favorites Mercedes and Red Bull, who made it rain and shine in 2021.
On Wednesday and Thursday, McLaren and Ferrari took the lead, confirming their positions as outsiders and promising better days for English fans and Italian fans after years of scarcity. Friday, while many teams, the French Alpine in particular, were experiencing reliability problems, Mercedes took control. First with his new recruit George Russell, replacing Valtteri Bottas forced to leave for Alfa Romeo. Then and finally with the 2021 vice-champion, who in 1’19”138 established his authority. However, more than the time, the important thing is to chain the kilometers with the new cars and the new tires – with a larger diameter of a dozen centimeters.
Teams and drivers will still have three days of testing in Bahrain (March 10-12) to understand the new changes. And in particular to understand the phenomenon ofporpoising”, which sees the single-seaters bounce up and down in a straight line, due to the new ground effect, or suction, which presses the single-seater to the asphalt. In addition to Mercedes and Red Bull, Ferrari (Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz) and McLaren (Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris), Williams also succeeded in his mission by multiplying the loops on Friday, especially with his rookie Alex Albon (88). However, the harvest was mixed for Aston Martin, despite Sebastian Vettel’s 3rd time, with a session stopped prematurely due to an oil leak. His teammate Lance Stroll was unable to run in the afternoon. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and Mick Schumacher (Haas) also did not see the afternoon track due to mechanical problems suffered earlier by their teammates Pierre Gasly, Fernando Alonso and Nikita Mazepin.
For Alpine, the Spaniard Alonso completed only 12 laps before stopping his single-seater with a smoking engine due to a hydraulic problem. Haas, the day stopped after nine short laps because of an oil leak, the track was almost a detail. The American team, whose main sponsor is the Russian group Uralkali, is in turmoil due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The American team, whose livery normally features the Russian colors of its title sponsor, sported a plain white single-seater. Its manager Guenther Steiner explained that the team will soon decide on the long-term future of the partnership with Uralkali. A pending contract, just like the F1 career of Russian driver Nikita Mazepin, arrived in 2021 with the financial support of his billionaire father, Dmitry Mazepin, non-executive director of Uralkali. “I don’t control much of what is said and happens“, explained in particular on his social networks the pilot of 22 years.
