Day two of testing was a cooler affair with reports of possible snow and that led to some limited runs in the morning session and a relatively docile period towards the end of the session.
The old adage that you can’t tell anything from testing is one fans like to repeat but that’s not actually the case, the teams can tell a lot from testing about their own efforts as well as the efforts of other teams.
What I am encouraged by is the amount of mileage that Toro Rosso and Honda have managed over two days. Maybe those “how to deal with Japanese companies” seminars have paid off?
I said last year that it was unfortunate but if Honda come on song after leaving McLaren, it wouldn’t surprise me a bit and perhaps their position of focusing on reliability in 2018 is starting to show with testing mileage…let’s hope so.
If I had to put my prediction and wishful thinking hat on, I would say that the Honda folks, along with Toro Rosso, may just get that engine to a proper race power unit just about the time Red Bull moves from Renault to Honda in 2019 and if that happens, Red Bull could be in a very, very good position with their own manufacturer engine program. They may do what McLaren was unable to do. Unfortunately, McLaren only managed 37 laps today.
| Pos | Driver | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1m19.673s | – | 98 |
| 2 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1m19.976s | 0.303s | 94 |
| 3 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren/Renault | 1m20.325s | 0.652s | 37 |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull/Renault | 1m20.326s | 0.653s | 67 |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz | Renault | 1m21.212s | 1.539s | 65 |
| 6 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso/Honda | 1m21.318s | 1.645s | 82 |
| 7 | Robert Kubica | Williams/Mercedes | 1m21.495s | 1.822s | 48 |
| 8 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams/Mercedes | 1m21.822s | 2.149s | 52 |
| 9 | Esteban Ocon | Force India/Mercedes | 1m21.841s | 2.168s | 79 |
| 10 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m22.721s | 3.048s | 81 |
| 11 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas/Ferrari | 1m22.727s | 3.054s | 36 |
Nothing to do with Practice day 2 but F1 has announced their new streaming service! Some details still needed and not sure if it will be rolled out before Australia but commercial-free and on-demand are two points for the pro side. Potential access to historic races as well. $8-12/month.
It wasn’t clear to me in the articles I’ve read if there will be similar features (head to head, all in-car view, etc) with replays. Some races are entirely at the wrong time for me, if I could have the same experience whether live or several hours delayed, it would go a long way for me to seriously consider buying into the package.
For that sector of fans as defined by LM as “serious” fans, and for a sector of said serious fans that can afford-it it will be great, for the rest that were defined by LM as less serious and cannot afford-it it will be useless or just wishful thinking.
F1 says “to hell” with it’s fans and gets rid of proper V8s to fight global warming, then it starts snowing in pre-season testing. I know the global warming loonies will say it’s a success, I say it is just pathetic.
Only a loonie could use the term of ” global warming loonies.”
In these very poor first two days of testing glaring out and over the rest was the impressive on-track poise of the SF71H.
The old edge that “you can’t tell anything from testing” was always mostly expressed by those that didn’t see what they would have liked to see. If the teams couldn’t tell much from testing they wouldn’t go testing.
As regards the 2018 Honda power unit, what the Japanese F1 websites were pushing out at end of last year is sure being translated to on track.
It’s too cold in Barcelona to really know much about pace, but the number of laps turned is an encouraging sign that reliability will be strong across the field.
It’s good to see that this testing isn’t following the pattern of Mercedes being the only team able to smash out massive numbers of laps. And as the post highlights, its really encouraging to see STR Honda running lots of laps and competitive times.
Its looking like this could be the best season……..ever!