Testing Times - First Barcelona Test Analysis

After all the fanfare of car launches and shakedowns being completed, F1 is getting serious. The Circuit de Catalunya hosted it’s first preseason test of the 2013 Formula 1 season. With a lot of testing medium and high speed corners, this circuit is the first time the 2013 F1 cars have really been tested. Also, being a very aerodynamics dependent circuit, it is the perfect place to cut through the shroud of mystery surrounding the performance of the cars and get an idea about the how the cars may be lined up at the start of the Australian Grand Prix.

Since this is only the first of the two pre season tests that will be held here, most of the teams only brought small upgrades. The definitive upgrade package, which will be on the cars in Melbourne, will only be brought to the last test so that competitors do not get a chance to copy any parts. Still, certain things can be easily discerned.

1) Red Bull are still the team to beat

Although they suffered from a few teething problems (as usually is in testing), they had a very good test. Among all the teams, Red Bull had the strongest long run pace as well as lowest tire degradation. Although, they only posted the fifth fastest time during the four days of testing, not too much should be read into it. Red Bull have a history of sandbagging and rarely tend to show their true pace this early in the season

2) Lotus are moving into the big league

Lotus didn’t have the smoothest of starts to the test. First, they had a problem with the electronics and then were sidelined with gearbox problems. But the team recovered quite well and set the fourth fastest time of the test. The long run pace of the Lotus was pretty good. On the third day of the test, both Red Bull and Lotus ran race simulations and there was very little to choose between the two teams at the end. Another notable fact is that their car was very easy on its tires. They ran 24 laps on the medium tire during a race simulation, which is pretty good considering the amount of graining prevalent during the test.

3) McLaren have a fast, albeit complicated, car

McLaren set the fastest time of the entire test, a 1:21.848. But even though their car seems fast, it is not as easy to eke out performance from it. After the test, Button didn’t sound too positive about the car, saying “At times it feels good, at others it doesn’t”. But a fast car is still a fast car and their rivals are going to keep a close eye on the team, knowing all too well their tremendous development rate.

4) Mercedes: Dark horse of the season?

After suffering from reliability problems, Mercedes came back with a bang in this test. Apart from the first day, where they lost a little amount of time, they completed a lot of running on the other days without suffering any major problems. Another interesting thing is that on the long runs, the tire degradation was not bad, which is a huge improvement from last year. Last year, their car was regarded as a tire eater and scuppered any chances they had of a strong finish. Also, their wind tunnel update clearly seems to have paid off, as the car was handling pretty well on the second sector, which is pretty tough on the aerodynamics of the car. Although the car only set the sixth fastest time of the test, there is definitely more performance to be found as it was set at the start of a long run. Rivals teams are especially wary because of the presence of Lewis Hamilton in the team. He is a proven driver who is known to extract all the performance of the car and then some.

5) Ferrari keeping cards close to its chest

The magician called Fernando Alonso was back at the wheels of an F1 car for the first time this year. And at his hands, the Ferrari posted the second fastest time of the entire weekend, which was just a shade away from the top time set by Sergio Perez. Ferrari were one of the few teams not to show their hand as they did not do any long runs. But from the looks of it, Ferrari have produced a good car, which at the hands of Alonso can easily be taken as a championship contender.

6) Pirelli’s new breed of tires are temperamental

Throughout the four day test, there was just one common factor this year. It was that the Pirelli tires degrade much more faster than last year. Although a part of this less durability is attributed to the cold conditions at Barcelona, one thing is certain. The teams will certainly have their hands full in trying to attain a mastery over these tires, which are sure to spice up the racing.

The fastest times over the four days of testing are given below.

Driver	Team	Fastest Time	Difference
Sergio Perez	McLaren	1:21.848	0.000
Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:21.875	0.027
Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber	1:22.160	0.285
Romain Grosjean	Lotus	1:22.188	0.028
Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	1:22.197	0.009
Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:22.611	0.414
Pastor Maldonado	Williams	1:22.675	0.064
Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	1:22.697	0.022
Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:22.726	0.029
Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:22.826	0.100
Jenson Button	McLaren	1:22.840	0.014
Adrian Sutil	Force India	1:22.877	0.037
Mark Webber	Red Bull	1:23.024	0.147
Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	1:23.366	0.342
Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	1:23.718	0.352
Paul di Resta	Force India	1:23.971	0.253
Max Chilton	Marussia	1:25.115	1.144
Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber	1:25.124	0.009
Jules Bianchi	Force India	1:25.732	0.608
Giedo van der Garde	Caterham	1:26.177	0.445
Charles Pic	Caterham	1:26.243	0.066
Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:27.553	1.310

These are some of the few pieces of the 2013 F1 puzzle that fit at the moment. With the next test at Barcelona being the last pre season test, the teams will go all out to ensure they are prepared for the first race at Australia in little over a fortnight. And hopefully provide us viewers with a clearer picture of the pecking order ahead of the start of the season.