Barcelona Testing summary

Here’s a quick look at the last day of testing and what the 3 days imply for the rest of the season.

The final day of testing brought five red flags in the morning session alone, more than any other session. Alpine, Haas, Alfa Romeo and Aston Martin all pulled their cars into the garage early with various issues. This isn’t much of a surprise as most teams have run the equivalent of 6 or 7 Grand Prix in the 3 days of testing. The closing day of testing brought an increased focus on ‘porpoising’. Essentially, the term refers to the bouncing of cars at top speed, which is caused by repeated aerodynamics stalls.

Ferrari once again showed their engine is reliable, at least in their factory team, as they completed 439 laps during the session. Haas and Alfa Romeo (also Ferrari-engined), however, covered the least amount of laps out of all of the other teams. Furthermore, Alpha Romeo seemed to suffer the most from porpoising, although this was supposedly remedied by their change on the final day of testing.

Haas managed only 168 laps over the three day test after suffering mechanical woes. This dismal testing session does not bode well for the American team. In addition to their poor performance, many have doubts about the future of the team. Guenther Steiner has stated that if their Russian driver, Nikita Mazepin, is unable to race this year, their Brazilian reserve driver Pietro Fittapaldi is first on their list. Steiner also mentioned getting calls from other drivers looking for an F1 drive. I would guess that 2021 F2 champion Oscar Piastri is one driver vying for the seat. Other Russian drivers in F1 are Daniil Kyvat, the Alpine test and reserve driver and Robert Shwartzman, a Ferrari academy member who is noted to be participating in FP1 sessions later this year.

Williams (347 laps), Aston Martin (296 laps) and Alpha Tauri (308 laps) seem to be solidly in the midfield, and all had relatively good tests. Each team, however, had at least one session interrupted due mechanical issues. Williams seems to have taken another step forward this year, and hopefully will remove their prior ‘back marker’ label. Additionally, seeing their new driver Alex Albon driving well is a relief to many. In what is becoming a yearly tradition, Aston Martin’s prospects seem difficult to read. With a car design that is very different from the rest of the field, the team has potential, but whether that potential will be realized is unknown as of yet.

Now the apparent championship contenders. The teams with the most laps completed (and posting the quickest times) include Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull. All four teams completed over 350 laps during the test. With majority smooth runs throughout the three days, each team may have a decent shot at the title this year. At the end of the week of testing, Ferrari’s team principal, Mattia Binotto, said he expects Red Bull and Mercedes to be months ahead of Ferrari in terms of development. He expects Red Bull and Mercedes to bring completely different cars than the ones they tested in Barcelona. These comments were in response to the Porpoising problems. Ferrari have seemed to find a fix while McLaren’s car seems to not be affected by the problem. Mercedes and Red Bull are bringing new upgrades as solutions to porpoising as well.

Going into the next testing in Bahrain, the main questions we have are: what is the real performance of all teams? How will the cars change from Barcelona to Bahrain? Will Mazepin be able to participate? An end to Mercedes domination in the constructor’s championship? Only time will tell.