Racer - Spring 2016

Briefly upstaging the Ferrari-Merc battle, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg topped times on the third day of F1’s opening test. Hopes for “tier two” teams were further boosted when Romain Grosjean was second for Haas.

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SHAKE-UP, OR JUST MORE MIXED UP?

Responding to requests from race promoters to shake up the increasingly predictable show of F1 qualifying, the FIA rolled out a revised procedure for its grid-setting sessions in which the slowest driver will be eliminated after a number of time intervals. The drivers didn’t seem much impressed, though.

“I don’t know how much it’s going to
change,” mused Red Bull’s Daniel
Ricciardo. “It might put a little bit more
pressure on us to execute the lap early in
the session, because after five minutes or
With the crushing domination of the
Mercedes Formula 1 team the past two
years, the need for a fresh start was
widely felt. For Ferrari, widely assumed to
have the best chance of dislodging the
Silver Arrows this year, setting the pace
at Barcelona’s opening salvo of this
pre-season’s reduced schedule of running
was particularly heartening. But there
were troubling as well as promising signs
for those hoping for change at the front.

Ferrari led the way in three of the four
days of running in Barcelona, with the
appearance of Kimi Raikkonen at the top
of the times on the final day especially
noteworthy after his struggles last
season. Teammate Sebastien Vettel –
quickest on days one and two – cautioned
against reading too much into it, however.

“It’s better to be first in one month’s time
(in Australia),” he noted. “It’s better than
being last, but it’s not really important.”
Mercedes may not have been first, but
it ran an impressive number of trouble-
free laps – without using the faster soft or
ultra-soft compound tires, unlike Ferrari.
“Before we came here the team talked
about doing 800km [500 miles] per day,
and I was thinking they were crazy,”
related Lewis Hamilton. I’ve never done
that in the past, and usually the car breaks
down. But I’ve never had a test like this
where the car just goes on and on and on.
“I’ve never seen anything like it, just
the strength of this car overall.”
Still a silver lining to the red tint, then...

something they’re going to start ticking
them off. You’ve got to not only execute
the lap but set yourself up in traffic well,
so there might be a little bit more
precision involved rather than pick your
moment in 15 minutes.”
Carlos Sainz Jr. worried that any
improvement in the show might be
dampened by confusion. “I read them
very briefly and I didn’t understand
them,” he said of the new rules. “If I didn’t
understand it at first glance, then maybe
that means it’s a bit complicated.”

RED STORM RISING?

Ferrari’s 2016 car made a fast first impression, but its primary rival also put up big numbers.

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Felipe Massa’s 2014 pole for Williams in Austria (LEFT) and Sebastian Vettel’s in Singapore for Ferrari in ’ 15, are the only breaks in Mercedes’ chain in the past two years.

Daniel Ricciardo’s optimism about his new Red Bull was more about the Adrian Newey-tweaked chassis than its TAG Heuer-badged Renault, which he judged unchanged.