Lewis Hamilton Breaks Months Of Silence
Follow live F1 updates and news from Barcelona as Formula 1 pre-season testing continues at the Circuit de Catalunya. The first shakedown of 2022 began yesterday with Lando Norris setting the fastest time in the new McLaren MCL36, with the Woking-based squad making a real statement of intent on the soft tyres.
Max Verstappen, meanwhile, drove the most laps of any individual driver at 147, while Ferrari put in the most in the most laps of any team at 153. Charles Leclerc was fastest in yesterday’s morning session as the Scuderia showed impressive pace with their radical new car design, fuelling hopes that they can challenge for this year’s championship. Haas and Alfa Romeo struggled with technical issues and completed a meagre 43 and 32 tours of the track respectively. Today’s session is not being broadcast in the UK or anywhere else but we’ll bringing you all the most important insight here.
Speaking at his press conference yesterday, Hamilton pushed for both more diversity and neutrality among the stewards: “I want to see more women in the stewards’ room, last year [we had] maybe one or two,” Hamilton said. “It would be awesome to have a male and female as the two race directors. We need to make sure we’ve got non-biased stewards. Race drivers, some are very, very good friends with certain individuals, some travel with some individuals, take a more keen liking to some. I think [F1 needs] people who have no biases, and are super central when it comes to making decisions.”
Follow all the latest news, lap times and results from Barcelona below.
Alfa Romeo still running test livery
Alfa Romeo may have been last to take to the circuit this morning but Valtteri Bottas is indeed out on track and setting some laptimes for his new team.
The Finn will partner Guanyu Zhou behind the wheel of the C52 this season, but the Swiss outfit has still not officially launched its new car. That means they are running a camouflage livery which is designed to hide aerodynamic developments the teams had made with the car.
Zhou, China’s first full-time F1 driver, will drive the C52 in the afternoon session.
Dan Austin24 February 2022 09:44
Gasly using rake for Alpha Tauri
One of the reasons some drivers may not setting truly representative laptimes is that they are running rake devices on their cars to test how airflow is moving over the car, as Pierre Gasly has been doing in the Alpha Tauri.
The main goals of pre-season testing are establishing the durability and reliability of the car, as well as amassing as much data as possible about how it performs and how the aero package compares to its performance in the wind tunnel. Laptimes and speed are not the most important thing.
Dan Austin24 February 2022 09:35
Albon posts impressive time for Williams
Plenty of the cars out on track are still not setting truly representative times, instead practicing longer runs presumably on high fuel loads. Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez, for example, are over four seconds off the pace so far.
One interesting laptime though has come from the returning Alex Albon in the Williams. This morning the Thai-British driver has gone a second faster than anything Williams managed in yesterday’s running.
With a 1:21:657 on the medium tyres, that’s second fastest for now.
Dan Austin24 February 2022 09:26
Apprehensive Norris not happy about setting pace on Wednesday
McLaren’s pace caught the attention of many yesterday as Lando Norris topped the timesheets at the end of the day’s running by half-a-second.
The 22-year-old Bristolian, though, urged caution about the team’s prospects for the season and explained why he would have preferred to have finished last.
“Now we’re P1, everyone’s going to think we’re going to win the [first] race,” Norris explained. “No chance. I think we’ve made some good improvements from the beginning of the day, but we’re only on day one of the season and even if we’re amazing now, everything could change by the time we get to the first race.
“And the rate of development everyone’s going to bring to the first half the season is going to be extremely high,” he added. “I didn’t want to be P1. If anything, I would rather be last because now the expectations are so high and everyone thinks we’re incredible.”
Dan Austin24 February 2022 09:15
Leclerc urges caution over Ferrari pace
Ferrari themselves are urging caution over the pace they have shown so far, with driver Charles Leclerc insisting that others teams will be hiding their true pace in Barcelona.
“The initial feeling is not bad, but we shouldn’t get carried away by the timesheets today, as these are early days and everyone is still hiding their true form,” the Monegasque explained.
“It’s impossible to have a clear picture just yet, so we have to stay focused and keep working hard. We put in a lot of laps, more than any other team today, and that’s a positive we will build on.”
Dan Austin24 February 2022 09:06
Sainz fastest for Ferrari after first hour
We’ve now had just under an hour of running at the Circuit de Catalunya and the Ferrari is once again top of the timesheets.
Carlos Sainz is on top of the ten-man leaderboard after setting a time of 1:21:010 on the medium compound tyre, having driven 12 laps of the circuit so far. Lance Stroll is second in the Aston Martin, with Daniel Ricciardo third for McLaren.
lap times are not hugely important at this stage of testing but Ferrari will be the talk of the town if they set the pace across all three days.
Dan Austin24 February 2022 08:57
Cars running airflow devices and high vis paint in Barcelona
You may spot some images of cars running quite bizarre looking metal contraptions attached to them at various points throughout the day.
Teams use rakes to measure how air is flowing over the car. These are occasionally brought again in Friday practice sessions during the season when teams make developments to their cars, but are most common in pre-season testing, and will be especially usefully this time around owing to the new aerodynamic regulations.
Some cars will also be splashed with high visibility paint throughout the day, which helps teams establish how the overall aerodynamic design of the car is working in practice in comparison with data from the wind tunnel.
Dan Austin24 February 2022 08:48
Alfa Romeo still in the garage in Barcelona
All teams are out on track in Barcelona and running their first few laps of the morning session, except for Alfa Romeo.
The Swiss outfit struggled yesterday as technical issues hampered their ability t run their car and delayed their first venture onto the track, with test driver Robert Kubica completing the fewest amounts of any driver who took part in yesterday’s session.
The team has still not officially launched its C52 challenger for the new campaign, and a lack of running this week will be cause for concern if issues persist.
Dan Austin24 February 2022 08:40
Morning F1 test underway in Barcelona
The morning session for today’s test in Barcelona is already underway!
Drivers took the track at 8am for the first portion of the day’s running, which lasts until 12pm. After an hour’s break, the cars will be on track again for another four-hour run until 5pm.
Most teams will run one driver in the morning session and then their team-mate in the afternoon, but some are sticking with the same man for the entire day. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo will spend eight hours in their cars today.
Dan Austin24 February 2022 08:30
F1 testing news
Join us for all the live updates and news from Barcelona as Formula 1 pre-season testing continues at the Circuit de Catalunya. The first shakedown of 2022 began yesterday with Lando Norris setting the fastest time in the new McLaren MCL36, with the Woking-based squad making a real statement of intent on the soft tyres.
Max Verstappen, meanwhile, drove the most laps of any individual driver at 147, while Ferrari put in the most in the most laps of any team at 153. Charles Leclerc was fastest in yesterday’s morning session as the Scuderia showed impressive pace with their radical new car design, fuelling hopes that they can challenge for this year’s championship.
Haas and Alfa Romeo struggled with technical issues and completed a meagre 43 and 32 tours of the track respectively. Today’s session is not being broadcast in the UK or anywhere else but we’ll bringing you all the most important insight here.
Lawrence Ostlere24 February 2022 08:16