By KARUN CHANDOK
The Formula 1 season officially kicks off with the first Grand Prix in Melbourne today, but for the teams and drivers the work starts from the beginning of February. The elongated season now runs almost until December and means that one season kind of blends into the other. While the drivers get a bit of time away, it really isn’t long before those emails with simulator dates, seat fittings and engineering briefings start pinging again.Pre-season testing is always exciting and nerve wracking. Publicly, teams will always play their cards close to their chest. Lines such as “It’s early days yet, we’re just putting mileage on the car to see if we’re reliable”, and “we need to see where everyone is in qualifying in Melbourne”, are commonplace. Beyond all this, every lap teaches the teams and drivers something about their new cars, and to see if there’s some other way to unlock some speed from the package.
For drivers like Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, who have joined McLaren and Ferrari respectively, the first days of working with a new team will give them some indication of whether or not they’ve made the right choice. While it’s true that the first tests don’t necessarily give the full story, for the men behind the wheel, they’ll quickly know if they have something they can work with or if they’ve got a bit of a lemon that’s going to take a lot of pain to become a race winner.
For drivers who haven’t swapped teams, the opening test is a chance to clean the rust and hit the ground running in terms of getting to know if their new car is better than the old one. First of all, am I comfortable in my seat and have I learnt what the buttons in the cockpit do? Does the car feel like it has more downforce? Is the engine drivability better? Does the steering feel right and is it more stable on the brakes than last year? All these points, if not immediately okay can be addressed of course, but more positives mean that time can be spent adding performance to the package rather than just problem solving.
The people most nervous before a first test are the engineers and designers. The 2015 regulations aren’t too different from last year, so for the most part the cars will be an evolution of their predecessors. However, a new season is a chance for a lot of these guys in the factory to fundamentally improve and correct the wrongs. The designers will want to know if everything fits right, works reliably without overheating or burning anything else and critically if the numbers they see on track correlate to the wind tunnel and CFD models. This is hugely important at an early stage, which is why we see lots of weird instrumentation on the cars.
There are a lot of personnel changes as well with new race engineers, team managers, designers and mechanics swapping teams over the winter. While it’s good to spend hours together at the factory where time is less critical, seeing how you gel in the pits when you have a run plan to stick to is a different thing. The relationship between a driver and his race engineer is the key – they’ll spend more hours together in a year than either will with their wives or girlfriends!
These days, to cut costs, testing is 12 fixed days rather than giving teams a free run of whenever and wherever. I went to the final test in Barcelona to get a sense of where everyone stands this year and it seems pretty clear that once again Mercedes are a big step ahead.
Behind them, Williams, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing seem very closely matched with Lotus probably fifth best. McLaren and Honda have had a torrid time and head to the opening race far behind their targets.
(HT Media)
Sebastian Vettel Gives Ferrari Podium Hope From Second Row
Ferrari are eyeing a spot on the podium in the Australian Grand Prix behind the tearaway Mercedes pair, after off-season recruit Sebastian Vettel qualified on the second row of the race grid on March 14.
The four-time world champion, who switched to the Italian giants from Red Bull, finished fourth in qualifying behind the crack Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to give Ferrari a shot at some points after a poor 2014 season.
While Vettel and teammate Kimi Raikkonen were around 1.4 to 1.5 secs slower than Hamilton’s best lap time of 1:26.327 it was a big improvement for Ferrari, who were a well-beaten fourth behind Mercedes in last season’s constructors’ championship.
“We can be happy with the whole weekend”, Vettel said.
“It is a shame to miss only the tiny bit to be P3. But the battle for the podium is on for tomorrow”.
“A pity to miss a tiny bit only. For the team it must be satisfying and we can be happy to be in P4 and P5”.
“The gap with the two cars in front is huge. But everyone is happy”.
“Team Ferrari and all the staff are very motivated and have a great spirit”.
Brazilian Felipe Massa, who was third-fastest in qualifying in his Williams, said he senses a big improvement in Ferrari.
“Mercedes are in a different category. For sure it’s not great to see this difference, but we keep working, we keep fighting and I hope we can get as close as we can”, Massa said.
“Red Bull is not really there for the moment and I am sure that Red Bull will get there because they are really strong”.
“Last year they finished in front of us, and I am sure they are going to come but for the moment Ferrari is really strong and they have made a big step forward compared to last year”.
“So I am sure tomorrow we need to be a bit more worried about Ferrari but we need to keep our eyes open for Red Bull and even for the others”.
Daniel Ricciardo finished a struggling seventh in his Red Bull and had his problems as he bids to become the first Australian in 35 years to win his home GP.
“We made progress through the session which is promising, it was so good to feel the car for once and push it properly”, Ricciardo said.
“I think seventh is where we are now and I’m happy we achieved that as the weekend hasn’t gone well until now and qualifying was the first time I used the soft tyre”.
“I’m really happy with seventh as realistically that’s the best we could have done today. The progress we made through qualifying is real and hopefully we can carry that on for the race”.
(AFP)