Really solid day for the rookies and newbies all round, despite a hiccup or two - looking at you Pierre! Stoked to see Leclerc’s performance both on the lap time and lap count. Interesting late afternoon dash by McLaren to try and scoop the top time. Slapped a set of the Soft C4 tyres on the Macca and sent Norris out to see what he could do. Very impressed, as @Sweepslag mentioned by the lack of mechanical issues so early on - hopefully it stays that way. Most of the teams are way over their lap counts of previous years at the same point.
Total Combined Lap Counts after 2 days:
Ferrari - 326 laps (169+157)
Mercedes - 313 laps (69+81+89+74)
Renault - 232 laps (65+44+95+28)
McLaren - 223 laps (119+104)
Red Bull - 220 laps (128+92)
Alfa Romeo - 215 laps (114+101)
Toro Rosso - 209 laps (77+132)
Haas - 137 laps (65+59+13)
Racing Point - 109 laps (30+79)
Williams - 0 laps
Day 3 of Test 1 and all eyes will be on the Williams garage today. Will they? Won’t they? The car is believed to have been trucked to Spain overnight and will only be ready to run - if all goes well - by the afternoon session. TBC I guess.
Also not certain yet exactly who will be in the driver’s seat of the FW42 if they do manage to get it out of the pits. With an untested F1 rookie in George Russell, a slightly damaged returning F1 star in Robert Kubica, and a financially influential novice in Nicholas Latifi at their disposal, it will be interesting to see who they prioritise. I feel that the group of vocal Kubica fans who’ve been sitting in the grandstand opposite the shuttered Williams garage for the past two days deserve to see their man up first.
You have to feel for Williams. Losing 2.5 out of a possible 8 days of testing is a massive blow. The car’s reliability had better be bulletproof; they cannot afford to lose more time to niggles.
It’s really easy. You pick Hamilton / Vettel for pole, pick Merc / Ferrari / Red Bull to fill the top six, take a random mix of Renault, Force India and Haas for the other points places, and Bottas / Ricciardo for fastest lap. That was 2018, at least.
