After a cagey start to pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya last week, the second batch of four days has started to offer up some real data and insight into how things stand heading to Melbourne.
The analysis is helped by the weather staying remarkably fine and consistent – such a change on the snow and ice of 2018 – meaning we get a proper picture of how teams are improving in readiness to the first Grand Prix in just two weeks time.
In terms of pace we already know that Ferrari appear to have the edge over Mercedes and the rest of the field, with all of this week’s drivers setting their best times on the C5 compound in the final two days with the exception of Max Verstappen who unfortunately never had the opportunity.
© Pirelli
But speed is only half the story, and Ferrari has also had a few issues along the way that ate into their track time. The same was true of Red Bull, who lost almost all of the last day of running to gearbox issues, following Pierre Gasly’s accident earlier in the week.
So it probably won’t be a surprise that with another largely consistent and trouble-free run for the second week in Spain, it’s Mercedes who come out on top in terms of completed mileage. Hamilton completed 331 laps during the four days and his team mate Valtteri Bottas contributed another 249. That compares to 231 laps for Vettel and 168 for Charles Leclerc.
Pre-season test – week 2 driver mileage (four days)
1
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
331
957
2
Kevin Magnussen
Haas
278
804
3
Daniel Ricciardo
Renault
266
769
4
Carlos Sainz Jr
McLaren
264
763
5
Nico Hulkenberg
Renault
262
758
6
George Russell
Williams
259
749
7
Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes
249
720
8
Kimi Raikkinen
Alfa Romeo
245
709
9
Daniil Kvyat
Toro Rosso
232
671
10
Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari
231
668
11
Alexander Albon
Toro Rosso
221
639
12
Robert Kubica
Williams
220
636
13
Romain Grosjean
Haas
209
604
14
Pierre Gasly
Red Bull
201
581
15
Sergio Perez
Racing Point
192
555
16
Lance Stroll
Racing Point
185
535
17
Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo
170
492
18
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari
168
486
19
Lando Norris
McLaren
164
474
20
Max Verstappen
Red Bull
157
454
In total, Mercedes racked up an impressive 1190 laps over the full eight days of testing, which is nearly 200 more than Ferrari who just missed out on the millennium milestone with 997 laps. Renault, Toro Rosso and Alfa Romeo also put in solid performances with Nico Hulkenberg, Alexander Albon and Kimi Raikkonen respectively putting in the miles.
McLaren were slightly further back with 873 laps with Carlos Sainz accumulating 473 of those compared to a solid 400 for Lando Norris. The team’s total was just two more than Haas where Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen finished on pretty even mileage (407 laps to 403) together with a further 61 contributed by the team’s test driver Pietro Fittipaldi.
Pre-season test – total driver mileage (eight days)
1
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
638
1845
2
Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes
552
1596
3
Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari
534
1544
4
Nico Hulkenberg
Renault
509
1472
5
Kimi Raikkinen
Alfa Romeo
497
1437
6
Alexander Albon
Toro Rosso
489
1414
7
Carlos Sainz Jr
McLaren
473
1368
8
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari
463
1339
9
Daniel Ricciardo
Renault
452
1307
10
Daniil Kvyat
Toro Rosso
446
1290
11
Pierre Gasly
Red Bull
439
1270
12
Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo
425
1229
13
Romain Grosjean
Haas
407
1177
14
Kevin Magnussen
Haas
403
1165
15
Lando Norris
McLaren
400
1157
16
Max Verstappen
Red Bull
394
1139
17
Lance Stroll
Racing Point
336
972
18
George Russell
Williams
299
865
19
Sergio Perez
Racing Point
289
836
20
Robert Kubica
Williams
268
775
21
Pietro Fittipaldi
Haas
61
176
McLaren and Haas are both well ahead of Red Bull, whose full test tally stalled at 833 laps because of the problems they encountered in the last couple of days. After that you have the two teams teams looking in some trouble, with Racing Point managing just 625 laps in Spain because of a host of teething issues. Sergio Perez only managed 289 laps during the two weeks (and Lance Stroll did 336) which must be a bit of a concern for the squad.
Given that they missed the first two and a half days of the test, it’s surely not a surprise to see Williams at the bottom of the mileage table. But for all their high profile problems, the team managed to finish with 567 laps in the bag which really isn’t all that far behind Racing Point, so perhaps there’s a glimmer of hope at Grove for what the team can achieve in 2019.
Pre-season test – total team mileage (eight days)
1
Mercedes
1190
3441
2
Ferrari
997
2883
3
Renault
961
2779
4
Toro Rosso
935
2704
5
Alfa Romeo
922
2666
6
McLaren
873
2525
7
Haas
871
2519
8
Red Bull
833
2409
9
Racing Point
625
1808
10
Williams
567
1640
Another way of slicing the data is to look at how the different engine manufacturers fared. As well as their championship winning factory team, Mercedes also supplies power units to Force India and Williams and so their combined mileage for the two week test turns out to be not quite so impressive – 2382 laps.
By comparison, Ferrari – who additionally supply Haas and Alfa Romeo as well as the works team itself – shine with a combined total of 2790 laps for their engines in Spain.
The other two manufacturers are down a team apiece, with Renault supplying just McLaren as a customer operation and Honda now working with Red Bull and Toro Rosso, so it’s no surprise that in each case their total mileage is somewhat lower. The French manufacturer’s teams managed 1834 laps over the two weeks with Honda a little further back, with a still-respectable 1768 for the eight days.
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Pre-season test – total engine mileage (eight days)
1
Ferrari
2790
8069
2
Mercedes
2382
6889
3
Renault
1834
5304
4
Honda
1768
5113
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