5 Things We Learned from Day 3 of the 1st 2016 Formula 1 Pre-Season Test
Nico Hulkenberg rocketed to the top of the time sheets on the third day of 2016's Formula One pre-season testing.
The German fell just short of completing 100 tours of the Circuit de Catalunya, but his best lap—one minute, 23.110 seconds, set on the supersoft tyres—ensured Force India grabbed the headlines.
Romain Grosjean was second-fastest for the new Haas team, while Kimi Raikkonen recovered from a difficult morning session to record the third-quickest time.
Hulkenberg's impressive display came on his first outing in the VJM09, and five other drivers were also trying out their new machines for the first time—Raikkonen (Ferrari), Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull), Felipe Massa (Williams), Kevin Magnussen (Renault) and Rio Haryanto (Manor).
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg shared driving duties at Mercedes, Romain Grosjean returned for Haas, Carlos Sainz Jr. was back for Toro Rosso and Jenson Button had his second day in the McLaren.
Felipe Nasr was also in action for the first time this week, though he was driving the 2015-spec Sauber C34.
Three days into the pre-season, mileage is still more important than headline times, and a number of teams are yet to show their hand.
But a few patterns are beginning to emerge, and it's possible to start drawing some tentative conclusions. Here's what we picked up from the third day.
Force India Are Looking Rather Handy
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Hulkenberg became the third driver in three days to try out the new Force India VJM09, and he wasted no time getting up to speed.
After two hours in the car, he lapped the circuit on medium-compound tyres in a time of 1:25.286—just three-tenths of a second slower than the best times set by both Ferrari and Red Bull on the same rubber.
The best lap by anyone using medium tyres up to that point was, per Sky Sports F1's tweet, Rosberg's 1:24.867—four-tenths quicker than Hulkenberg.
It must be emphasised that these gaps mean far less than they would had they been present in a competitive qualifying session, but they still paint a positive picture for Force India—and it got better still a few hours later.
Early in the afternoon, the German bolted on a set of soft tyres and improved his best time by a second, then went quicker still on the supersofts—beating Sebastian Vettel's supersoft time from Day 2 by more than half a second.
Force India ended 2015 in fine form after a difficult first half of the year, and the team's primary aim in 2016 will be to beat Williams in the fight to be the top Mercedes customer team.
The two squads are doing different things in testing, so we can't yet draw any firm conclusions as to how this battle may play out, but there's no doubt at all that the VJM09 is enjoying a more promising start to life than its predecessor.
Ferrari Might Have a Few Reasons to Worry
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Raikkonen made his first appearance in the Ferrari on Wednesday morning, but by the time everyone paused for lunch, he had managed just three laps and set no representative times.
A statement on the team website revealed:
"By lunchtime, Kimi Raikkonen had yet to set a time on his first day of testing at the Catalunya circuit. His track debut was delayed as the team needed to carry out a time consuming check on the fuel supply system. Kimi went out for a run to check everything was okay at 12:13 just prior to the lunch break.
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With the problem fixed, Raikkonen had a trouble-free afternoon and clocked up a total of 77 laps, including the day's third-fastest time—a respectable 1:25.977, set on the medium tyres.
The Scuderia managed 69 laps on the first day and 126 on the second, so there are clearly no fundamental flaws in the SF16-H—and Vettel's field-leading times on the first two days suggest it's a quick car.
But Raikkonen's tough morning means that over three days so far, Ferrari have managed just 272 laps. That's two fewer than McLaren and a whopping 217 less than main rivals Mercedes.
They've been quickest on two of the three days, of course, but mileage often means more than lap times in testing—so the substantial kilometre deficit they already have to the Silver Arrows has to be a cause for concern.
McLaren Are Steadfastly Refusing to Go Quickly
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Drawing conclusions from the leaderboards during testing is a dangerous game—we don't know who is pushing and how hard, we can't be entirely sure how much quicker the softer compounds are and we have even less idea than usual about how much fuel each car has on board.
But it's still possible to pick up hints and pointers, and one thing that is becoming increasingly clear is that McLaren are yet to show anything in the way of pace.
Button got a reasonable amount of running in before a hydraulic leak brought an end to his day, covering 51 laps to bring the MP4-31's total tally to 254 laps. But in keeping with the trend McLaren drivers have set so far this week, he wasn't quick.
To an extent, this can be explained by their programme; McLaren are not chasing lap times, as revealed by Fernando Alonso on Tuesday after his first run in the car. He told the team website:
"The first priority for the team this winter was to make sure we went through the problems we had last year and find some solutions, and we've done this, at least on the reliability side. I’m proud of the team and the job that everyone has done together on this car. I enjoyed today, but I think there is performance we need to unlock on the car.
Most of the laps we did today were for aerodynamics studies, and reliability studies: brake temperatures, water temperatures, etc. For a driver, these are things that are not very exciting, so I’m looking forward to doing some setup changes and running with different fuel levels to really enjoy the driving as well.
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But the other teams are doing those things too, and with the exception of Toro Rosso, every single one of them—including Manor and Haas—have set faster times than McLaren.
Maybe it's nothing more than different priorities, but things really don't look positive for the team at this stage.
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Modern Cars Are Not That Easy to Drive—Or Fit Tyres to
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The ease with which young drivers, regardless of their past record, can push a modern F1 car close to the limit suggests they are not especially difficult to drive.
This view is held by figures including Niki Lauda and Christian Horner, but drivers such as Massa and Sky Sports pundit Martin Brundle disagree—and Haryanto will be adding his name to their side of the argument when he gets back to the motorhome tonight.
The Manor rookie became the first driver to cause a red flag due to driver error when he spun off at Turn 5 in the morning session. Fortunately the car was undamaged, and the Indonesian returned to the circuit later on.
He eventually completed 77 laps.
Toro Rosso were also left red-faced after Sainz was forced to stop at the pit-lane exit after less than an hour of the morning session. Craig Scarborough noted the problem on Twitter—they'd released him from the pits before his right-rear tyre was properly fitted.
Like Haryanto, Sainz was able to continue and ended the day with an impressive total of 161 laps—but the team will be hoping the schoolboy errors are fully out of their system before the season gets under way for real.
Mercedes Couldn't Care Less What the Others Are Doing
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Mercedes completed another successful day of testing without bothering the top of the time sheets. Rosberg produced a lap of 1:26.084 in the morning on his way to recording an impressive 74 laps, and in the afternoon, Hamilton added a further 87 to take the daily figure to 161.
The sheer distance the W07 has covered in the three days so far is staggering—489 laps or 2,276.3 kilometres. Had they set off from nearby Barcelona on Monday morning, stuck to public roads and headed north-east, the W07 would currently be pitching its overnight tent somewhere close to Copenhagen, Denmark.
But despite covering more kilometres than anyone else, Mercedes are, thus far, the only team yet to beat their best time from qualifying for last season's Spanish Grand Prix.
Force India have gone five seconds quicker (albeit aided by the supersoft tyres), Red Bull have shaved off three seconds and even McLaren, who have shown less improvement than most, have beaten their best by a full second.
But will Mercedes be worried? Not one bit.
They're so confident in their new car, they haven't even tried to make it go quickly yet and are more than happy to let their rivals grab the headlines.
Maybe they'll show their hand tomorrow...
Timing and tyre data used throughout sourced from the live blogs of Autosport and Sky Sports.
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