Ferrari lead the charge as 2016 testing begins in Spain - Mercedes put in the laps whilst Haas suffer front wing setback
Published by Christine
We can now say the build up to 2016's Formula One season is well and truly underway after the first day of official pre-season testing went off without a hitch. Well, apart from a few early niggles here and there. Overall it was a solid day for all 11 teams, kicking off with a few more launches in the pit lane. Once the covers were off the cars, the running got underway in earnest.
It was damp early on and teams opted to use intermediates to deal with the light rain that fell in the morning. It cleared up as the morning went on, and Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel found themselves trading fastest laps before lunch. Vettel took the early top spot and continued to hold on to it until the end of the day.
A few teams had mechanical issues, most notably Haas who suffered a slightly embarrassing front wing failure that kept them in the garage for the rest of the day. Before that, they managed to complete over 30 laps, though, and they weren't last, so not all bad news particularly for a brand new team. Renault found themselves struggling with no major issues but a handful of smaller problems, whilst Toro Ross also had trouble.
We completed our build-up runs in the morning and everything was progressing quiet well. Unfortunately, during one of the early runs this afternoon we saw something in the data that's a little bit strange in the gearbox oil system, so as a precaution we decided to stop the car. Overall, we are pleased with today after such a late decision on our power unit, so to get to this point and run the car relatively successfully straight away is very pleasing.
- Phil Charles, chief race engineer, Toro Rosso
Sauber brought last year's car to Barcelona this week, as their new machinery is not quite ready yet. Marcus Ericsson was solidly in the midfield with the 2015 chassis. Meanwhile, Force India ran newcomer Alfonso Celis who put on a good showing to finish fifth by the end of the day. Much of our attention should also go to McLaren, who completed 84 laps and said they had a lot more confidence than they did during testing last year!
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | S Vettel | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:24.939 | 69 |
| 2 | L Hamilton | Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team | 1:25.409 | 156 |
| 3 | D Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing | 1:26.044 | 87 |
| 4 | V Bottas | Williams Martini Racing | 1:26.091 | 80 |
| 5 | A Celis | Sahara Force India F1 Team | 1:26.298 | 58 |
| 6 | J Button | McLaren Honda F1 Team | 1:26.735 | 84 |
| 7 | C Sainz | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1:27.180 | 55 |
| 8 | M Ericsson | Sauber F1 Team | 1:27.555 | 88 |
| 9 | P Wehrlein | Manor Racing MRT | 1:28.292 | 54 |
| 10 | R Grosjean | Haas F1 Team | 1:28.399 | 31 |
| 11 | J Palmer | Renault Sport F1 Team | 1:29.356 | 37 |
Roughly a five second split between the fastest and the slowest is quite a big margin, but perhaps not so bad when you consider it's only the first day and there are a lot of kinks still to be worked out. Lewis Hamilton's lap count is staggering, with the next best number being Marcus Ericsson's 88 tours of the Barcelona track.
So good to be back behind the wheel, great first impressions with the #HaasF1 !!!
RGrosjean
260kms of evaluation mileage under our belts and the full programme completed. Happy as.
A little trip round for @JolyonPalmer and the R.S.16 to salute the afternoon sun here in #Barcelona...
. @LewisHamilton @MercedesAMGF1 has now done more km on first day of testing 2016 than the Mercedes completed on first day In 2015 #reliable
Tomorrow will see Nico Rosberg in action for the first time for Mercedes, whilst Celis hands over the keys of the Force India to Sergio Pérez. Max Verstappen jumps in the Toro Rosso whilst it's Alonso's turn over at McLaren. Finally, Esteban Gutiérrez gets to test out the Haas and hopefully he'll be able to complete a few more laps for the new US team.
