Recap first week of 2019 winter testing

After four days of testing all F1 drivers together have driven 4.227 laps around Catalunya circuit. One lap around Catalunya is 4.655 km long, so in total they drove in four days (4.227x4.655=) 19.677 km of testing distance. That's almost halfway around the Globe!

It's still very hard to predict which team has the fastest car. Just like last year, Ferrari showed very quick lap times and even broke the lap record almost every day in the second week, while Mercedes was backing off and was 0,7 sec quicker then Ferrari during Q3 quali at first Grand Prix in Australia.

Below we have summed up the best lap time, amount of laps and which tyre each driver used on his quickest lap this week.

Quickest lap times first week 2019 winter test

Last years quickest lap time on day 4 was driven by Kimij Raikkonen in the Ferrari SF71H. His time was a 1:17.221 min, which is only 1 tent faster then Hulkenberg's time this year. Last year Hulkenberg wasn't even able to drive a single lap on the 4th day of testing by the way.

Below we also have made a list of the amount of laps and testing distances for each Formula 1 team this week.

Looking at the amount of laps, you can see that Racing Point is a bit behind the other teams and Williams suffered a lot form their late appearance this week. They not only were the slowest in lap times. They also only were able to drive 88 laps so far. Hopefully they will do much better next week. Otherwise they will have to do a lot catching up to do this season.

F1 team laps first week 2019 winter test

We also have an overview on the power unit laps and distances. On top of the power unit sheet we see Ferrari with an amazing 1.489 laps. Looks like the reliability is better than ever! It's also interesting to see that Honda did more laps than Mercedes and Renault.

F1 power unit laps first week 2019 winter test

This is what Pirelli said about their new tyre compounds after the first week of testing:

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING
“It’s still early days, but so far the tyres seem to be performing largely as we expected, with a performance gap of around 0.6 to 0.7 seconds between each compound. In more detail, it’s something around 0.6 seconds between C2 and C3 so far, and roughly the same gap between C3 and C4, which were the most used tyres in this session. Due to the cool conditions this week, there was a bit of graining as expected, which should disappear when temperatures become warmer during the actual season. As far as testing goes, there are many variables that need to be taken into account when it comes to making comparisons with previous years here."

"There are new 2019 regulations with different aerodynamics and heavier cars, and we’ve also noted that the track surface in Barcelona has matured since last year. Having said that, we’ve seen a very impressive level of reliability and performance from the cars so far, helped by generally favourable weather. As usual, the emphasis during the first test tends to be on reliability and validation: next week we should see the teams focus more on performance and explore the full capabilities of the 2019 P Zero Formula 1 range."

Looks like all engineers have a lot of work to do by analysing all that data they gathered this week. Can't wait until it's Tuesday!

Here you can find some nice F1 pictures taken on the 4th day of testing.

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