On my previous blog post I wrote there was a surprise on the way. The surprise was this: I had arranged a surprise trip for my husband to Barcelona to watch the second pre-season test session at Circuit de Catalunya! My husband has been watching Formula 1 for over 20 years as well and he has never had a chance to see the F1 cars live. He will turn 40 in May so it was a perfect reason to finally make his dream come true :) He flew to Barcelona with his five friends on Wednesday evening and what a test day they got to witness on Thursday!
On Thursday (March 3rd) it was Kimi´s last test day behind the wheel of the SF16-H. And it turned out to be the most productive day for the Iceman with 136 laps completed that day! It was also the only day when Kimi didn´t face any technical issues as all his previous three testing days had included a few hours´ wait in the pit garage due to a technical failure. Now that all eight test days are over, what kind of conclusions can be drawn of the pecking order? Two things have caught my eye during the winter tests: First of all Mercedes are frighteningly reliable. The Silver Arrows completed the mileage of almost 19 Grands Prix in just eight test days! They had no technical worries in spite of a transmission failure for Hamilton in the second test. The new W07 turned out so bulletproof that Hamilton and Rosberg split the test days not to get physically too tired due to the massive amount of laps they did. Their true pace is still kind of a question mark as they did no running either on the super softs or the new purple-marked ultra soft Pirellis. Secondly, Ferrari are convincingly fast. The honour of the fastest lap time both on the softs and on the ultra softs fell to Ferrari´s Kimi Räikkönen. Ferrari have made a lot of changes to their power unit. In addition to that they now have a new front suspension as well, which is of the more popular push-rod design. The Italian-based team had some technical issues in their SF16-H and once again they always seemed to hit Kimi´s car. But their pace seems promising indeed. But whether it´s enough to take the fight to Mercedes, we´ll find out in a week... Behind these two it will be tight. Williams will be strong for sure and McLaren have made a significant leap forward from last year. The American-based Haas team made a good first impression proving more reliable than I had expected. I´m convinced once the reliability is there they could be fighting up in the midfield. Toro Rosso also managed to complete a huge amount of mileage and with the Ferrari power unit on their car they have a good chance to get the upper hand on Red Bull... But nothing is certain until the season gets underway. The real pecking order will take a few races to materialise.
One major topic has been the new Halo cockpit device, which Ferrari ran both on Thursday and Friday in the second test. It has provoked differing responses among the drivers. Sebastian Vettel is one of the drivers, who are in favour of the concept. He stated that the aesthetics of such a device are secondary to its purpose. Although he added that "it´s not the picture you are used to seeing for F1". The reigning world champion Hamilton judged the concept strongly and said it should at least be optional for the drivers and that he was willing to accept the risks involved in F1 racing and wouldn´t use such concept in his car. I agree with Sebastian that safety comes first. The Halo device doesn´t look so great but the one used on the SF16-H was just the first prototype developed by the team. Red Bull have also developed their own version of the head protection device, which they will introduce later on during the season. So who knows how the final version will turn out. And the eye adapts to new things pretty quickly. It was kind of same with the stepped noses a few years back: many judged them at first but soon everyone´s eyes adapted to them.
Another topic has been the new elimination-style qualifying format, which will go ahead in Melbourne next week. The 3-session knockout system remains, but instead of a specified number of drivers being eliminated after set time periods, the clock will soon start ticking each session. Q1 will run for 16 minutes and after seven of them the current slowest car will be eliminated. This process will repeat every 90 seconds until 15 cars are left. Q2 will last for 15 minutes and after six the 90-second elimination periods will start again until only eight cars are left. Q3 will see all eight running, but after five minutes six further cars will be eliminated over 90s periods. At the end only two cars will be left fighting head-to-head for pole. The new qualifying format has provoked differing opinions. The drivers were quite satisfied with the old system but the change was introduced to give races an added twist by introducing a situation whereby the top runners might get caught out by circumstance. Only the time will tell, whether this will make qualifying more exciting and spice things up. On paper it looks good but what about in chaotic rain-hit conditions... Qualifying should be about who´s fastest on track whether it´s dry or wet, not about grid based on coincidence and fortune. But let´s not judge it before seeing how it actually works at Melbourne next week, can´t wait!
The most important question in terms of the 2016 season is: Can Hamilton win his third title in-a-row? I have a hunch he can´t and I don´t say this only because I´m not a fan of his. Without any doubt the Briton was in a class of his own almost the entire last season. The success, the sharp edge, however, slipped through his fingers when he secured his world championship in US GP and in the last races of the season he got beaten by his teammate Rosberg. Now the fight starts all over again but is Hamilton running a life style, which enables his 100% concentration on hard training and racing? Hamilton has extremely active social life and it isn´t a secret that he likes to party and that he has done it a lot during the off-season. Psychologically it´s a line drawn in water when success starts to crumble. I believe if you are not 100% committed to Formula 1 and Formula 1 only, you lose your edge and your chance for the championship. To be honest, I wouldn´t mind Hamilton losing his edge as I hope, trust and believe this will be Ferrari´s year!
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