The Formula 1® preseason has restarted on Tuesday at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in order to face the last week of testing before the beginning of the world championship. The fifth winter testing day brought major surprises, with the dominance of McLaren, the ‘awakening’ of Red Bull and the first crisis in Mercedes. An unexpected protagonist of the day was Spanish driver Fernando Alonso, who came to visit his former teammates, causing a great excitement in the paddock of the Catalan racetrack.
The day gathered thirteen drivers on the track: Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes), Lando Norris (McLaren), Nico Hülkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo (Renault), Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo), George Russell (Williams), Pierre Gasly (Red Bull), Alex Albon (Toro Rosso), Lance Stroll (Racing Point), Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) and Kevin Magnussen (Haas). Fastest in the morning was Giovinazzi with a lap of 1:18.589, and the most active was Magnussen with a total of 84 laps.
Ferrari was the last team to get onto the track, after 10 o’clock in the morning, and they were only able to make 29 laps before the lunch break. The Scuderia explained their little activity with problems in their cooling system. But despite everything, they reached the halfway mark with the fastest time by Charles Leclerc (1:18.651) and finished the day with the fourth fastest time by Sebastian Vettel: 01:17.925.
The setbacks moved to the Mercedes garage in the afternoon. Right after Valtteri Bottas took over from Lewis Hamilton, the single-seater (which was using today a spectacular aerodynamic pack for the first time) stopped between turn 3 and 4 causing a red flag to be shown. The German team was not able to get back onto the track until late in the afternoon, due to “problems with the oil pressure” of the car, thus wasting almost half of the session. Bad day for the team that won the manufacturers world championship five times in a row.
On the opposite end, today, there was McLaren. The Woking-based team completed a total of 80 laps. Moreover, their young British driver, Lando Norris, clocked the fastest time of the day on Pirelli’s ultra soft C5 tyres. His time of 1:17.709 is the fourth fastest overall of this preseason, still led by Nico Hülkenberg (Renault) who clocked 1:17.393 on Thursday.
Good feelings for Red Bull as well. So far, the Austrian team had remained in a secondary position and had not been lapping below 1:18 throughout the winter. Well, this Tuesday, their young French driver Pierre Gasly clocked a spectacular 1:17.715 on soft tyres, that moved him up to second position. The team, led by Christian Horner, gave a true reliability lesson, after being to make no less than 136 laps. The third fastest time was clocked by Canadian driver Lance Stroll (Racing Point), with 1:17.824 on ultra soft compounds.
The big news off track was the presence of Fernando Alonso, who was seen walking around the paddock. The Spanish driver visited his former teammates at McLaren and Ferrari, creating huge expectations among the fans that were attending the tests at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. But the presence of the Spanish driver on the track seems to be discarded.
His fellow countryman Carlos Sainz will be one of the main attractions for the session of tomorrow, Wednesday, where he will be joining the track with Robert Kubica (Williams), Kimi Räikkönen (Alfa Romeo), Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), among others. The access to the tests is free for all holders of a ticket for the FORMULA 1 EMIRATES GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA 2019, as well as for Circuit Members and Officials.
