The teams returned to action at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the final pre-season test of 2016. The first test saw the teams focus on mileage rather than raw pace, whereas the second test began to show the true pace of the 2016 grid.
Kimi Räikkönen wasn’t able to start off Ferrari’s final pre-season test on a positive, as the car got stuck in eighth gear. The car was returned to the garage and the team spent a large portion of the first day in the garage, as they worked to fix the gearbox issue. They were able to return the car to the track and complete the day with 72 laps. Sebastian Vettel wasn’t able to return Ferrari to the top of the time sheets the following day, but he had a relatively trouble-free day. He ran 151 laps during the day, showing that Ferrari appears to have solved their reliability issues.
The team concluded the test with two near perfect testing days. Räikkönen was back in the car for the third day, where he set the fastest time of the test, with a fastest lap of 1:22.765. Vettel kept Ferrari on top for the final day of the test. Räikkönen and Vettel each completed a ton of laps, running 136 and 142 laps respectively. The pace of the Ferrari wasn’t the talking point of the test, but rather what they had fitted to their car for the final two days. Each Ferrari driver completed a few laps with Ferrari’s version of the ‘Halo’ head protection. This test was to see if driver visibility was impacted by the device, but both drivers had positive feedback in that department. Although the head protection was only on the car for a few laps for each of the final two days, it has generated quite a discussion, both on and off the track.
Force India had a quite first two days to the test, with Nico Hülkenberg behind the wheel for the first day and Sergio Pérez for the second. The team had no issues with reliability, as they were able to run more than 120 laps on each day. During their test, they focused on data collection for the engineers by fitting various sensors to the car and they were able to move on to long runs near the end of day two.
Hülkenberg returned for the second last day of the test. He completed an additional 137 laps and set the third fastest time of the day. It was a fairly peaceful day for Force India. Pérez took the wheel for the closing day of pre-season testing. Roughly an hour into the afternoon, he brought out the red flag when he stopped on the track. The car was brought back to the garage, where the team worked to investigate the issue. Although he set the fourth fastest time, Pérez only completed 60 laps for the final day.
Esteban Gutiérrez had a rough second test for the new Haas F1 Team, as he took the wheel for the first two days. Both days were hindered by power unit issues. The team’s first day was cut short by a fuel system issue and day two never really got started, as the car was parked for the day, after completing the installation lap. Issues with the turbocharger meant that they could only complete one untimed lap for the entire day, as the team worked to solve the issue.
Grosjean returned to the car for the third day of testing, but it was not a trouble-free day. Grosjean went off twice throughout the day, avoiding the barriers each time, but still bringing out the red flag twice. A brake-by-wire issue stopped the car with only five minutes remaining in the session, having completed 78 laps. Grosjean was also in the car for most of the final day, completing 66 laps. Due to issues during the first two days of the test, Gutiérrez took over the car for the final hour to receive more testing laps. He completed an additional 25 laps for the team.
Rio Haryanto needed to prove himself, after his spins during the first pre-season test. The team completed 45 laps in the day, having spent some time in the garage because of an oil leak after completing on a few laps. Manor finished the day at the bottom of the time charts for the first day. Pascal Wehrlein was the team’s driver for the second day of the test, completing 79 laps, which was considerably more than they had done the day before. The car was still not able to log particularly impressive lap times.
Pascal Wehrlein pulled a double header, as he returned for another day of testing. He only managed to complete a daily total of 48 laps due to some mechanical issues that the team suffered throughout the day. The technical issues continued in the morning for Haryanto, who struggled to complete laps in the morning. The afternoon improved for the team, allowing Haryanto to complete a total of 58 laps.
McLaren had some issues in the first test, but were able to bounce back. Fernando Alonso was in the driver seat for the first day and he completed 93 laps of long runs. The team received some new engine components from Honda, which led to some minor modifications to the chassis. However, the day was not free of issues, with the car stopping because of an electronic and telemetry failure. Despite this, the McLaren was still third fastest of the day. Jenson Button didn’t have any technical issues, completing 121 solid laps during the day. Although the pace wasn’t quite as good as the day prior, the McLaren was reliable.
Alonso continued on day three, completing more reliability tests during his 118 laps of testing. Button continued the good luck for the final day. He completed 121 laps during the day. Both days were fairly quiet for the team and the pace was very impressive, but they were happy to have smashed through the 100-lap barrier on both days.
Mercedes started the final test on a positive note, with Nico Rosberg grabbing the top of the time sheet. Rosberg shared the car with Lewis Hamilton for the first two days, with the duo completing a staggering 172 laps combined in the first day. The team began to focus on testing their pace and qualifying practices, which explains their sudden gain in performance. Hamilton was leading day two when lunch break came around, but he was outdone by the Williams before the end of the day.
Mercedes continued their running on the harder tyre compounds and also continued with both drivers. Rosberg started the third day for the team, completing 81 before handing the car over the Hamilton for an additional 63 laps. Hamilton finished his pre-season testing with another 69 laps in the morning. Rosberg was in the car for the end of the final day, where he completed 70 laps, but was slowest of the day. Mercedes had their first taste of technical issues this year when Hamilton suffered a transmission problem near the end of his test.
Daniil Kvyat got the final test off to a smoking start for Red Bull… literally. The team spent two hours in the garage following a brake fire that was caused by a faulty brake duct. The team was still able to complete 69 laps on the first day. Daniel Ricciardo was able to put a lot of mileage on the Red Bull for the second testing day. The Aussie completed 135 laps.
Red Bull remained mid-table for the final two days. Kvyat was the driver for day three and Ricciardo for day four. The team managed to complete a little over 120 laps on both days. Unlike the days before, there were no major technical issues.
Despite some issues in the first test, Renault was able to provide Kevin Magnussen with a solid car. He completed 119 laps on day one and 126 on day two. They experienced a stoppage near the end of day one, but it was planned. The team decided to run the car until it had no more fuel, in order to test their fuel consumption calculations. Lap times were not very impressive on the first day, but the second day saw the Renault with the third fastest time.
After many issues during the first pre-season test, Jolyon Palmer was able to complete some solid mileage for Renault in the final two days. On day three, he fell two laps short of triple digits. He was also unable to hit 100 laps on his next day. Lap times were only worthy of tenth and eighth position, but the team were looking for a mileage improvement, which they got.
Sauber’s 2016 car made its track debut in the second test, with Felipe Nasr behind the wheel in day one. Since this was their first test with the new car, their days were spent completing a lot of the same test programmes that the other teams had done during the first test. The car proved to be quite reliable on the first day, but it was a different story the following day. Marcus Ericsson spent most of the morning in the pits and he later spun the car into the gravel trap with an hour remaining in the session. The car returned to the track with only minutes remaining in the day.
Sauber had two more great days, considering this was only their first week with the new car. Nasr completed 116 laps, finishing below Mercedes on the time sheet for the day. That being his final day in the car until the season opener, Nasr said, “as far as the procedures are concerned, I have got myself prepared for the season opener.” Ericsson’s lap time was slightly slower than his teammate’s, but he completed more laps, which a day total of 132.
Toro Rosso racked up lots of mileage on the car during the first two days. Max Verstappen was the pilot for day, completing 144 laps. Carlos Sainz took over the following day, completing 166 laps. This test saw the launch of the team’s 2016 livery, which remains largely unchanged. The team’s days were spent testing some new components for the car.
Verstappen completed the most laps of day three, with a total of 159. The pace was also present in the car, as it claimed the fourth fastest time of the day. Sainz showed more of the Toro Rosso’s pace, finishing the day with the second fastest time for the day. He also completed a solid number of laps, although it was 26 less than his teammate had managed the day prior.
Williams showed their pace, with Valtteri Bottas at control for the first two days of the test. He was roughly two tenths of a second slower than the top Mercedes in the first day, having completed 123 laps. Their fastest lap time remained the relatively the same for day two, but they were able to leapfrog the Mercedes to take the top spot of the day. Bottas concluded the day with 108 laps, during which he completed some qualifying runs.
Felipe Massa continued testing with good pace. They weren’t able to return to the top spot, as Ferrari kicked them out. However, Williams was the second fastest on day three and third fastest on the final day. He completed a great number of laps as well, with a two day total of 248 laps.
Bold indicates the fastest lap time of the test
