Motorsports
McLaren and Ferrari faster at dawn 2022
The McLaren MCL36 and Ferrari F1-75 were the two fastest cars with the soft and medium tire sets respectively ahead of the Mercedes W13 on the first – unexpectedly smooth – day of F1 winter testing in Barcelona, Spain.
McLaren and Ferrari – along with the impressive side air intakes of the Red Bull RB18 – stole the show on the opening day of Formula 1 winter testing for the 2022 season at the Barcelona circuit in Spain.
On the first morning in Montmellier, Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari F1-75 was fastest with a time of 1:20.165 – before handing his place to Carlos Saint in the afternoon. With the middle eraser (C3), the Spaniard soon got within two and a half tenths of Monegasco and the Scuderia dominated almost to the end.
But in the final hour of testing, Lando Norris put the soft rubber (C4) in the four corners of the McLaren MCL35, bringing the first year down to 1:19.951, and then to 1:19.568 with a second fresh set of soft tires – for the vanguard to steal in the final .
The Mercedes champion was more than a second away from McLaren, with George Russell a tenth and a half quicker than Lewis Hamilton. The latter lost a lot of time in the pits in the final hour of testing while the team made modifications to the front suspension to correct for mid-stretch hits.
Champion Max Ferstappen had almost no qualms about absolute speed. Instead, he sought and managed to complete the mileage of two regular races, totaling 147 laps, to collect valuable data for the new RB18. And that’s despite having one of the few surprises of the day, a small exit off the track that didn’t leave him stuck in the sand trap.
Only Ferrari exceeded – by six laps – the distance covered by Ferstappen, as all the cars (most with three times the number of laps) showed impressive reliability – considering their youth.
Given that the engines have remained the same since last year, this makes a lot of sense, but even Alpine turned triple-digit laps on the back of Fernando Alonso with its all-new Renault powerplant – adopting split-turbo for the first time.
The Spaniard completed 127 laps, as did the two Mercedes drivers with the new W13, Williams achieved 132 and the only ones to stay low on the lap count were Haas and Alfa Romeo. Both teams had bottoming issues on the VF-22 and C42, resulting in just 43 and 32 laps, respectively.
After the unexpectedly smooth first day of Formula 1 winter testing, the cars will return to the track in Barcelona at 10:00 on Thursday morning (February 24). The first three days of testing this year will end on Friday afternoon, and the second will take place in Bahrain on March 10-12.
Barcelona Tests – Day 1
1. Norris (McLaren) 1:19.568
2. Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.597
3.Ferrari +0.848
4. Russell (Mercedes) +1,216
5.Hamilton (Mercedes) +1.361
6. Vettel (Aston Martin) +1.708
7. Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) +2,070
8. Alpine +2,178
9. Ferstappen (Red Bull) +2,678
10. Boots (Alfa Romeo) +3,004
11. Albon (Williams) +3,192
12. Schumacher (Haas) +3,358
13. Latifi (Williams) +3,759
14. Walk (Aston Martin) +3.811
15. Mazepin (Haas) +4,937
16. Button (Alfa Romeo) +6.341
Sophia Jhon is a sports journalist and author. He has worked as a news editor for Sportish and is now a sport columnist for the same publication. Alberta’s professional interests lie largely in sports news, with an emphasis on English football. He has also written articles on other sporting topics.