McLaren impressive and Hamilton positive – F1 testing analysis

McLaren’s participation in the first three days of Formula 1 pre-season testing, which included four hours of testing, gave the impression that the team would start the new year beating the previous team.

Apply the typical caveats. It is next to impossible to make definitive judgements about performance in testing as there are just too many variables involved.

Additionally, it takes place on a single track, has one set of characteristics, and are prototypes that don’t stick around for the duration of a season.

George Russell of Mercedes, Max Verstappen’s Max Verstappen, and Max Verstappen, who finished the day, came in 0.0221 seconds quicker. And the best lap of the entire test was set by Carlos Sainz, following his switch to Williams from Ferrari to make way for Lewis Hamilton.

However, there was enough evidence to suggest McLaren, who won their first constructors’ title since 1998 last year, has a clear advantage.

This contrasts favorably over a race distance with a single lap in terms of its impact.

Some eye-catching pace on race simulation runs helped McLaren feel one step ahead of their competition at Bahrain’s Sakhir track.

These are always the most reliable indicators of true competitiveness in testing because a key variable is removed. Teams travel a full grand prix distance to ensure that the fuel level is known, even though other settings, such as engine modes, may not always be comparable.

Lando Norris of McLaren performed a race simulation run at the same time as Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari on the afternoon of the second day of testing. The Briton’s pace was breathtaking.

He would have won the “race” by more than 30 seconds, and he was on average 0.5secs a lap quicker than his rivals.

Antonelli would have been a little quicker than Leclerc, who would have finished in about two seconds.

On the final afternoon, Norris ‘ team-mate Oscar Piastri and Mercedes ‘ George Russell were out at the same time doing the same thing.

The McLaren was faster, but not as much. Compared to Russell, Pirasti ran an average of 0.2% a lap quicker. That would mean winning by just over 10 seconds.

However, Piastri’s advantage was almost entirely realized during his first stint, when he was 0.5% more quickly than Russell. The McLaren had a 0.05sec advantage in the second and third stints.

It’s pointless comparing the times of Norris, Leclerc and Antonelli with those of Piastri, Russell from one day to the next, because Thursday was cooler and less windy than Friday.

In cooler climates, F1 cars can accelerate because the higher air density increases downforce and engine performance, and wind damage to the car’s delicate aerodynamics.

The McLaren’s pace was less impressive over one lap, but testing shows that later. For what it’s worth, McLaren seem pretty level-pegging over a single lap with Ferrari, a Verstappen-driven Red Bull and Mercedes.

McLaren were determined to minimize any rumors that they were ahead.

Andrea Stella, the team’s principal, said he “would be very careful” about taking conclusions from Norris’ run, pointing out that the typically cool conditions in Bahrain “were in a sweet spot for our car – they were conditions our car enjoys, cool, and not much wind.”

Stella’s point is that the conditions perhaps masked some of the weaknesses McLaren have had in Bahrain in recent years – the track’s combination of mainly slow corners and traction-dominated layout do not play to the car’s strengths, especially in the heat that is normally typical in the desert.

There is another way to consider that, though. How good could McLaren be in Melbourne, which, on the surface, is much more their kind of track, if they can be this quick on a circuit that doesn’t suit their car?

The McLaren excels in the sort of medium-speed corners and low-grip surface that are typical at Albert Park, where front-end performance is the main limitation for an F1 car, not rear as in Bahrain.

Verstappen and Leclerc, both of whom are present at a press conference, said: “The rear is where we want to improve anything, but the rest feels correct and feels in the same ball park.”

Hamilton has been full of optimism about the start of his Ferrari career, both before and during the Bahrain test.

He claimed that the car was “giving me the most upbeat feeling I’ve had in a long time.” After three difficult seasons with Mercedes, this is hardly surprising.

And he said his work getting used to the team could not have gone better, after a month embedded in Italy before Bahrain.

“I think we’ve laid a solid foundation,” Hamilton said. However, these men appear to be very competitive. It looks very close. We won’t know where we are until Melbourne, but we are certain that we have work to do.

Hamilton’s test ended with a not-so-happy note because he stopped running early and did not perform a race simulation.

Leclerc said the race run against Norris” was a really important run to understand where we were lacking compared to them”.

He added that it was also more difficult to understand where the teams sat because of the bad weather in Bahrain.

He said on Friday, “The conditions have been very inconsistent, which makes testing much more challenging to take anything out of.”

” The wind has changed a lot, yesterday we even had rain, and the temperature was very low on the first day. Important for the team, but it’s very difficult to have lap times reference.

Any testing assessment will always be illogical, based on hints and snapshots of something that is always going to be mysterious. And Red Bull is a particular example of this.

The problem is that they did not do a full race simulation – and Verstappen appeared not to do a race run at all.

Liam Lawson, the Dutchman’s new teammate, completed 43 laps of the 57-lap grand prix distance on Thursday. The New Zealander was a lap or two slower than Norris, on average. But it’s hard to draw any conclusions about the car from that because Lawson’s level is unknown.

Verstappen did a run on Friday that appeared to be very quick: he was faster than Piastri and Russell’s average race-distance times of seven laps.

He would be on a level Norris had before him, just like he was the day before.

But there are a lot of assumptions in that – his fuel load is unknown as the run was so short, the conditions were different to Thursday, the performance level of the individual Mercedes and McLaren drivers, and so on.

Verstappen was the fastest player in the final fifteen minutes of the game before Russell pipped him six minutes in.

However, the car didn’t look comfortable in the testing room because of the unreliable single lap times. Verstappen was visibly fighting it.

Verstappen even had a spin at Turn One, but it had front and rear grip in some places and rear grip in others, just as it did during the team’s difficult years last year.

Red Bull experimented with new components throughout the day. A new front wing design was fitted early on Friday. The team was only permitted to shut their garages because the car spent a lot of time in the garage with the doors closed, which means the floor was off.

Verstappen had reverted to the original front wing by the time the game was over.

Verstappen’s only comments to the media were made after he had had just half a day in the car.

When questioned about the team’s ability to fix the issues that caused his title campaign to become a rear-guard battle last year, he responded, “It can’t be worse than last year.” Our work is headed in a good direction. It is really early days. Everything has improved since last year, in every way. It is optimistic.

Williams had an eye-catching test. Sainz set the record for fastest time on a Thursday qualifying simulation, and a similar run on Friday gave team-mate Alex Albon time for a while before he finished third overall.

Stella liked Sainz’s pace, and she claimed Williams appeared to be “very competitive- I’m really stating the obvious because everyone will have seen the data.”

Alpine, too, produced some decent lap times, particularly with Pierre Gasly.

However, James Vowles, the head of the Williams team, does not think the midfield will have significantly closed off the big teams.

Vowles remarked that the “top four will be the top four.” “]There is a] large gap between them and the midfield”.

Again, it’s possible to get the wrong impression.

According to the headline lap times, Williams appeared to be in good shape, whereas Aston Martin, who had a quiet test, appeared to be in trouble.

But teams ‘ data suggests otherwise – the info behind the headline numbers suggests Aston Martin and Alpine are best of the rest, followed by Williams, Racing Bulls and Haas, with Sauber bringing up the rear.

However, race by race form is likely to change.

Vowles said, “The midfield will be very tight, and if I’m getting it right, 0.1 seconds separates a lot of us.”