2020: The Outlook After the First Week of Testing

Racing Point, a Mercedes painted in pink?

From the very first day of winter testing, we witnessed the first drama of the season! Indeed, the new Racing Point car has been the subject of much discussion due to its strong resemblance to the 2019 Mercedes. The Canadian team, formerly Indian, has always had somewhat strong ties with the German entity. In addition to the engine, the pink panthers borrow their gearbox and certain parts of the rear suspension from the silver arrows. Racing Point also decided to take inspiration from Mercedes in terms of aerodynamics. It remains to be seen how the Canadian team will be able to develop the RP20 in the right direction, something that Haas, which also uses parts from Ferrari, completely failed to do in 2019.

Williams gets closer

The other surprise of this first day of testing was the good form of Williams, which was the first team to take to the track while last year they missed the first days of testing. A bit like McLaren in 2018, you can really feel the team from Grove’s desire to climb back up the standings. After two years spent alone in the depths of the championship, will the team led by Claire Williams start to emerge?

The DAS praised by the teams

The second day saw its second controversy, and not a minor one, as it involved the discovery of DAS by the world of Formula 1. A very ingenious system developed by Mercedes that allows the front wheels to camber more or less depending on whether the car is on a straight line or not, which helps reduce tire wear and overheating. It is important to note that this mechanism is not automatic but manual, as the driver can adjust the alignment of the wheels by pulling or pushing the steering wheel.

Endless kilometers…

Even if the timing should be taken with a grain of salt, it is still noticeable that the Mercedes cars seem very fast. At the end of these three days of winter testing, it is Valtteri Bottas who leads the way with a lap time of 1’15.732, just a few tenths slower than the 2019 pole position. His teammate Lewis Hamilton is 0.8 seconds behind. Following are Kimi Räikkönen, Esteban Ocon, and Lance Stroll to complete the Top 5.

In addition to being fast, the Mercedes is also extremely reliable. The silver arrows were able to cover 494 laps without major issues. Only 4 other teams managed to complete 400 laps: Red Bull, Alfa Romeo, and McLaren.

Number of laps completed in 3 days per team:

The Uncertainty at Ferrari

At Ferrari, however, things seem far less rosy. Mattia Binotto has already stated that he has some reservations about the pace of the SF1000, similar to Sebastian Vettel, who said he is less optimistic than last year. In addition to a performance level that seems hesitant, the Scuderia is not particularly reliable, and the red cars have encountered some reliability issues that have deprived the drivers of track time. These problems are really restrictive because, with fewer laps completed than its main rivals, Mercedes and Red Bull, the Italian team already has less data and therefore knows its car less well.

It is difficult at the moment to start establishing a hierarchy among the teams. However, it is noticeable that Mercedes and Red Bull seem to be leading the way, while Ferrari appears to be behind, either ahead of or behind Racing Point. Following that is likely the closest midfield battle that has ever been in Formula 1, with teams like McLaren, Renault, AlphaTauri, and Alfa Romeo all being genuine contenders for the best of the rest position.