F1 First Test Thoughts

I find at this stage of testing, I always like to take a high level of what happens in the F1 tests and don't necessarily find it beneficial to get into the nitty-gritty of the new cars. If you would be interested in the some interesting technical insight into some of the new cars that is actually quite insightful, I recommend Mark Hughes' article on Skysports.com here.

 

 

As for my thoughts after the first test, Ferrari may have improved their engine's from last year but their posting of fastest lap times every day over the 4 day test smacks of desperation. Desperation that is of convincing everyone outside of F1 i.e. the Tifosi and even the senior management of Fiat Chrysler, that the massive political upheavals seen last year within the team have not been detrimental to the team's efforts to improve its performance. I very much doubt this is the case and expect the Ferrari's to be closer to 3rd row of the grid come race day in Australia and beyond.

 

 

Barring any comments on the Mercedes team, who have pretty much won the championship already given their record breaking day of testing where they covered something like 157 laps on their very first day of running! A team I am much more interested in seeing and understanding the performance of, is the Williams team. I was very happy to see the team back up there and fighting at the front after far too long struggling in the  midfield - a position the team should not be in given their history and heritage in the sport (not to mention the greatness of character of the man that is Sir Frank Williams) .

 

 

Quite reassuringly, Williams were not spectacular at all in testing and hardly even made the headlines during the four days. This may be counter intuitive but this, I feel, actually bodes well as it tends to suggest that the team are concentrating on doing their own thing, running their own program and not looking to carry out glory runs like that of Ferrari or Sauber. Another reason I am quite interested in this team's performance is that so many times before in F1, a team that is struggling over a number of years will have one great year, only to return to its old position the following season having had a 'flash in the pan' performance. I am sincerely hoping this is not the case for Williams F1 in 2015! Fingers crossed...