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It's now four months since my first assessment of Formula 1 pre-season testing at Barcelona for Autosport and, unfortunately due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown, we have still to see how the teams actually stack up against each other.
I suspect that even with the factory lockdowns, the team personnel won't have been concentrating entirely on making their gardens look pretty. Teams have had a unique opportunity to design and make new parts after seeing their rivals in action at Barcelona, and I think we will see some different parts on some of the cars when they take to the track in Austria.
Of course, one or two teams have been out testing, albeit with two-year-old machinery (unless it's classified as a 'filming session'!). Renault seems to have pulled a fast one, using the excuse of no quarantine rules in Austria, and has racked up huge mileage at the Red Bull Ring prior to the forthcoming opening two races at the same venue. The squad must have gained some valuable data.
