Testing trackside verdicts with an ex-Formula 1 driver

Every year I go to pre-season testing and enjoy a couple of days of watching the new cars in action. It's interesting to see the cars live and there are always subtle nuances that you can pick up with a trained eye that you can't really see on television.

With testing now being repeated annually at the Circuit de Catalunya, I've also now got my favourite watching spots, which I go back to year after year because it gives me a good reference to see how things have changed from the previous season, as well as contrasting the cars relative to each other.

Before I go into the details of what I saw, I've got to say that my overriding feeling from testing is that the cars are getting a bit too good and comfortable for the drivers. When every car on the grid can take Turns 3 and 9 without the drivers thinking about a lift off the throttle, that's wrong.

I remember being on the bus for the drivers' parade in 2010 when we were chatting about Mark Webber taking Turn 9 flat on his way to pole and the other drivers were all massively impressed. The 2021 regulations should make the cars harder to drive and therefore separate the good and the great drivers a bit more, which is exactly what should happen in motor racing, not just Formula 1.

The other big impression I got was that, unlike in the past, there really aren't any bad cars on the grid. They all look capable of delivering at least a low-1m16s lap time, which is bloody impressive for that circuit. It also meant I had to look harder for differences between the cars while also trying to factor in what programme they may have been on while I was watching. All a bit tricky, but here's my attempt at a pecking order based on what I saw from behind the barriers!

The big three

The Mercedes W11 convincingly looks like the class of the field. The car seems easy to drive and I have no doubt that they never attempted anything close to a low-fuel run. When you look at the long runs, they can metronomically go lap after lap and just carry apex speed better than anyone else.

Watching at the Turns 1-2 sequence, they certainly have less understeer than most at the apex and are able to get the rear end to stick while the front pivots around the apex kerb. This slow-speed cornering ability was a real strength of the W10 from last year and the W11 seems to have carried that on.

The turn-in and change of direction of the Red Bull still looked sharp, but the rear stability didn't seem to be quite as good as the Mercedes

The dual-axis steering system may have grabbed all the headlines, but the effort gone into the rear suspension and the aero is a bigger indicator to me that there is no relaxing in Mercedes' quest for an incredible seventh consecutive world championship.

Turns 4, 7 and 12 are all good places now to judge performance in the medium-speed corners. The Ferrari seemed to be running heavy all week long and didn't seem as agile or as sharp on the nose as the Mercedes or Red Bull cars. The front end washes out a bit more than either of its rivals and you certainly can't get it to hug the apex and rotate as well as the Mercedes. This means the Ferrari drivers are off the throttle for a fraction longer and that's enough to add up to a lap-time deficit that was the trend last year.

The Red Bull seemed a bit more nervous at the rear and perhaps a bit more wind-sensitive. Certainly at the more wind-exposed corners, such as Turns 4 and 13, the drivers didn't look like they had as much confidence to attack the entry as Mercedes.

The turn-in and change of direction still looked sharp, but the rear stability didn't seem to be as good as the Mercedes. This will of course have an effect on tyre wear across the long runs, so the big brains at Milton Keynes will be cracking on to find a solution. They started last year on the back foot and won't want to do the same in 2020.

Charles Leclerc's race run on the final day was the first proper 66-lap run we had as a comparison and, factoring in track conditions, I would guesstimate that the Ferrari and Red Bull seem similar on pace and are both about 0.3 seconds away from Mercedes (Max Verstappen did a good race run on day three and Hamilton on day two).

This could of course change depending on the engine modes as I'm sure all three teams were 'sandbagging' but, judging trackside, I would be inclined to concur with these numbers from the race runs.

The midfield scrap

Racing Point has certainly upset the midfield teams by rolling out a "Mercedes-inspired" design for the 2020 campaign (Zak Brown called it the "Copy Point", while "Tracing Point" has also been mentioned repeatedly by rivals). Either way, if I was Lawrence Stroll or Otmar Szafnauer, I would do exactly the same. Why not try to replicate the best car on the grid at a time when there's a single season of rules stability and you need to invest heavily in 2021?

Amid the various claims that the car is illegal, one of the more pragmatic rival team bosses raised a valid point to me, which was that they didn't really have a problem with Racing Point copying a one-year-old Mercedes because it effectively committed them to being a midfield team.

What they would have a problem with is if Mercedes and Racing Point were sharing information with regards to the design of the 2021 programme when there's such a big reset in the rules. They are concerned that, with tight restrictions on windtunnel time, Mercedes could use its customer team's windtunnel allocation to test various development paths and share that information, which would give both an unfair advantage. I see their point and get the feeling this argument could rumble on.

There really aren't any bad cars on the grid - they all look capable of delivering a low-1m16s lap time, which is bloody impressive for Barcelona

On track, the Racing Point looks very good indeed. There's no way that a team can just look at photos and copy another team's design. They would have had to understand the philosophy and core concept so they can set up the car correctly, and they've clearly done that because it looks very driver friendly and confidence inspiring. The front end is much sharper than anything else in the midfield and the rear end stays very stable on entry, allowing the drivers to be aggressive with the steering and have good rotation at the apex.

The McLaren looks like the next best midfield car. The team seems to have built on a solid 2019 and, from my vantage point at Turns 1 and 2, Carlos Sainz Jr appeared to be able to change direction very well. Up at the long Turn 12, the MCL35 allowed the drivers to carry good speed on the way in, and run a tighter line with decent minimum speed and open the steering wheel to accelerate out better than most others.

At the moment, I would say that McLaren is fifth best and could be in a big battle of development with Racing Point to see who comes out on top.

AlphaTauri and Renault look like they're the next two, and it's hard to pick who's ahead between them. The AlphaTauri looks like an easier car to drive, but that doesn't mean it's quicker. The front end doesn't seem as sharp as the McLaren's or the Racing Point's and the drivers are having to wait longer for it to bite than most others, especially in the longer corners like Turns 4 and 12. Understeer just bleeds lap time, so the team will need to get on top of that quickly.

There's been a lot of talk about the progress from the Honda power unit and that could be invaluable for AlphaTauri in the midfield battle, especially as Renault has talked about focusing on reliability and not power this year.

There was one run where Pierre Gasly suddenly found a huge chunk of speed on the straight, and I was watching his lap so was sure he didn't get a slipstream from anyone. He aborted the lap and came into the pits so it may have gone under the radar, but I think that once again Honda was perhaps using the junior team to test the higher-power modes ahead of the season.

It's a big year for Renault after it slipped backwards in 2019, but it is going to need a big push throughout the season if the team wants to overhaul McLaren and Racing Point. It's got one of the best driver line-ups on the grid, with Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon, and has got no excuses for not getting back up to fourth in the constructors' championship.

The front end of the Renault RS20 seems to be set up differently from any other team on the grid. You could see showers of sparks from the front of the car soon after the apex of Turn 2 and it seemed like the nose was just buried into the ground. The team obviously manages to have a legal plank afterwards, so it's just how it has chosen to set up the car, but it definitely is different from anyone else in terms of dynamic ride.

There's a kerb on the exit of Turn 7 as you turn up the kink of Turn 8 and the Renault didn't seem to ride that as well as anyone else. The front of the car seemed to aggressively rebound off it and you could see it wasn't a comfortable ride for the drivers. The circuits in F1 are getting smoother every year, with flatter and flatter kerbs, so that in itself may not be a big problem, but it was another indicator to me that the front suspension set-up of the Renault is different.

Like AlphaTauri, the Renault drivers also had to wait for quite a while in the longer corners before being able to pick up the throttle, chasing the front-end understeer. Unlike the others, though, when the front end did bite and grip up, it seemed to create a bit of rear instability, which could just be a matter of unlocking the right set-up rather than a fundamental issue.

The Alfa Romeo and Haas both look like they're in similar territory in terms of lap time, with different strengths and weaknesses, while the Williams doesn't seem to be far behind. The Alfa certainly has better ride quality over the bumps and kerbs than the Haas, but the front end on turn-in didn't seem as positive. As the drivers went through the corner, you could see the Alfa struggling with more understeer too, but it does seem a bit easier to drive.

There's been a lot of talk about the progress from the Honda power unit and that could be invaluable for AlphaTauri, especially as Renault has talked about focusing on reliability and not power this year

The Haas drivers seemed to struggle a bit more to hit the same line lap after lap in the way that Kimi Raikkonen was able to when I was out watching. Overall though, like last year, I think the battle between Alfa, Haas, AlphaTauri and Renault could ebb and flow depending on the circuit.

For the first time in a couple of years the Williams seems to be a driveable car. Yes, you can make out that the cornering speeds are a bit down compared to its rivals, but at least it doesn't seem to have the inconsistency and instability of the past two years. I remember watching at Turn 4 in 2018 and the drivers were sometimes using opposite lock even before the apex, while last year the late arrival of the car meant it just wasn't going quickly enough for us to judge.

This year both drivers were comfortably flat through Turns 3 and 9 and actually looked like they could hustle the car around without it doing anything particularly unexpected. That's a good base for the team to build on and will give the aero department a confidence boost that their correlation between the CFD and windtunnel and the track seems to be working reasonably well.

All of the testing form becomes irrelevant of course when we get to qualifying because, when the flag drops and the engines get turned up, the bullshit stops. Roll on Melbourne!