Formula 1 - 2017

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IS 18 YEAR OLD STROLL REALLY READY FOR FORMULA 1?

Despite a hitherto unprecedented Formula 1 testing programme, 18 year old rookie Lance Stroll has crashed out during both his days of testing for Williams at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, crashing out on both days but finding support from none other than Lewis Hamilton amid questions being asked regarding his state of readiness for Formula 1.

On his first day in the cockpit, which he took over on Tuesday from veteran teammate Felipe Massa, Stroll spun and damaged a front wing early on and because there was no spare in the Williams trucks had to cut his day short. It was valuable track time lost to the youngster and his team.

During his second day, Wednesday, determined to make amends he survived a spin just before lunch. Then he managed to record a healthy 98 laps before he lost control and spun into the wall in Turn 5, damaging the front end of the car, including the left suspension of the FW40.

It was another early shower for the Canadian teenager as the car could not be repaired before the end of the afternoon session. He thus lost another hour and a half of track time.

Immediately questions arose on the various media channels questioning his ability to adapt to the new era Formula 1 . On Twitter Stroll was being ‘hailed’ as the new Pastor Maldonado of the sport, the Venezuelan notorious for being accident prone during his time in Formula 1.

In the 2016 Euro Formula 3 series, Stroll took eleven wins on his way to claiming the title. Helped by the substantial backing of his billionaire father, Lawrence Stroll, it was decided that the teenager was ready to tackle Formula 1.

Reminiscent to Max Verstappen who also skipped the traditional route to Formula 1 via the GP2 series which was the finishing school for the likes of Lewis hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

While Verstappen adapted quickly to F1 and has risen to be a star, with a grand prix win already under his belt. But Stroll is being catapulted into the sport at the dawn of a new era for Formula 1 where cars are tougher and trickier to drive.

Despite an intense $20-million testing programme with Williams to prepare him for his testing debut in Barcelona, Stroll has done himself no favours with his costly off track excursions.

Nevertheless, triple F1 World Champion, Hamilton has come out in support of the young Canadian at the end of the third day of testing in Barcelona, “I feel for him in the sense that it is the toughest year to come into Formula One, being that these are the fastest and most physical cars.”

“It is to be expected because it is not an easy car to drive at all. It is so much faster and precision is even more important than the past. Last year’s car is easy compared to this year’s.

“These are only the first days and you cannot jump in and drive from no experience at all to being consistent. It is actually good for him to go through this now rather than at the first race,” added Hamilton.

Nevertheless the question remains: Is Stroll ready for Formula 1 right now?

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MCLAREN: A MUCH MORE SUCCESSFUL DAY

McLaren-Honda enjoyed a more fruitful and productive day of running on track at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Wednesday. The team was able to work through a number of set-up configurations, and completed various aero correlation tests using rakes and flow-vis paint.

Despite a cold start to the morning, track temperatures increased during the course of the day, enabling the team to carry out its scheduled run plan, although the wind picked up across the circuit during the afternoon.

The team made the most of the dry weather, clocking up 72 laps with no major issues, and successfully completed its scheduled test programme for the day.

Fernando Alonso: “The most important thing we can take from today is that we were able to do many more laps than both Stoffel and I could complete on our first days in the car. I’m happy that we were able to push through our plan for the day, gather a lot of new information, and learn a lot about the car, which is very positive after the issues we faced earlier in the week.

“The car feels good, and we’ve already made a lot of tweaks to the handling and set-up of the car from the first day. So far, the car is responding well to our changes, and overall we are seeing small improvements here and there, day-by-day, in different areas.

“The team worked really hard today to make sure we completed a lot of work on our programme, and we covered a lot of ground, testing different elements and working on various set-up configurations. It’s definitely been a valuable day for us.”

Eric Boullier, Racing Director: “Today has been a much more successful day, and we’re happy that we’ve been able to execute our testing programme proper with a full day of running. I’m pleased to report that there were no major issues, and the team completed our planned run programme for the day.

“We’re confident that the issues we’ve experienced so far are glitches and part of the usual challenges faced in testing. The problems on Monday and Tuesday meant we lost valuable track time, which means glitches that occur in day one can then spread into day three, simply because of the lack of mileage.

“The more we run, the more we learn, and, naturally, the more there is potential for issues to be discovered that we need to fix. However, there is a minimum mileage figure that we can do that allows us enough data to understand the car and how to set it up, and from there we can move forward.

“While we shouldn’t get carried away, today’s running has provided the team with a boost after a tricky couple of days, and I hope we continue collecting more mileage and data tomorrow to end the first week.”

Yusuke Hasegawa, Honda R&D Co. Ltd Head Of F1 Project & Executive Chief Engineer: “The past two days have been difficult for us due to the power unit issues we encountered. However, today we were able to make some progress and complete our programme, in which we tested the durability and deployment of the PU in accordance with our schedule.

“We have already found a solution to the oil tank issue we had on the first day with Fernando, and we will shortly receive clarification from Honda R&D in Sakura on the root cause of the power failure experienced in Stoffel’s car yesterday. We proved certain durability in today’s session and we hope to make further advances together with McLaren tomorrow.”

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BOULLIER: OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH HONDA IS VERY GOOD

Amid paddock talk in Barcelona that McLaren are ready to ditch their engine partners Honda, team sporting director Eric Boullier has denied the claims of a looming divorce and insists the relationship is strong as ever.

Boullier told media in Barcelona, where his team are enduring untold problems with the Honda engines, “Our relationship with Honda is very good. We are happy with the marriage but we have to make it work.”

Boullier revealed that there was “positive pressure” and joked that “plates were being thrown” inside the team’s garage at Circuit de Catalunya.

Honda have made no secret that they have taken a gamble by changing the concept of the 2017 power unit, and insisted that the problems in encountered in Spain were not specific to the new design.

Honda F1 boss Yusuke Hasegawa said, “Obviously we are not happy to have this trouble and we are sorry for both drivers.”

Hasegawa explained that a modified oil tank has been fitted to McLaren MCL32 to solve the issues they experienced, “We can live with the current modified tank and obviously through the season we are always trying to improve the system so we may introduce more modifications but so far l don’t think it’s a problem.”

Meanwhile Boullier has kept his sense of humour intact, despite the problems, and when asked what he thought of their rivals in testing he replied, “They are faster than us.”

And added on a serious note, “You don’t know the level of fuels, you don’t know how many switches on the Mercedes engine they are down on power.”

“But the Ferrari is surprising, because maybe people were not expecting them to be matching Mercedes, but everyone has their own secrets and everyone will be changing plans.”

“Even between the teams we are trying to work who is doing what but it is not easy. Next week’s test will be a little more revealing but definitely we will have to wait until Australia,” ventured Boullier.

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HAAS: DISAPPOINTED WE DIDN’T GET MORE MILEAGE

Haas F1 Team had a methodical day of testing Wednesday with Romain Grosjean at the wheel of its VF-17 at Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya.

The 30-year-old Frenchman collected 56 laps around the 4.655-kilometer (2.892-mile), 16-turn layout as he went through various systems checks in the morning and an array of setup configurations in the afternoon.

Grosjean’s quickest time was a 1:22.118, earned on his 49th lap while riding on a set of Pirelli P Zero Red supersoft tires. It placed him eighth among the 13 drivers taking to the track. Grosjean tallied 260.68 kilometers (161.979 miles) in his first day of testing. Teammate Kevin Magnussen drove the VF-17 Monday and Tuesday.

Grosjean began the morning session with reconnaissance laps on Yellow soft tires before transitioning to White medium tires for some timed laps until the mandatory lunch break. His best run of the morning was a 1:25.133 on his 22nd lap that put him 10th overall.

After logging 27 laps in the morning, Grosjean knocked out 29 laps in the afternoon. He began with White mediums and then switched to Yellow softs before a stint on Red supersofts in the last 15 minutes, which helped produce Grosjean’s quickest time. A brief, three-lap run on a used set of Yellow softs capped the day.

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas set the quickest time (1:19.705) and Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel ran the most laps (139).

Romain Grosjean: “It hasn’t been an easy day as we had a few issues here and there. We didn’t do as many laps as we planned to. We didn’t complete our program. On the setup, I don’t think we’ve found where we want to be exactly, so there are a few things we need to work around and understand. Generally, these cars are going to be pretty cool to drive – going fast into the high speed, braking late and carrying quite a bit of speed through the corners, which is good. I think Pirelli has made a decent step with the tires, the way you can push three laps in a row. I’m just a bit disappointed we didn’t get more mileage, especially with tomorrow being the planned wet day.”

Guenther Steiner: “Not a perfect day today. We expected more, but again, it’s testing. We need to keep our heads up and try to do better tomorrow. We know that we can do it, and that’s why we’re here to test. We had some various issues and we played a lot with the setup. We had a few electrical problems, with which we lost time. There’s always little gremlins which can cause you to stop for half an hour, an hour, and if that happens the day goes by quickly and you don’t do a lot of running. It can always be worse, and thankful we had a good day yesterday.”

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BARCELONA DAY 3: BOTTAS TOPS WITH VETTEL VERY CLOSE

It was nip-and-tuck at the top of the timing screens at the end of day three of Formula 1 pre-season testing between Mercedes and Ferrari, with Valtteri Bottas ending the day quickest and, not far off his pace, in second place was Sebastian Vettel.

Bottas’s best time of 1:19.75 came ion the morning session when the new Mercedes recruit bolted on a set of Pirelli’s purple-banded ultrasoft tyres.

The time was eye-catching but Sebastian Vettel’s afternoon lap just a quarter second adrift of the Mercedes man was perhaps more significant, given that it was set on softy tyres, two steps up Pirelli’s range.

For the third day running Ferrari managed impressive reliability, with Vettel logging 139 laps. It wasn’t perfect, however, as the German’s car ground to a halt close to the start-finish straight with less than 10 minutes left in the session.

Vettel’s tally was put in the shade by Mercedes, however. Bottas 75 laps in the morning before handing over to Lewis Hamilton and the Briton worked through a further 95 laps during afternoon race simulations to give the champions a day total of 170 laps.

Hamilton’s long running in the second half of the session and his use of medium and soft compounds meant that he ended the day in P8 on the timesheet with a best time of 1:22.175.

Behind Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo was third-fastest for Red Bull Racing, thougn it was another day of frustration for the Australian. On day one a sensor issue and a battery problem disrupted Ricciardo’s running and today he was restricted to 70 laps in total.

Forty-eight of those came in the morning as the team worked through aero tests but the Australian was only to add 22 more in the afternoon as an exhaust problem halted the team in its tracks.

Renault’s Jolyon Palmer slotted into fourth place a little over two tenths behind the French outfit’s customer team. Palmer later handed over driving duties to team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, with the former Force India driver taking fifth place just under four tenths of a second off the Briton’s pace. Marcus Ericsson was sixth for Sauber ahead of Haas’ Romain Grosjean and Hamilton.

Ninth place on the timesheet went to Williams teenager Lance Stroll. It was another tough day on the learning curve for the Canadian rookie, however.

The Montreal native crashed out on first day in the Williams FW40 and after an off just before the lunch break, the afternoon session saw him crash out again, the youngster hitting the barriers on the exit of Turn 5. The reigning FIA F3 European champion had, however, posted a solid 98 lap total before the incident.

Tenth quickest was Fernando Alonso who also put 72 laps on the board for McLaren, three more than the team’s total over the first two days in Barcelona. Carlos Sainz was 11th for Toro Rosso, while Force India tester Alfonso Celis propped up the time with a lap almost four seconds adrift of pace-setting Bottas.

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NO REGRETS ROSBERG VISITS BARCELONA TESTING

Formula One champion Nico Rosberg returned to the paddock on Wednesday for the first time since his retirement and said he had absolutely no regrets about his decision to quit at the top.

With Finnish replacement Valtteri Bottas putting the Mercedes through its paces on the third day of pre-season testing, Rosberg said the new cars looked ‘monstrous’ and a real physical challenge.

Formula One champion Nico Rosberg returned to the paddock on Wednesday for the first time since his retirement and said he had absolutely no regrets about his decision to quit at the top.

With Finnish replacement Valtteri Bottas putting the Mercedes through its paces on the third day of pre-season testing, Rosberg said the new cars looked ‘monstrous’ and a real physical challenge.

“There was not one single moment where I thought ‘Oh, damn I should be sitting in that car’,” declared the 31-year-old German, who said he was enjoying family life and exploring potential new challenges.

“That was interesting for me to realise, and perfect of course.”
Rosberg announced his retirement in December, shocking the sport just five days after taking the title from team mate and triple champion Lewis Hamilton in Abu Dhabi.

He spoke to Bottas but said he had not seen Hamilton on his brief visit to the Circuit de Catalunya.

“It’s good to be back, first of all to see my racing family again. And it’s such a massive hype at the moment so I want to see it first hand as well and see the new cars. They look absolutely monstrous,” Rosberg told television reporters.

“Very, very aggressive and everybody’s excited and that’s great to see. The drivers are loving it and I think this year they will be proper gladiators out there.

“The cars will take them to their physical limits and we might even see drivers losing race wins because of just being game over physically. And that’s what we need.”

Rosberg said he had been interested to hear from Bottas how it felt to drive the new car, wider and lower and with bigger tyres, and expected the Finn to settle in well at a team that has dominated for the past three years.

He added that the Finn needed no advice from him, other than some tips to help with integrating into the team.

“He’s a good driver so we need to expect that he will be challenging Lewis,” he said. “It’s difficult to predict exactly how they are going to compare. We all know Lewis is a massive benchmark so it’s never going to be easy against him but sure there´s going to be a battle.”

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MAGNUSSEN: I AM VERY HAPPY

Kevin Magnussen is relishing what he has found with the Haas team which he moved to after a season with Renault, and admits that he is impressed with how the team goes about the business of racing.

Speaking to reporters after his two days in the cockpit of the team’s VF17 challenger, Magnussen said,  “Yeah, it’s a really well organized team, We have a good bunch of guys here, good engineers, designers, and Dallara is doing a good job. Really impressed with them. They stepped up their game.”

“I wasn’t here last year obviously so I cannot tell really how they did then, but you know the job they’ve done this year with the quality of the car and the component and the chassis is very nice. Completely up to any of my previous experiences [McLaren and Renault]. I am very happy.”

Magnussen was the only driver this week to do back-to-back days in the cockpit and admitted that the new cars were more physical to drive, “It’s tough. Especially I found under braking it’s pretty hard on your neck. But I got through it, and it’s good to know where we need to work on.”

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BRAWN: MY DREAM IS A NON-CHAMPIONSHIP RACE ONCE A YEAR

Formula 1’s new motorsports director Ross Brawn is keen to host a non-championship race every season, harking back to the seventies when such events were part of a season’s schedule.

Brawn told Sky Sports, “My dream is a non-championship race once a year so that we could try a different format in that race.”

“A non-championship race would enable us to vary the format and try something different – and evolve it. You can’t take the risk of swapping a format in a championship race and not getting it right.”

Perhaps the most famous of the F1 non-championship races was the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch which ran regularly throughout the sixties and seventies, and ran for the last time in 1983.

Traditionally the race would take place before the start of the European season, with most teams sending at least one car with several privateers using the opportunity to race alongside the F1 regulars.

But Brawn is wary of making big changes too soon, “There is quite a lot of inertia in F1 so it’s going to be difficult to get it absolutely right but l think we can get a lot closer.”

“It won’t be perfect because F1 is a bit of an oil tanker so you nudge it but l hope we can get it going in the right direction.”

Brawn is also not keen to make untested changes, such as modifying the format of grand prix weekends, “I’m a bit nervous about that. When we change format we have to be very sure we have it right.

The pecking order during the current F1 pre-season testing, in Barcelona, appears unchanged and indeed it is apparent that Mercedes remain top of the heap despite the rule changes aimed at leveling the playing field this season.

Brawn explained, “We expose ourselves whenever we make changes like this. Fingers crossed, it is going to work out but l think it is a good example of where we didn’t go through the right principles to begin with. And if this was a principle to stop Mercedes winning, you could argue the exact contrary.

“A team that strong and with that resource will relish change. It was naïve to think it would destabilise Mercedes. If anything it gave them an advantage,” ventured the former Mercedes team principal, who was a key figure in the heyday of Ferrari in the early 2000s and also led his own small budget team – Brawn GP – to two Formula 1 titles in 2009 before selling the operation to Mercedes.

“In the long run, we need to make sure more teams have the capability to compete. At the bottom of the grid, the commercial consideration of the driver is much stronger than it is at the front of the grid. If we can put the smaller teams on a sounder footing then l think the whole sport will improve and you will get more Verstappens coming through than you do now.”

“If I’m honest, my objective for thirty years was not to have close racing and my objective was to compete at a level where nobody can beat me. I’m poacher turned gamekeeper now because my priority is closer racing!”

“But we must not do it artificially and we must not penalise a team because they are doing an exceptional job. Someone has suggested that if a team is winning then they should have their development frozen until the rest catch up. The fans will just see straight through it and become disillusioned,” added Brawn.

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Sebastian Vettel: Ferrari still needs to find a 'decent chunk'

Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari still needs to find a “decent chunk" in order to be competitive, despite enjoying an encouraging start to pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Vettel finished second to Mercedes rival Valtteri Bottas on Wednesday, just 0.247s behind the Finn, despite posting his best lap time on Soft tyres, compared to the Ultra Soft tyres utilised by his opponent.

Vettel also racked up 138 laps, adding to the 126 he amassed on Monday, and the 108 completed by team-mate Kimi Räikkönen on Tuesday.

“The car doesn’t have any major issues in terms of reliability which is the most important right now, to make sure everything works,” he said.

“In terms of performance it’s impossible to tell but by the looks of it we still need to find a decent chunk, so there’s a lot of work ahead.

“We need more [downforce], we’re working very hard on that and I think we will see big improvements from everyone throughout the whole season.”

Vettel was also enthusiastic about the gains made under revised Formula 1 cars, which has led to quicker lap times compared to recent seasons.

“It’s always more fun when it’s faster,” he said.

“I don’t know I find a proper comparison now, but yeah, I think it’s what we’re here for, to be able to push, not just for a couple of corners but for many laps, and I think roughly that’s what the cars feel like.

“It feels roughly like it did 10 years ago, with more grip, faster corner speeds, which is always enjoyable.”

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Toro Rosso plagued by drivetrain issues at F1 testing

Toro Rosso’s programme on the third day of the opening pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was plagued by drivetrain issues, the team has revealed, and will "need to adapt" its approach in order to achieve its aims in the build-up to the Australian Grand Prix.

Daniil Kvyat completed only 31 laps during the morning session before Carlos Sainz Jr. added another 32 laps in the afternoon, with his running coming to an end in the gravel at Turn 4.

Combining the mileage, it meant that only Haas conducted fewer laps than Toro Rosso on Wednesday, off the back of two days of relatively low mileage for both Sainz Jr. and Kvyat.

“We started the morning with Daniil assessing some overnight changes and, subsequently, some further tyre and general set-up related tests,” said Head of Vehicle Performance Jody Egginton.

“These yielded some useful data but, due to an issue with the drivetrain, we had to stop and as such were not able to complete the run plan.

“Carlos took over driving duties in the afternoon, picking up a few of the outstanding test items but also working on some control system test items.

“His running progressed well and we were at the point of moving to the soft compound when we suffered another more serious drivetrain issue, which resulted in the car stopping on track and our day ending early.

“The issues today, combined with not having had a perfect day one and day two, leaves us with a lot of ground to cover between now and the end of the next test and we will need to adapt the remaining running to achieve our primary objectives before Australia.”

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FIA forces Renault to tweak rear wing concept

Renault is to make changes to its rear wing design before the start of the Formula 1 season, after the FIA advised it that the concept of its support pillar could be in breach of the rules.

The team's new RS17 was launched in London last week and almost immediately rival outfits queried the design of its support pillar.

The issue revolved around the pillar support which, rather than being attached to the main plane, instead joined the wing at the DRS actuator pod.

The issue revolves around Article 3.9.6 of F1's Technical Regulations, which states that the support must be extended until it meets the area of the regulations that is related to the area of the rear wing main plane – which is defined in Article 3.9.1.

Teams have, for aerodynamic purposes, been moving the attachment point of the rear wing pillar further and further forward

During the previous regulations, several solutions were tried - by far the most popular method being a simple connection to the underside of the main plane used to add rigidity, such as the one in the Mercedes illustration (above left).

However, some teams, including Red Bull (above right) and Ferrari looked to improve the aerodynamic performance of the rear wing - imitating a swan-neck style support like we see in other series such as WEC.

The Renault idea went a step further, however, and attached directly to the DRS pod.

The argument was that this was allowed because there is a subsequent regulation that allows the support to be attached to 'minimal parts solely associated with the adjustment of the [DRS].'

However, the rival teams' view – which was backed by the FIA – was that the bulbous nature of the DRS and support pillar attachment was much larger than the 'minimal' parts mentioned in the regulations.

It is understood that Renault was advised to make tweaks to the design to make sure it intersects with the main plane, and work will take place to ensure the change is done before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

The potential advantage of the Renault design was likely related to reducing interference to the rear wing – which could have boosted the effectiveness of DRS.

However, some other rivals were not too fussed about what Renault had done as they did not consider it to deliver much of a benefit.

 

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Rosberg: Fatigue could cost drivers race wins in F1 2017

Formula 1's reigning world champion Nico Rosberg believes the physical exertion required by the new-for-2017 cars could lead to "drivers losing race wins" through fatigue.

The German retired from the sport at the end of last year after securing his first F1 drivers' title for Mercedes, right before the regulation change that has made cars faster and tougher to drive.

While he called time on his career before getting to try the new machines - although he did complete a Pirelli tyre test with a Mercedes higher-downforce mule car in Barcelona - Rosberg has now praised the direction F1 has gone in with its rule changes.

Rosberg, present during F1's opening week of 2017 pre-season testing at Barcelona, told media: "It's such a massive hype at the moment. So I wanted to see it first hand as well, see the new cars. They look absolutely monstrous, very very aggressive, and everybody's excited and that's great to see.

"The drivers are loving it, and I think this year they will be proper gladiators out there, with these cars. Because the cars will take them to their physical limits.

"We might even see drivers losing race wins because of just being 'game over' physically - and that's what we need."

Asked whether the excitement of the new cars and the strong form of Mercedes made him at all regret the decision to retire at the end of 2016, Rosberg moved to brush off any such suggestions.

He said: "I expected [Mercedes] to be the best this year, because the team is awesome, yeah? I am not saying that that's the case, we still need to wait and see, but for sure it looks like they've done a great car - but that's not surprising.

"I'm really happy with my decision, you know, and I still love the sport, so it's great to be here, great to follow the action.

"The positive hype is awesome at the moment, you know, and I really hope the sport can progress, that would be cool.

"It feels good [being here], it's just very different, I'm very relaxed, I'm enjoying it. I'm very happy with the way things are going and looking forward to the future."

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Canada extends Formula 1 deal until 2029

Canadian Grand Prix organisers have signed a new deal that will keep the Formula 1 grand prix at Montreal until 2029.

Talks with Bernie Ecclestone about extending the contract, which previously ran to 2024, began last year and were finalised this month.

There had been concerns about its future as the circuit had not completed upgrade work in time for this year's event.

However, organisers have reached an agreement, signing the deal following the completion of Liberty Media's takeover of F1.

Part of the deal involved the city of Montreal committing to providing the funds to upgrade the garage building, which has been in place since 1978.

"It's a long contract and one which gives us time to plan and to work on improving the facilities," promoter Francois Dumontier told Motorsport.com.

"With the new garages arriving in 2019, extending the contract was important. We will start work with the city, who own the circuit, to work on the plans and drawings and plan a construction schedule for the new garages.

"Then between the 2018 and '19 races, the construction will take place. "It will be a completely new building, with the current one removed. "

Dumontier said he has held discussions with Liberty Media, with F1's new owner saying "Montreal is important to the championship".

He added: "There are only two races in North America and we are the oldest race outside of Europe in the championship."

Canadian Lance Stroll is making his F1 debut this season with Williams and Dumontier says that has had a positive impact on ticket sales.

"They are going pretty good," he said. "We can see the Lance Stroll effect so it's a case of so far, so good."

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Hamilton feels for F1 rookie Stroll after Barcelona testing crashes

Three-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton says he feels for Lance Stroll after the Williams rookie's crash-strewn start to testing at Barcelona.

Stroll went off twice on Wednesday and his second shunt brought Williams's testing to a premature end for the second day in a row.

Mercedes driver Hamilton said he sympathised with the reigning European Formula 3 champion because F1's introduction of "the fastest and most physical" cars for 2017 meant it was always likely to be a baptism of fire.

"I feel for him in the sense it's the toughest year to come in to Formula 1," Hamilton said.

"I know he's been travelling around the world testing with Williams, he's definitely had more preparation time than any other driver coming in would have had.

"It's to be expected, it's not an easy car to drive at all. It's so much faster through the corners.

"Precision is even more important than in the past - last year's car is easy compared to this year's car."

Stroll's Tuesday crash damaged the front wing of his FW40 and the team did not have the parts available to allow him to run again that day, limiting his running to 12 laps.

He added 98 laps to that tally on Wednesday but spun into the gravel just as the morning session came to an end, then in the afternoon lost the rear of the car exiting Turn 5 and crashed into the barrier, damaging the front of the car.

While the errors are compromising Stroll's preparation Hamilton believes the 18-year-old is better off getting the mistakes out of the way now.

"These are only the first stages," said Hamilton.

"You can't just jump in and drive from no experience at all to be consistent and not spin, and that's to be expected.

"It's actually good for him to go through this now rather than the first race."

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BARCELONA DAY 4: RAIKKONEN AND FERRARI END TEST ON TOP

Ferrari ended the fourth and final day of the first Formula 1 test of the season at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, with Kimi Raikkonen topping the timing screens while Mercedes endured their worst day so far.

The morning started with an artificially wet track under clear and sunny skies, as Pirelli requested an opportunity to test their wet tyres.

Raikkonen’s best time 1:20.872 came when the track was dry. The Ferrari driver completing 93 laps during the course of the day. The Reds will be pleased with their four days in Spain.

After three days of solid running, a chink in the armour of Mercedes appeared for the first time, as an electrical fault on the hitherto bullet proof W08 forced the team to skip the wet session, denying Hamilton a run in the car on the day.

The problem was eventually sorted, allowing Valtteri Bottas to complete 68 laps and setting the eighth fastest time in the process.

Max Verstappen who was quickest in the wet session, ended his testing with the second best time in the Red Bull, albeit nearly a second down on the top time with 85 laps completed.

Renault driver Jolyon Palmer was third fastest with 39 laps set when he took over the car for the afternoon stint. The top three setting their times on the Pirelli soft tyres.

Romain Grosjean racked up 118 laps in the Ferrari powered Haas, more than any driver on the day and ending with the fourth fastest lap time on super softs.

Next up was the Ferrari powered Sauber, with Antonio Giovinazzi on duty in place of injured Pascal Wehrlein. The Italian managed 84 laps on his way to setting the fifth best time.

Earlier Nico Hulkenberg was on duty in the cockpit of the RS17, setting the ninth best time with 51 laps to his credit.

Williams were absent from the final day’s proceedings because their car was deemed beyond repair after Lance Stroll slammed the wall on Wednesday and there were simply no spare parts to repair the damage to the FW40.

Toro Rosso were present but a engine problem scuppered their plans as they were unable to resolve the issue, robbing the team and their driver Daniil Kvyat of valuable track time.

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MCLAREN: WE HAVE RECOVERED OUR PROGRAMME

McLaren-Honda completed a second consecutive full programme of running on the fourth and final day of the first pre-season test.

Like yesterday, the team worked through a number of different set-up configurations and aero tests in combinations of shorter and longer stints.

Added to the mix was the scheduled wet tyre testing, which enabled Stoffel and the team to experiment with both types of wet tyre as well as running from wet to dry conditions.

The team also completed a series of live pit stops in preparation for the first race in Melbourne.

Stoffel did 67 laps, and the team ended the session having executed all of our planned test programme for the day.

Stoffel Vandoorne: “I’m really pleased both Fernando and I were able to spend a full day in the car with no major issues, get a good amount of valuable mileage under our belt and complete our scheduled run plans on both days. We’ve tried a lot of different things, worked on various set-ups, and we’re learning a lot about the handling and characteristics of the car with every lap, which has been very useful for me.

“The addition of the wet testing was also interesting as it was the first opportunity for us to try out a wet weather set-up with the new tyres and under the new regulations. I felt comfortable in the car, even in the wet, which has provided us with valuable data and given me a good feel for how the car reacts in varying track conditions.

“We had a difficult start to the week, but I want to say thank you to the team for all their hard work over the past four days. We’ve managed a solid couple of days’ running and made good progress, and I’m really proud of the team effort to ensure we could make the most of our track time. I hope we can continue this momentum and have a strong week at the next test.”

Eric Boullier, Racing Director: “The first couple of days of the first test were certainly challenging, but I salute the efforts of everyone at McLaren-Honda, who have pulled together and worked hard to enable us to complete some solid and much-needed mileage, putting us in good stead over the weekend in preparation for next week.

“The mileage and test plan we have completed has provided us with a great amount of data that our engineers are already busy number crunching and analysing, which will help shape our run programme for the next test and allow us to move forward with our development.

“We were able to make use of today’s scheduled wet running to learn a lot about the new 2017 tyres and our car’s strengths and weaknesses. Although mitigating any risks on a wet track was key, we made use of all conditions to test out various configurations of wet-to-dry set-up and gather useful information for the season ahead.

“Over the weekend we’ll put all of our learning to good use and return to the track next Tuesday morning aiming to continue where we left off, and get some more valuable mileage on the board so we can push forward.”

Yusuke Hasegawa, Honda R&D Co. Ltd Head Of F1 Project & Executive Chief Engineer: “Following on from a much more productive day of running yesterday, today we were able to complete our testing programme with no major issues. Our main aim was to continue testing the durability of the power unit.

“We have recovered our programme after the track time we lost, and worked through all of our planned schedule over the past two days. The PU from day two is now with our engineers at Honda R&D in Sakura, Japan, to investigate the root cause of the problem we encountered.

“The McLaren-Honda team has worked incredibly hard this week, and although it hasn’t always been easy, we collected very important data to help us understand the car and PU package better.

“We will now prepare for the second and final pre-season test, during which we hope to continue collecting valuable information for the first race in Melbourne.”

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BOTTAS: I’LL DEFINITELY BE WATCHING LEWIS CLOSELY

Mercedes ‘new boy’ Valtteri Bottas admits that changing from Williams to Mercedes has been a bigger challenge than he expected, and makes no secret of the fact that he will be watching and learning from triple Formula 1 World Champion teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Bottas, who only ever drove for Williams in F1, told Sky Sports in Barcelona, “I’m definitely feeling more comfortable with the team every day but there is still work to do. Changing teams is maybe a slight bigger thing than l initially thought it would be. But it’s not a hurdle you can’t get over. I’ve been working pretty flat out to get comfortable.

“That’s why everything has run quite smoothly and I’m sure next week we will make big progress. And before Melbourne I will have time to go back to the factory and analyse everything and I’m confident we will be ready so I’ll be completely part of the team before Melbourne.”

“I am the type of driver who likes to understand everything what is going into the car and what effect it has. With how the car behaves there is still a bit more to do.”

Bottas has arrived in a team where Hamilton has won two world titles since he joined back in 2013 and is very much at home with the Silver Arrows outfit.

Bottas acknowledged, “Where Lewis has as an advantage is in that he has been part of this team for a long time. He knows exactly how the team works, and he commented after the first run in the new car that it had pretty much the same behaviour to the old car.”

“But l would rather join a team at this point than last year,” he added referring to the new rules that have changed how the cars must be driven, and for him leveled the playing field vis-à-vis his teammate.

“Having a new team-mate, there is always something to learn and I’ll definitely be watching Lewis closely. It would be stupid not to.”

“I can learn massively with the engineers. This is an opportunity for me to get to the next level with my performance with all the technical understanding. There is so much information coming in and nearly as much as I can take in so it’s very interesting,” added Bottas who will be looking to win his first grand prix starting at the season opener in Australia later this month.

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RED BULL: WE’RE DISCOVERING NEW THINGS ALL THE TIME

The final day of the first test in Barcelona marked a departure from the past three days’ activity, with the track being made wet in order to conduct testing of Pirelli’s intermediate and full wet 2017 tyres.

Max Verstappen took over driving duties from Daniel Ricciardo and after testing both wet weather compounds, the Dutchman also got in some dry running on the soft compound tyre to record the day’s second fastest time with a lap of 1:21.769.

Looking back on his day’s work, and his time in the RB13 over the course of this first test, Max said: “It’s always good to run a little bit in the wet in the first week of testing. Of course, the conditions are not ideal, as the sun is shining and the track is wet, but at least we got a first idea of what the wet tyres are like.”

“In terms of the week as a whole, the most important thing for us was to make mileage and to know that all the parts were holding up. In general everything behaved pretty well.”

“I think Mercedes might still have an advantage on us in terms of power at the beginning of the season but we’ll be catching up. For sure the car will change quite a bit before we get to Melbourne, as it will for everyone.”

Head of Race Engineering Guillaume Rocquelin added: “While I don’t imagine anyone would say the conditions today were perfect, as some parts of the track were dry and others wet, it was still a very interesting exercise.”

“We’re discovering new things all the time about the tyres and how they interact with the car – warm-up, degradation levels etc – so we did find out some things we wouldn’t have unless we had been through this process.”

“Like everybody, we did most of our wet running in the morning and then later on we had the chance to get in a bit more work on slicks, which was useful. We chose not to run when the track was damp as there wasn’t really much point and we thought we might also have a recurrence of yesterday’s exhaust problem, though that turned out not to be the case.”

“In all, it was a good test. Yes, we had a few problems, which cost us some track time, but the fundamentals are good: car control is good, the balance is good, the feel is good. That’s a good platform for next week when we’ll get into race simulations and working on the best set-up for the car. For now, though, it’s back to the factory for a pretty intense weekend of homework.”

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RENAULT: WE HAVE LEARNT A LOT

Renault Sport Formula One Team concluded the first week of pre-season testing with both Nico Hülkenberg and Jolyon Palmer taking to the wheel of the R.S.17 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Nico started his day on a damp but drying track using Pirelli’s wet, intermediate and then the soft compound dry tyres. He completed the most laps of any driver in the morning session – 51 – with a best lap time of 1:24.974secs.

The team then changed the power unit ahead of Jolyon taking to the track in the afternoon with what was by then a primarily dry track surface. Over the course of 39 laps – using the intermediate and then the soft and medium compound dry tyres – Jolyon set the day’s third fastest time, a 1:21.778secs.

Jolyon Palmer: “It was another good afternoon even if I didn’t get much of a chance to try the wet tyres. We’ve continued to improve the car and that’s exactly what you want to achieve from pre-season testing. I think we can be really happy with where we’ve got to at the end of this first test and we’re definitely looking positively to next week. The car is improving all the time in terms of feel and pace with more to come than has been seen on the timing monitors so far.”

Nico Hülkenberg: “We completed a reasonable amount of laps in the morning, however the track dried pretty quickly so it was difficult to come to too many conclusions about the wet and intermediate tyres. We got some initial impressions on how the car reacts and feels on these tyres so we do have a starting point. The R.S.17 feels good so far, but we still have room for improvement and that’s what next week is about. We have a good starting point and base so we just need to work forward with more track time.”

Cyril Abiteboul, Managing Director: “We have learnt a lot over the course of this first test. It has been rewarding for the team to work with Nico for the first time in the car and both him and Jolyon have given us positive feedback regarding the R.S.17. Our teams back at Enstone and Viry-Châtillon have worked tremendously hard to produce the R.S.17 and we have seen the first glimpse of its potential this week. Our engineers have made strong progress over the past four days and we are confident that we will continue to do so over the course of the next test too.”

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HAAS: WE’VE MADE SOME GOOD PROGRESS

The culmination of preseason testing’s first week at Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya saw simulated wet-weather running for tire-supplier Pirelli to get a better gauge on how this year’s new, wider tire would perform. The current tires augment the 2017 technical regulations which feature a drastically different and advanced aerodynamic package that is designed to create a higher level of downforce.

Tires are now 25 percent wider than they were in 2016, with the front tires increasing to 305 millimeters (12 inches) and the rear tires growing to 405 millimeters (15.9 inches).

A fully soaked track greeted teams as testing began anew at 9 a.m. local time. The Pirelli Cinturato Blue full wet was the tire of choice to start the session, with Haas F1 Team driver Romain Grosjean recording nine laps. But as the sun rose and the track began to dry, teams transitioned to the Cinturato Green intermediate tire. Grosjean ran on intermediates for 26 laps until the track was dry enough for slicks.

With a relatively dry track, Grosjean set out for an eight-lap run on a used set of Pirelli P Zero White medium tires. With less than 10 minutes remaining before the mandatory lunch break, the team bolted four new Red supersoft tires onto the Haas VF-17. Grosjean hit the track for five laps, securing his best time of the morning session on his 49th and final lap – a 1:22.739 that put him second overall, .434 of a second behind Scuderia Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen.

Water trucks doused the track again during the lunch break, forcing teams back onto the full wet tire to start the afternoon session.

Grosjean knocked out 69 laps in the day’s second half, smashing the 56 total laps he earned on Wednesday. And just as he had in the morning session, Grosjean ran through Pirelli’s tire lineup as track conditions evolved.

Nine laps were run on the full wet tire with 19 laps on the intermediate. By 4:20 p.m. local time, the track was ready for a return to slicks and the team put four new White mediums on the Haas VF-17. During the swap from intermediates to slicks, Haas F1 Team crew members practiced numerous pit stops, for the car isn’t the only component that needs to be ready for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix March 26 in Melbourne.

Riding on slicks for the day’s final 100 minutes, Grosjean tried out different setup configurations. His best time of the afternoon turned out to be his best time of the day – a 1:22.309 on his 111th lap with a set of Red supersofts that nicked his best time from the morning session by .430 of a second. The lap put Grosjean fourth among the 10 drivers who participated in the day’s test.

Grosjean led the day in laps, tallying 118 tours around the circuit, 25 more than second-best Räikkönen. It marked the second time Haas F1 Team ran the most laps this week in testing, as teammate Kevin Magnussen also ran 118 laps on Tuesday, 10 more than Räikkönen, who ran the second-most laps that day as well.

While Räikkönen was second in the lap count, he was first on the board. He set the day’s quickest time with a 1:20.872.

After four days of testing at Barcelona, Haas F1 Team racked up 343 laps for a total of 1,596.665 kilometers (992.122 miles). Magnussen secured 169 of those laps (786.695 kilometers/488.83 miles) on Monday and Tuesday, and Grosjean accounted for 174 laps (809.97 kilometers/503.292 miles) on Wednesday and Thursday.

Romain Grosjean: “It’s been a productive day for us. We managed to get some wet running, inter running, pit stop practice, dry running and trying a few setup changes that we had thought about overnight. The car is getting better and better. The team is doing a great job. Our pit stops looked pretty good. We’re trying to understand as much as we can. Of course, this is winter testing and it’s never going to get close to the conditions we have over a race weekend but, generally, I think we’ve made some good progress today. Hopefully, we can analyze all of that over the weekend and come back stronger next week.”

Guenther Steiner: “Quite a good day today. A lot better than yesterday. We got a lot of data. Romain was able to drive the car for longer stints and get a good feeling for it. We made good progress, even running on the wet, which was not ideal, but we made the best out of it. Now we need to get ready for test number two. Reliability has, obviously, been good. This year we’ve had very few and very small problems. Compared with last year, it’s been a lot better. That is how it should be. Ferrari did a very good job this year with the power unit package. It’s been very reliable. The engineers will now go over the data and the comments from the drivers, and out of that we will establish a test plan for next week. We know a lot more about the car now than we did four days ago. Now we can make the next step and hone it out, make it better.”

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MERCEDES: THE DAY WAS A LITTLE SHORTER THAN WE WERE HOPING

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport completed 68 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Thursday, as the first pre-season test of 2017 concluded in Spain.

• Lewis had been scheduled to run the W08 EQ Power+ in the morning but an electrical fault forced him to sit out the opening session
• Valtteri jumped into the car in the final hour before the lunch break at 13:00, managing nine laps and adding another 59 in the afternoon to take his total for the day to 68 laps before the pit lane closed at 18:00
• In the afternoon session, Valtteri completed the team’s first run on the Wet and Intermediate tyres before rounding off the test with tyre analysis on the dry compounds
• Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport completed a total of 558 laps (2,597km) this week in Barcelona
• The Silver Arrows will return to the track next week in Barcelona for the second pre-season test of 2017

Valtteri Bottas: “Unfortunately the day was a little bit shorter than we were hoping for but overall it has been a very good four days for us in Barcelona. As a team we really made the most out of this week- we’ve done a lot of mileage and I learned a lot.”

“Today we did some good running on the extreme wets and the intermediate tyres, before crossing over to the slicks. It was interesting to test in the damp track conditions and we got some very useful information about the intermediate tyre. We ended the day completing long runs on the slicks, to build up our understanding of the tyres ahead of Melbourne.”

“I’ve really enjoyed working with the team this week. Once again, all the mechanics and engineers have done a great job, and thanks to everyone at the factory, because the car has run so well.”

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SAUBER: IT WAS ANOTHER POSITIVE DAY

During the final test day, the Sauber F1 Team was able to work through another extensive programme. Day four of test one was dedicated to wet tyre testing in the morning and again in the afternoon session with Antonio Giovinazzi behind the wheel of the Sauber C36-Ferrari. Besides testing the wet and intermediate tyres, the soft and ultrasoft tyres were also used once the track dried. In total, the Italian ran 84 laps.

Antonio Giovinazzi: “It was another positive day. We were able to test different tyre compounds on wet and dry tyres. I am overall satisfied with the two testing days, during which I was able to run a good amount of laps and to gain more experience.”

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FORCE INDIA: WE HAVE MADE IMPORTANT STEPS FORWARD

Sahara Force India ended its first week of testing as Sergio Perez completed 82 laps on a wet-to-dry Circuit de Catalunya.

Sergio Perez: “It was a positive week and I think we made a good step forward with understanding the VJM10 and finding the limit of the tyres. I feel more confident in the car; I have learnt a huge amount and I think my preparation is going to plan. We can be pleased with this last day of testing: we covered a lot of ground and we found some more performance. Hopefully next week we can be in even better shape. There is still a lot of work to be done, but I’m optimistic for Melbourne already.”

Tom McCullough, Chief Race Engineer: “Getting a new car on track is the end result of a long process, one that took the hard work of hundreds of people back at the factory and trackside. We are happy with how this week has gone and I want to say a big ‘thank you’ for the incredible efforts of everyone here in Barcelona and in our facilities in Silverstone and Brackley. We have been able to build up good mileage and iron out some of the inevitable teething problems that you get with a new car. We are confident we have made some important steps forward in understanding the VJM10 and the new Pirelli tyres, and we are looking forward to next week’s test, when we will focus more on performance and race simulations.”

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VETTEL: NO CRYSTAL BALL BUT TWO OTHER BALLS THAT DON’T TELL ME MUCH

Sebastian Vettel has provided some insight into how things are going in the Ferrari camp for the first time this week after his two stints in the cockpit during testing in Barcelona amid a self imposed news blackout by the Reds.

Ferrari have impressed with their pace at Circuit de Catalunya, but Vettel was guarded in his summary, “For sure, we have a lot of work ahead of us – the team is pushing very hard. We had a quiet winter where we tried to focus on what’s important. Same here, we try to do our job. The list that we have to do is very long. We could have had a better first couple of days, but yeah, still a lot of work to do.”

He was always at the sharp end of proceedings during his stints in the car, while never bolting on a set of Pirelli Super Softs or Ultra Softs, Vettel did 139 laps on Wednesday plus 129 on Monday amounting to around 1250 kilometres while on duty in the cockpit of the SF70H.

Pushed for an opinion on where they stand relative to Mercedes, Vettel replied, “Well time will tell! I don’t have a crystal ball. I have two other balls but they don’t tell me much.”

“I think at this time we have a lot of stuff on our list. It’s a very, very long list. So we have a lot of things to do. For sure the potential is higher as the rules are very different, but it is for everyone.

“I’m quite curious to see from now to Melbourne how the car will change and how everyone else will change. In Melbourne we’ll have more of a clue where we are.”

The quadruple F1 World Champion admitted that he wished for more time on track, “A lot, but never enough. That’s what testing is for, to give you an idea. And the idea is that these cars, as a result of the new regulations, are very different to last year, in the way they look and in the way of driving them.”

Vettel, much like his fellow drivers, gave the new rules a thumbs up, “We are more or less at the performance levels of ten years ago, with a lot of aerodynamic downforce, but also with quite a lot more weight. They are also more physical and at the end of the day, you feel tired, but this is normal for the first outing since the winter break.”

“The tyres are also different and they behave more consistently. We have seen more or less what we expected: the cars are quicker in the corners and slower down the straights, because of the drag. But they are also great fun to drive.”

“I think from a driver’s point of view it’s better pretty much everywhere. Braking is better, cornering is better, you’ve got much more grip. Then in low speed where arguably downforce effect is less, you have wider tyres so the grip from them, it works pretty much like an aspirin, it fixes everything. It’s difficult to compare. It’s a different animal, a different beast.”

With regards to Ferrari, he said, “It’s too early to understand the available potential: we focused on our programme, without paying the slightest attention to what the other teams were doing. All winter we have prepared so as to get here in the best possible shape.”

“But there are still around four weeks to go to the first race and there is much work to do, so much in our programme. The stop towards the end doesn’t bother me: we were trying something that didn’t work, that’s all,” concluded Vettel who will be seeking to return Ferrari to the top step of the podium after a year of absence.

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HAMILTON: I HOPE IT SEPARATES THE MEN FROM THE BOYS

Silver Arrows driver Lewis Hamilton is relishing the new era Formula 1 cars and hopes that the challenges of driving the cars will favour the more skilled drivers on the grid.

Hamilton told Sky Sport after three days of testing in the Mercedes W08 at Circuit de Catalunya, “This is definitely the fastest I’ve ever driven in F1 and we haven’t even done [low] fuel runs. It feels amazing and I hope it separates the men from the boys.”

“It’s unreal. I’m like a kid on a rollercoaster ride because it is so much better than it was before.”

“It’s been a great test so far,” Hamilton said looking surprisingly fresh despite completing 95 laps on the day, one and a half race distances in Barcelona.

“It’s been no problem at all. My winter training has worked pretty well so I’m super happy about that.”

“I’m loving driving the car. It’s such an amazing feeling to walk in and see that car and be only one of two people who will get to drive it. It’s quite incredible.”

The new Formula 1 rules were introduced in an effort to allow for closer racing but, on the downside, Hamilton revealed ominously, “It’s worse to follow other cars and I don’t know how that will play out in an actual race when there are lots of cars. The turbulence coming off the car [ahead] is now twice as powerful.”