In Pictures: Barcelona Test 1

February 21, 2020 JOMA

The 2020 Formula One season started with new liveries and a few surprises, especially Mercedes' DAS system (DAS=Dual Axis System) that allows the driver to adjust the toe angles at different speeds and conditions, such system is believed to improve fuel economy and low speed agility/high speed stability.

The fastest lap during the first three days came from Valtteri Bottas on the last day, a 1:15.732, followed by teammate Hamilton, 0.784 of a second behind.

We had good weather conditions and a low number of red flags, which enabled plenty of running, thanks also to an impressive level of reliability from all the cars. The fastest times were considerably faster than the equivalent first test last year, which shows the natural evolution of the cars, as the tires are the same this year. This means there is one less unknown quantity for the teams to deal with as they dial themselves into their new cars. Everything went as expected from our side apart from some abrasion in the cool conditions of the morning, which is normal under those circumstances. As always, it is hard to read a lot into the comparative lap times: every team is testing with different car specifications, fuel loads, set-ups and tyre compounds. The characteristics of Barcelona suit the harder end of the P Zero range, also because of the increased roughness now due to the natural aging of the relatively new asphalt. As a result, there was not that much running with the softest compounds. Because there are fewer test days compared to last year, we’ve also seen longer runs with more intense programs than previous seasons, which additionally influenced tyre choice.

Mario Isola - Pirelli's Head of F1 and Car Racing.

Here's a gallery of pictures from the first week at Barcelona: