The first week of this year’s truncated pre-season testing is done. So, what – if anything – have we learnt?
We can certainly analyse the livery changes and then do our best to figure out the new design ideas, innovations and philosophies that the teams have produced and how they have been performing on track thus far.
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team
The Livery: A slightly different iteration of the Mercedes theme for 2020. The ‘Petronas green’ element has become a solid stripe rather than their previously more textured lines and there is a distinctive flash of deep red courtesy of new sponsor INEOS. Personally, I prefer last year’s livery but it’s hardly a drastic change and if it remains the class of the field then does it really matter?
The Car: Mercedes have been the talk of testing thanks to their innovative and somewhat controversial ‘DAS’ system, which affects the toe of the car whilst on a straight via the driver pushing and pulling the steering wheel. When you see all the members of other teams crowding around a replay of your car trying to figure out what’s going on, you know you’ve created something novel. It has already been banned for 2021 but appears to be cleared for this season. How much difference it really makes remains to be seen and it could even be that it’s just a smokescreen to deflect people away from their other developments towards the rear of the car. Namely, moving the wishbone backwards to open up the car’s floor. That could have a far larger effect on their performance than the one everyone is paying attention to. And that performance is looking pretty ominous so far…
Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow
The Livery: Yep. Still red.
The Car: It’s definitely evolution rather than revolution for the Scuderia. Whilst many have gone more towards the Mercedes philosophy – particularly the thinner noses – Ferrari have kept most of last year’s design and apparently tried to add some more downforce, which had been the car’s biggest issue in 2019. But there is a rather worrying feeling emanating from those in Red; everyone just seems a bit…jaded. Like they’ve maybe written off this year, already resigned themselves to defeat and are focussing on the new regulations in 2021. The lap times have certainly been conservative. But then again, that is the opposite of the headline-grabbing times that Ferrari have produced in past pre-season tests, only to ultimately fall short, so who knows what they’ll do come Melbourne?
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
The Livery: Another Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V job. Still nice though.
The Car: Red Bull are one of those teams to have changed to a far narrower nose this year and have also generally cleaned up the aero at the front of the car with a previously unseen double bulkhead design. The entire machine is as elegant as you’d expect from Red Bull and Adrian Newey, full of smooth, sweeping lines. A pretty car is often a fast car and, whilst not having gone for headline times, the team have looked pretty confident with how things have been going this week.
McLaren F1 Team
The Livery: Another papaya orange and blue number from the boys in Woking; this one with a more horizontal, striped feel than last year’s triangular, diagonal affair. They’ve also followed Red Bull and Ferrari into the matte-paint world. None of these changes are especially dramatic, anyway, and the car still looks great.
The Car: McLaren seem quietly confident with their progress, team principal Andreas Seidl saying it had been their “best winter test in years”. There is a continued, subtle evolution from last year’s car and they have been steadily working through their programme, introducing a new front wing on day three of the test. Everything seems to be going to plan and if they can keep their position at the head of the midfield this year, they’d probably be happy enough heading into 2021.
Renault F1 Team
The Livery: It’s currently a solely black (apart from white sponsors and a yellow number) testing livery. But it actually looks pretty awesome like that to be honest.
The Car: Renault have not only changed to the thinner style of nose but have made it rounded for good measure. It is the first of that kind in a long time and quite reminiscent of a Ferrari from the early 90s. Renault have gone with revolution over evolution and produced a dramatically different car to their disappointing 2019 model. The airbox and sidepods are also significantly changed as they try to prove to both Daniel Ricciardo and the big bosses at Renault HQ that they can follow through on their promises of moving up the grid.
Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda
The Livery: With the rebranding of Toro Rosso to AlphaTauri – Red Bull’s fashion brand – comes a brand new livery too. Whilst the former STR blue and red was a favourite amongst many, they’ve arguably surpassed it with this striking white and navy blue design.
The Car: Interestingly, AlphaTauri (it will take a while to get used to that) have not followed the design path of sister team Red Bull and kept faith in their wider, flatter nose. And sister team is now officially what they are, according to Helmut Marko; the Austrian putting out a statement stating that they had been upgraded from junior team. We will find out whether that actually amounts to anything as the season progresses.
BWT Racing Point F1 Team
The Livery: Even pinker than last year, having lost the blue SportPesa branding.
The Car: Racing Point have found themselves the other main talking point of this first week of testing, due to their car’s similarity to the 2019 Mercedes. The team from Silverstone have often bordered on being a Mercedes B-team but this year’s car is nearly identical to last year’s Silver Arrow and the paddock is somewhere between suspicious and angry, christening the new car the ‘pink Mercedes’. This hasn’t been helped by its seemingly excellent form, with the Racing Point drivers consistently running in the top three or four throughout the test. The team insist that they simply based their car on the class of the field, which seems logical…but then if it were that easy…
Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen
The Livery: Pretty similar to last year’s stylish design but the stripes down the edge of the nose being changed from navy blue to red are a slight improvement.
The Car: Along with the livery, the car’s design appears to have remained consistent also. Last year’s Alfa was seen as something of a trailblazer initially but it has all been rather subdued this time round, barring a ‘glory run’ on soft tyres on day two that saw Kimi Räikkönen top the timings, before promptly grinding to a halt…
Haas F1 Team
The Livery: With last year’s Rich Energy sponsorship debacle a distant memory, Haas have reverted to their traditional grey, white and red theme. And produced a pretty nice livery in the process.
The Car: The fundamental issue for Haas last year was their inability to keep their tyres in a good operating window and team principal Guenther Steiner has said that they are “taking a different approach” this year to address that. If they can get that issue under control, they can likely move back into the midfield fight. Of course, Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean managed one obligatory crash each during the test. (In fairness, the Dane’s was caused by a puncture.)
ROKiT Williams Racing
The Livery: A fresh, new livery for what Williams are hoping can be a fresh, new start this year. No ‘fresh’ puns intended there as some have pointed out the car’s resemblance to a specific brand of toothpaste… But, for me, it’s certainly an improvement on last year’s design and looks pretty clean. Again, no pun intended.
The Car: It has been an infinitely better start to the year than Williams endured in 2019, when they missed the first two days of the test altogether. They made the point of being the very first car out on track at this test as a means of catharsis and, once out there, ran very reliably and at a far more respectable pace than last year. They may well still end up as the slowest car on average this year but it’s looking like they should at least be able to compete with the others as things stand. It is reassuring to see that the slide of this once great time has hopefully halted.
