F1 2024 pre-season testing: The first 2 days by the numbers

Only one day of pre-season testing remains for the 2024 F1 season. All 10 teams will collect data from his first four sessions and try to learn as much as possible about the 2024 challenger before the final day begins.

here SB Nation, We are doing the same thing.

Let’s take a look at some of the things we learned from the first two days of F1 pre-season testing.

2,451

Speed ​​is the name of the game in F1.

But that’s not all when it comes to pre-season testing. Sure, you want to be fast. But you also want to be trusted. The more laps you complete, the more confident you will be to challenge your challengers for the next campaign.

The total number of laps completed by the 10 teams will be 2,451 before the third and final day of testing begins.

Here’s a breakdown of laps by team and day:

A few things stand out.

Firstly, as we have already said, Haas focused the first two days of testing on tire deterioration, a flaw from last season. New team principal Ayao Komatsu focused on that point again on Thursday after the second day of testing.

“We continued our program from yesterday on tire management and fuel efficiency. Nico drove in the morning and even though his confusion cut the session a bit short, we still got the basic answers we were hoping for. I think we got it,” Komatsu said in the team’s post-session media report. “I handed over to Kevin in the afternoon and he ran for five hours and it was another pretty good session. I’m pretty happy with the results. Tomorrow I’m looking forward to another productive day of testing, although I might change the program a bit because I had a good two days.”

But despite their focus on tire management and long runs…Red Bull is right next to them.

At the other end of the spectrum are Williams and McLaren. On Wednesday, Williams stalled with several different problems, with Alexander Albon dealing with a fuel pump issue during the morning session, followed by a driveshaft problem that cut Logan Sargent’s afternoon session short. The weather improved on Thursday and things picked up again, but we are still at the bottom of the list.

As for McLaren, Lando Norris said the team encountered some “minor issues” that reduced their total laps in Thursday afternoon’s session.

It will be interesting to see if the lap numbers remain high on Friday, or if the team will shift their focus to one-lap pace.

1.493

As you know, 2023 was a dominant season for Red Bull. This is something we saw coming this time a year ago, as the RB19 appeared to be the dominant package from day one of preseason testing in Bahrain last February.

To that end, on the first day of pre-season testing a year ago, it was Max Verstappen who topped the timesheets, setting a time of 1 minute 32.837 seconds.

If you were hoping that Red Bull would take a step back in developing the RB20, you might be out of luck. On Wednesday’s timesheet, Verstappen led the race with a time of 1 minute 31.344 seconds.

This is 1.493 seconds faster than his time a year ago.

Of course, test numbers should always be taken with a grain of salt, and Verstappen may have been running a different program this year than when he posted last year.

But if not…

1:29.921

This represents Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz Jr.’s time at the top of the timesheets on Thursday.

Behind him was Sergio Perez with a time of 1 minute 30.679 seconds, followed by Lewis Hamilton with a time of 1 minute 31.066 seconds.

However, there are some things to keep in mind this time. Sainz recorded his time on the C4 compound, while Hamilton and Perez recorded their times on the harder C3 compound. Pirelli, F1’s official tire supplier, said: Media report after own session:

“However, apart from the usual unknowns regarding the fuel load on the fastest lap, it is worth noting that Sainz recorded his time on a set of C4 tyres, while Perez and Hamilton recorded their times on C3 tyres: these two It is believed that the difference in one lap time between compounds is approximately 6/10. ”

Also, for those wondering: C3 will be the softest compound available for next weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix. Pirelli specified his three compounds for the season opener:

So while Sainz’s time is impressive, it should be taken with a grain of salt. That’s the case with everything during preseason testing.

Five

One more note about what we saw from Sainz, Hamilton and Perez on Thursday. Thanks to your brilliant mind, F1-tempo — This won’t be the last time they hear from me this season — Let’s compare their fastest laps from today’s session.

Perez’s lap is dark blue, Hamilton’s is light blue and Sainz’s is red. As you can see, Sainz showed his best performance in sectors 2 and 3, Hamilton had his best moments in many turns, and Perez certainly did well on the long straight through his line starting/finishing from turn 15. We have collected. Enter turn 1.

Given the strength of the RB19’s DRS a year ago, it’s probably no surprise that it continues in the RB20.

But notice the white dot in the graph above. At this point, Perez’s top speed reached 320 km/h.

This was 5 km faster than Sainz’s top speed of 315 km.

It’s definitely creepy.

0.125

It’s been said before, but it’s worth repeating.

What a difference a year could make for McLaren.

Pre-season testing a year ago showed worrying signs for McLaren. There was already talk that the team needed a major upgrade package later in the spring, but as we all know, the team struggled early on. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri combined for just 17 points in the first eight races of the season, but as Norris and Norris told me last April, they’re just fighting for points. was.

Their fortunes changed over the summer when the MCL60 upgrade arrived and by the end of the year they were fighting for and gaining podium spots.

But to illustrate in numbers how much of a difference there is between last year and Bahrain and this year, let’s consider 0.125.

Norris qualified for the Bahrain Grand Prix, finishing 11th with a lap time of 1 minute 31.381 seconds.

What was his best time on Thursday? 1:31.256.

0.125 seconds may not seem like much, but when you consider the difference in fuel load between last year’s qualifying and this year’s second day of preseason testing, the difference is huge.

To get the point across, consider the following: F1-temposhowing Norris’ best laps on the second day of testing last year and on the second day of testing this year.

What was the best lap on the second day of the test in 2023? 1 minute 35.522 seconds, more than 4 seconds slower than this year’s best time. Comparing the two, you can see that the MCL38 (orange) performs much better than the MCL60 (silver) across most of the track.

Indeed, one year makes a big difference.