Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow – Barcelona F1 test – Day 4
Posted: 21.02.2019
Source: Ferrari
Leclerc brings test to an end with a further 138 laps
Montmelò, 21 February 2019 – Charles Leclerc was at the wheel of the SF90 on what was the last day of this four day Formula 1 pre-season test at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit. The Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow driver completed a total of 138 laps; 72 in the morning and 66 in the afternoon. That means the SF90 has covered 598 laps in this first test, (303 for Sebastian Vettel and 295 for Charles Leclerc), equivalent to a total distance of 2783,69 kilometres.
Different configurations. Following the installation lap, the Monegasque driver then got down to a series of runs to evaluate different set-ups, running various tyre compounds. Towards the end of the morning, Charles set what would be his fastest lap of the day in 1’18”046. The afternoon featured further tyre testing with the car running in different configurations.
With the media. During the lunch break, Leclerc spoke to the media about his first days in Ferrari. “For now, I don’t want to say too much, because this is just testing” he said. “But the feeling from the car is very good. We did many laps, the reliability was good and every day we managed to complete our programme.”
At ease in the car. “I feel quite at ease in the car, even if there are still a few things I need to get used to, including how the team operates. But this is quite an easy car to drive. As Seb said, this doesn’t feel like a new car, but more like one that is quite well developed. Driveability is very good, which shows that the team has done an amazing job over the winter to bring a very solid car here.”
Always improve. “As soon as I arrived here in Barcelona, I switched to ‘work’ mode and put any emotion to one side to get on with the job as well as possible,” concluded Charles. “The results? I’m not really focusing on that side of things. I’m focusing on myself, trying to do my best and to improve with every lap.”
Last test now. In between now and the start of the championship, which gets underway in Australia on 17 March, there are a further four days of testing scheduled for all the teams, again at the Barcelona track. The session gets underway on Tuesday 26 February and end on Friday 1 March.
Barcelona F1 Test – Day 4 – Result
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Tyre | Laps |
| 1 | Nico Hülkenberg | Renault F1 Team | 1:17:393 | Red – C5 | 24 |
| 2 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull Torro Rosso Honda | 1:17:637 | Red – C5 | 136 |
| 3 | Daniel Riccardo | Renault F1 Team | 1:17:785 | Red – C5 | 34 |
| 4 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport | 1:17:857 | Red – C5 | 57 |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport | 1:17:977 | Red – C4 | 58 |
| 6 | Charles Leclerc | Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow | 1:18:046 | Yellow – C3 | 138 |
| 7 | Lando Norris | McLaren F1 Team | 1:18:431 | Red – C4 | 132 |
| 8 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo Racing | 1:18:511 | Yellow – C3 | 154 |
| 9 | Romain Grosjean | Rich Energy Haas F1 Team | 1:18:563 | Yellow – C3 | 64 |
| 10 | Kevin Magnussen | Rich Energy Haas F1 Team | 1:18:720 | Yellow – C3 | 66 |
| 11 | Pierre Gasly | Aston Martin Red Bull Racing | 1:18:780 | Yellow – C3 | 146 |
| 12 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point F1 Team | 1:19:664 | Grey – C2 | 72 |
| 13 | George Russell | Williams Racing | 1:20:997 | Yellow – C3 | 17 |
| 14 | Robert Kubica | Williams Racing | 1:21:542 | Grey – C2 | 48 |
Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow – Barcelona F1 test – Day 3
Posted: 20.02.2019
Source: Ferrari
Another 134 laps for Vettel in the SF90
Montmelò, 20 February 2019 – Sebastian Vettel was back behind the wheel of the Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow SF90 for the third and penultimate day of the first Formula 1 pre-season test. The German completed 80 laps in the morning and a further 54 in the afternoon, thus completing the planned distance on the programme ahead of schedule. So far, the SF90 has done 460 laps here at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit.
Set-up work. Once again, the morning session began with a first run to check all the car components were functioning properly. Then the team got down to set-up work and evaluating tyres, simulating various phases of a race. Vettel set his fastest time a bit before the lunch break, stopping the clocks in 1’18”350.
Positive impression confirmed. Here is what Sebastian said at the end of the day: “It was good to be back in the car today and put some more mileage under my belt. Again, we had a busy day and managed to complete our programme, which included a few new items, compared to Monday. We tried a few things around also focusing on set-up and I can only confirm the positive impression I had on day one. Having now put 303 laps in the bag I feel comfortable to say we are satisfied with how the car is progressing.”
Charles again. The first pre-season test here in Barcelona ends tomorrow, when Charles Leclerc will again be driving the SF90. Next week, at this same Spanish track, there will be a final four days of testing prior to the start of the season in Australia on 17 March.
Barcelona F1 Test – Day 3 – Result
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Tyre | Laps |
| 1 | Daniel Kvyat | Red Bull Torro Rosso Honda | 1:17:704 | Red – C5 | 115 |
| 2 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo Racing | 1:17:762 | Red – C5 | 133 |
| 3 | Daniel Riccardo | Renault F1 Team | 1:18:164 | Red – C4 | 56 |
| 4 | Sebastian Vettel | Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow | 1:18:350 | Yellow – C3 | 134 |
| 5 | Max Verstappen | Aston Martin Red Bull Racing | 1:18:787 | Yellow – C3 | 75 |
| 6 | Nico Hülkenberg | Renault F1 Team | 1:18:800 | Red – C4 | 63 |
| 7 | Romain Grosjean | Rich Energy Haas F1 Team | 1:19:189 | Yellow – C3 | 17 |
| 8 | Pietro Fittipaldi | Rich Energy Haas F1 Team | 1:19:249 | Yellow – C3 | 48 |
| 9 | Carlos Sainz, Jr. | McLaren F1 Team | 1:19:354 | Yellow – C3 | 82 |
| 10 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point F1 Team | 1:20:102 | Yellow – C3 | 67 |
| 11 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport | 1:20:693 | Yellow – C3 | 88 |
| 12 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport | 1:20:818 | Yellow – C3 | 77 |
| 10 | George Russell | Williams Racing | 1:25:625 | Yellow – C3 | 5 |
Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow – Barcelona F1 test – Day 2
Posted: 19.02.2019
Source: Ferrari
Charles completes 157 laps on his debut
Montmelò, 19 February 2019 – The second day of the first pre-season test at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit saw Charles Leclerc make his official debut at the wheel of the SF90, following on from the two laps he completed during the filming day on Sunday. The Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow driver completed a total of 157 laps; 73 in the morning, a further 84 in the afternoon. The Monegasque driver got in the car at 9 on the dot but the session was immediately red-flagged and he had to wait almost half an hour before going out on track.
Consistent lap times. Leclerc soon got to grips with the SF90, producing consistent lap times, which was useful for the engineers as they evaluated different parameters on the car in race trim. His best time of 1’18”247 was set just before the lunch break.
Happy Leclerc. “I am very happy with the way today went,” were the Monegasque driver’s first comments as he got out of the car at the end of the day. “Despite some red flag interruptions, we were able to get through all our programme and to do 157 laps, which has produced a lot of useful data. In terms of feeling, I quickly felt comfortable with the SF90 and I have to say I really enjoyed myself. Emotion? There’s always going to be some when you get into a Ferrari, but today I put that to one side because I had a job to do for the team. Let’s hope we keep going like this over the next few days, because it’s important to make the most of the few on-track testing opportunities we have.”
Vettel once again. This first pre-season test continues at the Barcelona circuit until Thursday. Tomorrow, Sebastian Vettel will be once again behind the wheel of the SF90, before handing back to Leclerc for the final day. Next week the Spanish track hosts the final four days of testing before the Formula 1 season gets underway in Australia on 17 March.
Barcelona F1 Test – Day 2 – Result
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Tyre | Laps |
| 1 | Charles Leclerc | Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow | 1:18:247 | Yellow – C3 | 157 |
| 2 | Lando Norris | McLaren F1 Team | 1:18:553 | Red – C4 | 104 |
| 3 | Kevin Magnussen | Rich Energy Haas F1 Team | 1:19.206 | Yellow – C3 | 59 |
| 4 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull Torro Rosso Honda | 1:19:301 | Red – C4 | 132 |
| 5 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo Racing | 1:19:312 | Red – C4 | 101 |
| 6 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport | 1:19:353 | Yellow – C3 | 89 |
| 7 | Pierre Gasly | Aston Martin Red Bull Racing | 1:19:814 | Yellow – C3 | 92 |
| 8 | Nico Hülkenberg | Renault F1 Team | 1:19:837 | Yellow – C3 | 95 |
| 9 | Daniel Riccardo | Renault F1 Team | 1:19:886 | Yellow – C3 | 28 |
| 10 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport | 1:19:928 | Yellow – C3 | 74 |
| 11 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point F1 Team | 1:20:433 | Yellow – C3 | 79 |
| 12 | Pietro Fittipaldi | Rich Energy Haas F1 Team | 1:21:849 | Yellow – C3 | 13 |
Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow – Barcelona F1 test – Day 1
Posted: 18.02.2019
Source: Ferrari
Sebastian completes 169 laps on the SF90
Montmelò, 18 February 2019 – Today was the first of four days of pre-season Formula 1 testing currently taking place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. At the wheel of the Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow SF90 was Sebastian Vettel. The German completed a total of 169 laps, 72 in the morning and a further 97 in the afternoon. The first item on the agenda was a check of all the car systems, followed by a series of runs with the car in different configurations.
Programme completed. Sebastian was able to complete the planned programme for the day without any problems. He ran various tyre compounds in order to analyse the car’s behaviour on each of them. His best time of 1’18”161 was set before the lunch break.
Seb satisfied. At the end of his first day of running Sebastian Vettel was quite satisfied. “The first impression from today is very good. I could not have hoped for a better day, as the car worked really well and we had no issues slowing us down. We completed the programme just the way we wanted. Coming here I was pretty open minded and had no expectations and I didn’t need that much time to familiar with the car, as it was making everything quite straightforward for me. I must say I am still a bit rusty, as I haven’t been driving for several months, but I’ll sleep well tonight”. “It is too early to sum it up, as it’s just the first day – Vettel added – but I would like to send my compliments to everyone back at the factory in Maranello for how they tackled all the new rules and what they put on track today and also how the team is handling the car in a well prepared way”.
Charles next. The test session in Barcelona runs until Thursday. Tomorrow, Charles Leclerc will get behind the wheel of the SF90, before Vettel returns on Wednesday, with the Monegasque driver then rounding off the first of the two planned tests on Thursday.
Barcelona F1 Test – Day 1 – Result
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Tyre | Laps |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow | 1:18:161 | Yellow – C3 | 137 |
| 2 | Carlos Sainz, Jr. | McLaren F1 Team | 1:18:558 | Red – C4 | 89 |
| 3 | Romain Grosjean | Rich Energy Haas F1 Team | 1:19:159 | Yellow – C3 | 39 |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | Aston Martin Red Bull Racing | 1:19:426 | Yellow – C3 | 95 |
| 5 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo Racing | 1:19:462 | Yellow – C3 | 85 |
| 6 | Daniel Kvyat | Red Bull Torro Rosso Honda | 1:19:464 | Red – C4 | 51 |
| 7 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point F1 Team | 1:19:944 | Yellow – C3 | 30 |
| 8 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport | 1:20:127 | Grey – C2 | 69 |
| 9 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport | 1:20:135 | Grey – C2 | 49 |
| 10 | Nico Hülkenberg | Renault F1 Team | 1:20:980 | Grey – C2 | 65 |
| 11 | Daniel Riccardo | Renault F1 Team | 1:20:983 | Grey – C2 | 31 |
What’s new with Pirelli’s 2019 Formula 1 tyres?
Posted: 18.02.2019
Source: Pirelli
Barcelona, February 18, 2019 – This year will be the ninth season of the current Pirelli era, and during each of those years the tyre range has always been different from one season to the next. So, what can we expect that’s new from the latest range of tyres – which make their debut on the 2019 cars in Barcelona this week?
THREE COLOURS, FIVE COMPOUNDS
There will be only three colours at each 2019 race: white for the hardest compound of the weekend, yellow for the medium one, and red for the softest compound. In total, there will be five compounds available for the year: they are numbered from 1 to 5, going from hardest to softest. As all five compounds are on track at the pre-season test in Barcelona, the hardest (C1) and the softest (C5) compounds won’t carry the usual stripes during the test. Compounds C2, C3 and C4 will instead carry the usual branding with stripes: coloured white, yellow and red respectively. This will only happen during tests: for grand prix weekends there will be just three compounds at each race.
PROTOTYPES FOR TESTING
There will also be some tyres that don’t carry any markings at all: these will be prototype tyres that will be seen during tests only to assess potential evolutions for the future. There is a bespoke test schedule currently being finalised for 2020, which will involve all the teams in a series of sessions this year. Details of this schedule will be released shortly.
DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES AND PRESSURES
A new move for this year is to reduce the maximum temperature of the tyre blankets at the rear to 80 degrees centigrade, while the front tyre blanket temperature will remain at the current 100 degrees centigrade. This will help front tyre warm-up, and also reduce the risk of graining: especially in low ambient temperatures. As a result, the starting pressures of the rear tyres have been reduced accordingly.
THINNER TREADS
There was a thinner tread used at selected races last year, which featured new asphalt. This was designed to prevent overheating, with the objective successfully achieved. As a result, a similar tread reduction has been adopted for all the 2019 tyres. The tyre constructions will therefore be exactly the same at every race this year.
NEW INTERMEDIATE AND WET
There’s a brand new intermediate tyre for this year, which is designed to cover a wider range of conditions than its predecessor. This makes for a much more effective crossover point with both the slick and the full wet tyres, as well as improved performance in the wet. The full wet tyre is also entirely new, with a redesigned profile that offers greater resistance to aquaplaning and better driveability in heavy rain.
NO WET BACK-UPS
Last year, two parallel ranges of wet and intermediate tyres were homologated: one for higher temperatures and one for lower temperatures. This year, the tyres have been made more versatile so there is no need to have two ranges: there’s only one intermediate tyre and one full wet tyre for the whole year.
WIDER WORKING RANGES
The working ranges are a bit higher for this year in order to reduce the potential for overheating. This ensures that overall there is a wider operating window as well.
C1 110-140°C
C2 110-135°C
C3 105-135°C
C4 90-120°C
C5 85-115°C
(C1 the hardest compound, C5 the softest)
Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow – First run for the SF90
Posted: 17.02.2019
Source: Ferrari
Montmelò, 17 February 2019 – The SF90 has now completed its first track outing, following on from last Friday’s launch. It took place at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit, when Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow carried out a filming day to gather footage for media purposes for itself and its partners.
Sebastian and Charles. Sebastian Vettel did the bulk of the running, with Charles Leclerc making his debut in the new Ferrari towards the end of the day. As per filming day regulations, the car completed no more than a hundred kilometres, running on demonstration-run tyres.
First test. The SF90 will be back on track tomorrow, when the first of two official pre-season tests begins at the Spanish circuit. Sebastian Vettel will drive the first day, alternating with Charles Leclerc through to Thursday when the test ends. The second session, again in Barcelona, runs from 26 February to 1 March.
Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow – Barcelona test: Seb to start
Posted: 16.02.2019
Source: Ferrari
Drivers will alternate over four days of testing
Maranello, 16 February 2019 – It will fall to Sebastian Vettel to give the new Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow car its track debut, on Monday 18th February. That’s the opening day of the first test that runs until 21 February at the Barcelona circuit.
Alternating. The German, embarking on his fifth season with the Maranello team, will alternate with Charles Leclerc over the four days. Therefore Tuesday sees the Monegasque driver make his pre-season debut, before returning to the cockpit on Thursday, after Vettel drives again on the Wednesday.
Next step. After the first test, all the teams taking part in the Formula 1 World Championship will return to Barcelona for a final run of four days testing, from 26 February to 1 March. Following that, it will be time to think about the first Grand Prix of the season, in Australia on 17 March at the Albert Park circuit.