When F1 pre-season testing has gone wrong...

[00:00:00] Formula 1 testing is upon us and that means that some testing times are on course for all the Formula 1 teams and drivers, especially if you are Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari. So then, what exactly could go wrong in a Formula 1 test? And what's that one critical factor that's going to make Lewis Hamilton's first Formula 1 test exponentially harder than what Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso faced when they joined Ferrari? My name is Somal Arora. Welcome to the Inside Line F1 Podcast. Join the community by pressing the subscribe button. Let's go!

[00:00:32] What could possibly go wrong in a Formula 1 test? Just ask Williams. They know everything about it. You could end up having a slow car. You could end up having an unreliable car. You could end up having a bouncy car like Mercedes did in 2022 and that can restrict you from unlocking all sense of performance from that machine. Or like McLaren faced with Nigel Manson in 1993, your driver could be far too big for the machine. You could have far too many red flags that prevent you from getting some decent running or your driver can crash your car so much and you don't end up having enough parts to test,

[00:01:01] which defeats the whole purpose of testing. Or worst of all, you could be like Williams in 2019 and you could have a car that's not prepared and ready with all the parts manufactured. That's right. In 2019, Williams arrived to testing two and a half days late. That was George Russell's first experience in Formula 1. Think about it. It's mind-blowing. A bad test doesn't necessarily mean a bad season though. Let's learn from two teams who actually had a terrible test but went on to turn the tide in their favor.

[00:01:28] One of whom actually ended up becoming a Constructors World Champion the year after their terrible testing. Yes, we are talking about McLaren. McLaren and the start of 2023 were in a proper conundrum. They had two different aerodynamic directions to choose and the one that they started testing and the season with ended up being the wrong one, which meant that for a majority of the first half of the season, McLaren was struggling. They were in Q1, sometimes struggling to get into Q2 with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris behind the wheel.

[00:01:55] But that was only until their first upgrade arrived. And after that, around the British GP, they were challenging for podiums, they were challenging for front rows and sometimes were close to getting wins as well. That's the power of one good upgrade and choosing one right aerodynamic direction. And it's that very same aero direction that led McLaren to winning their first Constructors World Championship in decades in 2024. Again, bad test does not mean the end of the world but it could mean a tough start as Alpine faced last year.

[00:02:24] They walked into 2024 testing with an overweight car and their entire technical staff resigning just one week before the start of the entire season. Classic Alpine, right? Alpine had their cars knocked out in Q1 so often that we all lost count but Alpine were able to bring things back in their favour. Because once they had the technical structure change and they had people finally there to work on their Formula One car, they were then able to bring the car back down to a normal weight and then unlock performance from it.

[00:02:52] And lo and behold, in the final couple of races, Alpine were able to jump all the way from P9 to P6 in the Constructors World Championship. And I'd say on merit because their performance in Brazil was phenomenal and the car held up again. So what we can conclude from this is that even if you have a bad testing, things can be recovered in the season. But it makes the first part of the season that much harder. And do you know why Ferrari didn't win the Constructors World Championship last year? Because of a bad couple of races in the middle of the season.

[00:03:19] It's so competitive at the top that you can't even afford one bad race, which is where testing becomes vital. Who do you think is going to get a head start in 25 after testing? Let us know down below in the comments. For Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton to get that head start, there's one thing that they really need to get a grip on. And that thing is time. That's right. Nowadays in Formula One testing, drivers only get a total of three days with one car that's shared between two teammates.

[00:03:47] So essentially, Lewis Hamilton is only going to get a day and a half in his brand new Ferrari. Firstly, fiddle out with everything, understand every single setting on the steering wheel. And then to also test the limits of that machine. Firstly, in qualifying spec and then also in terms of race space across multiple tyre compounds too. Can you imagine that? All of that and more in one and a half days. There is no chance you can learn everything about a Formula One car that quickly.

[00:04:13] For context, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso had so much more testing time. In 2015, when Sebastian Vettel joined Ferrari, he had a total of 12 days worth of proper pre-season testing. But you only really get to know how good you are and how comfortable you are in a team when you drive the car to its absolute limit. Imagine if there's a red flag. Imagine if there's a crash. Imagine there are not enough parts. That testing time of one and a half days for Lewis becomes even lower.

[00:04:37] And he'll have to walk into the Australian GP almost with his hands tied to the back because he just hasn't got enough time with the car. Lewis' style of driving involves pushing the limits and then working backwards from there to realise what you cannot do. And one thing that James Walsh shared on that brilliant interview on high performance was that Mercedes' initial frustration with him in 2013 is that he would do only one good lap out of 20 laps that he'd drive on. And so on the other laps, he'd go out there at turn number one, break a bit too late, make a mistake, understand what not to do.

[00:05:05] And then he wouldn't have a proper reference lap until that one lap that Lewis would deliver, which could be frustrating for the engineers, right? Because you want constant progression in all the laps and constant learnings. Now, that's one thing that Lewis has improved a lot since then and he's won six world championships after that. So don't be surprised if Lewis and Ferrari are still learning how to gel with each other by the time we come to Australia or even go to the Middle East for the first part of the entire season. And by that point, when we get to Spain, the cars are going to change dramatically because a new set of upgrades will come in and the cars won't be allowed to have flexi wings anymore,

[00:05:34] which is another learning curve. And I have belief that maybe if not at the start, by the middle and the end of the season, Lewis will be right there fighting for wins. But what do you think about this? Will Lewis have a head start at Ferrari? Or if not, which driver do you think will be right at the top when we come to Australia? There is no doubt below in the comments. Thank you for watching the Inside Line F1 podcast, everyone. Like, share and subscribe if you enjoyed this episode. And we shall see you back here for more analysis and more insight on Formula 1. Thank you.