Mercedes

emember the Ferrari controversy from the original pre-season? It was all about the legality of the fuel system used in 2019. The saga was exacerbated by the lack of straightline speed exhibited by the SF1000 in Barcelona testing, some suggesting this was because the team was now having to run a different fuel system. Ferrari blamed it on a draggy car, but that sounds ridiculous given all the data and windtunnel information it has. The car was 11mph slower on the main straight compared to the Alfa Romeo, which uses the same engine.

While Sebastian Vettel was able to wring out a sub-1m17s time, albeit on the soft C5 tyres, the team was still shy of Mercedes’ pace.

The car looks surprisingly simple compared to the Mercedes, with the exception of the complex array of elements in front of the sidepods. Perhaps this is where the problems lie

R(like Haas), in that they are creating a low-pressure area and not feeding the ‘Coke-bottle’ area and diffuser efficiently. The engine cover is tightly pulled in around the engine and cooling parts, so flow to the rear wing should not present a problem.

Charles Leclerc finished the last day of testing fourth and a 1m16.360s lap must have been encouraging, but we’re used to seeing the red cars always around the top three. Ferrari did manage the highest number of laps during the second test, which shows the reliability is there.

I saw Ferrari trying an alternative front pushrod articulated bracket, either because of a failure or a slightly different geometry. It’s been reported that, although slow-speed performance has been improved, there was still an element of understeer and the badly grained tyres were testament to this.

There will have been furious analysis going on at Maranello to figure out how to rescue the situation.

It’s pretty much unheard of for Albon to go into a winter knowing what he’s doing the following season – only he can’t have expected the ‘winter’ to last until July. That gives him stability to focus on the most important thing – getting closer to the pace of team-mate Verstappen than he was able to do in a half-season at Red Bull in 2019. Has already been out in the RB16 at Silverstone in a pre-austria filming-day warm-up. This is his chance.

The rise of Leclerc has taken a little of the spotlight away from Verstappen, whose arrival in F1 ironically created the superlicence points rules that will keep many similarly talented drivers out of F1. Form from testing suggests that Red Bull’s superstar should be the threat that worries Hamilton the most. Red Bull’s first year with Honda gave him three wins and third in the points last season, and Verstappen is all set for a big leap forward.