Toro Rosso picked up where they left off on third day of testing as Alexander Albon lowered their best time of the test so far.
Albon posted a best time of 1’17.637 on the morning of the fourth day of testing, six hundredths of a second inside team mate Daniil Kvyat’s benchmark from yesterday.More than half of the teams have improved on their previous times today. Daniel Ricciardo put Renault second-fastest with a best time of 1’17.785, while Lewis Hamilton was just under two-tenths of a second slower in his Mercedes.
Charles Leclerc lowered Ferrari’s best time of the day to a 1’18.046 while also covering the largest individual mileage of any driver, managing 75 laps. He did, however, lose some front bodywork from his SF90 and went off at turn five.
Haas suffered no apparent repeat of their electronic problems from yesterday as Romain Grosjean set the sixth-fastest time.
Lando Norris caused the only red flag of the session when he went off at turn five shortly after testing began. His McLaren came to a stop in a gravel trap and was undamaged, and he resumed lapping soon afterwards.
Having only joined in the test yesterday, Williams managed the first serious running with its FW42. Robert Kubica put 48 laps on the chassis, running with a large array of flow-detection sensors for his early runs. Kubica, the last of this year’s race drivers to take part in testing, also had a brief spin at one point.
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2019 F1 testing day four morning times
Pos. | Car number | Driver | Team | Model | Best time | Gap | Laps | Tyres |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Toro Rosso | STR14 | 1’17.637 | 44 | C5 | |
2 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | RS19 | 1’17.785 | 0.148 | 34 | C5 |
3 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | W10 | 1’17.977 | 0.340 | 58 | C4 |
4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | SF90 | 1’18.046 | 0.409 | 75 | C3 |
5 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | C38 | 1’18.511 | 0.874 | 56 | C3 |
6 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | VF-19 | 1’18.563 | 0.926 | 64 | C3 |
7 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Red Bull | RB15 | 1’19.495 | 1.858 | 52 | C3 |
8 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | MCL34 | 1’19.543 | 1.906 | 48 | C3 |
9 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point | RP19 | 1’20.026 | 2.389 | 41 | C3 |
10 | 88 | Robert Kubica | Williams | FW42 | 1’21.542 | 3.905 | 48 | C2 |
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hahostolze (@hahostolze)
21st February 2019, 12:08
This testing is making me doubt all the conventional wisdoms. Toro Rosso on C4, doing that time, despite looking like one of the least good cars… Curious what potential is in the actual teams. Curious too what is stopping Merc doing better now that they’ve done actual glory runs of sorts.
kpcart
21st February 2019, 12:30
Toro rosso time was c5, but c5 seems hardly faster than c4, ricciardo’s time on c5 was less than 1 tenth faster than his c4 time. And Hamilton went slower on c5. So far I think ferrari, alfa romeo and torro rosso are being helped by their development choice on front wing. Renault seems surprisingly quick, maybe their motor has caught ferrari and merc quietly while everyone is obsessing about Honda because of red bull.
Nitzo (@webtel)
21st February 2019, 12:45
@kpcart:
we also dont know if any of them got a tow.
It is just extremely tough to make any logical sense of whats happening apart from one–Williams aren’t winning the WDC/WCC.
anon
21st February 2019, 18:03
@webtel, it seems that too many people are making the mistake of looking just at the headline times and thinking that says everything…
Nitzo (@webtel)
21st February 2019, 12:33
@hahostolze
I believe Albon did that time on C5.
And i am curious too– fuel loads, closed DRS flaps, engine modes, etc.
Making a judgement/inferring anything seems to be an afterthought and is also moot as we know it.. Some teams would want to test out their plans in the first phase. Some teams would want to focus on the long term and be more aggressive with their plans and experiments in the second phase .
Nevertheless, irrespective of what we have seen, all teams would want to show some amount of progress next week.
pastaman (@)
21st February 2019, 13:03
Your mistake is trying to draw pace conclusions from the first testing days of the year.
Steven Robertson (@emu55)
21st February 2019, 13:07
Plus the cars arent under Parke Ferme rules, so not all the fast times may be legal..
robinsonf1 (@)
21st February 2019, 13:29
Good point and often forgotten.
lunaslide (@lunaslide)
21st February 2019, 17:00
@emu55 Excellent point.
ColdFly (@)
21st February 2019, 12:10
Of course, testing times mean nothing, but happy to see Albon at the top (so far today).
I’m quite sceptical about him, but shall be a bit more open-minded from now on in.
kpcart
21st February 2019, 12:13
Ferrari on c3 was only 1 tenth slower than Mercedes on c4 faster tyre and surprisingly Renault were an equal for Mercedes in c4. The c5 tyre seems to only give a tenth or so more time on this track and track conditions. Ferrari also oy about. 5 seconds slower on c2, seems they are just plain fast. I don’t think any team will use party mode in testing, we’ll maybe torro rosso… I got a feeling they are testing the power of the Honda for red bull.
N
21st February 2019, 13:08
“Ferrari on c3 was only 1 tenth slower than Mercedes on c4 faster tyre”
Fuel load, amount of ballast, battery deployment, engine modes, DRS, how much the driver was pushing within himself, what lap in the stint the time was set on, etc, etc.
Robbie (@robbie)
21st February 2019, 14:35
@kpcart STR testing the power of the Honda for RBR? Yes I agree that is for sure happening. More specifically to see how much they can crank it and still remain reliable, eh? Well, really though, that will continue as long as both teams have the same Pu, as that is one of the beauties for all Pu makers having their Pu in more than one teams cars. More R&D, more data, more ideas etc etc. And when you know that likely only one team is going to have title shots, the other can be made to make some sacrifices for the sake of the knowledge.
So far they appear to have reliability with no small amount of ‘crank.’ All relative of course, and racing in anger will be different, however, they could be having a much worse testing, they being STR and RBR and Honda. At a minimum they have gained tons of useful data to digest, to start off their season.
Sergey Martyn
23rd February 2019, 11:01
Yeah, I think Toro Rosso is a modern equivalent of “F1 Borat – Revving Up Honda limits for Make Benefit Glorious RBR Team”
Vettel Fan 17 (@)
21st February 2019, 12:32
Softest tyre or not, i think Red Bull and Honda can be happy so far, they aren’t struggling massively at the very least and there hasn’t been any reliability issues as far as I know. I think Red Bull does stand a good chance this year of being up with Ferrari and Mercedes.
Pratyush P (@pratyushp276)
21st February 2019, 12:56
When do we get to overreact?
lunaslide (@lunaslide)
21st February 2019, 17:03
@pratyushp276 Ahh, that really made me laugh. Anytime you want, I suppose, but there is always the option to not overreact and be rational.
hamiledon
21st February 2019, 12:59
We can already start to celebrate 1st championship of Crashtappen.
Steven Robertson (@emu55)
21st February 2019, 13:03
Lance stroll has did a lap 2 tenths faster then he did last year at the Spanish Grand prix qualifying for williams, on the C3 tyre as well. No wonder he’s smiling in the garage despite being 9th in the standings.
Robbie (@robbie)
21st February 2019, 14:40
For sure and as they have explained, due to the timing of the takeover of the team, they had to start their car based on what funding was secure to their best knowledge at the time. Had the timing been a bit more in their favour their car would be different, as in more advanced by now. In other words their car is a bit basic now, but I would suggest they will be constantly upgrading it throughout the season. Other teams will be too of course, but in terms of their own situation, yeah I’m sure they’re all pretty happy with their potential.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
21st February 2019, 13:08
Renault without DRS at runner-up is impressive. They did have unusual approach to solve the issue tough.
rpiian (@rpiian)
21st February 2019, 13:39
Williams down to 1.21 – that’s a relief. Also a joy seeing Kubica on track.
rpiian (@rpiian)
21st February 2019, 13:55
Stroll still at the bottom – just saying.