Alfa Romeo excels while Hamilton lags and Mercedes’ new steering system makes headlines.
MONTMELO, SPAIN—February 20th—Following a clean opening day in the first F1 test of the season in Spain, the second day brought a surprise first place, the first red flag, and a controversial item that could affect the 2020 Formula 1 season.
Kimi after he nabbed first in Thursday’s test run (photo, The South African)
With only 45 minutes left in the day’s session, Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time of the day by posting a 1:17:091 fastest time. He finished with 134 laps. But with only 12 minutes left in the day’s running, the Alfa Romeo/Orlen driver suffered a problem with a possible hydraulic failure, which brought out the first red flag session of the test. Marshals quickly removed the car from turn nine and brought out the green flag back. But by that time, remaining drivers had but a few more minutes to test before time expired.
But the big news of the day had to do with Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes steering system. Hamilton was seen pulling on his steering wheel and pushing it back before he reached the corners of the circuit. Onboard footage showed that the alignment of the wheels, known as ‘toe,’ was changing with the movement of the wheels. Depending on where he is on track, the system allows a driver to tweak the set-up and the handling of the car so it can control tire temperature.
It was the steering system and not Mercedes performance on the day that got most of the ink. Hamilton and his Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas, finished poorly at ninth and 13th, respectively, ending the day early when their car experienced an electrical issue.
Mercedes’ Technical Director, James Allison, revealed to the media that the new steering system is known as Duel-Axis Steering (DAS), but he refused to go into more detail. “I probably won’t shed a great deal more light than what you saw on the TV, but, yeah, we have a new system in the car. It’s a novel idea,” Allison said.
Mercedes James Allison: DAS introduces an extra dimension in steering for the driver, which we hope will be useful during the year. But precisely how we use it and why we use it, that’s something we will keep to ourselves.
In testing, Sergio Perez took second, which keeps him in good standing with his Racing Point team. Third was Daniel Ricciardo in the Renault, who ran only in the morning and put out only 41 laps. Alex Albon was fourth in the Red Bull, while Pierre Gasly, in his Alpha Tauri, came in fifth.
Sebastian Vettel returned to testing after missing Wednesday because of illness, and he was just over a second behind Raikkonen, taking sixth. George Russell continued to do well in his Williams, finishing in seventh. The second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc took eighth.
Lando Norris was tenth for McLaren.
Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean took 11th and nearly caused a red flag when the Frenchman spun at turn four and damaged his floor and a little of his rear wing. Grosjean limped back to the pit garage, where his mechanics will be up nearly all night, fixing the car for Friday testing.
Esteban Ocon took 12th in his Renault. But like teammate Ricciardo, his mileage was limited, which led to speculation that there may be a problem with their car.
Following Friday’s text run, teams will get a multi-day break before testing resumes next Wednesday for another three-day run. That sequence will be the final test period before the 2020 season begins in mid-March.
