2026 Pre-Season Testing

[SB15]

Mercedes completed 502 laps... I know this is testing but my goodness. That's at least 8 -9 GP's

Yes, but what kind of laps. Drive 5-6 sec below race pace.

They were the fastest team, drove a good chunk of laps. There’s no question they look the strongest right now but nobody else showed their cards, and probably neither did merc.

That's the most ominous thing to say, as Merc supporter I hope it's not "total" domination.

[edu2703]

I doubt any team is already pushing the car to its limit, considering the cold weather in Barcelona, ​​which they won't encounter during the season, and that most cars aren't even finished yet.

The focus right now is on completing as many laps as possible, not worrying too much about lap times or pace. The goal is to gather as much data as possible on the track so it can be analyzed at the factory and used to guide improvements.

I myself won't even look at lap times until the final test session in Bahrain. There, the teams should present cars close to those they will race in Melbourne and test the car's limits, pushing it to the maximum, as it will be their last opportunity to do so before Australia.

[matt_b]

Given that Mercedes finished 2022 Barcelona Testing with the fastest two times using their A spec car, I dont think we can conclude much from this test The picture in terms of relative performance will become clearer come Bahrain.

[AR3-GP]

They are just laps. We don't know the purpose.

[SB15]

Given that Mercedes finished 2022 Barcelona Testing with the fastest two times using their A spec car, I dont think we can conclude much from this test The picture in terms of relative performance will become clearer come Bahrain.

Yeah I know Mercedes did the most laps in 2022 but they did the fastest times on the C5 vs anyone else so it wasn't conclusive.

[Hoffman900]

Mercedes completed 502 laps... I know this is testing but my goodness. That's at least 8 -9 GP's

Yes, but what kind of laps. Drive 5-6 sec below race pace.

And you know race pace with this new formula how?

It’s testing, they could have been doing anything under the sun.

[f1316]

Ferrari did the most laps today - was that “ominous” in any way? Seriously, I would ban words like ominous and dominant and “laying down a marker” from all testing coverage if I could - sure, you can definitely tell Mercedes are having a smooth test and completing everything the want to, so ultimately they’ll be very happy, but the hyperbole/confirmation bias is ridiculous.

[the EDGE]

Mercedes completed 502 laps... I know this is testing but my goodness. That's at least 8 -9 GP's

Yes, but what kind of laps. Drive 5-6 sec below race pace.

Ragebait?

If Mercedes' pace was "5-6 sec below race pace", what do you call the other's laptimes?

We know the teams fastest lap times… we have no idea how fast they were going on the other laps

[dren]

I absofukkinloutly hate the word ominous and the way it is used during testing.

[SB15]

Ferrari did the most laps today - was that “ominous” in any way? Seriously, I would ban words like ominous and dominant and “laying down a marker” from all testing coverage if I could - sure, you can definitely tell Mercedes are having a smooth test and completing everything the want to, so ultimately they’ll be very happy, but the hyperbole/confirmation bias is ridiculous.

Not the "most" laps per se but the amount of confidence they have to push the engine further. Now very likely the other teams had their own run plan and didn't want to focus on something similar to Mercedes which to me is fair, because the track conditions were extremely unrepresenative and not ideal for testing. It doesn't matter if you don't like the words to describe certain things we see, Mercedes "look" impressive and that's all.

In Bahrain as I said, will give us the full story about the W17 and the pecking order. It's still very early days. Though if anyone has a dreaded opinion already, I wouldn't blame them.

[AR3-GP]

[HungarianRacer]

Yes, but what kind of laps. Drive 5-6 sec below race pace.

Ragebait?

If Mercedes' pace was "5-6 sec below race pace", what do you call the other's laptimes?

We know the teams fastest lap times… we have no idea how fast they were going on the other laps

Not entirely true though, a few Spanish blokes out on field provided frequent updates on in-stint laptimes as well. According to Ekaitz Gil (is this his legal name? lol), Mercedes was consistently lapping faster than everyone else even comparing similar stint lenghts.

[DiogoBrand]

Alonso driving a car with a brand new Honda engine. Can't wait for the team radios this year.

[the EDGE]

Ragebait?

If Mercedes' pace was "5-6 sec below race pace", what do you call the other's laptimes?

We know the teams fastest lap times… we have no idea how fast they were going on the other laps

Not entirely true though, a few Spanish blokes out on field provided frequent updates on in-stint laptimes as well. According to Ekaitz Gil (is this his legal name? lol), Mercedes was consistently lapping faster than everyone else even comparing similar stint lenghts.

So the lap times were…?

[FittingMechanics]

We do have to remember that Mercedes brought that big load of hard tires, they obviously intended to run many laps.

Red Bull on other hand has only softs and one medium.