What we learnt from the first F1 pre-season test

If the biggest rule change in Formula One for 20 years was designed to level the playing field, the memo didn’t chunter out of the fax machine in Brackley and Brixworth. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff insists that everything is ‘back to zero’, but the Silver Arrows’ dominance in the hybrid era was never going to simply evaporate whatever changes were made. Not least because these guys know how to design a seriously good F1 car, which is exactly what the 2017 contender looked like out of the traps: clever, full of trick aero detailing, and running a clever suspension set-up.

The new Merc was also ominously fast, and metronomic in its reliability – 700km on day one is stunning. "It’s definitely the fastest I’ve ever been in F1," Lewis said. "The car is amazing, how late and deep you can brake, how you are able to take corners flat out pretty easily." Complete race distances were racked up with ease by both Lewis Hamilton and new boy Bottas, who – unsurprisingly – looked less comfortable than his team-mate, had a few wobbles, yet still set the pace at various points. We don’t know what fuel load they were running, and Mercedes has been known to sand-bag in testing. But it’s safe to assume that the latest powertrain – which has evolved yet again – has plenty more up its exhaust pipe come Melbourne and beyond. All of which suggests that the new extra-wide, extra-fast Mercedes WO8 is odds-on to have its customary edge once the racing starts. The question is, how big an edge?

Have you looked at this thing? Not as well-resolved overall as the Mercedes, but after a long spell of playing it safe, the Scuderia have thrown everything at the SF70H in the hope that at least some of it will work. They better start polishing the bells in the chapel in Maranello: this week’s test was the best pre-season run for Ferrari in years, with Vettel and Räikkönen both apparently revelling in the new car’s beefier downforce, higher cornering speeds, and general lack of crapness. Kimi was fastest on the soft tyres on day two, the car seems to be relatively gentle on its tyres – excessive tyre deg was a problem for these guys this past few seasons – so crucially they looked good on longer runs, too.

If they can get on top of qualifying, and sort out last year’s often disastrous strategic calls, we’d say the red cars will definitely nick a few wins this year and regularly annex the podium. Great news for everyone, apart from members of the Sebastian Vettel Profane Radio Messages Society. Of which there are quite a few.

Actually, they get more interesting the harder you look. And they’re much faster. But jeez, those shark fins. Why, in the name of all that’s holy, why? Because one of the rule changes stipulates that the rear wing now sits lower, and that means the teams need something to clean up and ‘straighten’ the airflow over the body and onto the wing to generate the required downforce. The fin also helps stabilise the car, up to certain angles anyway, if it starts to slide on corner entry.

But they’re not helpful to the car’s centre of gravity, and the jury’s out on their overall effectiveness. Plus, nobody likes them, and they’ve only snuck through because two pages of the FIA 2017 technical manual got stuck together. Red Bull team director Christian Horner – an F1 bigwig with an above-average grip on the ‘show’ – wants them thrown out again: he claims that their performance benefit is marginal compared to the visual consequence. "I think the cars look fantastic. What lets them down is the shark fins, proportionally. In the interests of aesthetics, it was requested that they be removed. That went to the Formula One Commission, and unfortunately it was rejected by the majority of the teams. Hopefully it is something that can be addressed for next year."

We hope so, too. The wider tyres give the cars a vastly better stance, and we can live with the return of those aero appendages, because they look kinda cool. But not the fins. They’re not cool, they’re crap. (Not a technical term, we know, but you get our drift.)

Red Bull’s boffin-in-chief, Adrian Newey, prefers a formula that leans more on aero ingenuity than engine power. Well, he would, wouldn’t he? Because this year’s cars are wider, they’re also ‘draggier’, so raw power is still a serious advantage. But the emphasis is also back on clever aero, and the RB13 looks both lovely and effective, like the work of a re-engaged Newey – with lots more to come as the season progresses. The word is that the latest Renault engine is also a match for the Mercedes, and Red Bull was certainly much higher up the speed trap timings than it has been for a while. In other words: a clever car plus a pokey donkey, with Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen – the ballsiest and arguably most naturally gifted driver in F1, respectively – behind the wheel should add up to proper fireworks.

McLaren chose the wrong time to fall out with Mercedes (long story). They also rushed Honda into delivering the hybrid powertrain a year early (back in 2015). We know these things. But surely, by year three of the partnership, both parties should have got their shizzle seriously together? The new orange McLaren was sidelined by an oil tank issue on day one, and though things improved steadily through the week – 72 laps were completed on the Wednesday, 335km – Woking’s finest is clearly still adrift of Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull. And Williams. And Renault. And Force India. (But not Sauber.)

"We’re confident that the issues we’ve experienced so far are glitches and part of the usual challenges faced in testing," Racing Director Eric Boullier said, with his fingers crossed behind his back, while fondling his lucky rabbit foot (not easy). "While we shouldn’t get carried away, [Wednesday’s] running has provided the team with a boost." We’re not getting carried anywhere, Eric. And we want to see Ferdy back at the pointy end as much as he does.

Yes, we learnt that too. Wider tyres are apparently easier to beef up, so that they last longer. The question now is, how many pit stops constitutes a good thing? One or two? Can a tyre be too durable?

Pictured above: 2017 wet tyre (left) vs 2016 wet tyre (right)