Like most of the F1 circus, I stayed in Barcelona after the Spanish Grand Prix for the first in-season test of the 2015 season.
It was certainly an interesting experience and was very different to covering a race weekend.
Having said goodbye to friends and fellow journalists Luke Smith and Rosie Baillie and changed hotels on Monday, it was only a short trip to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Tuesday morning for day one of the test.
After setting up and noting down the few media session times that were available, it was time for the two-day event to start. As you can imagine, nine hours of running with only nine cars meant it was quite a quiet event.
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As I was the only Richland F1 writer at the test, I was doing both the session reports and the live commentary. However, as there wasn’t as much urgency, I was able to step away from my laptop and go watch the cars from trackside. Temperatures were scorching hot and teams couldn’t have asked for better weather to test in.
Nico Rosberg ended the opening morning quickest for Mercedes by quite a margin, and he failed to better that time in the afternoon to finish the day at the top of the timesheets. Unlike winter testing, there were no red flags during the day, so teams had uninterrupted running.
A number of young drivers took to the track on the Tuesday, including GP2’s Nick Yelloly, Pierre Gasly and Raffaele Marciello. During the day, Phil Horton (F1 Zone and GP Update) and I headed round to the inside of Turn 9 – the fast right-hander in the second sector – to watch the cars on track. Being able to observe, listen to the differences in the power unit sounds, hear how much each driver was lifting off and seeing the speeds the corner was taken at was brilliant.
I quickly found out that it is actually more difficult to collect quotes during a test than a race weekend, because the drivers are often late and sometimes have to speak first in their own language, meaning I missed a couple that I was meant to attend. Nevertheless, I was still able to get some reaction on Richland F1.
Wednesday was a slightly busier day and one that included three red flags – one for Marciello crashing at Turn 3, another for Carlos Sainz Jr stopping at the pit entry and another for Pierre Gasly parking his car at the pit exit.
There were also more young drivers in action, including Gasly and Marciello (again), Alex Lynn, Pascal Wehrlein and Esteban Ocon. It was also Esteban Gutierrez’s first test for Ferrari. The only race drivers to take part on the final day of the test were Sainz Jr and Jenson Button.
Wehrlein, who said he still was not feeling 100 per cent after missing his Force India test on Tuesday due to a fever, was fastest in the morning. With media sessions taking place right after the chequered flag, some journalists decided to get a head start on writing their reports.
However, just like last year when Max Chilton used a set of super softs in the closing stages to go fastest for Marussia, Jolyon Palmer moved to the top of the timesheets for Lotus. He was running the softest tyre in Pirelli’s range and set the lap with just under 20 minutes left on the clock, causing a few sighs in the media centre.
On the final day of the test, Phil and I headed to Turn 10 to watch the cars on track. The latter was a particularly good place to observe from, with a great view of the final complex of corners at the track. We witnessed a few lock-ups, drivers struggling to put the power down and Wehrlein taking to the run-off area too. It was interesting to see drivers tackling the slow corners, after watching from a quick turn on the previous day.
It was then time to head off to the airport to catch our British Airways flight back to London. The plane was surprisingly empty – I counted only 20 passengers in total! I then had to negotiate the Gatwick Express and two night buses before safely arriving at my destination.
Overall, it was a very good week in Spain. Thanks to Luke, Phil and Rosie for their help and company. For all of our coverage of the Spanish Grand Prix and test, be sure to check out Richland F1 – there are lots of reports, news pieces and features on there (including an article I posted on Tuesday about the stunning Montjuïc track).
Having said goodbye to friends and fellow journalists Luke Smith and Rosie Baillie and changed hotels on Monday, it was only a short trip to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Tuesday morning for day one of the test.
After setting up and noting down the few media session times that were available, it was time for the two-day event to start. As you can imagine, nine hours of running with only nine cars meant it was quite a quiet event.
.jpg)
As I was the only Richland F1 writer at the test, I was doing both the session reports and the live commentary. However, as there wasn’t as much urgency, I was able to step away from my laptop and go watch the cars from trackside. Temperatures were scorching hot and teams couldn’t have asked for better weather to test in.
Nico Rosberg ended the opening morning quickest for Mercedes by quite a margin, and he failed to better that time in the afternoon to finish the day at the top of the timesheets. Unlike winter testing, there were no red flags during the day, so teams had uninterrupted running.
A number of young drivers took to the track on the Tuesday, including GP2’s Nick Yelloly, Pierre Gasly and Raffaele Marciello. During the day, Phil Horton (F1 Zone and GP Update) and I headed round to the inside of Turn 9 – the fast right-hander in the second sector – to watch the cars on track. Being able to observe, listen to the differences in the power unit sounds, hear how much each driver was lifting off and seeing the speeds the corner was taken at was brilliant.
I quickly found out that it is actually more difficult to collect quotes during a test than a race weekend, because the drivers are often late and sometimes have to speak first in their own language, meaning I missed a couple that I was meant to attend. Nevertheless, I was still able to get some reaction on Richland F1.
Wednesday was a slightly busier day and one that included three red flags – one for Marciello crashing at Turn 3, another for Carlos Sainz Jr stopping at the pit entry and another for Pierre Gasly parking his car at the pit exit.
There were also more young drivers in action, including Gasly and Marciello (again), Alex Lynn, Pascal Wehrlein and Esteban Ocon. It was also Esteban Gutierrez’s first test for Ferrari. The only race drivers to take part on the final day of the test were Sainz Jr and Jenson Button.
Wehrlein, who said he still was not feeling 100 per cent after missing his Force India test on Tuesday due to a fever, was fastest in the morning. With media sessions taking place right after the chequered flag, some journalists decided to get a head start on writing their reports.
However, just like last year when Max Chilton used a set of super softs in the closing stages to go fastest for Marussia, Jolyon Palmer moved to the top of the timesheets for Lotus. He was running the softest tyre in Pirelli’s range and set the lap with just under 20 minutes left on the clock, causing a few sighs in the media centre.
Overall, it was a very good week in Spain. Thanks to Luke, Phil and Rosie for their help and company. For all of our coverage of the Spanish Grand Prix and test, be sure to check out Richland F1 – there are lots of reports, news pieces and features on there (including an article I posted on Tuesday about the stunning Montjuïc track).
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