Honda F1 Barcelona test 1, day 3 review 21.02.2020: The first pre-season test of 2020 came to a close at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with a busy day of running for the two Honda teams. Both Aston Martin Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Alp

The first pre-season test of 2020 came to a close at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with a busy day of running for the two Honda teams.
 


Both Aston Martin Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri opted to split running between their drivers on Friday, given the more condensed testing schedule of six days in total prior to the opening race in Australia.



For Red Bull, the driver swap didn’t prevent the team from completing some serious mileage, as Max took the wheel in the morning and managed 86 laps before handing over to Alex for the afternoon. A further 83 from the Thai driver left the team with a total of 169, showing good reliability and giving us plenty of data to analyse ahead of the second test next week.




It was a similar story at AlphaTauri, where Daniil was driving first and completed 62 laps, setting the fifth fastest time on the C4 compound. There were four red flags throughout the day that interrupted running at certain times, with Pierre adding a further 59 laps before the chequered flag.
 
 
 
Toyoharu Tanabe
Technical Director, Honda Racing F1   



“On the final day of the first test of 2020, both our teams completed a good number of laps. For Scuderia AlphaTauri, Daniil drove in the morning and Pierre in the afternoon for a total of 121 laps. AlphaTauri continued working on optimising the PU. We now have plenty of data to analyse at the mid-point of the pre-season tests. The fine weather and the fact there were very few red flags over the past three days means that this was a very productive first test for Honda and our two teams.



We now have four days until the second test and everyone back in Japan, the UK and here in Spain is going to be very busy analysing a huge quantity of data, to make a further step forward in the final three days of track time before the first race. In total, the four Honda-powered cars completed 855 laps, equivalent to a distance of 3,980.025 kilometres.”
 
 


Max Verstappen
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing    Best time: 1:17.636
Laps: 86


“We got another good amount of laps today and for this first week of testing that’s really important as we try to understand the new car. We’re not chasing lap time; it’s not about that. It’s about scanning and testing everything on the car, making sure everything works well and that it’s reliable.



It’s been really positive and the car has felt good all week. We still have a lot of things to learn on the car and that will continue next week, but at the end of this first test I’m happy and can’t complain.”
 
 


Alexander Albon
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing    Best time: 1:18.154
Laps: 83


“This week we were focused more on reliability and systems checks than anything else and everything went very smoothly,” he said. “The car feels good and each time we went out it felt better and better. It’s all about gaining experience of the car, learning what we can do with it and getting ready for Melbourne.



The main areas we needed to work on have definitely improved. I think we’re looking strong and compared to last year we’ve made a good step forward. I think we’ve hit the ground running and we have a very good baseline now for next week.”
 


 
Pierre Gasly
Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda    Best time: 1:17.783
Laps: 59


“It was a really positive afternoon, I had a few more laps in the car and completed some more tests. We managed to do all of our long run programme. Unfortunately, we had a small delay toward the end of the day which meant we couldn’t finish our performance runs, but it wasn't too big of an issue as it was already covered by Daniil in the morning session. All in all, it was a positive three days for the team, there are a lot of things to analyse for next week, so we can find even more performance.”
 
 



Daniil Kvyat
Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda    Best time: 1:17.427
Laps: 62



“I think today felt quite short, it was only half a day, but it was productive as we squeezed the most out of it. We had a lot of high-quality tests and tried to cover as many laps as we could, so we did well in that respect. Now we need to analyse everything and work on more tests to be ready for next week.



The car feels like it’s in the ballpark and we’re still fine-tuning it like everyone else is, but the initial feeling is we’ve made some progress compared to last year. It’s hard to say how much or if it’s enough, but we’re still trying to unlock the full potential of the car, both on short and long runs.”
 
 

 

  Honda Motor Co., photos Red Bull