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Scuderia Ferrari brought an end to their testing programme at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, having racked up more laps than any other team, filling the Italian’s with plenty of confidence ahead of the Official Pre-Season Test.

It was Charles Leclerc who was at the wheel for the morning session on the final day, the Monegasque driver completed 44 laps, taking his three day total to an impressive 203. In the afternoon it was Carlos Sainz Jr at the helm of the F1-75, on what was an artificially watered Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. This gave all teams the chance to try both the Intermediate and Wet Pirelli compounds, giving the engineers plenty of data to analyse.

Sainz completed an impressive 92 laps, taking his three day total to 236. Combined, the Ferrari drivers completed 439 laps, the most racked up by any team in the paddock across the three days. Ferrari have clearly designed not only a reliable car but a fast one too, the F1-75 was consistently towards the front of the timing sheets, even though the order is somewhat irrelevant at testing.

The team will now head back to Maranello, giving themselves plenty of time to look over everything they’ve done across the three days ahead of the final test in Bahrain.

Laurent Mekies, Ferrari Racing Director, is extremely pleased with how things went in Spain, he recognises however that the work has only just begun in what is an exceptionally long season for Formula 1.

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN brought out the camouflage-liveried C42 one last time on friday, as Guanyu Zhou and Valtteri Bottas ran a combined 52 laps on the final day of pre-season testing in Barcelona. 

Zhou was behind the wheel for the morning session, setting a best time of 1:21.939– 13th on the day’s timing sheet– and completing 41 laps. A spin and a hydraulic leak ended up cutting the rookie’s running short.

“It was a positive day, with quite a bit of running and some good indications until nearly the end of the session. I was able to run with the C3 compound, but unfortunately a spin and a small hydraulic leak meant I couldn’t try the C4 tyres.”

Although the position of competing teams remains unclear, Zhou remains optimistic about Alfa Romeo’s progress.

“It’s only testing and we can’t really compare what we are doing against the other teams, but the feeling is that we are going in the right direction. The most important thing is to work together as a team to make sure we take a step forward ahead of testing in Bahrain.”

Scott McLaughlin won his first career NTT IndyCar Series pole position Saturday afternoon, and will lead the field to green for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

McLaughlin, who also went fastest in practice two earlier in the day, was one of the last drivers to complete his run in the Fast Six, spoiling the party for Will Power and Colton Herta who traded the top spot back and forth in both the Fast Twelve and Fast Six in a fantastic qualifying duel. But with clean track ahead of him, the 28-year-old New Zealand native snatched his first ever NTT P1 Award.

Power managed to best Herta for second place, and will start on the front row alongside his fellow Team Penske driver, while Herta starts third. Ed Carpenter Racing‘s Rinus Veekay seems to have found the form he had at the beginning of last season, before an unfortunate accident where he broke his collarbone, beating out some of the best drivers in the series to make the Fast Six and finish an incredibly impressive fourth place.

Romain Grosjean, who started his day with a big crash in practice two, found his speed once again and will start fifth. He is joined on the third row by Simon Pagenaud, who has had a fantastic start to his time with Meyer Shank Racing and has been fast all weekend.

Alexander Rossi was one of the the major names found outside the top twelve, failing to advance out of the first round of qualifying after finding himself in the top five in both practice sessions. He will start tomorrow’s race from thirteenth position. Arrow McLaren SP also find both of their cars outside of the top fifteen, Pato O’Ward bent a left rear tow link on the exit of turn nine, failing to advance out of the first round, while Felix Rosenqvist struggled for pace as well. The duo will start sixteenth and twenty-first respectively.

Francesco Braschi has been named as the first of KIC Motorsport’s drivers for the 2022 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine season.

The seventeen-year-old Italian has raced in the Italian Formula 4 Championship for the past two seasons, and has also competed in Spanish, ADAC and UAE F4 championships in the last twelve months.

Braschi has thanked the team for the opportunity to step up to Formula 3 machinery for the first time, and he is eager to achieve the best results possible in his rookie season.

“This is a great chance for me, and I can’t wait to hit the track to start working with my new team,” said Braschi.  “I’m pushing very hard to be as much ready as possible and achieve the best possible results.

“I want to thanks all at KIC for having offered to me this opportunity.”

With uncertainty surrounding the future of Nikita Mazepin following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Guenther Steiner says Pietro Fittipaldi would be first in line to replace him should the Russian lose his drive.

The future of Mazepin’s backers – including his father Dmitry – are in doubt as a result of the invasion, and as a result so is the future of their driver, and many drivers have already been linked to the seat should it become available.

Title sponsor Uralkali were noticeably absent from the VF-22 on the final day of the pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, and Haas will decide whether to continue with the relationship with the Russian company before the second test begins in Bahrain next month.

And by then, the team could have a different driver alongside Mick Schumacher, but Steiner, the Team Principal at Haas, says Fittipaldi would be the first choice should the seat become vacant.  Fittipaldi has already raced twice for Haas having replaced the injured Romain Grosjean for the final two rounds of the 2020 season in the Sakhir and Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

“If Nikita couldn’t drive for one or another reason, the first call would go to Pietro,” Steiner said to Bob Varsha for Speed City Broadcasting.  “Obviously, he [has been] with us for a few years, and then we would see what we do next.

Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team’s testing programme at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya came to a disappointing end, after a fairly positive first two days for the team in Spain.

The British team saw their final day go up in smoke, a small oil leak during Sebastian Vettel’s running on the final day resulted in a small fire to the AMR22. This put an immediate end to the team’s programme in Barcelona but also meant Lance Stroll was unable to run in the afternoon. The fire also meant the team missed out on full wet conditions which occurred during the final afternoon at the test.

Despite the disappointment the Vettel and Stroll did manage to complete 296 laps across the three days, gathering plenty of data for the team to look over ahead of the Official Pre-Season Test at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Tom McCullough, Performance Director at Aston Martin was of course upset by the way the test ended, he does believe though that despite the setback the team ran a strong testing programme.

“The first two days’ testing in Barcelona were reasonably productive, but the third day was interrupted by a small oil leak that caused a small fire, which was efficiently controlled but sadly put an early end to our testing and prevented our trialling the new 18-inch tyres in the wet. In summary, though, apart from the issue that affected Sebastian’s running, we conducted a useful testing programme.

Guenther Steiner feels the Haas F1 Team are behind the eight ball at this stage of pre-season testing after managing only nine laps on the third and final day at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Friday.

An issue within the oil system was unfixable in the time available, meaning Nikita Mazepin managed only the nine laps in the morning session and prevented Mick Schumacher from taking his turn behind the wheel of the VF-22 in the afternoon.

After running an all-white livery in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the team could only manage one hundred and fifty-nine laps across the three days, significantly less than most of the other teams.

Steiner, the Team Principal at Haas, says the team will hope to have put all their gremlins behind them when testing resumes at the Bahrain International Circuit next month, the final test before the season gets underway at the same track.

“Today we could unfortunately only do nine laps – we had an issue with the oil system in the engine,” said Steiner.  “There was a leak that we couldn’t sort over the day, so we didn’t do a lot of running.

Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team’s three days at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya came to a fiery end, after a small oil leak occurred during the morning of the final day in Spain.

The team had enjoyed a moderately successful opening two days of the official shakedown test, with drivers Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel completing a combined total of 296 laps. It was the German who got the team’s sole running on the final day, before an oil leak resulted in a small fire on the AMR22. Understandably the team stood no chance of any further running.

Despite the late setback, Vettel is glad to have had the time to get to know the AMR22, the Four-Time World Champion is looking forward to continuing this process in Bahrain.

“It has been a useful few days and we have learned a lot about the AMR22, although we, like all the other teams, still have a lot more to learn considering that we are all dealing with a brand-new generation of Formula One cars.

“Even so, my first impression of the AMR22 has been relatively positive, so I am really looking forward to working with the team to take further forward steps in Bahrain. It was a shame to end the day with an issue, but we have completed many laps, so we can be happy with our work this week.”

It was a disappointing final day to testing for Scuderia AlphaTauri at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, after a spin for Pierre Gasly resulted in no afternoon running for the team or for Yuki Tsunoda.

The official shakedown overall went particularly well for AlphaTauri, however the final day woes may leave the team slightly disappointed as they head to the official test in Bahrain. The damage to the AT03 was caused by Gasly, who spun-off at Turn 5 after locking up his fronts. The damage caused was too much for the engineers to repair, meaning Tsunoda was unable to feature in the afternoon session.

It’s still been a fairly successful three days for the Italian’s, with both drivers completing a combined total of 308 laps, giving the team plenty of data to dissect ahead of the official pre-season test.

Team Principal Franz Tost believes it’s been a good test for the team despite the unfortunate ending and that his engineers have built a brilliant car.

“The first test here in Barcelona with the AT03 has been really positive. I think that our engineers have developed a good car, that seems to be both fast and reliable. We have managed to complete many laps with both Yuki and Pierre, and I think that we have a really strong foundation for the year. Unfortunately, today Pierre had a lock-up of the front tyres, which meant he spun off at corner five, therefore we lost a lot of running time and Yuki was unable to run this afternoon.

Scuderia AlphaTauri have enjoyed a positive start to life with their 2022 challenger the AT03, as the official shakedown test came to an end at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Unfortunately for the Italian team, the final day of the three was by far the worst!

Frenchman Pierre Gasly was behind the wheel on the final day in the morning session, however it wasn’t one to remember for the Frenchman, who damaged the car resulting in no further running for the team. Before his incident Gasly had completed 40 laps and had set the fourteenth best time.

Despite the final day disappointment, Gasly believes it has been a positive test where he and the team have learnt so much about the AT03.

“It’s been a productive test and I think it’s been very interesting for everyone to see how these new cars behave on track. We’ve learnt a lot, every run, about our car and also driving wise I’ve been able to develop how to work with this new car and get the most out of it. I think it’s been really good.

“Obviously, you can’t really look at any sort of performance at the moment, so this test has really been about focusing on myself and trying to get good feedback so the team can understand what you need from the car as a driver, to find more performance.

Andreas Seidl says the McLaren F1 Team can leave the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with plenty of data to go through after three positive days of pre-season testing.

Both Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo had three productive days at the Spanish circuit, completely three hundred and sixty-five laps between them as they put mileage on their new MCL36.

Seidl, the Team Principal at the Woking-based squad, said a lot of hard work the team went into preparing the MCL36 ahead of the new season, and getting as much mileage on the car as they did was a reward for all of them.

“It’s been a productive first three days for us in Barcelona, and we leave Spain with plenty of data to analyse before we head to Bahrain for the official pre-season test and Grand Prix,” said Seidl.

“As a team, we’ve been able maximise our running time with both drivers running a total of 365 laps over the three days. We’re pleased with the amount of work we’ve been able to complete to help us get a better understanding of the MCL36. 

Lando Norris says the first test of the year at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was positive for the McLaren F1 Team, although it was not as trouble-free as it would have appeared from the outside.

The British racer completed fifty-two laps of the Spanish track on Friday morning and set the eleventh fastest time of the day, but the focus had been on getting mileage on the MCL36 and learning more about the car before the start of the season.

Norris says the hard work being done by the team appears to be paying off so far as the car appears strong and reliable, and he hopes to be able to keep the momentum going when the second test gets underway in Bahrain next month.

“It’s been a good week and start to the year,” said Norris.  “Many things have gone well. Of course, a couple of problems here and there but we’ve got through a lot of our test programmes, and we’ve understood the car more.

“As a driver, I’ve been able to get comfortable with the car nice and quickly. Our focus now moves onto learning and reviewing everything we put together and tested, to try to make progress going into Bahrain, and make sure we’re ready for the first race of the season. 

Team Penske‘s Scott McLaughlin finished at the top of the timesheets in second practice for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, once again flashing the talent that made him such an exciting prospect coming into the NTT IndyCar Series.

McLaughlin posted a 0:59.734 lap time with seven and a half minutes left in the session, the first driver this weekend to dip below the one minute barrier. McLaughlin was one of few to get clean laps on the alternate red-wall tyres brought by Firestone, a brand-new compound not tested before by anyone on the grid.

Three major red flags held up lots of running in the session, the first of which was thrown early in the session. Jack Harvey, with his new team Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, clipped the inside barrier in turn nine, spitting him out right into the outside wall. Harvey, like many involved in these wrecks, did not have any time to run on the reds as his session came to an end very early.

Street course ace Will Power set the early pace, before Alexander Rossi put his Andretti Autosport Honda at the top of the time sheets after about 15 minutes, still on primary tyres. With 19 minutes remaining the second red flag of the day was displayed as Romain Grosjean came together with Takuma Sato, driving the same Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing Honda that Grosjean did last season.

The Swiss-born Frenchman was on a flying lap, while Sato was a part of a slow group in turn ten trying to set up for a fast lap. Grosjean was caught off-guard by the slow pack, and smashed into the rear wing of Sato. This wasn’t the only time they confronted each other on-track this session, having a close call on the out laps as Grosjean tried to move through traffic. Sato got the worst of it, not only sustaining rear wing assembly damage but gearbox damage as well. Most importantly, both drivers were okay.

Harry Tincknell will return to the FIA World Endurance Championship this season, joining team owner Christian Ried and WEC/24 Hours of Le Mans debutant Sebastian Priaulx in the #77 Dempsey Proton Racing GTE Am. The shake up in the driver line-up of the #77 Dempsey car comes as Matt Campbell, long-standing addition to the #77 GTE Am car, has moved his focus to IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for 2022.

Multimatic Motorsports, who Tincknell and Priaulx drive for, have been on a hiatus of racing for the past few years in full season competitions outside IMSA. They usually run a GTE Am entry themselves in WEC/Le Mans and used to assist Ford with their Chip Ganassi Racing WEC entries. Back then, it was Tincknell and Priaulx’s father, Andy Priaulx racing together in one of the two Ford GT entries. Since 2019, Multimatic have been helping develop the Porsche LMDh car, due to debut on track next year, and the Ford Mustang GT3, due on track 2024.

Last year, Multimatic paired with Dempsey Proton Racing to provide support to the team at the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans. The partnership helped the team bring home a four place finish in class. Hoping to build on that success not only at Le Mans but also through a full season campaign, Tincknell and Priaulx will be on board the Porsche 911 RSR-19 with Ried to fight for podiums, wins and the Am class championship.

“I’m excited to be back in the World Endurance Championship and back with Proton after making my debut with the team at Le Mans last year,” said Tincknell. “I managed to get up to speed quickly in the Porsche 911 RSR, which has very different characteristics to the Ford GT and the Aston Martin Vantage. Christian is one of the best Bronze drivers in the business and with Seb I think we have the fastest Silver out there.

“This also means I will have raced with two generations of Priaulx. I learnt a lot from Andy in WEC and now I’ll be passing some of that knowledge to his son.”

Max Verstappen admitted he was not able to complete all his planned runs during the final morning of the pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya due to the numerous red flags that affected the session.

Despite this, the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver remained positive about the potential of the RB18, with his running being generally problem-free, with Verstappen feeling the car already has a nice balance.

Verstappen says the team has yet to start focusing on finding lap time, so it was positive to leave the day with the fourth fastest time, despite five red flags affecting the four hours of running.

“Everything worked well in the running we got and the car felt good, but our morning was somewhat interrupted by a number of red flags across the session so we couldn’t complete all of our planned programme,” said Verstappen.

“We just continued from what I did on day one and I think that was the most important objective for Barcelona. What is positive is that the car is running smoothly, I don’t pay attention to the lap times just yet, I will look into that when we get into Q3 in Bahrain.