Sensors monitoring the cars performance.
This year the pre season 3 day testing for all the Formula One teams is happening in Bahrain and not Barcelona which was always the case. I think this year it will be fascinating to watch how the teams evolve over the 3 days and do expect some surprising results.
Flow viz paint is used to track the air flow over the car and expect to see a lot of this on day one and day 2.
We all know that Adrian Newey the brains behind Red Bulls success has moved on to the Aston Martin team and officially is allowed to start work on the 1st March which is one day away. Saying that the Aston Martin car needs help is an understatement as the results show the car is in the bottom two. Adrian Newey will be gathering the data from these 3 days and the car we see starting in the first race in 2 weeks time will not be the same car. I expect Aston Martin to be challenging for the top 3 spots within 3 months. Newey is that good and the rest of the teams know this.
It is not about the driver and more about the car ,but the driver can definitely make the difference between a championship wining team and a missed opportunity.
Many of the drivers have swapped teams since last season and certain teams are going to benefit from their input and experience. Ferrari have Lewis Hamilton and his knowledge and expertise is exactly what Ferrari needs at this time to complete the overall package. Charles Le Clerc the other Ferrari driver is going to benefit so much as Hamilton will help fine tune the car and expect Ferrari to be mounting a championship challenge. On day two we see Hamilton's times are already the quickest thus far and expect the times to slowly get faster and faster as teams get to grips with their new cars.
Red Bull without Newey having any input in the 2025 car are up against it as the teams reputation is on the line. Red Bull are under immense pressure to prove they were not a one man team and that Newey was not the reason behind their success. We saw the teams performance drop off at the back end of last year and the non Newey affect is definitely a factor for this.
McLaren won the constructors title last year and many have Norris as the Championship favorite, but I am not sold on this as he has to become more consistent and prove he is worthy of the title. The car will have progressed even though they have less wind tunnel time due to winning the championship, but will it have improved enough?
Mercedes are a team in transition these days with George Russel their number one driver and I must admit I do not know if he is good enough still. Russel is talented, but seems to fail under pressure with is hot head attitude and being the team leader questions are going to be asked of him. This is a sink or swim year for his career.
Carlos Sainz having left Ferrari going to Williams has an interesting season ahead of him and he is the right type of driver who can help fine tune the Williams performance. He is better than most drivers on the grid and should help raise Williams up the table. Sainz was never really given a chance at Ferrari and with Williams he will have far more of a say as to how the car is set up.
This season looks likely to be a closely contested championship with 4 or 5 teams in with a shout. Alonso with Aston Martin is the unknown factor and with Newey behind the team they could finish in the top 4. Ferrari is my bet this season followed by McLaren and a bun fight between Red Bull/Williams/Mercedes and Aston Martin
Posted Using INLEO
Can not wait for start of the season, curious if Lewis will kick buts in Ferrari