F1 tests: what the data tells us from the third day of the test 2

Seven down, one to go. The pre-season Formula 1 trials have so far presented us with glorious conditions and the weather gods have not disappointed on the penultimate day of racing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Ferrari recovered in first place – but is it a real photo? Let's look at the numbers …

Ferrari fast, but Mercedes closes

McLaren 's time at the top of the standings ended on the third day of testing. Ferrari reaffirming its authority through a breathtaking ride from Charles Leclerc (which provides the baseline to the chart above, which combines the top three sectors of each team – not necessarily on the same lap), which was not only the most fast test, but also nearly a second faster than last year's best time.

Leclerc was only a little faster than Alexander Albon of Toro Rosso in the opening area, but the prancing horse then stretched his legs in the last two to finish the day with an impressive 0.651 advantage over the Thai driver in second position, both at the C5 – Pirelli's softer compound.

Best individual tour

1 Ferrari (Charles Leclerc) 1m16.231s – C5 – 138 turns
2 Toro Rosso (Alexander Albon) 1m16.882s + 0.651s – C5 – 118 turns
3 McLaren (Lando Norris) 1m17.084s + 0.853s – C5 – 84 laps
4 Red Bull (Pierre Gasly) 1m17.091s + 0.860s – C5 – 65 rounds
5 Renault (Daniel Ricciardo) 1m17.204s + 0.973s – C5 – 65 laps
6 running points (Lance Stroll) 1m17.556s + 1.325s – C5 – 103 laps
7 Alfa Romeo (Antonio Giovinazzi) 1m17.639s + 1.408s – C5 – 71 laps
8 Haas (Romain Grosjean) 1m17.854s + 1.623s- (C4) -16 rounds
9 Mercedes (Lewis Hamilton) 1m18.097s + 1.866s – (C2) – 85 turns
10 Williams (George Russell) – 1m18.130s + 1.899s – C5 – 140 laps

As noted above, McLaren, Red Bull, Renault, Racing Point and Alfa Romeo also drove the C5, but could not get closer to the Ferrari. Mercedes and Haas were the only ones who did not run so fast. It would not be fair to compare their times with Lewis Hamilton and Romain Grosjean, respectively ninth and eighth. What if we find a metric to compare them?

Well, if we had to adjust their time to account for the deficit between the compounds, which, according to Pirelli, is about 0.6, there is an intriguing change.

Best individual lap (corrected tire-corrected times based on Pirelli data)

1 (1) Ferrari (Charles Leclerc) 1m16.231s
2 (9) Mercedes (Lewis Hamilton) 1m16.297s + 0.066s
3 (2) Toro Rosso (Albon Alexander) 1m16.882s + 0.651s
4 (3) McLaren (Lando Norris) 1m17.084s + 0.853s
5 (4) Red Bull (Pierre Gasly) 1m17.091s + 0.860s
6 (5) Renault (Daniel Ricciardo) 1m17.204s + 0.973s
7 (8) Haas (Romain Grosjean) 1m17.254s + 1.023s
8 (6) Racing Point (Lance Stroll) 1m17.556s + 1.325s
9 (7) Alfa Romeo (Antonio Giovinazzi) 1m17.639s + 1.408s
10 (10) Williams (George Russell) – 1m18.130s + 1.899s

Mercedes, which has so far made quite modest attempts, moved to second place, just a fraction of Ferrari. Of course, this is not a perfectly accurate comparison, but it will be interesting to compare the duo to the identical if Mercedes runs a C5 race with low fuel consumption on the last day.

Elsewhere, Haas won a seventh place, less than half a tenth of Renault, while McLaren, Red Bull, Renault and Haas are separated by just under two tenths.

Alfa Romeo finished ninth, but Antonio Giovinazzi admitted he had trouble using softer tires, which he had not tested in a long time – so pay attention to Kimi Raikkonen's effort when he has a chance to play on the last day.

Red flags disrupt race

The circuit of Barcelona-Catalunya was in full swing Thursday morning while the teams took advantage of good conditions to complete the laps, in favor of a strategy of several shorter relays.

In the afternoon, most journalists were interested in long races and racing simulations, but these were disrupted by the crash of Pierre Gasly. Lance Stroll (sensor problem) and Charles Leclerc (exhaust gas problem) also stopped on the track, causing red flags.

Mercedes had trouble engraving on the front during the simulation of his run Wednesday, but made gains in this area today, according to their technical leader, James Allison.

"The day was very productive. We did a good job of investigation on both sides over a race distance without any problem. In the race simulation itself, unlike yesterday where we did not manage to make the tires live, we had a good tire behavior three passages, he says. "We look forward to tomorrow where we will study the tire compound lineup and we will focus more on the pace of a ride."

Hamilton said that "it was probably one of the most positive days for us," adding "we really learned a lot", while Bottas said the racing simulation that he had completed "confirmed the progress made since last week".

Red Bull will have a lot to do Friday, after the fall of Gasly, who will have finished the day without having completed the race simulation. On the other hand, the Williams revival continued, with the team placing at the top of the lap rankings as they tried to recover the time lost after the late arrival of their car.

Mercedes times engine mileage

It was an extremely successful day for Mercedes in terms of engine data collection with the Silver Arrows, as well as Racing Point and Williams customers, who managed 421 collectively.

The Ferraris were the following, but they could not cross the 300-lap mark. Renault took third overall, penalized by the absence of departure from Lando Norris in the afternoon, after McLaren had encountered a burnout problem, on which they are still investigating.

Honda finished at the bottom of the pile, but that's largely due to the fact that Red Bull lost most of his track time in the afternoon after the fall of Gasly.