Lance Stroll signed the ninth time of the eighth and final day of Formula 1 testing on Friday at the Circuit de Catalunya. Stroll believes that the last week was very constructive to prepare him to make his debut in F1 on March 26.
“I’m ready for Melbourne,” Stroll said told media. “I do not have too many goals in mind in terms of position. I just want to take that race by race. I will concentrate on my work and see the result.
“Felipe Massa and I did a lot of laps on different types of towers on different types of rubber. We did a bit of everything this week. I was on a good lap [with ultra soft gum], but I made a mistake towards the end. I went there to test the limit. I lost the turn, but I still found that we could have a good time on the ultra soft.” he added.
While Ferrari is launching the next season of Formula 1 with great hopes of defying Mercedes’ three years of dominance, McLaren is struggling to start their car.
Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time of the tests by pushing his Ferrari in a one-minute, 18.634 seconds (1: 18.634), improving the time set by his teammate Sebastian Vettel by nearly four-tenths.
In the afternoon session, Raikkonen spun after 13 laps. He finally returned to the track to complete 111 laps in total. Mercedes divided his day between Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri- Bottas, who managed the third and fourth fastest time, ahead of Massa at Williams.
As Vettel pointed out Thursday, it may be that Mercedes is retained and that the team is much faster once the season launched in Australia on March 26. The times of the stables have generally fallen since the beginning of the winter tests, which was predictable due to the new configuration of the cars.
Rapid Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari break new ground as F1 pre-season testing draws to a close. (Source:www.formula1.com)
Formerly a heavyweight of the F1, McLaren had a horrible day, the car of Fernando Alonso falling especially broken down on two occasions. The team is experiencing recurring problems with its Honda engines. These numerous breakdowns while the teams are busy preparing their car for the first Grand Prix of the season are alarming.
Alonso’s car was already among the worst times when his engine stopped after 16 laps. After being towed to the garage, the former champion returned to the track. But we had to shake the red flag again after it broke down after two more laps.
Alonso and his new teammate Stoffel Vandoorne suffered several of these breakdowns and their car lacked speed discouragingly during these tests. Alonso, considered one of the most talented drivers on the board, as this week that his car was unreliable and had no power.
