Almost three months after the chequered flag fell beneath the floodlights in Abu Dhabi to bring down the curtain on the 2016 campaign, the 2017 season formally gets underway on Monday with the start of pre-season testing in Spain.
The off-season has hardly been a quiet affair, amid Liberty Media’s takeover of Formula 1, the departure of Bernie Ecclestone, and an array of management and technical reshuffles at several teams.
However, the biggest news came just five days after the 2016 season finale, when, after achieving his childhood dream, World Champion Nico Rosberg stunned the sport by announcing his immediate retirement.
Rosberg’s exit triggered a shuffling of drivers, with Valtteri Bottas installed alongside three-time champion Lewis Hamilton, and Felipe Massa brought out of his short-lived retirement to partner rookie Lance Stroll at Williams.
While Red Bull, Ferrari and Toro Rosso have retained the same driver pairing, other outfits have new faces this season.
Force India has recruited Mercedes protégé Esteban Ocon to partner Sergio Pérez, with Nico Hülkenberg moving to Renault and Kevin Magnussen switching to Haas.
Stoffel Vandoorne steps up to a full-time race seat at McLaren, in place of Jenson Button, while Pascal Wehrlein has jumped from the now-defunct Manor team to Sauber, alongside Marcus Ericsson, though will miss the opening test due to a back complaint.
Pre-season testing provides teams and drivers with a chance to understand, hone and develop their new packages before the season-opening round in Australia.
Once again, testing will take place across eight days, exclusively at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, home of the Spanish Grand Prix, mirroring the format taken in 2016.
The circuit, located on the outskirts of Barcelona, is regarded as the ideal testing venue due to its combination of low, medium and high speed corners, fine winter weather, and relative proximity to team factories, ensuring upgraded or spare parts can be efficiently transported as required.
If a car is well balance at Barcelona, chances are that this will be reflected at other circuits. The long-radius Turn 3 will show the downforce and its application – whether a driver is confident in his package – as will the short-radius Turn 9, a corner which requires trust and commitment that the front of the car will stick, with the rear following suit. Turns 1 and 10 will test the car’s braking ability, while the quick-direction changes through Turns 1/2, Turns 7/8 and Turns 11/12 will highlight any cumbersome machinery. The final sector chicane may be an awkward blight but the high kerbs need to be ridden well, while its exit is a traction-hungry zone that impacts on speed all the way to Turn 1, as demonstrated during the 2016 Grand Prix when Kimi Räikkönen was unable to get close to Max Verstappen for lap after lap. Weaknesses will be highlighted.
The experience drivers have of the venue also reduces another ‘unknown’ from the equation during a period where the learning curve is steep. This year that learning curve will be heightened by the vastly overhauled regulations, with visually different cars, which will be substantially quicker, predominantly due to increased downforce levels. The faster cars will also be a stern, physical challenge for drivers, who have spent the winter ramping up their training regimes in accordance. Going from the gym, straight into a Formula 1 car for 100 laps at a demanding circuit, will be an extreme test of fitness.
There is also the matter of the wider tyres from sole supplier Pirelli. While some drivers sampled Pirelli’s 2017-specification rubber during private running last year, for the bulk of the field the upcoming test will offer them their first real-life taste of the revised tyre sizes, which are 25 per cent wider front and rear than their predecessors. The fact that Barcelona’s circuit is tough on tyres will also enable teams to accumulate much-needed data, such as degradation levels, warm-up, traction, pure grip, the operating window, even if the track conditions won’t be representative of Grand Prix temperatures. The wider tyres also mean pit stop practice during testing will be key, as mechanics become accustomed to a tweaked regime.
The last time the regulations were overhauled to this extent, teams were afforded substantially more track time, before last year’s reduction from 12 to just eight days of running. Naturally, the short amount of time – in effect, 64 hours – will make data gathering crucial, with any incidents or reliability dramas being keenly felt.
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All 10 Formula 1 teams will be in action at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with the two tests divided up into two lots of four days of running, with a four-day break between the action.
The opening test begins on Monday (February 27) and runs through to Thursday (March 2), with the second test starting on the following Tuesday (March 7) and concluding on Friday (March 10), after which there is fewer than two weeks until the opening practice session in Australia.
Each team is permitted to run just a single car across the course of the tests, with most splitting duties 50-50 between drivers, meaning each racer is in line to receive four days of track time across the two tests.
The track will open at 09:00 local time (GMT +1) each day, and close at 18:00, with a one-hour lunch break between 13:00 and 14:00.
Drivers are permitted to use any of Pirelli’s five dry-tyre compounds from their respective allocations, while the Intermediate and Wet tyres will also be available; some of Thursday’s running will be set aside for Wet tyre testing, unless natural rainfall occurs during the opening three days. Pirelli's backup tyres, composed of 2016 compounds, will also be available for use.
Pre-season testing is not broadcast live on TV but Motorsport Week will be present at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya across all eight days of running to bring you the latest from a busy and intriguing period for the Formula 1 paddock.
