Vettel grabs the fire extinguisher
Silver Arrows dominate Formula 1 tests
02/25/2022 at 6:33 p.m
The Formula 1 World Championship begins in less than a month. The tests overshadowed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine are dominated by record world champion Lewis Hamilton and his Silver Arrows. The German pilots Sebastian Vettel and Mick Schumacher have problems.
Formula 1 record world champion Lewis Hamilton turned the fastest lap on the Grand Prix circuit near Barcelona at the end of the first three-day test drive block. The 37-year-old Briton also set the overall best time in the final phase of 1:19.138 minutes. He relegated his new teammate George Russell to second place, but the 24-year-old was only 95 thousandths of a second slower. Third on the final day of testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was Sergio Perez in the Red Bull ahead of his world champion stable rival Max Verstappen.
However, the placements and lap times hardly allow any conclusions to be drawn about the true balance of power. The main thing for everyone is to do as many laps as possible in order to collect data for further work on the cars. Ferrari and McLaren, for example, made a strong overall impression. Sebastian Vettel was struggling with problems, he even had to use the fire extinguisher at times when his new Aston Martin was smoking on the track. The four-time champion, fifth on Friday, spoke of a “very useful week. We learned a lot from the car. There is still a lot to do, but the first impression is good.”
Mick Schumacher wasn’t able to drive at all on Friday. After a problem with the car in the morning when his Russian team-mate Nikita Masepin hadn’t completed more than nine laps, nothing worked later on. Mick Schumacher could only watch while the Haas, which was painted almost entirely in white, was being screwed on. The team dropped the sponsor logo of its main Russian sponsor because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. From March 10th to 12th, the teams will be allowed to test again in Bahrain. On March 20th, the season begins in the desert of Sakhir.