The second day of Formula 1’s secretive ‘shakedown week’ at the Circuit de Catalunya proved much quieter as only two teams took to the track. Ferrari, like McLaren, had signalled its intention to miss the opening day but the reigning constructors’ champion also did not appear on the second.
Each team is permitted three days of running during the five-day ‘shakedown’, and these do not have to be consecutive.
Many of the teams in attendance had suggested they were unlikely to run on Tuesday, owing to the forecast rain, but Ferrari braved the conditions and Charles Leclerc emerged from the garage as soon as the track went ‘live’ at 9am.
Even before then, Haas had announced it would not be running, preferring to spend the day digesting data from Monday – during which the team is believed to have completed 154 laps, a greater distance than any other team.
As the skies began to darken the session was briefly red-flagged, reportedly because Max Verstappen had gone off-track at Turn 5 on his out-lap.
As the drizzle rolled in and intensified to rain shortly before 11am local time, Mercedes confirmed it would also not be taking to the track. But Red Bull and Ferrari had come equipped for inclement weather, with two sets of full wet tyres as well as four sets of intermediates.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Lewis Hamilton took over from Leclerc in the afternoon. While he will have a new race engineer this season, it’s understood he will be working with Leclerc’s long-time engineer Bryan Bozzi during the shakedown.
Isack Hadjar took over from Verstappen in the afternoon and spun late on, smiting the barrier at Turn 14 – the fast right-hander which leads onto the main straight – and bringing out a red flag. The aftermath of this moment was captured on video by a doughty observer watching via a long lens from a nearby hill. Red Bull’s spokespeople to confirm Hadjar was uninjured in the shunt.
The imagery revealed Hadjar’s RB22 was missing its rear wing – but, having completed two days of testing already, Red Bull is not as badly compromised as it might otherwise be, and has plenty of time to repair the car if spares are available.
It’s understood that Cadillac, Audi, Racing Bulls and Alpine had planned to sit Tuesday out if the weather proved as unaccommodating as expected, and in any case the opening day of running left them with plenty of “debugging” to do, in the words of returning driver Valtteri Bottas.
As with Monday there was no official timing, although several sources were able to access lap times unofficially. Unsurprisingly, they were largely slower than Monday given the conditions, Verstappen peaking at 1m19.578s and Leclerc at 1m20.578s in the dry – but it must be emphasised that not only are these times not official, but the teams are also yet to embark on any serious performance running.
Leclerc reportedly completed 64 laps despite the morning’s disruption, Verstappen 27. Hamilton ran 56 laps while Hadjar managed 51 before his shunt. That makes this a relatively successful day for Ferrari given the conditions, slightly less so for Red Bull given how many laps it accomplished on Monday.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Ferrari
At its livery launch last week McLaren made clear it was pushing to have a relatively mature car specification which it would take through to the opening races, dictating a later arrival at the shakedown. It said it would run no earlier than Tuesday, and would likely push to Wednesday if the weather proved inclement.
The team is known to have arrived at the track and is preparing to run on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Therefore only Aston Martin’s status remains unknown, since Williams confirmed last week its car would not be ready in time for the shakedown. It is not expected until Thursday at the earliest, having admitted it would not arrive in time to complete all three of its allocated days.
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