The second day of Formula 1’s confidential ‘shakedown period’ at the Circuit de Catalunya was significantly less active, with just two teams participating. Ferrari, similar to McLaren, had indicated it would skip the initial day, but the current constructors’ champion also remained absent on the subsequent day.
Every team is allowed to operate for three days within the five-day ‘evaluation phase’, and these days are not required to be continuous.
Several participating teams had expressed reluctance to run on Tuesday due to predicted rainfall, yet Ferrari proceeded despite the weather, with Charles Leclerc heading out from the pit garage promptly at 9 AM when the track became available.
Prior to this, Haas had declared it would not be participating, opting instead to analyze the data gathered from Monday – when the team reportedly finished 154 laps, exceeding the distance covered by any other team.
With the sky growing darker, the session was temporarily halted by a red flag, ostensibly due to Max Verstappen veering off the circuit at Turn 5 during his initial lap.
When the light rain started and became heavier just before 11 AM local time, Mercedes announced it would also refrain from track activity. However, Red Bull and Ferrari were prepared for poor weather, having brought two sets of full wet tires and four sets of intermediate tires.
Max Verstappen, competing for Red Bull Racing.
Lewis Hamilton replaced Leclerc in the afternoon session. Although he will have a different race engineer for the upcoming season, it is believed he will collaborate with Bryan Bozzi, Leclerc’s long-serving engineer, for this shakedown.
Isack Hadjar assumed driving duties from Verstappen later in the day and experienced a spin towards the end, colliding with the barrier at Turn 14 – the rapid right-hand bend that merges onto the main straight – resulting in a red flag. Footage of this incident was recorded by a diligent spectator using a telephoto lens from a close-by vantage point. Red Bull representatives confirmed Hadjar sustained no injuries in the impact.
The visuals showed Hadjar’s RB22 without its rear wing; however, since Red Bull had already concluded two days of testing, their situation is not as severely affected as it could have been, and ample time remains to mend the vehicle if spare parts are accessible.
It is presumed that Cadillac, Audi, Racing Bulls, and Alpine had intended to skip Tuesday if the weather turned out to be as unfavorable as anticipated; moreover, the initial day of running provided them with extensive “troubleshooting” tasks, according to the returning driver Valtteri Bottas.
Similar to Monday, no official lap times were recorded, though various channels managed to obtain unofficial timings. Predictably, these were generally slower than Monday’s owing to the track conditions, with Verstappen achieving a best of 1m19.578s and Leclerc a 1m20.578s in dry conditions – but it’s crucial to stress that these times are unofficial, and the teams have not yet commenced any dedicated performance testing.
Leclerc is said to have completed 64 circuits despite the morning’s interruptions, while Verstappen did 27. Hamilton covered 56 laps, and Hadjar finished 51 prior to his collision. This suggests a reasonably productive day for Ferrari considering the prevailing conditions, though slightly less so for Red Bull given their extensive lap count on Monday.
Charles Leclerc, representing Ferrari.
Photo by: Ferrari
During its recent livery unveiling, McLaren communicated its aim to have a largely developed car configuration ready for the initial races, which necessitated a delayed appearance at the shakedown. The team stated it would not commence running before Tuesday, and would probably postpone until Wednesday if the weather conditions were poor.
The team has reportedly arrived at the circuit and is getting ready to conduct sessions on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Consequently, only Aston Martin’s participation status is still unconfirmed, as Williams last week verified its vehicle would not be prepared for the shakedown. Its arrival is not anticipated before Thursday, at the earliest, having conceded it wouldn’t make it in time to utilize all three of its assigned running days.
