It’s well known that lap times achieved in Formula 1 pre-season testing can only be relied on as a loose guide to genuine pace, but it’s still interesting to look back and see who did what.
For example, defending champions Red Bull Racing only managed to see one of its drivers top the time sheets once and that was on a day affected by inclement weather so is perhaps an even more unreliable sample. Ferrari managed to top the charts twice, once each for Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa. While Lotus, Mercedes AMG and McLaren shared the spoils, each topping the charts on three occasions.
The table below gives you an easy reference to the fastest times seen during the off-season. Times marked with an asterisk indicate a day that was affected by wet weather. The fastest times achieved on those days may have been set on dry tyres, but in general conditions were not ideal.
2013 Formula 1 pre-season testing lap times
| Location | Driver | Team | Lap time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jerez (Day 1) | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:18.861 |
| Jerez (Day 2) | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:18.218 |
| Jerez (Day 3) | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:17.879 |
| Jerez (Day 4) | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | 1:18.148 |
| Barcelona I (Day 1) | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes AMG | 1:22.616 |
| Barcelona I (Day 2) | Sergio Perez | McLaren | 1:21.848 |
| Barcelona I (Day 3) | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:21.875 |
| Barcelona I (Day 4) | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren | 1:23.282* |
| Barcelona II (Day 1) | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 1:22.693* |
| Barcelona II (Day 2) | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:22.716* |
| Barcelona II (Day 3) | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes AMG | 1:20.558 |
| Barcelona II (Day 4) | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes AMG | 1:20.130 |
2 replies on “A quick recap of F1 pre-season testing”
Would be interesting to review testing times from 2012 and see how th season actually panned out.
Testing times are so hard to read into without other data. People at the track were suggesting that RBR were lifting off on 2 corners each and every lap. Perhaps the fast time in the wet was an oops, not to give away just how quick they might be…
However, in this day and age, to find a full second faster than any rival is almost unheard of, all gains are around 0.2 – 0.3secs… Consider the top 16 at Melbourne last year qualified within 2 seconds of each other.