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Statistics: Seven teams slower than 2019, but big gains for Williams

Statistics: Seven teams slower than 2019, but big gains for Williams

22-02-2020 15:45 Last update: 17:10
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The 2020 Formula 1 season is on the way. The first test week in Barcelona has come to an end. GPblog have rummaged through the statistics and have reached some striking conclusions. 

Which driver was most productive?

Valtteri Bottas posted the fastest time of the week with a 1:15.732, but which driver was most productive on track? That's the other Mercedes driver: Lewis Hamilton. The six-time world champion made the most kilometres out of everyone. In a day and a half, the 35-year-old Brit lapped 273 times. Remarkably, Hamilton said he is feeling fresher than ever after his 14th pre-season. 

We see Bottas and Alexander Albon in fifth and sixth place respectively (221 at 217). A negative lowlight is Ferrari with Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel. Together, the German and Monegasque recorded just 354 laps. Virtually a full day behind Mercedes.

Number of laps per teams compared to 2019

What is also interesting to see is whether the teams have been able to test more or less compared to 2019. For the first test week of 2019, we used the average figures of three days (instead of four) to arrive at a representative comparison. All teams have done more laps compared to last season, except for one team: Ferrari. Biggest climbers are Williams and Racing Point, while the Red Bull of Max Verstappen and Albon also score high in this list. The increase is likely due to the lack of red flags in Barcelona this year. 

1. Williams: + 258 laps
2. Racing Point: + 185 laps
3. Red Bull: + 115 laps
4. McLaren: + 89 laps
5. Renault: + 55 laps
6. Alfa Romeo + 39 laps
7. Mercedes: + 36 laps
8. Haas: + 28 laps
9. AlphaTauri: + 23 laps
10. Ferrari: - 95 laps

Mutual differences among the teams in 2020

It is also interesting to see which driver finished more laps than his teammate. The leader of that stat is Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi who drove 97 more laps than Kimi Raikkonen (and that includes Kubica's laps for Raikkonen on Day 1). In second place we see Haas F1 again. Romain Grosjean rode 96 laps more than his teammate Kevin Magnussen. Verstappen did 37 laps more than Alexander Albon, Hamilton drove 52 laps more than Valtteri Bottas and Renault find a nice balance. 

The remaining differences:
- Williams: George Russell + 54 laps (vs. Nicholas Latifi)
- McLaren: Carlos Sainz + 37 laps (vs. Lando Norris)
- Racing Point: Sergio Perez + 35 laps (vs. Lance Stroll)
- AlphaTauri: Pierre Gasly + 28 rounds (vs. Daniil Kvyat)
- Ferrari: Charles Leclerc + 8 rounds (vs. Sebastian Vettel)

Seven teams slower than last season

Red Bull Racing is more than four-tenths slower than last year, while Ferrari are almost two seconds behind. The winter champion of 2019, therefore, seems to have chosen a completely different tactic and strategy. Williams missed the first two test days last year, but they were faster than they were in Spain this year.

Mercedes: - 0.492s
Racing Point: - 0.218s
Alfa Romeo: - 0.148s
Williams: + 0.038s
Renault: + 0.259s
Red Bull: + 0.425s
Alpha Tauri: + 0.545s
McLaren: + 0.929s
Hare: + 1.304s
Ferrari : + 1,933s

GPblog.com/en will be present at the second week of winter testing at the Circuit de Catalunya - make sure to check out all our coverage from Spain! 

This article originated on GPblog.com/nl written by Corwin Kunst

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