Verstappen to win the title?!? 3 things we learnt from pre-season testing
Our first look at the 2021 Formula 1 grid is over as pre-season testing concluded on Sunday. Max Verstappen set the fastest time of the weekend but we can’t just assume he’s going to be World Champion. So here’s three things we learnt from pre-season testing.
Yuki Tsunoda can seriously challenge Pierre Gasly!
It’s fair to say Yuki Tsunoda arrives in Formula 1 with high expectations, especially when you think he’s made back-to-back promotions! We know Helmut Marko rates him highly but against Pierre Gasly there’s a formidable teammate for him to test himself against in his maiden F1 season. Gasly is of course favourite to win that team dual but from pre-season testing, it is clear he won’t have it all his own way.
Tsunoda set the second-fastest time of the weekend with a 1:29.053 only behind Max Verstappen who we’ll come onto later. Gasly meanwhile, had a fastest time of in the 1:30s. Of course we have to take into consideration different tyres, with various strategies that were being run at different times of the weekend but Tsunoda improved each day showing how quickly he can adapt to a new setup and clearly how quick he can be.
Now, this isn’t another one of our bold predictions where we say Tsunoda will end Gasly’s F1 career but the Japanese driver could put his teammate under pressure!
Aston Martin underwhelmed!
There was a lot of hype surrounding the return of the Aston Martin name to F1 and with the arrival of a four time World Champion in the form of Sebastian Vettel, it looked as if they were launching an assault on the front runners. However, after their display in pre-season testing expectations may have to be re-evaluated.
Given Mercedes’ struggles in pre-season it is understandable to see Aston Martin struggling to, their car is largely a copy of the Mercedes as it was last season and they had particular issues with the gear box that comes from the Silver Arrows.
Reliability wasn’t there but they have the most powerful engine so you’d expect them to be quick right? Unfortunately for them the speed wasn’t there either. Vettel’s best time was a 1:33.742 whilst Lance Stroll was around the mid 1:30s on day two so there’s a bit of reason for hope.
However, for a car which takes so much inspiration from the dominant force over the last decade to be so far off it will be concerning for the team and the fact they completed the second fewest number of laps, with Vettel completing just 10 on day two means they have less data to work out what’s going wrong!
We could have a serious title battle on our hands!
And finally we have the big talking point from the last few days. The big story in the build up was will we see a battle at the top and it looks like our wishes may come true! Red Bull set the standard pretty much all weekend, led by Max Verstappen he set the fastest lap of the weekend with a 1:28.960 and things seemed to run smoothly compared to the someone chaotic weekend at Mercedes.
Although Sergio Perez wasn’t entirely up to speed he was no slouch and set the fastest time of the morning session on Sunday, which was the time to beat for much of the weekend. If Mercedes’ problems are a bit more serious than meets the eye we could be in for a great battle.
Knowing Mercedes they will probably come out and blow everyone out of the water next week in Bahrain and Toto Wolff tried to shake off any worries, telling Sky Italy: “He’s not nervous and we are not nervous, but we have to understand what went wrong.”
However, there’s a real sense of optimism that we could have a competitive title race this year!
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