The second day of pre-season testing at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit saw both Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel behind the wheel of the SF1000. The car completed a total of 122 laps, equivalent to 567.91 kilometres.
Morning. As planned, Charles was first in the cockpit, working on suspension configuration, gathering more data and generally improving the team's understanding of the SF1000. The Monegasque driver ran the C2 and C3 compound tyres. Leclerc thus rounded off his first test of the year with 49 laps, which added to the 132 he did yesterday, meant he totalled 181, or 843 kilometres, which is pretty near to three Grand Prix distances. Watching proceedings here today were Charles’ younger brother Arthur and the Swede Dino Beganovic, who both joined the Ferrari Driver Academy back in January, thus following the same schooling that led to Charles becoming a Formula 1 driver.
Afternoon. During the lunch break, the mechanics reconfigured the car to Sebastian’s driving settings and the German’s sixth season on track with Scuderia Ferrari got underway shortly after 2pm. Due to drive yesterday, he swapped with Charles as he was feeling slightly unwell. Today, he carried on where his team-mate left off in the morning, also running the C4 compound, with which he set his fastest lap of 1:18.154. He did 73 laps, equal to 340 kilometres. In total, the SF1000 has now completed 254 laps, equivalent to 1,182 kilometres.
Tomorrow. Friday is the third and final day of the first pre-season test and Sebastian will be at the wheel of the SF1000 for the whole day.
Sebastian Vettel #5
"Finally I was able to drive the SF1000 after feeling unwell and having to spend most of yesterday in bed. It was nice to be back behind the wheel and to start getting used to the car.
This first half day was definitely positive: we had no reliability problems and we were able to do 73 laps. That’s the most important thing when you’re dealing with a new car. The SF1000 is certainly a step forward compared to last year’s car.
For tomorrow, the aim is to get as much track time as possible and to gather as much data as we can, to help us get a better understanding of where we are in our work programme."