F1 Pre-Season Testing Day 3 - The Rain in Spain...

Paul Jeffrey · Feb 28, 2018

Snow, rain and freezing temperatures the order for the day in a largely useless third day of F1 testing in Barcelona today...

Having delayed the beginning of the third day of Formula One testing thanks to a heavy snow fall overnight and during the day itself, the Formula One teams present at the Spanish venue would remain reluctant to venture out onto the track even when the green flag waved, providing a largely pointless day of running during what is a critical phase of development for the new cars and drivers ahead of the season start in March.

Snow would be replaced by heavy rain as the day progressed, however the freezing temperatures would remain a constant throughout the afternoon as few drivers ventured out onto the circuit, and those that did, namely Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull, would find the running tough going as he slipped off the circuit on a slow installation single lap run, causing no serious damage but forcing the Australian to limp straight back to the put lane for further assessment of his new RB13 machine.

Other drivers to spend more than a single lap or so outside of the garage would be McLaren and Fernando Alonso, circulating briefly for odd install laps as the British team work through a series of test and correlation programmes in the orange Renault powered car.

Sadly today would be a wasted opportunity for Williams third driver Robert Kubica, losing one of his previous allocated sessions in the car to the difficult conditions, himself only managing a couple of in and out laps as the team decided little can be learnt in the heavy rain and freezing temperatures experienced today.

Formula One testing resumes tomorrow (Thursday) at the Circuit de Cataluña in what is expected to be much improved conditions... hopefully...

If you like your motorsport fast and open wheeled, check out the Formula One sub forum and get yourself in on the discussion today!

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F1 in the snow? Good idea to liven up dull races? You decide!

Joseph Wright · Feb 28, 2018

Hey Alonso was fastest! Something to look forward to this season?

Sergio Goncalves · Feb 28, 2018

Only Fernando had the balls to do some winter driving

Hygge · Feb 28, 2018

Does this mean that PC2 is the only proper sim as it's the only one where you can run F1-cars on snow on the Barcelona track?

Giorgos Kostis · Feb 28, 2018

Hygge said:
Does this mean that PC2 is the only proper sim as it's the only one where you can run F1-cars on snow on the Barcelona track?

You sir just made my day!

rubaru · Feb 28, 2018

I just heard Paul Hembry went back to the design studio this afternoon. Rumors were flying that he wasn't happy with just the Super Hard, Hard, Medium, Soft, Super Soft, Ultra Soft, Hyper Soft, Intermediate, and Wet Tyres. He wants to add two more cold-weather compounds called Snow and Ice. The "Snow" tyre will be banded with a brown poop-colored stripe, and the "Ice" tyre will be kept black because the spikes will be obvious enough. He was tired of all the complaints from teams that they couldn't get one of their precious 8 testing days back due to weather, and the next day isn't looking much better.

Testing results are expected in two hours, with new tyres arriving by lunchtime on Thursday.

gamer19 · Feb 28, 2018

Hygge said:
Does this mean that PC2 is the only proper sim as it's the only one where you can run F1-cars on snow on the Barcelona track?

On the contrary.

wombat999 · Mar 1, 2018

Daniel Ricciardo summed this entire fiasco up in a few words, "We should be in Dubai".
Given the current and projected weather conditions common sense (in very short supply in F1) should dictate an end of session as this situation means nothing, even if only day 3.
Climate change has no respect for the FIA, they should have read the memo!