The track in sunny Spain was artificially flooded overnight (apparently with water from a nearby pig farm) in order to allow teams to simulate wet weather running and test the new full wet compound.
Whether it’s because drivers didn’t want to risk getting any of that water in their mouths or because teams didn’t really want to risk anybody crashing whilst running parts without any spares we’ll never truly know (I’m guessing the latter), but there was little running early in the session. The seven cars that had run in the first 45 minutes of the test had completed less than 50 laps between them.
Of those seven cars, not one was a Williams. The team had decided, after Lance Stroll’s incident yesterday, to sit out of the final day of testing on safety grounds.
Mercedes were also nowhere to be seen later on. Lewis Hamilton, who was due to take the morning session, had already said he didn’t fancy testing the wet weather tyres, but an apparent “electrical fault” on the Mercedes meant he didn’t have to.
“Electrical fault kept us in the garage this morning, so I’ve decided with the team not to drive today, as I wouldn’t have learned much,” Hamilton said.
The electrical fault was cleared before the end of the morning session, and Valtteri Bottas took the opportunity to get into the Mercedes early.
Thankfully, because of the warm, dry weather, the track didn’t take long to dry. Less than three hours after the track went green, the first driver switched to slick tyres, most of the field having already tried out the green rimmed intermediates.
With the track now dry, things started to get busy again as teams took advantage of the final day of the first test. McLaren, who once again saw no problems today, was even top of the timing screen for approximately four seconds. Stoffel Vandoorne set a 1:24.3 on ultrasoft tyres, only moments before Raikkonen set a 1:22.6 on softs. Vandoorne later set McLaren’s best time of the test, a 1:22.5, on ultrasoft tyres.
One team that didn’t get out again was Toro Rosso. The team had decided to swap engines as a “precaution” after Daniil Kvyat completed a single lap.
Much to the delight of everyone, the track was flooded again during the lunch break, which once again led to a quiet session as most teams waited for the track to dry before sending their cars out.
With about 45 minutes of the session left, Mercedes decided to call it a day saying they had “found something in the data” which they didn’t like.
Even with the wet, changing conditions, there were no accidents and no red flags.
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Do you think the wet weather test was a waste of time, or would it be useful if better set up? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
