Barcelona F1 test – Day 1

Sebastian completes 169 laps on the SF90
Montmelò, 18 February 2019 – Today was the first of four days of pre-season Formula 1 testing currently taking place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. At the wheel of the Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow SF90 was Sebastian Vettel. The German completed a total of 169 laps, 72 in the morning and a further 97 in the afternoon. The first item on the agenda was a check of all the car systems, followed by a series of runs with the car in different configurations.

Programme completed. Sebastian was able to complete the planned programme for the day without any problems. He ran various tyre compounds in order to analyse the car’s behaviour on each of them. His best time of 1’18”161 was set before the lunch break.
Seb satisfied. At the end of his first day of running Sebastian Vettel was quite satisfied. “The first impression from today is very good. I could not have hoped for a better day, as the car worked really well and we had no issues slowing us down. We completed the programme just the way we wanted. Coming here I was pretty open minded and had no expectations and I didn’t need that much time to familiar with the car, as it was making everything quite straightforward for me. I must say I am still a bit rusty, as I haven’t been driving for several months, but I’ll sleep well tonight”. “It is too early to sum it up, as it’s just the first day – Vettel added – but I would like to send my compliments to everyone back at the factory in Maranello for how they tackled all the new rules and what they put on track today and also how the team is handling the car in a well prepared way”.
Charles next. The test session in Barcelona runs until Thursday. Tomorrow, Charles Leclerc will get behind the wheel of the SF90, before Vettel returns on Wednesday, with the Monegasque driver then rounding off the first of the two planned tests on Thursday.