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TEST NOTEBOOK: What happened during testing in Barcelona?
Three of the ‘most important days of the season’ according to several drivers are over. In-season testing is in the books and after thousands of laps around the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya, teams will now be deep diving into the data ahead of Round 4 of the 2024 campaign in Imola.
Who will be heading into the next race weekend feeling positive and what did everyone get up to across the test? Here is a rundown of how everyone did in Barcelona.
RODIN MOTORSPORT
Early Championship leaders Rodin Motorsport looked as assured as they have done since the start of 2024, achieving plenty of mileage and getting on with relatively little issue. Ritomo Miyata suffered a spin but was more than happy with his work, eager to push the boundaries during a test in order to maximise his speed as he continues to impress as a rookie in F2. Teammate Zane Maloney didn’t lead but was comfortably inside the top 10 in all bar one of the sessions and was a confident figure by the end. The team looks like they’re on top of the new 2024 F2 car and well placed to continue their strong early season form.
CAMPOS RACING
There is no place like home but to say that Campos Racing were fast only due to running on home soil would be unfair. The Red Bull Junior Team pair of Isack Hadjar and Josep María Martí led the pack when times were at their quickest and on the pace throughout all three days of running. The highlight was definitely the 1-2 in the final morning of the test, as Hadjar set a 1:23.139 to end up almost a second quicker than the best time from the same test one year ago. Martí spoke about how the team had found confidence with their direction with the new car, and testing indicates that stance has only been strengthened going into Imola.
READ MORE: Martí satisfied with Campos direction in 2024 after ending Day 2 of testing on top
HITECH PULSE-EIGHT
Testing for Hitech Pulse-Eight ended on a good note with Amaury Cordeel topping the times during the final afternoon session when race runs were the order of the day. Teammate Paul Aron enjoyed a couple of top five finishes in earlier segments across days one and two but did lose mileage on the final day with no time set. Still, the team will be enthused with the work they did accomplish and are aiming to continue building up after a much stronger start to the F2 season versus 2023. Aron will arrive at Round 4 as the closest challenger to Championship leader Maloney as he remains the top rookie in the Standings. It’s up to the team now to keep that momentum rolling.
MP MOTORSPORT
MP Motorsport hit the ground running with Dennis Hauger finishing the first morning session as the driver to beat, but the team went about their work quietly from that point on. The Norwegian was in the top 10 when times were at their quickest on the final morning, while teammate Franco Colapinto grew into things as the test days unfolded. He was ahead of Hauger during that third and final morning, the best-placed non-Campos driver in P3, less than a tenth from Martí in P2. For Hauger, it was a positive three days as he aims to reassert his title ambitions after a tough Melbourne weekend. Colapinto was up at the sharp end and goes into Imola, a circuit he has tasted success around in F3 in his career.
INVICTA RACING
Fastest out of the gate on day one, Invicta Racing were around the top places for much of the test as the British outfit aimed to carry on their good work from Rounds 1-3. Gabriel Bortoleto was the quickest driver on the first day, and the busiest in the morning of the second, logging a staggering 71 laps on a multi-race simulation programme. Teammate Kush Maini ran Hauger close on the first morning and the pair were very closely matched on the second afternoon, second and fourth with the Brazilian ahead by just 0.070s. Largely satisfied with their work across all three test days, Invicta have been one of the teams to work well in the opening rounds with the new car, and there’s no evidence that will change following testing.
READ MORE: ‘Speed was there right away’ says Bortoleto after topping Day 1 of Barcelona testing
VAN AMERSFOORT RACING
Both Van Amersfoort Racing drivers ended day one in the top five with little to separate Enzo Fittipaldi and Rafael Villagómez. That set the trend for the remainder of the Barcelona test, with the one second gap on the second morning an anomaly relative to the small gaps that split the duo in the other sessions. After Fittipaldi’s show-stealing performance in Jeddah, Melbourne was a tougher event for the team though Villagómez was able to score some points for the Dutch outfit. Their extensive work over the course of three days has them in good standing going to Imola, with strong reference points to analyse between the drivers.
DAMS LUCAS OIL
Over 400 laps of work by Jak Crawford and Juan Manuel Correa combined for a positive test by DAMS Lucas Oil. Crawford started off strong with the second quickest lap on day one, but DAMS went about the rest of their work without any headline-grabbing times. Still, both drivers were very satisfied with theirs and the team’s efforts across all three days ahead of Imola. They plenty of data for the team to go through, a return to the podium is the aim in the upcoming races, something Crawford achieved at the venue back in F3, finishing third and second in the 2022 Sprint and Feature Races.
PREMA RACING
Right from the green light on day one, PREMA Racing went their own way with their run plans which makes their work in Barcelona tricky to read into. For example, they were one of the first teams to start analysing the low downforce wing package, and their direct comparisons meant a major split initially between Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman’s schedule. Eventually, both did record some soft tyre laps, but both were amongst the first to do so, leaving them further down the order after others went out later with better track conditions on day two. So, while neither driver topped the standings at the end of the sessions, there was a lot of work going on to better understand the new 2024 car ahead of Imola rather than chasing outright fastest laptimes.
TRIDENT
A lot of good work from Trident during the three days of testing has the team looking forward to heading back to base ahead of a race weekend on home soil around Imola. Richard Verschoor and Roman Stanek combined for 389 laps across the three days of testing as they look to continue an upward trajectory with the new 2024 car this season. The duo were hardly split when the laptimes were at their quickest on day two, while Verschoor was well inside the top 10 on the final day of what was a productive week for the Italian team. There will still be items to work on to emulate the speed they had in Jeddah, but it is a work in progress that is going well.
ART GRAND PRIX
Another team working extremely hard at understanding the 2024 car after some tough race weekends so far, ART Grand Prix were methodical in their work. The French outfit conducted some aero performance runs early on, utilised flow vis to analyse the front wing setups they were working on, being just one example of that. Victor Martins and Zak O’Sullivan were inside the top 10 on the second and third mornings when the times were quickening. The reigning Champions will now have a few weeks to pick through their findings in order to turn a tough campaign around, something the team is more than capable of doing.
PHM AIX RACING
As the only two rookie teammates on the grid in 2024, the Barcelona in-season test was a big opportunity for the PHM AIX Racing team to learn as much as possible ahead of Round 4. Both Joshua Duerksen and Taylor Barnard were able to log plenty of laps as the team worked to continue bettering their understanding of the new car alongside getting both drivers as well acquainted as possible with their machinery around a more conventional track compared to the first three venues of the year. There was a strong finish for the team as Duerksen finished the final session of the test in P2 as long run pace was the focus for everyone.