Press banter, new cars and familiar faces frolicked around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as McLaren rose to the top with the fastest lap.
Smell that? It’s rubber hitting the track for day one of preseason testing in Spain as Formula One’s 2022 era begins.
The offseason resulted in plenty of changes for the sport ranging from teams putting together their new cars to fit the long-awaited rules overhaul to F1 race director Michael Masi being removed from his position as a part of FIA's analysis of the controversial end to the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Wednesday marked the first time that the 2022 cars have been seen as intended after some teams chose to debut a show vehicle over the last few weeks, keeping the technical innovations under wraps.
All 10 teams are in action for the preseason tests, putting on full display which teams succeeded with innovations during the offseason and which ones need to make some changes before the Bahrain Grand Prix in March.
Here's what you might have missed from Day One at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
McLaren and Ferrari came out strong.
Friendly reminder: teams might purposefully skew their speeds to hide their outright performance levels, holding onto any competitive advantage they can. Not to mention, it was two sessions, meaning different times of the day leave the track in different conditions and temperatures vary.
McLaren's Lando Norris, who finished the day with the fastest lap at 1:19.568, hinted at that, jokingly tweeting, “Productive day, but annoyed I’m P1. Now you gonna think we fast and waaaaay over hype us. Omegalul.” Norris's time came in the last half-hour of testing, edging him past Ferrari's Charles Leclerc who dominated a majority of the day.
With the warning in mind, McLaren and Ferrari both broke out of the midfield, sweeping the top three by the end of the afternoon session. Norris, the lone McLaren driver for the day, clocked in 103 laps while Leclerc and Carlos Sainz split the sessions for a combined 153 laps.
“The initial feeling is not bad, but we shouldn’t get carried away by the timesheets today, as these are early days and everyone is still hiding their true form,” Leclerc said, per Autosport. “It’s impossible to have a clear picture just yet, so we have to stay focused and keep working hard. We put in a lot of laps, more than any other team today, and that’s a positive we will build on.”
Only 16 of the drivers made a trip around the track on Wednesday. Reigning world champion Max Verstappen clocked in the most laps at 147, while Alfa Romeo, totaled the least in the pack with a combined 32.
More laps means more data available for the teams, and the drivers seemed to avoid a catastrophe as they finished the day without a red flag for a broken down car or a crash.
For the first time in its entirety, here are the 2022 F1 cars.
Curious about what the livery looks like this season? Look no further and check out your favorite team's car for this season.
The press shenanigans are back.
Drivers weren’t the only ones playing around on the track.
When will hit the others make the 2022 debut?
A few big names were missing from Wednesday's lineup, but never fear, the fan favorites will get their first track-time of the season on Thursday.
Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri), Sergio Perez (Red Bull) and Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo) are all set to hit the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, most eyes likely to be on Zhou as he makes his F1 debut.
Zoom, zoom.
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