Jordan's Track Talk

Tag: In-Season Testing

  • F3 Barcelona Testing

    The past few days, Formula 3 have been testing in Barcelona at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for their second and final in season test of the year. Formula 2 had spent three days laying down rubber in mostly cold conditions before F3 hit the track on Friday.

    Day 1-

    David Schumacher had arrived as a late replacement for Ayrton Simmons for Charouz, the German driver needed a seat fitting before getting out onto track, he managed eight laps towards the end of the session as he looked to get back up to speed with F3 machinery.

    When the laps started flowing, Zane Maloney set the benchmark at 1:33.926 before his teammate, Stanek broke the 1m 33s barrier with a 1:32.678. Isack Hadjar was one of two stoppages, with the driver coming to a stop at Turn 2 in the middle of the session. ART Grand Prix’s Matteo Nannini was the other, stopping at Turn 10.

    In between the two red flag, Nannini’s teammate Saucy set the quickest time of the morning, with a 1:32.247. Colapinto completed the most mileage in the morning with 49 laps in total.

    Onto the afternoon session, all 30 drivers made a swift exit from the pitlane when the light went green and got stuck into the long runs. MP Motorsport’s Caio Collet set the benchmark at 1:34.465, before it was replaced by Hadjar at the midway point.

    Smolyar dropped a 1:33.342 to steal the top spot of Collet again pushing him to second, Stanek put in a late lap of a 1:33.642. It was Franco Colapinto who completed the most laps in the afternoon session, adding 54 to his 49 he already done in the morning.

    Day 2-

    It was a busy final morning, as many of the drivers got stuck into some qualifying simulations. Gregoire Saucy set the marker at 1:32.109 for ART GP. Collet then drooped a 1:31.507 to put himself top of the standings.

    Coalpinto’s one lap speed was shown once again, as the Round 1 pole sitter made the top three for the second day in a row. The Argentine was the busiest man for the third session in a row adding a further 51 laps to his tally from Day 1.

    HiTech’s rookie, Isack Hadjar was another one impressing as his short run speed put him up to 4th and just over three tenths off P1. Tridents, Roman Stanek completed the top five.

    The field dedicated the afternoons running to race simulations, with Jenzer heading out as soon as the lights went green. Alatalo set the benchmark at 1:34.488 before they were joined by the ever-busy Van Amersfoort Racing trio. When the remainder of the grid left the pits to head out on track, Marti jumped to second for Campos.

    Villagomez, ended the afternoon session with the highest lap count, completing 58 tours of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. He also spent the majority of the session in third but was bumped down to fourth by Ferrari junior Leclerc, who couldn’t quite beat the 1m 35s barrier.

    Formula 3 doesn’t have to wait long till there back on track, as Round 2 starts in Imola on Friday the 22nd of April.

  • F2 Testing Barcelona

    F2 Testing Barcelona

    Formula 2 was back on track this week for their in-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Let’s take a look at how it went.

    Day 1-

    The first session of testing, saw a sprinkling of rain and a track temp of just 14 degrees, running was reduced on a quiet opening morning of testing, with only two drivers posting more than 30 laps. Championship leader, Drugovich picked up from where he left off at Round 2, with the Brazilian jumping to the top of the time sheets.

    There were three stoppages during the morning, including Calan Williams who spun to a stop at Turn 2. Lawson’s Carlin came to a halt at Turn 10, before Cem Bolukbasi lost control of his Charouz at Turn 9 and went into the barrier.

    The track temperature marginally increased in the afternoon, and this meant the grid was able to offer up a few push laps on the back of their race runs. After a benchmark time of 1:29.897 from Armstrong during the long-running, Boschung fired to the top of the field, dropping a 1:27.929.

    There were two more Red Flags in the afternoon, firstly for Vips who clipped the barriers at Turn 3 and then later for Logan Sargeant whose Carlin came to a halt on the track at Turn 1. Despite the stoppages, there was significantly more running in the afternoon. Boschung and Williams completed the joint-most laps with 55 each.

    PositionDriverTeamLaptime
    1Ralph BoschungCampos Racing1:27.929
    2Marcus Armstrong HiTech Grand Prix1:28.170
    3Ayumu IwasaDams1:28.331
    4Marino SatoVirtuosi Racing1:28.436
    5Felipe DrugovichMP Motorsport1:29.131
    Top 5 Afternoon Session.

    Day 2-

    A drop of rain and dark clouds threatened a wet session on the morning of Day 2, but apart from a brief spitting the track would remain relatively dry throughout the third outing of the test. Trident’s Richard Verschoor set the benchmark time at the start, posting a 1:29.328.

    There were several interruptions throughout the morning session, beginning when Marino Sato’s stopped on the main straight in the opening hour. Iwasa lost control of his DAMS and clipped the wall at Turn 5. Turn 5 was proving tricky to master in the conditions as Hughes and Caldwell both ended up in the gravel shortly after. There were two further Red Flags as Vips spun to a stop at Turn 11 and before Caldwell came to a standstill at Turn 4.

    Roy Nissany set the fastest time of the morning session with a 1:28.812, Richard Verschoor was second with a 1:29.328 and Iwasa in third with a 1:29.596.

    After a stop-start morning session, rain proved to be the only real interrupting factor in the afternoon as a sprinkle lead to a spell stuck in the garages, with too little rain for wet tyres and too much for slicks. Vips set the benchmark at 1:30.148 in the opening half an hour, but the Red Bull reserve, was knocked down to third by his HiTech teammate as well as Felipe Drugovich.

    There was a brief stoppage as Calan Williams came to a halt at the final corner and brought out the session’s only Red Flag. There wasn’t much improvement in the final half an hour, PREMA’s Dennis Hauger managed to break into the top 10.

    PositionDriverTeamLaptime
    1Marcus ArmstrongHiTech Grand Prix1:29.752
    2Felipe DrugovichMP Motorsport1:29.960
    3Juri VipsHiTech Grand Prix1:30.148
    4Amaury CordeelVan Amersfoort Racing1:30.169
    5Dennis HaugerPREMA Racing1:30.169
    Top 5 Afternoon Session.

    Day 3-

    The sun made its appearance on the final day of the test, the teams wasted no time getting out on track for some representative qualifying simulations. Lawson put on a set of softs and set the baseline time of a 1:27.888, marking the quickest time of the test so far. The PREMAs had also gone on fresh softs but couldn’t quite match the Carlin’s pace, Hauger 0.057s off in second and Daruvala in 3rd a further 0.074s.

    Novalak stopped at Turn 2, which brought out a red flag. Doohan set the most laps in the three hour stint, with 50 to his name. The top 3 were P1: Drugovich, P2: Lawson and P3: Doohan.

    After a brief delay to the afternoon session due to track maintenance, the session began. The majority of the grid was focused on long runs and race simulations in the afternoon, with Vips setting the benchmark at 1:29.888.

    Vips was one of three stoppages during the final session, with the driver coming to a halt at Turn 3 in the final five minutes. Vesti and Hauger had also both stopped during the afternoon with the ART car coming to a stop at Turn 15 and PREMA pulling up at Turn 5.

    2021 podium finisher, David Beckmann subbed in for Cem Bolukbasi at Charouz on Thursday after the Turkish racer suffered a physical problem on the first day of testing.

    PositionDriverTeamLaptime
    1Juri VipsHiTech Grand Prix1:29.288
    2Jake HughesVan Amersfoort Racing1:30.802
    3Enzo FittipaldiCharouz Racing System1:31.541
    4David BeckmannCharouz Racing System1:31.633
    5Amaury CordeelVan Amersfoort Racing1:31.801
    Top 5 Afternoon Session.

    Formula 2 will be back on track next weekend, in Imola for Round 3!

  • JMC to not test in Barcelona

    Juan Manuel Correa, will not be taking part in the Formula 3 test in Barcelona this week after a metatarsal fracture on his left foot, his participation in Imola for Round 2 is also at risk.

    Correa, was in pain during the whole two day F3 testing at Jerez last week, even being forced to cut short his running on the second day as the pain became unbearable.

    His ability to brake was unsurprisingly impaired, particularly in the dry conditions of the test’s second day when he could only manage 47 laps in total.

    Entering his second season in F3 with ART Grand Prix after his comeback after he sustain injuries whilst racing in Formula 2 at Spain in 2019, Correa qualified and finished in fourth position in the feature race in Bahrain, despite the pain that he was in.

    After the Barcelona test, Correa was due to make his European Le Mans Series debut at Paul Ricard this weekend for Prema’s new LMP2 team alongside Louis Deletraz and Ferdinand Habsburg, which he will also have to miss.

    I couldn’t drive too much unfortunately because I have still a bit of an issue with the leg from the race in Bahrain. In the last race of the weekend, I got some inflammation in the tendons in the left foot and it still hasn’t recovered so I’m in quite a bit of pain when I drive.I was actually lucky that it rained all day yesterday because it’s softer on the brake. Ever since Bahrain, we’ve been working mainly on trying to reduce that but it’s still not perfect. The whole left foot has a lot of inflammation. And the nerves have gotten inflammated. Everything at the end goes back to that [the Spa crash] and both to my physical limitations, especially the ones I had last year, and that I’m having now which I was not expecting to have this year. It is a very frustrating to be in that position right now.

    Juan Manuel Correa, talking at Testing in Jerez.

    We did an MRI scan yesterday night (Thursday), got the results today (Friday) and there is indeed a stress fracture there. The doctors have recommended a couple of weeks rest. Lets see how it heals itself, how the pain improves. We are going to try to push the recovery to be able to do the Imola race but nothing is guaranteed.

    Correa took to social media at the weekend, with a video message.

    Absolutely gutted for him, it seems like just as things were getting good for him something like this happens! But health always comes first, so its the right decision for him to sit out of testing in Barcelona. Hopefully we see Correa back on track in Imola!

  • F3 Jerez Testing

    F3 Jerez Testing

    Formula 3 was back for the past two days as they were testing in Jerez. Let’s take a look at how it went down.

    Day 1-

    A few drivers, braved the wet and windy conditions at Jerez when the lights went green, with the majority of the field just doing an installation lap. As the rain began to ease, the field headed out for some flying laps and HiTech Grand Prix’s Isack Hadjar set the baseline time.

    With the people below him chopping and changing times, Hadjar was the only red flag, with his car coming to a stop on the gravel. This allowed Collet to take his place at the top of the leaderboard, with the MP Motorsport driver dipping below 1m 42s. But it was PREMA’s Arthur Leclerc who finished on top at the end of the morning session.

    Moving onto the second session of Day 1, Arthur Leclerc dropped a 1:43.790 once things started up again. Collet didn’t get the chance to improve as he brought out a red flag at Turn 4.

    Martins, Stanek, Rasmussen, Leclerc and Bearman all shared P1 between them as the times started to drop once the track was drying out. But it was Bearman who come out on top in the afternnon!

    PositionDriverTeamLaptime
    1Oliver BearmanPREMA Racing1:33.009
    2Josep Maria MartiCampos Racing1:33.666
    3Zane MaloneyTrident1:33.736
    4Victor MartinsART Grand Prix1:33.751
    5Arthur LeclercPREMA Racing1:33.998
    Top 5 Afternoon Session.

    Day 2-

    The track remained damp on the final and second morning, Josep Maria Marti set the pace for Campos before the field switched to dry weather tyres.

    Martins broke the 1m 31s barrier for the first time, and several others joined him, he was bumped down to fourth with Leclerc replacing him at the top with a 1:30.628.

    Leclerc’s time was only marginally better than Carlin’s rookie O’Sullivan who dropped a 1:30.634.

    Onto the afternoon, the sun decided to make an appearance with a completely dry track, Caio Collet produced a benchmark time of 1:30.359.

    Yeany’s Campos caused a red flag and interrupted the action around the halfway point, but once it got underway the quickest time fell. Leclerc took the biggest chunk out of it, posting a 1:29.556 to go quickest for the third session out of four.

    The session came to a slightly premature end as Juan Manuel Correa stopped at Turn 6 and brought out a red flag in the final seconds. Ushijima posted the most laps of the afternoon stint, completing an impressive 65 laps of the Jerez Circuit.

    PositionDriverTeamLaptime
    1Arthur LeclercPREMA Racing1:29.366
    2Victor MartinsART Grand Prix1:29.380
    3Isack HadjarHiTech Grand Prix1:29.611
    4Franco ColapintoVan Amersfoort Racing1:29.614
    5Oliver RasmussenTrident1:29.634
    Top 5 Afternoon Session.

    Formula 3 will be back next week, on the 15th April for two more days of in-season testing at Barcelona.

  • F2, F3 chosen tracks for testing

    F2, F3 chosen tracks for testing

    The dates for testing for both Formula 2 and Formula 3 have been revealed.

    Before both of the series gets underway at Sakhir on March 18th to 20th, there is a 3 day pre-season test at the circuit on the 2nd to 4th March, both series will alternate across the 3 days for each session and test. This is the third time F2 has used the country for the first bit of on track action. F3 used the track for pre-season testing back in 2020.

    After the season opener, F3 will go to Spain’s Jerez circuit on the 5th to the 6th of April for the second lot of tests, even though this venue is not on the calendar it is said to be used for set-up work and improving tyre management as the layout holds similarities to the Hungaroring.

    Formula Two holds its second round in Jeddah in late March before its in-season test the next month at Barcelona on the 12th to 14th of April, where they will be going again for round 4 of the 2022 season.

    After F2 have finished their tests, many of the teams will stay put in the paddock as F3 visits Barcelona for their 3rd test from the 15th to 16th. Out of the 11 teams in which take part in F2 and the 10 in F3, Virtuosi Racing and DAMS are the only teams to solely do F2, and Jenzer Motorsport only takes part in F3.

    Having just one pre-season test for both Formula Two and Three followed by further in-season tests was something which had been planned for the 2020 season before the coronavirus pandemic took effect and cause further disruption to the schedule.