Ben Anderson wrote:"I spent the best part of an hour in the early stages of Wednesday's afternoon session watching trackside at the high-speed esses of Turns 7 and 8.
"Obviously this is only a brief snapshot, and it's difficult to compare like for like based on differing test programmes between teams, but nevertheless here are my first impressions of F1 2020, close-up.
"The Red Bull-Honda was arguably the standout car. Max Verstappen was braking insanely late for this section, noticeably later even than Valtteri Bottas in the Mercedes, and could pick up the throttle earlier than anyone else at the apex of 7. The most impressive thing was the car seemingly gave Max absolutely no trouble, lap after lap it looked like it was on rails. However, it also looked as though it was arriving at reduced speed compared to the other top cars, so perhaps is running in a detuned state engine-wise for now, which would also help explain why he was so late on the brakes and early back on the throttle."
Ben Anderson wrote:"The Mercedes looked predictably impressive, not quite as obviously painted to the road as the RB16 but still very strong. It looked ever so slightly lazy mid-corner, but was most likely running fat with fuel. Certainly there is a feeling elsewhere in the paddock that the W11 is still the car to beat, and it's hard to argue with that based on last week's lap times, even if I didn't seen the best of it today."
Ben Anderson wrote:"I feel the Ferrari is slightly behind the other two at this stage. The car looks decent enough on entry but then appears to lose grip mid-corner. I've heard there was a concern last week from Sebastian Vettel about the Ferrari having too much understeer and that tallies with my visual impression. Leclerc was having to use much more of the road on the exit of 7, thus tightening his approach to 8, because the car just would not fully comply as he re-applied the power mid-corner."
Ben Anderson wrote:"Of the rest, I saw a decent amount of the McLaren, Racing Point and Haas. I would put McLaren marginally ahead of Racing Point based on what I saw. Lance Stroll was chasing Lando Norris around for several laps and Norris gradually edged away. He was able to carry a bit more speed into Turn 7 without the car biting him, whereas Stroll had a massive rear slide while trying to re-apply power mid-corner on one lap so had to rein it in thereafter.
"The McLaren looks Red Bull-esque in terms of balance but without the same level of overall grip. The Racing Point clearly inspires confidence on entry, but can't quite hold on to the same degree as the McLaren mid-corner."
Ben Anderson wrote:"The Haas looked difficult to drive - reasonably fast, but Romain Grosjean always needed the full width of the circuit to navigate this section on his flying laps and had a few big moments as the car refused to comply with his demands. It looks as though it maybe has a similar problem to the Ferrari in terms of front end grip, but to a greater extreme. Grosjean certainly found it difficult to repeat his ideal racing line consistently."
No comments on the Renault, as they weren't running when he was trackside.Ben Anderson wrote:"I also got some brief impressions of the AlphaTauri, Alfa Romeo and Williams. The AlphaTauri, as you might expect, looks pretty much like a low-resolution Red Bull - well balanced but not blessed with high overall levels of downforce; Kimi Raikkonen looked ill at ease with the front end response of the Alfa initially and disappeared into the pits, so some work was needed to dial that car in for him; the Williams was noticeably slower than the rest entering this section, but in fairness that was very early into George Russell's run programme so there may be more in that car I haven't seen yet. "
FYI.
