Formula 1 2018 Pre Season Test 1 Day 3

USPA NEWS - Snowfall brings pre-season testing to a virtual standstill

Date: Wednesday 28 February 2018

Driver: N/A

Circuit: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

Circuit Length: 4.655 km

Laps Completed: N/A

Distance Covered: N/A

⛄ built: 1

Freezing temperatures and snowfall on the track meant the F1 W09 EQ Power+ was confined to the garage on the third day of 2018 pre-season testing. But even without the car running, the workload for Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport remained high. With one day of testing lost to bad weather, the team had to re-assess its programme for the following days. And they also had to take good care of the newest team member ““ Karl Snowman.

James Allison:

We now have one-eighth less testing available to us. So we shuffle our programme around and try to fit all the work we need to do into seven days instead of eight. Winter testing is always tight, but this is only because you´re trying to achieve as much as possible in the time available. There´s just slightly less time available now. It is the same challenge for all the teams, so we take it on the chin and move on.

There´s one thing the weather does change. It gives us the opportunity fruitlessly to make plans and revise them every half an hour as the weather continues to disappoint“¦ In between the re-planning the track folk get on with office work and talk about football to pass the time.

Even during normal winter testing the track is never very representative of what happens later in the year. So it´s not unusual to be trying to make the best of the available conditions and to extrapolate from them what you might expect to see in the summer. This week´s weather just makes the challenge more extreme, as the cold makes it harder to get the car in its right operating window. But, once again, this is the same for everybody.

Karl Snowman (Twitter: @KarlSnowmanF1):

Hands down this was the best day of my life. It´s been over ten years since I was last invited out to F1 testing ““ back in Silverstone in 2005 with Renault. It´s not my first time in Barcelona, I was here in 2002 with McLaren when Mika started a snowball fight in the pit lane. But today has been the most fun yet.

The team was really nice to me; everyone was so cool and chilled out. They gave me a warm welcome, but not too warm ““ just the way I like it.

I don´t quite understand why everyone made such a fuss about the weather. I mean what do people expect? There´s a reason why it´s called winter testing.

I would also like to address the rumours about my wellbeing. Reports about my demise have been greatly exaggerated. I can assure everyone that the team is treating me extremely well and found appropriate accommodation in a cold storage unit for me.