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It was a productive day for us. Despite the rain, we completed solid mileage and, most importantly, had no major reliability issues.
The Scuderia chose to start work with the SF-26 on the second day of the group shakedown organised by Formula 1 at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit. Charles Leclerc took to the track at 9 on the dot, when the pit lane light went green.
The Monegasque completed an installation lap before returning to the garage for the usual checks. He then went back out on track, completing 19 laps on the Medium C2 tyre, before being compelled to pit as heavy rain hit the Catalan track. When it eased off, the team went back out on track in wet weather trim. Leclerc did 15 laps on the Full Wet tyres and 20 on Intermediates, thus gathering useful data, completing a total of 64 laps in the morning.
Shortly after 2pm, it was Lewis Hamilton’s turn to start his session, running the Full Wet tyres, before quickly switching to Intermediates. The Englishman did 19 laps on these tyres, before having to pit when the rain once again got heavier. When conditions improved Lewis went back out, running 28 laps on Full Wets, before switching to Intermediates once again, bringing his total up to 57. In total, the SF-26 completed 121 laps, equivalent to around 560 kilometres.
Charles Leclerc: It was good to be back in the car and to start learning a completely new package. Today was about system checks and understanding how everything works, rather than performance, especially with the mixed conditions. We completed our programme and everything behaved as expected, which is a positive start and a solid base to build on.
Lewis Hamilton: It was an intense but productive first day, especially with the mixed weather conditions. We managed to get good mileage on the car and gather a lot of useful information, which is important with such a big regulation change. There were no major issues and that gives us a solid foundation to keep learning and building over the next days.
Matteo Togninalli, Head of Track Engineering: Considering the conditions, it was a productive day for us. Despite the rain, we completed solid mileage and, most importantly, had no major reliability issues, which is the key priority with a new car and power unit. It’s still very early to talk about performance: the focus now is on understanding the car, learning its behaviour and building knowledge step by step over the coming days focusing on ourselves.
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