Formula One Starts First Pre-Season Test Before March 15 Start

Prior to the start of the Formula One Racing season, which formally begins on March 15 with the Australian Grand Prix, each racing team reveals their two drivers, cars and reserves. After all this filler is done, the racers get to test their new cars at three pre-season testing sites: with the first currently underway in Jerez, Spain. These events allow the drivers to see the quality of their new rides and eventually tweak them to their liking.

As for the results of the first pre-season event in Jerez, the unofficial times of the third day’s session has the young inexperienced Felipe Nasr of Sauber finishing 109 laps in 1 minute and 21.545 seconds per lap. Nasr’s performance was followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari (1:21.750 in 94 laps), Nico Rosberg of Mercedes (1:21.982 in 151 laps), Felipe Massa of Williams (1:22.276 in 71 laps), Pastor Maldonado of Lotus (1:22.713 in 96 laps), Carlos Sainz Jr. of Toro Rosso (1:23.187 in 137 laps), Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull (1:23.901 in 49 laps) and finally Fernando Alonso from McLaren (1:35.553 in 32 laps).

While Nasr had the best time today, these results should be taken with a grain of salt: as this is just the first event of a long process of tweaking and fixing. By the time March 15 comes around, a lot of these cars will look and perform different than they did today. Furthermore, Nasr, a relative newcomer who was a reserve for Williams in 2014, is predicted to be in the lower half of the 2015 results.

The test in Jerez ends tomorrow with the next event happening in Barcelona from Feb. 19-22. After that, the final pre-season test is again in Barcelona from Feb. 26-March 1. At the moment, 2014 world title winner Lewis Hamilton is the favorite to win the 2015 season: with Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso having the second and third best odds according to various betting organizations.