the postseason test in Abu Dhabi has been done and dusted and there have been some surprises to see on the timetable even though the times might mean nothing to the majority of the teams due to the different tires and setups run on the cars nevertheless the adaption process has gone smoother for some compared to others and with the greatest star missing in a red suit as well as the shootout for the second seat in Red Bull did this test give us some kind of narrative as to where the solution might be regarding these questions like
every other season 2024 hosted its postseason pelli Tire test in which the teams were allowed to use all but the C1 compound Tire due to its incompatibility with the tarmac In the Heat of the desert however the teams used the new softest C6 compound that plli is testing for the upcoming season and the results for its usability are still at this stage unknown what we can say for certainty is that the impression came from signs who set the second fastest lap and was the leader for an impressively long period until he was dethrown by lir
as the temperatures dropped and the track started to evolve and suit the sf24 a bit more than the other cars the session was quite clean overall and apart from Norris spin there weren't any accidents and the focus was on the acclimatization process of rookies and experienced drivers with their new Outlets one of the most remarkable ones as I I already mentioned was signs but apart from him we saw that drivers like Antonelli have been extremely quick and just behind his teammate Russell and the newcomer in salber hulkenberg who ended up at P3 and P4 respectively
obviously this is a massive result for anelli not just because of the pressure he's feeling on his shoulders after the Monza crash and the fact that he's jumping in extremely competitive Machinery in his first year but because of the fact that he managed to complete a testing session while battling the flu a reason why he didn't participate in the last race in F2 earlier this weekend as well but the primary focus was on Yuki sonoda and his outing with Red Bull as it was the first one after four years of collaboration between the Japanese driver
and the Austrian team Herer emphasized that this is going to be an extremely important test in which the lap times are going to be compared in a similar fashion to the ones of Ricardo back in the day when he replaced def freeze however it does look like the focus is on Lawson as he is part of Red Bulls Academy and the shareholders want to keep to their Grassroots and promote from within this has been emphasized by helmet Marco and while Coda didn't actually impress that much in the rb20 completing 127 laps and having the 17th
fastest time even behind Liam Lawson and Isaac haar the Japanese driver has been adamant that the car has its floors and he understood them as soon as he jumped into it when talking about it he said head straight away I felt the limitations of the car if you don't have confidence in the car you can't feel those limitations I didn't really struggle much to adapt I am happier than ever at the moment even his team principal Lauren mecky says that it would be a lie to say that Yuki isn't ready for the Red Bull seat
and the fact that he's struggled in the tire test can I repeat mean absolutely nothing because maybe the programs and the data that the team tried to collect had nothing to do with the speed of the car after all Red Bull will have a lot of time to spend in the wind tunnel in 2025 after finishing third in the construct championship and these 127 laps from Coda are going to help them a lot in understanding which section of the car needs the hardest reconstruction on the other hand Lawson has been quite impressive as he's locked
the day with the most laps driven on the track 159 yes he boded way lower than his teammates on Tuesday I iasa who is also a Red Bull Junior thanks to Honda's relationship but iwasa drove 110 laps and the programs on these two were probably a lot different which is why the Kiwi driver hasn't impressed as much as you would expect on the time sheets realistically the scenario that we are looking at is Lawson being promoted to Red Bull after the meeting in Abu Dhabi with the shareholders and his replacement would be Isaac haar who
was a Formula 2 Contender for the championship this year in a battle that went down to the last race of the season the winner of that Championship boretto is going to race in salba in 2025 and while only P for the Swiss based Squad he drove 130 laps and got used to the Machinery very well this is what's most important for the rookies they are getting to Jael with the car and getting to understand how it works because when the real lights are down then you have no excuses whatsoever everything comes to light and if
you underperform you might as well get replaced in an instant of a second a driver that we missed heavily seeing in the legendary red suit of course is Lewis Hamilton who already started his ambassadorial duties with Mercedes as he is currently in Rwanda and will go to stutgart the headquarters of Mercedes as well as Brackley and brickworth as the final destination on his farewell tour but even the seven time world champion admitted that missing out on this test is going to hurt him a bit more than we can expect because it's getting to know himself
with the car and we see how these laps are so important imagine driving 130 laps in a car that you just sat in and with you being a seven time world champion you might as well extract tons of data that the team wasn't even aware existed in the first place when talking about not being part of the tie test even though he knew it wouldn't be possible from day one Hamilton has reflected on the pain as he said I know for sir wanted it to happen for me I was in two minds driving the red
car for the first time in Abu dabby does not excite me in the perfect world you'd get to drive it and not be seen and do the first roll out next year when I did raise it with Toto they had all these plans that I've got to go and see some of the sponsors and say their farewells I don't think it was ever going to be allowed even if I'd asked for it but I'm contracted with the team until December 31st and that is totally fine it doesn't bother me because I wasn't going to do
the test I told Fred that's not what I want to do am I missing out on something for sure it definitely delays the process and makes the start of the Year harder but we'll do our best to recover from it seeing his future teammate lir top of the sheets might mean nothing to you because we're talking about results that have been posted throughout the entire day but nevertheless the fact that Hamilton will be testing out the f175 which is the 2022 version of Ferrari's car goes to show that he might be on the backf foot
starting in the 2025 season and that is something that his former teammate Nico rosberg has gone on to discuss the former Fierce Rivals battled from 2014 to 2016 until rosberg decided to pull the plug on his career after winning his first and only Championship but when talking about Hamilton Nico believes that there is a certain fear with which he will approach Ferrari in 2025 as if he doesn't have it in himself anymore and maybe the car in Mercedes wasn't the problem furthermore Nico said when you get beaten all the time and in the case of
Lewis who is statistically the goat then that is really tough and especially going forward now he has two years at Ferrari and he will 100% be very very worried what if this form of mine continues was it just the car at Mercedes or what if this form of mine continues to Ferrari if it does it would really be quite a painful Adventure I would say because that's not what Ferrari hired him for Ferrari hired him to be on the level of lir and fight for World Championships so I think he will be very worried about
that and we can only hope that he finds his way back to his good old self with a reset at Ferrari and is once again the brilliant driver that we know this might give us a hint as to why Hamilton is a bit worried about not participating in the test but nevertheless that is now done and dusted and with all of the newcomers as well as the rookies taking part what do you think will change in particular headed into the 2025 season and do you think that some teams will surprise us in positive manner considering
the fact that they have bolstered their driver's lineup let us know in the comments below and when you do that make sure to check out the video that appears on your screen right now
