Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain drives during practice for the season-opening Formula One race in Barcelona, Spain. Joan Monfort/Associated Press
BARCELONA, Spain — New rules, same result.
Formula One debuted its new generation of cars in preseason testing in Barcelona this week, and in the end it was still Mercedes and Red Bull dominating.
Lewis Hamilton set the fastest overall time with Mercedes at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit on Friday, ahead of teammate George Russell and the Red Bulls of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen. The Mercedes duo set their times on softer – and faster – tires.
Mercedes won seven straight driver titles before Hamilton lost the championship to Verstappen on the last lap of the last race in 2021.
“We’re not fully happy with the balance of the car, but we’re here to learn and we’ve made some good experiments,” Russell said. “We are happy with the direction we are heading in.”
McLaren and Ferrari were not near the top of the time sheets on Friday but had already shown their strength on the previous days. Lando Norris was fastest with McLaren on the first day and Charles Leclerc was quickest with Ferrari on the second day.
“I don’t think we’re in an amazing place, but I think we’re in a good place,” Norris said. “It’s been a good start, we’ve kept things very clean. It’s been productive and we have made progress.”
All of the top teams showed good reliability, although Red Bull struggled with a gearbox issue on the second day. Ferrari ran the most overall laps over the three days, followed by Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull.
• Michael Andretti said Friday that his father revealed his Formula One aspirations last week to show the FIA there is strong public support for an expansion team — and he would need a decision from motorsports’ governing body in the next month to be properly prepared for a 2024 debut.
Mario Andretti a week ago surprisingly took to Twitter to outline his son’s plans, writing that Andretti Global had applied to the FIA for a new team in time for the 2024 season and was awaiting a decision. The move drew immediate attention not just around F1 but in IndyCar.
Amid preparations for IndyCar’s opener Sunday in St. Petersburg, Michael Andretti said he had expected FIA’s decision in early January. He said he and his father, the 1978 F1 champion, have grown restless as the application sits and hoped publicizing his plans would show the FIA the value the Andretti name could bring to the series.
INDYCAR: An IndyCar fan survey found that Romain Grosjean is the series’ most popular driver, Team Penske is the favorite team and the Indianapolis 500 is the best race on the schedule.
IndyCar said it received 53,579 responses to its Global Fan Survey, which was conducted by Motorsport Network over a 21-day span in January to gauge fan opinion on everything from the on-track product, the venues and how IndyCar can reach a larger audience.
The survey was conducted in 11 languages and 147 countries and the results were analyzed by Nielsen Sports and presented in a 36-page report ahead of IndyCar’s season-opener.
Grosjean, who moved from Formula One to IndyCar last season and has been featured in the popular “Drive to Survive” Netflix docuseries, was listed in the top three of fan favorite drivers on 32% of the surveys. He was followed by Pato O’Ward, who not only ranked second but was the favorite of female fans.
NASCAR: Cup Series champion Kyle Larson is partnering with sports streaming service FloSports to promote a dirt race in Tennessee that he believes his rivals can use as a tune-up for Bristol Motor Speedway.
The April 14 race at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap is scheduled three days before NASCAR’s dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Larson said his event can be a practice session for the April 17 Cup race at Bristol, which will be covered in dirt for NASCAR for a second consecutive season.
“I want to continue to help grow grassroots racing and if I can with my NASCAR platform, I will,” Larson told The Associated Press. “I’d like to get as many Cup drivers as we can to race in the event. Bulls Gap is very similar in size to Bristol Motor Speedway, so it would be like extra practice leading into the Bristol dirt race.”
He noted that Volunteer Speedway is roughly 45 minutes away from Bristol, so fans can attend both races.
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