Mike Gascoyne and Craig Scarborough on the post-testing pecking order, McLaren's struggles, and more in F1 Report: Development Special
Friday 17 March 2017 10:18, UK
Mercedes will be "worried" by Ferrari's impressive performance in pre-season testing, according to former F1 technical chief Mike Gascoyne.
Ferrari head to Australia for next week's 2017 season-opener having made the running at Barcelona testing, with their timesheet-topping pace in Spain described as "spectacular" by Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton.
Speaking on the F1 Report: Development Special, an hour-long show looking at the new 2017 cars and testing formbook, Gascoyne said he had been "very impressed" by Ferrari's winter performance.
"If you asked me in the middle of last year when James Allison was leaving, there was lots of pressure on them not winning races, you're saying that this is going to spiral downwards and they're going to start sacking people, chopping and changing, and will disappear," said Gascoyne, a former technical director at Renault and Toyota.
"And they've come out, they've not said anything, they've just got it on the track, they've been consistent and they've been quick. They've not particularly tried to go quickly, they did at the end of the second test, and they did it very, very easily. They look very impressive and very under control.
What's the 2017 F1 pecking order?
"I think there'd be a lot of people who are quite worried down in Brackley [Mercedes' factory] about Ferrari."
Pre-season testing is an infamously unreliable indicator of the true early-season F1 pecking order. Despite dominating the past three seasons, 2015 was the only time Mercedes went into the first race after setting the pace in the winter.
F1 technical analyst Craig Scarborough, who joins Gascoyne alongside host Natalie Pinkham on the F1 Report, suspects Mercedes still have work to do to maximise the potential of their new W08 car.
"The Mercedes looks fantastic on track. But with some of the driver comments, they haven't dialled that car in yet," said Scarborough.
"I have no doubt that underneath that is a very quick car and they were sandbagging with the engine modes and what they were doing with the set-up of the car.
"But it didn't look as composed as the Ferrari and, as a small risk in the opening races, potentially this is where Ferrari could monopolise it and get some early victories in if their car is dialled in so much better than the Mercedes."
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