The testing season is important not only for the drivers and teams but us fans as well. This is the time of the year when we will see how fast the new cars are. Usually they give a pretty good picture of it.
Last year I remember that Kevin Magnussen was pretty fast with McLaren in testing and when the first race came he was on the podium (3rd and later 2nd when Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified). Everybody also saw that Mercedes was super fast! The only team that really surprised me was Red Bull because in testing they were just awful and when the season started Daniel Ricciardo was 2nd. Some said that Red Bull would be one of the worst teams.
Some other years the testing season has shown that even though you are fast in testing it doesn't mean anything. I remember that in 2006 Honda was very fast in testing and when the season started Ferrari was the team that had made most progress. McLaren had gotten worse and Renault was pretty much the same but still the team to beat.
This year I believe that Mercedes and Williams will have the best cars and Ferrari will be much better than last year. Some say that even though Fernando Alonso is a great racer he is not good at developing the car. Sebastian Vettel is much better which might bring the team forward. This helps also Kimi Räikkönen who does not only have more experience than Vettel but has also a similar driving style.
The team that interests me the most is still none of these teams. McLaren-Honda is the one I am very interested of. I was a huge Ayrton Senna fan (and still am) and the last time Honda and McLaren were together they were unstoppable.
I am posting the test results here on the blog every day starting tomorrow.
If you want to follow the testing in real time I suggest that you go to www.autosport.com because they usually have a live feed in every test session.
