How to make the most of an unexpected five-week break? This is the question Formula 1 teams and drivers have had to answer after the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian grands prix were cancelled due to the outbreak of the Iran war, which has destabilised the Middle East as a whole.
There was no mandatory shutdown, so to some extent the plan was a no-brainer: postpone the planned April updates into a major car upgrade for Miami, hammer away at development – within the confines of the budget cap and aerodynamic testing restrictions – with every outfit’s simulator proving useful.
“The more you run on track, the more you learn about your car, the more you learn about the tyres, the more you learn about the whole thing,” Ferrari chassis technical director Loic Serra explained to Motorsport.
“So effectively, when you have less running, this learning is not happening. It sort of freezes your correlation for some time, for an additional two weeks, three weeks – but it only freezes. And it doesn't stop you from developing based on what you have learned so far. It's just more of a small interruption in your learning rates on the correlation side.”
But development is not all the teams did, so let’s recap every squad’s activities.
On 17 April, Mercedes caused a stir when it posted a photo of a driver tiptoeing in front of the Mercedes W12, with a helmet in their hand. The overalls were unnamed, and fans soon began speculating on the identity of the racer. Was Romain Grosjean finally getting the unfulfilled Mercedes test offered by team boss Toto Wolff five years ago?
But the most attentive viewers noticed this was Doriane Pin’s helmet. The reigning F1 Academy champion made her F1 test debut, covering 76 laps of the 2.639km Silverstone National Circuit; she currently competes in LMP2 in the European Le Mans Series.
“There is nothing compared to Formula 1,” the Frenchwoman told the Mercedes Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show after the test. “I drove in LMP2, it's the first car we reach more than 300km/h on the straight, especially in Le Mans. 320km/h, 325km/h. But still, braking, combined downforce, the speed itself is another world compared to what I'm used to, and compared to what I've driven before.
“It's something that you don't expect until you drive it for the first time. Obviously, you need a bit of time to adapt and to understand how it works. But until you drive it, you have no idea how it feels, and how it will be.
“So, a lot of surprises today, even though we prepared quite a lot for this test. And I feel I was in the right window to have a good day because I've been working closely with the engineers and the team before, so I think we prepared well for this test. So I was comfortable in the car today.”
Mercedes’ current W17 also took to the track in a Pirelli test on 14-15 April at the Nurburgring, with George Russell and Kimi Antonelli completing 127 and 109 laps respectively.
McLaren joined Mercedes at the Nurburgring Pirelli test, where Oscar Piastri covered just 65 laps on day one due to a technical issue. Lando Norris then enjoyed a more productive 108 laps on day two.
And, like Mercedes, the papaya team gave track time to one of its juniors – namely reserve driver Leonardo Fornaroli. After covering 112 laps of the Barcelona track on 23-24 March, the reigning F2 champion was in action at Silverstone on 7 April, completing 68 laps of the grand prix layout.
“With it being my second test, the run plan was more advanced, so I got to try some different set-ups and run with different levels of fuel, which continues to support my understanding of driving a Formula 1 car,” the Italian commented.
But McLaren’s real deal over the break was signing Gianpiero Lambiase, Red Bull’s head of racing and Max Verstappen’s race engineer. Lambiase is expected to join the Woking-based outfit as its chief racing officer, reporting to team principal Andrea Stella, by 2028.
And so Red Bull’s brain drain continues. Chief engineer Rob Marshall, chief mechanic Lee Stevenson, chief technical officer Adrian Newey, sporting director Jonathan Wheatley, head of strategy Will Courtenay, team principal Christian Horner and advisor Helmut Marko have all left the team in the past two-and-a-half years, with Lambiase joining them soon. New team boss Laurent Mekies has a squad to rebuild.
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Track-wise, Isack Hadjar partook in a Pirelli test at Suzuka shortly after the Japanese Grand Prix, with several downpours turning it into wet-weather running. The French sophomore covered 103 laps over two days.
But all eyes turned to Verstappen, who took part in the Nurburgring 24h Qualifiers on 18-19 April amid the Dutchman’s frustration with F1’s new regulations. The Saturday race was curtailed by Juha Miettinen’s fatal crash; on Sunday, Verstappen built a lead of around 30 seconds before a damaged front splitter caused an unscheduled pitstop and ruled him and team-mate Lucas Auer out of contention.
The four-time world champion then performed a ‘filming day’ test at Silverstone, where Red Bull is rumoured to have trialled a Ferrari-style ‘Macarena’ wing among a number of upgrades.