Ferrari Cooking And Aston Takes a Dump On The Bed: Opinions After The Second Preseason Test

FINALLY!! AFTER A BILLION YEARS!! FERRARI HAS MADE A GOOD CAR!!!! No, this is NOT a drill - Ferrari might actually be cooking with this one. Yes, that's right - I'm talking about the fact that Leclerc's been fastest in Day 3 of this second preseason test, setting a time of 1:31.992, nearly 1 SECOND faster than Kimi Antonelli on day 2. Let's get into it.

Ferrari Reinvents The Wing

So first, we absolutely have to start out with the thing that's been making the rounds on social media all week long, the crazy "flip wing" concept. The idea behind the wing isn't actually that complicated - since the DRS (I refuse to call it Straight Mode) basically reduces the drag on the car by effectively reducing the size of the wing directing air upwards (thus reducing downforce), flipping the wing around entirely would actually invert the effect of downforce, thus creating a bit of lift that would help the car go faster in straight mode while allowing Ferrari to run a bigger wing in cornering mode, giving an advantage in corners too. However, they also may be bringing back the blown diffuser (read my other blog on that) to a mild extent, placing a flap in front of the exhaust. Since this is Ferrari, I will refuse to make any statement on performance and stick to taking heavy doses of hopium.

Ferrari's flip wing

Ferrari's supposed blown diffuser

Aston Martin Getting Cooked

Fernando must be having PTSD at this point from garbage engines made by Honda, considering that this year's engine is not allergic to absolutely exploding itself to bits in testing. Just 2 days ago, Alonso was going into the pits for a cooldown lap when his car instantly revved up to 13000 revs (almost at the max) before dying on him. Honda has apprently attributed this to a battery issue, but it seems like Alonso is just allergic to good cars even when Adrian Newey is building them. More in this video here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB_zDnwHhZc.

Alonso reliving his McLaren days

Verstappen Showing His Sim Racing Experience

Now this one is something only more experienced people would see in F1, but Verstappen has recently been spotted shifting into 1st gear instaed of the usual 2nd for Bahrain T9 and 10, as a way to not only brake later and get the car properly rotated, but also to regen more energy more the straight afterwards. This is a more complicated phenonmenon to explain in length, but the idea is that the rear axle controls the amount of energy harvested, not the actual amount of braking (though older fans who have been watching F1 closely may know the MGU-K is used to regenerate energy from braking and that these units have been beefed up in F1 in 2026). By shifting to 1st, the combined engine braking and braking will then produce a greater torque at the rear axle, thus allowing more energy to be harvested. At this point, it would just be easier for F1to bring back the V10s and make it easier for everyone else.

FIA's vetoed front axle braking concept

Overall: Playing Politics?

It honestly seems like everyone's playing politics at this point, so we don't have an idea for who goes where lap time wise. This only constant that can be deduced from all this is the fact that Melbourne is coming on March 7, and that all the sandbags will be off by then. Hopefully the dumpster fire at testing convinces F1 to maybe bring back things people actually like to see instead of a Formula E car run by 3 pistons and orange juice.