If critics thought these past five days at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya would be a repeat of the carnage witnessed in testing 12 years ago, then they were sorely mistaken.
In 2014, F1 introduced the new 1.6-litre turbo hybrid power units, and for the most part, the first few days of testing were a disaster as cars either failed to make it out of the garage or, when they did, they broke down on track all too quickly.
Potentially fearing such misery would occur again given the major change to the PU for this season, the teams opted to conduct a private five-day test this past week, banning fans and media from attending.
The PU is powered by a mix of combustion and electrical energy, whilst the MGU-H has been axed, and the…