Ferrari’s ‘utterly pointless’ test antics called out by Damon Hill

Topping pre-season testing five times in the last decade, and unofficially P1 at the recent Barcelona shakedown, Damon Hill has claimed Ferrari engages in the “utterly pointless” tactic of taking fuel out of the car for a glory run.

And then they come up short in the championship.

Never mind sandbagging, has Ferrari been running light fuel loads in testing?

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Ferrari has not won a Drivers’ title since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007, or a Constructors’ crown since 2008 but every year could be the year.

The Tifosi are not only inspired by the noises coming out of Maranello, but also the lap times on the track, with Ferrari quickest in five of the last 10 pre-seasons.

Never mind not winning the title in any of those years – 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2024, in 2016, the Scuderia didn’t even win a single grand prix.

Testing, as 1996 World Champion Hill points, can be misleading. Even deliberately.

Hill told The Race’s ‘Stay on Track’ podcast: “The testing results, what they do is they cover the days and who is quickest and all the rest of it. And sometimes you get unexpected people are very quick.

“And it is nearly always wrong. I mean by miles.

“You suddenly see teams you don’t expect looking really quick in winter testing.

“So viewers and listeners beware, do not go by the lap times you are seeing because if you are quick, which is what we’d do at Williams when we knew we had an advantage, we’d run with 60kg of fuel in the car to slow us down.”

As for the other side of the coin to Williams’ antics in the mid 1990s, teams also remove fuel from the cars to go for glory runs to appease sponsors, media, fans, and in Ferrari’s case, an entire country.

More on Ferrari’s performance at the Barcelona shakedown

F1 results: Unofficial numbers from the Barcelona shakedown

Shakedown conclusions: Mercedes back in the light, Red Bull finds peace, key Newey question

“It’s utterly pointless,” Hill bemoaned of that practice.

“The culprits for this were Tom Walkinshaw with Arrows, they wanted to do, with Jordan as well, we’ve got to put a show time in.

“Don’t do it. You’ll just look like an idiot when you come to the race and you’re not quick!

“But they do it because the sponsors want an uplift, they want to have something they can crow about.

“Ferrari are also good at doing this, it seems to me. They feel the pressure to just get a lap time.

“I think Red Bull are very good at keeping their powder dry and not showing their hand.”

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