Diego Merino was recently in Barcelona, well not the main city with its wonderful El Bullidromes, fairly dangerous electric scooters and très sympa tapas-erias, but rather the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Montmeló (en español).

Formula 1 first pre-season test being the main reason for Diego’s trip (think twice if you thought tapas!), working hard with Clarksport, Iberianmph and a couple of other agencies who wish to remain anonymous, snapping them precious exclusive images which your eyes can enjoy in the massive gallery below (day 1, galleries from days 2 to 4 will go online later today).

F1 c. 2019 is not a totally different animal compared to the “stagnation period” of 2014-2018; there’s plenty of interest with Ricciardo moving to Renault and RBR/STR adopting Honda power units. Bottas promises to go rogue at Mercedes, while Leclerc is aiming at giving his new bosses at Ferrari and former champ/current team-mate Seb Vettel a Hamilton-esque 2007 ALO vs HAM headache. Respect!

One thing that’s annoying us though is Ocon’s absence from the 2019 grid, that’s unthinkable, Toto must exercise more and flex his contractual flexibility. On the othe hand, maybe Esteban will calm down a bit in Mercedes s(t)imulator role and will stop T-boning people.

PS All images are for sale.