Saꦯndbagging is always a hot topic duri♋ng F1 pre-season testing.

It refers to Formula 1 teams intentionally slowing their cars down, so their rivals see inaccurate d🦩ata. The idea is to then to catch your enemies by surprise when it really counts at the first grand prix.

Sandbagging can be achieved by pu💦tting more fuel than necessary𓄧 into a car, to weigh it down and make it slower.

Ruth Buscombe, who worked for Ferrari and Sauber in strategy jobs, expꦇlained why teams use di﷽ffering amount of fuel during testing.

🌠“Low fuel was a range between 30-40 kilos,” she said about testing with Sauber. “But remember it’s about equivalent fuel.

“Some teams spea༺k as though they are going down to qualifying trim, and some teams speak in terms of actual fuel in theౠ car.

“That’s because we run more sensor♐s in testing than in a race.

“So it’s driven by what you want to achieve - if you run a soft compound, like you woul🏅d in Monaco, then you run a low fuel load. If you’re running a qualifying sim, you run a low fuel load. “If you ran a 30kg fuel load it would effectively be 40kg because of the sensors.”

Jolyon Pal🐬mer replied: “We us🍎ed to do 30kg at Renault and we’d often look alright in testing.”

Which clues from F1 testing hint at the pecking order?

Whatever the ꦉtimesheets say in testing, we know it only counts when racing begins at the Australian Grand Prix on March 16.

Until♑ then, F1 fans are left looking for clues from testing to guess who has the quickest car.

“The race sims ar🦹e the best reference,” Buscombe 💛said.

“It wouldn’t be crazy for a big team tജo never drop below 50kg equivalent in testing.

“One of the most fas🐟cinating things is: a qualifying session in Formula 1 is 18 minutes, and teams get knocked out because they go at the beginning, then don’t go at the end, and track evolution can dominate between a fast ♋car and a slow car.

“Track evolꦆution makes a huge difference. Bahrain🔯 gets faster, then slower, then faster again.”

Which F1 teams are guilty of sandbagging?

Palmer asked: “Why don♏’t the big teams just run the day on 50kg of fuel?”

Busc🐭ombe answered: “There’s an element of not showing your hand but that’s becoming less and less over the years.

“There is a historic trend💧 of teams like Ferrari running slightly lower at the end of testing than their rivals.”

But what is the actual purpose of testing? Palmer expressed his confusion at why teams value the ar𓆉t of hiding data from rivals.

He asked: “Surely everyone’s hand is shown? At the end of t꧙hree days of coverage, 𒀰if you stop in the pitlane, the cameras are on. If the engine blows up, the cameras are on. Everyone is looking at everyone else?”

Buscombe answered: “If you are thre൲e tenths off pol🐬e, you’re in for a tough season, historically, if you are Lando Norris or Max Verstappen.

“So running sensors on the car, even if you run equivalent to qualifying, you are effec𒀰tively sandbagging compared to where you would be in Australia.

“You don’t have to do much, these days, in terms of fuel. First to last was 1.3% last ye🥃ar. Three tenths is about 0.🌳4%.

“You don’t have to do much to sandbag.”

'Confused by the logic of sandbagging'

Palmer said: “I don’t understand why any🤡one sandbags. Every year I am c🧜onfused by the logic of sandbagging.

“If Ferrari took the shackles off and did a 1.29.2, and they’re a second-and-a-half quicker than Verstap𝔉pen, what are Red Bull going to do about it?”

Buscombe replied: ✱“I’ve heard people giv🤡e logical answers on both sides of this.

“Fred Vasseur says ‘focus on ourselves’. Other team principals ✱say ‘weꦐ don’t want to show our hand because this is our roll-out car’.”

Palmer pointed out another oddity of testing.

“50kg 🌞of fuel is a silly weight,” he said. “You never run 50kg of fuel apart from half-way through a grand prix for one lap.

“So, all this testing work, why don’t they test on the fuel that th♏ey’d qualify with?”

Buscombe answered: “Because, 2014 was the year, Mercedes did a 50kg fuel run. With one seꦺt of tyres, they did a mini qualifying sim and also got some long run data.

“They got something which was a bit of both, while tesꦯting other things.”