Winter Testing - Circuit de Catalunya (Feb. 18-20)

[Hun200kmh]

Times of today:

1 - M. Schumacher (Mercedes GP) 1:20.352 -112 laps
2 - F. Massa (Ferrari) 1:20.413 - 116 laps
3 - J. Button (McLaren) 1:21.009 - 69 laps
4 - J. Alguersuari (Toro Rosso) 1:21.214 - 72 laps
5 - M. Webber (Red Bull) 1:21.613 - 113 laps
6 - A. Sutil (Force India) 1:21.780 - 73 laps
7 - S. Pérez (Sauber) 1:21.857 - 56 laps
8 - T. Glock (Virgin) 1:22.208 - 57 laps
9 - V. Petrov (Renault) 1:22.493 - 65 laps
10 - P. Maldonado (Williams) 1:22.591 - 37 laps
11 - J. Trulli (Lotus) 1:23.216 - 40 laps

Nothing too meaningful, four drivers had "offs" (Petrov, Alguersuari, Maldonado and Perez). Schumi's best lap was set in the morning, and both him and Massa did long runs with all the four tyre compounds Pirelli made available.

Webber was apparently sandbagging, doing his own (and the teams) tests apparently with lots of fuel onboard (to hide what the car is really capable of, we can only presume).

It seems Pirelli tyres really do degrade quickly (all specs).

Tomorrow should be more interesting, because of the Renault team (And maybe Alonso and Vettel do a pissing contest for top time, we never know ). Schumacher will remain, Barrichelo and Kobayashi will show up for the first time.

 

[thesrdic]

What time zone is the jerez test in compared to GMT? I was keeping up with the valencia runs in my lectures on my phone last week thanks to the beeb, but can't find any info on these ones except new times pop up every day, is it overnight?

 

[Hun200kmh]

GMT+1. If you live in the UK you live in a GMT time zone (as I do, in Portugal). In most of Europe, starting with Spain, just add one hour. So, as I post, it's 18.30 in Portugal and the UK, and 19:30 in Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Greece .... all the way to Poland. Russia and Finland are (me thinks) 2 hours apart from us

 

[thesrdic]

Yeah I get how all of that works, I was just wondering what time zone the track is in as I can never find the bbc live text feeds for it, although I just found its in Spain so I guess either the testing is at an awkward time or the BBC just didn't bother sending anyone for a live feed

 

[Ardius]

BBC aren't covering Jerez testing, they are only covering Valencia, Barcelona and presumably Bahrain.
Autosport have text commentary up each day (it was pay-for-view only for Valencia).

 

[Prince.M5]

It seems Pirelli tyres really do degrade quickly (all specs).

I guess that'd create some good racing? 💡

Team Lotus seems to still have some teething problems with the car. I'd love to see what both Heidfeld and Senna could do in the coming days... Glad to see Mercedes on top without any mechanical error.

 

[spyrrari]

Live text coverage of the testing,if anybody is interested...:

http://live.autosport.com/commentary.php/id/308




spy.

 

[RTSolvalou]

Thanks, the Williams site live test timings are not exiting to look at at all.

 

[Hun200kmh]

LOL, Heidfeld is fastest now. Beat this tomorrow Senna ...

 

[Peter]

I sure hope he does :/

Dammit ,why is Senna's career being put on pause by an old German?

 

[SaberFire]

I sure hope he does :/

Dammit ,why is Senna's career being put on pause by an old German?

Because that old German might actually put that car on the podium this year?

 

[Ardius]

I sure hope he does :/

Dammit ,why is Senna's career being put on pause by an old German?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Formula_One_driver_records#Other_driver_records
Most consecutive classified finishes
41 races Nick Heidfeld (2007 French Grand Prix–2009 Italian Grand Prix)
Most consecutive race finishes
33 races Nick Heidfeld (2007 Chinese Grand Prix–2009 Italian Grand Prix)

Thats why.

 

[Sharky.]

Also:

Bruno Senna
Races 18

Nick Heidfeld
Races 174 (172 starts)

But you seem to have this thing against Quick Nick, Peter. So we understand if you refuse to see why Heidfeld is the far superior and more logical choice for Renault.

 

[Peter]

This is my heart talking here. My mind knows that Nick is the best choice, but my heart wants Bruno to get a chance. Nothing against Nicky.



So, if Senna tops the times tomorrow, or goes equally as fast, will everyone eat their words and say that Senna isn't so bad after all?

 

[Prince.M5]

Eric Boullier already said he wants an experience driver to lead Petrov... Even if Senna is faster today, he still have the exact same experience as Petrov coming into this season. But I'm pretty confident Quick Nick might have the seat. I'm a Quick Nick fan by the way

 

[Ardius]

So, if Senna tops the times tomorrow, or goes equally as fast, will everyone eat their words and say that Senna isn't so bad after all?

No, because its testing, you don't know what tyres, fuel, setup, etc each driver is running and you don't know how much better/worse the track conditions are.
Not to mention that pretty much none of the teams have actually gone out and set a low-fuel, super-soft qualifying lap and shown their real pace. They never do, its the same every year.

All we can observe from testing is how consistent the drivers are, and even then we don't know what tyres they are on and how worn they are.

I don't think there is anything Bruno can do today to change their minds other than crashing the car and ruling himself completely out of a drive.

 

[RTSolvalou]

10:11 The timing screen says the track is clean, so no fluids spilt by the Virgin. 👍

 

[SaberFire]

So, if Senna tops the times tomorrow, or goes equally as fast, will everyone eat their words and say that Senna isn't so bad after all?

Senna isn't bad. Anyone who can get an F1 car around a track without crashing is a very talented driver. But I stand by my reasoning that he's only gotten so far in his career because of his name; if he was called something like John Doe, who'd care about him? His previous formula exploits haven't exactly set the tables on fire, after all

 

[Ardius]

A famous name is as much a disadvantage as it is an advantage for that very reason - he attracts negative views simply because people assume he only got to where he is on his name alone.
His race records show that he is a good driver, but its not known if he is really great. He has yet to be given a proper F1 chance for us to find out. He certainly earnt all the opportunities he has been given so far, its not like he has been hired for money from huge sponsorship.

I find it amusing so many are so quick to judge based on the "Senna" name. Equally though, I will agree that he does get talked about more than perhaps he would with a different name. But even if he was called something else, he would still be in the position guys like Grosjean are (clearly have skill but unknown in F1), and for me, thats all I need to know as far the name goes.

It seems that more often than not, the children of reputable drivers tend to be quite good. So I don't see why its such a problem for them to be given opportunities. Bruno isn't Ayrton. But he is a decent driver.

 

[Hun200kmh]

I think Senna did a great job today. I like the guy and I think he is working against the odds. And I feared that he would face this day in a do-or-die attitude that could have had disastrous consequences. Didn't happen, thankfully.

His pace today, without ever using the super soft tyres, the fact that he always kept the car on the black stuff (with a spin), all in the worse circumstances possible ... quality stuff! 👍

 

[RTSolvalou]

Barcelona testing starting soon

http://live.autosport.com/commentary.php/id/310

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I've changed the title of this thread to reflect the change in venue. We don't need one thread for each individual test, so I'll just update the title accordingly as the next round of testing comes about.

 

[Hun200kmh]

Interesting comment from Autosport's staff in reply to someone about a possible "sandbagging" attitude from RBR.

13:03 Guhan Subramaniam asks: Everyone knows the Red Bull is clearly faster then any other car by at least five tenths, so why are they always sandbagging? I do not believe it will try to make other teams think it has no pace.

AUTOSPORT.com features editor @TeamAnglais says:

"It is true that everywhere we try read between the lines, the Red Bull seems to be the fastest car. It's consistency over long stints and ability to make tyres last longer than we expect stands out. It's exit speed out of fast corners at Jerez was quicker than all the others, even when it was lapping slower. And the rear wing flap was opening earlier and for longer than all the others, suggesting a comparative surplus of downforce. But because of the nature of testing, that's all still guess work for us.

"The team isn't sandbagging, as such. As veteran F1 engineer Frank Dernie explained to us when he got in touch with Live at Jerez, it's far less vital for a team to spend time testing on qualifying fuel. So Red Bull is likely just focused on heavy fuel race pace, rather than trying to hide its performance from the likes of Ferrari and McLaren.

"We won't know for sure how quick the RB7 is until the first race, but you can be sure that the rival teams know more about each others' performance than we do."

 

[F1 fan]

As a Red Bull fan, that summary brings a smile to my face.

Anyway, onto today's running.

1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m24.374s 37 laps
2. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m25.485s + 1.111s 101 laps
3. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m25.638s + 1.264s 57 laps
4. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m25.641s + 1.267s 78 laps
5. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m26.365s + 1.991s 77 laps
6. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m26.575s + 2.201s 26 laps
7. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m26.912s + 2.538s 52 laps
8. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m27.512s + 3.138s 90 laps
9. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m28.393s + 4.019s 116 laps
10. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m30.065s + 5.691s 54 laps
11. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m30.950s + 6.576s 116 laps
12. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m35.174s + 10.800s 20 laps
13. Nick Heidfeld Renault 1m44.324s + 19.950s 27 laps

from autosport

 

[The Outlaw]

The suspense is killing me!

 

[Saidur_Ali]

The Red Bull looks like it will be very fast again. http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2011/02/18/vettel-surprised-were-slower-than-last-year/

Maybe they have the downforce levels similar to the McLaren or Ferrari last year. Considering McLaren are aiming to reach their own levels, Red Bull were far ahead in terms of downforce, that maybe the RB7 being not terribly slower than the RB6 means that it could have still probably beaten the McLaren MP4-25 in terms of downforce or closely matched it.

I personally think it will be very close with the Ferrari and Red Bull and McLaren might be even / slightly ahead or half a second back from these guys due to a more radical design. They seem quite quiet so they might be quite confident as they will know much better how others are doing than us.

With teams only bringing the real deal for Bahrain if it does take place, only then we can see what the big teams had in reserve and Q3 will be tasty. Which team will be smug or not? Mercedes and Renault will be teams to watch out, Renault especially with their exhaust design.

 

[Alex.]

Pic from the circuit of someone I know

 

[Piket]

There goes another season ..

At leats let's hope Vettel is not too fast for Mark again. ---> Awaits angry comments from Webo's fanboys..

 

[Ardius]

I don't see how the season is gone already, Vettel set a time 3 seconds slower than the fastest times from last year's Barcelona test. Testing, as ever, is quite meaningless for season predictions, all we can tell is that Red Bull look quite strong again. How far ahead they are from everyone else is down to guessing.

We can't even make judgement on how reliable teams are, Ferrari and Sauber looked quite fast and reliable in 2010 testing, but both turned out poor reliability at the start of the season.

Even if Red Bull do produce a super-quick car again, 2010 surely showed that is not enough to win?

 

[The Outlaw]

If I'd have to bet, I would say that RBR & Ferrari are looking to be in a league of their own. I know Ferrari have a massive upgrade in the pipeline for the final test (RBR probably do as well), so they likely have some more pace up their sleeves in the near future. Although I must remind myself to be overly cautious when reading into times (especially with the new regulations), the times Alonso put up today are pretty encouraging when in comparison to Vettel's. I really do think & hope that RBR & Ferrari will be quite evenly matched come the seasoner opener...but it's still way too difficult to predict with any clarity, so I will stop there

Regarding Mercedes - I think you can comfortably say they are once again completely out of the picture unforturtanately. I know they have some upgrades planned before the first race, but I can't see that being enough to make up for the general lack of pace they've had throughout testing (particularly today).

In the case of Mclaren, it is still early days for them as they try and iron out the reliability side of the car, so it's a bit hard to judge where they will be at once Lewis jumps in the car and they start squeezing some more pace out of the car. Mclaren are also awaiting a few devolpments which could push them in a positive direction...but from what I've heard from some rumour floating (supposedly from someone inside the team) around is that they need nearly a second to catch up to the front runners...but again, that's just a rumour.

I'm not really sure about the others teams as I haven't really followed their progress as of yet.