F1 2007/2008 Winter Testing and Rumours

Todays times

Code: 
Pos  Driver        Team                       Time     Laps
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1.11.189   88 *
 2.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1.11.206   89 *
 3.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1.11.831   96 *
 4.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1.11.971  116 *
 5.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1.11.994   84 *
 6.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber           (B)  1.12.095   86 *
 7.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1.12.109   96 *
 8.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1.12.526  113
 9.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (B)  1.12.600   39
10.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1.12.705   68 *
11.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1.12.949   93
12.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1.12.973   89 *
13.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1.13.060   95
14.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1.13.133   15 *
15.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Toyota      (B)  1.13.306   74
16.  Button        Honda                (B)  1.13.689   80 *
17.  Kogure        Honda                (B)  1.15.703   25
 
The Fins must have been a little lighter than the other drivers. The different between them and thier teamates is quite large...

Just wondering, why would BMW send last years and this years cars out?
 
Bennah said:
Just wondering, why would BMW send last years and this years cars out?
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Heidfeld has said that the new car is having problems with balance so they might be looking to get a baseline from a known package. On the other hand it could be any number of other reasons - problems with the other car, ECU testing (no need to risk a new car) etc.
 
Its nice to see Kimi finally pushing his car to the limit and topping the times for once. I was wondering how long it would take him to snap and go top.

I expect to see the Ferraris get many 1-2s this year.

McLaren really are relying on Hamilton to mature this season and deliver the goods without an experienced driver alongside him. Only time will tell if this was the right strategy. I would even have preferred to have someone like Coulthard alongside Hamilton, just for 2008.
 
Ferrari =
great/experienced driver line-up.
Continuity.
No competition from Alonso.
Ferrari (Massa + Kimi) just need to finish ahead of Hamilton and together they can beat him.
Hamilton will be leading his team for the first time with no assistance from an experienced team mate. More pressure - can he handle it?
McLaren have voluntarily frozen some of their development to appease the FIA.

Hence, Ferrari are in a strong position.
 
sunama said:
Ferrari =
great/experienced driver line-up.
Continuity.
No competition from Alonso.
Ferrari (Massa + Kimi) just need to finish ahead of Hamilton and together they can beat him.
Hamilton will be leading his team for the first time with no assistance from an experienced team mate. More pressure - can he handle it?
McLaren have voluntarily frozen some of their development to appease the FIA.

Hence, Ferrari are in a strong position.
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I genuinely hope you are wrong.

But only because I want a good season, not a Ferrari redwash.
 
I hope I am wrong but the testing times are pointing to Ferrari dominance. Lets hope McLaren & Hamilton can put in special performances during race weekends.
 
PS. Is no one worried about how badly Honda seem to be doing and that they seem to have produced another lemon? Surely Honda cant be happy with this...can they?
 
sunama said:
PS. Is no one worried about how badly Honda seem to be doing and that they seem to have produced another lemon? Surely Honda cant be happy with this...can they?
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Heh, I was thinking exactly the same thing. I'm sorry, but if Honda are going to be anywhere this year, they should NOT be at the bottom of the testing time sheets, and I don't care what kind of development program they are running.
 
Memphis said:
Heh, I was thinking exactly the same thing. I'm sorry, but if Honda are going to be anywhere this year, they should NOT be at the bottom of the testing time sheets, and I don't care what kind of development program they are running.
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Perhaps they are running a top secret program designed to fool everybody thinking that they have developed a car that consistently runs at the back of the grid.

Then, on race, day BANG, they will qualify in last place. :D
 
It would be very tempting for a driver in his twilight years (think Coulthard/Fisichella) to goto one of these teams for a HUGE final season salary. For all their huge budgets, they are basically backmarkers.

If Honda do make another lemon, that will be 2yrs in a row. To achieve this isnt easy. It takes a truly inept team of people to achieve this. Surely, heads would roll if this is what occurs?
 
sunama said:
If Honda do make another lemon, that will be 2yrs in a row. To achieve this isnt easy. It takes a truly inept team of people to achieve this. Surely, heads would roll if this is what occurs?
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Lol, go on then, you do it.

If the 2008 honda is crap they must be suffering from some serious tunnel correlation issues.
 
sunama said:
I hope I am wrong but the testing times are pointing to Ferrari dominance. Lets hope McLaren & Hamilton can put in special performances during race weekends.
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Ferrari haven't dominated.
Kovalainen has posted the fastest overall lap and there is only a couple of tenths between them anyway.
 
Toyota haven't been looking too clever either... It's at the stage where you can't even call it disappointing, you just expect them to be failures.
I really expect Kovaleinen to do well this year, could upset Mr. Hamilton. (I hope so)
If that Renault isn't a top quality car (which I think it will be) I'm holding NicktheNorse fully responsible. :p
 
Honda should never have sacked Geoff Willis, simple as. Look at the Williams BMW years - the only years Ralf & JPM were serious contenders for the title Willis had been heavily involved in the design of the chassis. Also the last BAR/Honda he had any input on was the 2005 chassis which was challenging MS for a fair amount of the season.
 
NicktheNorse said:
Lol, go on then, you do it.

If the 2008 honda is crap they must be suffering from some serious tunnel correlation issues.
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the past 2-3 years they've had a very bad issue with front wing stalling, and even i could see why. the front wing was too aggressive (in the center), and they compound the issue by adding MORE front wing to try and get the downforce back. If a plane is stalling the last thing you want to do is pull up more. 2006 they fixed the issue half way through the season, and won a race (lucky really), but as soon as 2007 car came out, the front wing was basically the same as 2006!

with all the airflow issues at the very front, it just goes backwards and ruins whats happening at the rear, hence total lack of downforce. I seem to think Honda designs parts on the car as single entities, then sticks em all together expecting them to work.

Where as Ferrari, Mclaren, Renault and RBR/STR for instance design the car as a whole package, knowing that the flow off the front wing is gonna hit the side pods/rear wing at different angles etc
 
frakker said:
Could this have anything to do with why Honda were so pants last season?
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While he does take it out of context, nuances being small aspects of something not misunderstanding down force in its entirety as he implies, its rather amusing nonetheless.
 
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