F1 2013 Testing: Week 1 Jerez

Its looking good for them.

Massa has pace, he showed that in the latter parts of last year. He just seems to loose his way when he gets reminded he's only ever going to be second best.
 
Spunkey said:
Hmmmm that Ferrari has some pace. 1:19s on a run, 1:17s on low fuel. And with Massa peddling too :)
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Seems a lot better than last year's pre-season anyway but still alarm bells ring when Fry says they are something like 3 months behind on aero, which is a lifetime in F1.
 
11:06 Word from Lotus is that there's nothing to be alarmed about by Raikkonen's lack of action - the team is just making small tweaks to get the Finn settled in the E21.
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I get the impression Kimi can be a bit of a nightmare to setup a car for. There seems to always be something wrong that he wants changing.
 
BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson in Jerez said:
"The teams are battling with new Pirelli tyres this season, with softer sidewalls, and it may be that means they have to run either higher ride-heights to compensate for the movement in the tyres or run the cars stiffer. Higher ride-heights mean less downforce; stiffer cars means problems over bumps and kerbs. This test is about making those decisions, and they're made harder by the very aggressive surface of the track, which not only wears the tyres out quickly but produces grip the cars won't have elsewhere. This first test is a bit like taking a girlfriend out for the first time. Does she like steak or fish, red wine or white. It's an exploratory test and that might explain why Fernando Alonso chose not to be here. It's about running through job-lists and seeing what the car does - logging data. It doesn't matter who's driving it as long as they are competent."
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I've also read that Alonso doesn't like Jerez and doesn't think it relates to the proper F1 tracks that are used for racing, which may also be part of why he isn't there.
 
Is anyone else feeling disheartened by what looks like yet another season with the 'new' teams 4 seconds off the pace?

2 empty grid slots and 4 filled with pointless non scorers. The FIA could have chosen so much better :(
 
The only impressive long run I've picked up on was Massa's earlier on. 6 or 7 laps all in the low 1:19's.

Thats just from reading Autosport though, there are likely others.
 
Why are people trying to make predictions, there are none to be made, there will be a crapload of changes on every car before the first race. Everyone has specific parts to test the most here, some will have parts they worry about reliability under a full weight car with full fuel, others are testing a low downforce wing so going for pure speed.

There is exactly no knowledge of how much fuel is in any car, there is exactly no knowledge what type of run they are simulating, there is exactly no idea what the "best" time a car is capable of at this track.

The fastest car doing a dry run might do a 1:15, Rossberg might be doing 1;22's because they want to compare a run with the same fuel to see the difference on tyre wear between 15 laps at full pace and 15 laps taking it easy, and to compare fuel consumption at different engine levels, no one has a clue about a single reason anyone is doing the times they are doing...

With early testing the only reasonable assumption is, the more laps they get done, the more varying situations they can test the car under, and the more data they will have, for finding which parts are working and not, for reliability testing, for comparing efficiency, tyre wear and information for predicting strategys, outside of laps done and some pictures of car parts.... very little(if any) of the rest of the information is translateable to anyone outside of the team.
 
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