Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 33,188
massa did his fastest time on SS yesterday 1m21.266s, cant say for alonso though.
http://www.gpupdate.net/en/testresults/1539/formula-1-test-at-circuit-de-catalunya-3-march-2013/
it actually seems to suggest if accurate that Alonso's 1:20.6 was softs and the 20.49 was super softs. So not massively faster but of course, the .6 could have been a perfect lap and the .49 he makes a few mistakes. You would expect the supersofts to be a tad faster, the Mclarens I really haven't seen any mention of them using supersofts at all, yesterday all sources seemed quite specific that Massa was on supersofts and Hamilton the softs, and I've seen someone say one of his higher times in the 1:20's was actually on mediums, which would be mightly impressive.
They are also saying they think Alonso was only using DRS on the main and backstraights, but how much DRS does on slower straights is questionable, its not a huge amount on the longest straights, you can gain a few tenths with drs and slipstreaming last year, on your own probably less and less over smaller straights.
Making guesses is easy but true comparisons, very difficult. Alonso is a top driver so if he's hitting 20.49 on super softs, I doubt there is much more in the car. Rosberg isn't bad but simply don't think he's in Hamilton's/Alonso's class so there is probably more in that car.
Either way, its not about Merc being by miles the best car, they just look competitive, which they didn't in preseason testing last year or most of the season., thats a monumental improvement, I think Ferrari look much stronger as well. While they sucked at the first test last year they had made massive massive strides by the last test, but for Ferrari its more that they seem faster than Mclaren and Red Bull compared to last year, their all out pace lacked last year but had a very good in race car with good tyre wear, often times excellent pace.