F1 Pre-Season Test Week 4: Barcelona 8th - 11th March

arknor · 12 Mar 2011 at 15:11

sunama said:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9422956.stm

I can't help but feel that McLaren are going to struggle during the first few GPs. They shall be relying heavily on their drivers to outperform the car and bring it home.

The general consensus seems to be that RBR will lead the way, with Ferrari just behind them. The fight for 3rd best team is unclear.

i think its perfectly clear

Vettel insisted. "Today I think we were surprised a bit by Mercedes, but I think it's quite close. It should be okay, we'll see in Australia."

The German said Michael Schumacher's time-topping lap for Mercedes today was impressive regardless of what specification the car was in when he sent it.

"Even if it was very low on fuel, you have to do the lap time first," Vettel said.

and hamilton

"Yesterday I looked at the times and everyone's done a 1m21s," said Hamilton. "I couldn't get into the 1m21s the other day. I just got into the 1m22s. "I'm assuming they did qualifying runs. 1m21.2s is very competitive. I would guess that we could get down to a low 1m22s maybe, but that's just a guess."

mclaren are going to be lucky to get inside the top 10 at this rate while mercedes should be up there with red bull and ferrari

sunama · 12 Mar 2011 at 15:13

My understanding is that the conditions are very wet and the drivers/teams are worried about spinning off. These are extreme wet conditions, apparently. Hamilton is the only driver to have completed a proper, timed lap.

Shimmy · 12 Mar 2011 at 15:16

Mr Jack said:
I don't understand why the teams aren't out more today? Surely it's better to be out there learning something - however little - about the wet tyres and how the cars behave in these conditions than sitting in the garage twiddling their thumbs?

The data wouldn't be very relevant. No racing would take place during any GP weekend with this amount of water, it'd be a washout. It's considered too dangerous.

McLaren, Mercedes and Williams have still done some very limited wet running to gleam some data though.

sunama said:
My understanding is that the conditions are very wet and the drivers/teams are worried about spinning off. These are extreme wet conditions, apparently. Hamilton is the only driver to have completed a proper, timed lap.

Both Rosberg and Maldonado have lap times.

sunama · 12 Mar 2011 at 15:19

I doubt if Mercedes will be able to compete against the Ferrari or RBR, but its quite possible that they may start the season with the 3rd best car. This would push McLaren down to 4th or 5th (along with Renault).

The mind boggles - McLaren have a space-age-like building which is awe inspiring by anybody's standards, allied to a big budget, yet they struggle to come up with a good car over the Winter season. Is it 1 WDC they have won in a decade?

Shimmy · 12 Mar 2011 at 16:11

Day 5 times:

Code:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car           Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes           1m43.814s            35
 2.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Cosworth  1m44.333s  + 0.519s  23
 3.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes   1m44.560s  + 0.746s  33
 4.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes                                5
 5.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari                                 5

An action packed day concludes the last day of Winter testing in Barcelona.

Cannae wait for Melbourne now.

dannyjo22 · 12 Mar 2011 at 18:26

It's looking like williams won't run a kers system in australia. It will be interesting to see how easy they are passed with something like a 150bhp deficit.

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=43069

SoliD · 12 Mar 2011 at 18:41

dannyjo22 said:
It's looking like williams won't run a kers system in australia. It will be interesting to see how easy they are passed with something like a 150bhp deficit.

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=43069

Opposite of what autosport are reporting!

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89886

We shall see I guess, hopefully it works for them.

Type_R · 12 Mar 2011 at 18:52

I really hope my early predictions of the Mercedes being a lemon is unfounded. I would love to see Mercedes and Ferrari at the cutting edge, with RBR behind

dannyjo22 · 12 Mar 2011 at 21:27

SoliD said:
Opposite of what autosport are reporting!

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89886

We shall see I guess, hopefully it works for them.

Ah that's good news then, would be such a disadvantage to not have a working Kers this year.

Tweaker · 12 Mar 2011 at 23:08

What i think will happen is that HRT and Virgin are most likely waiting for Williams to come up with a good Kers package and then buy it from them.

Kerming · 12 Mar 2011 at 23:44

Some of you on here don't half make me laugh out loud some times. oh its all over, awww, mclaren are not showing their hand aww its all over, RBR are gunna win. listen, this is TESTING!, nobody is going to show their pace until race day.

NOBODY can make any judgment by these times. end of story.

just focus on the details, little tweeks under the skin ect.

I agree about HRT, what a load of crap honestly, why oh why. They should just give me the money becuase i have better ways to burn cash.

englishpremier · 13 Mar 2011 at 00:12

surely someone is going to show their pace in qualifying?

Shimmy · 13 Mar 2011 at 00:26

englishpremier said:
surely someone is going to show their pace in qualifying?

Q3, certainly.

But race pace will be more important than ever, especially due to the new tyres and managing their degradation.

Locke · 13 Mar 2011 at 00:30

Did anyone see this?
http://adamcooperf1.com/2011/03/12/mclaren-bottom-of-2011-mileage-chart/

Interesting to read.

Shimmy · 13 Mar 2011 at 01:06

Good find, I was looking for overall testing mileages earlier to no avail.

Whether the McLaren has good pace or not, I personally found the limited mileage worrying.

Sparky · 13 Mar 2011 at 08:51

Kerming said:
NOBODY can make any judgment by these times. end of story.

Nobody?

CaptainRAVE · 13 Mar 2011 at 08:55

Ferrari really want this. I can see them trying too hard and making mistakes. Will be an interesting first race to see what happens with the tyres and who can manage them best.

Pete19s · 13 Mar 2011 at 09:02

CS||nuTs said:
Nobody?

Nothing like a raving fanboy! In some ways I hope he is right and McLaren are not as awful as they appear, but the times, drivers and those who have been watching the car out on track all point to them not being on the pace (yet) I think it was Martin Brundle in the BBC preview who said he was watching the cars & how bad they were.

dannyjo22 · 13 Mar 2011 at 11:06

Shimmy said:
Q3, certainly.

But race pace will be more important than ever, especially due to the new tyres and managing their degradation.

Just read a good piece in this weeks autosport how they reckon cars will be doing 5 or 6 laps in a 16 lap stint 5 seconds off the ultimate pace of the car to try to conserve the rears.

They reckon the cars will be easier to drive this year because so many of the drivers will have to run far off the ultimate pace of the car.

Those that usually push the car hard won't be able to.

Webber himself said not to bother watching him in the race simulation because the car would be going so slowly.

There's also a nice little piece in there on how Alonso made the tyres work in the renault and when he switched to Mclaren Lewis couldn't live with his pace until they started running the bridgestones from the michelins.

It will be interesting to see who makes these tyres work, I would bet on Alonso adapting very fast as always.

I'm in two minds over the tyres tbh. On one hand varying tyre wear could make for some interesting races and moves but if drivers are so far within themselves and the car, it all becomes a bit pointless and slow.

Shimmy · 13 Mar 2011 at 11:34

Yeah I agree, I want to see more exciting races but the idea of endurance style driving doesn't enthuse me.

Found some more in depth data on mileages by both team and drivers.

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2011/03/13/mclaren-cover-least-distance-testing/