F1 Testing 2015: Week 2 Barcelona (19th - 22nd)

Good work from the Ferrari, I'm pleased to see they have what looks like a fast car after so many bad ones, the fact that Raikkonen set the time is sweeter still. Hopefully they keep up the momentum throughout the season.
 
1 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m27.523s
2 Jenson Button McLaren 1m28.472s +0.949
3 Pascal Wehrlein Force India 1m29.510s +1.987
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m30.429s +2.906
5 Susie Wolff Williams 1m32.600s +5.077
6 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1m51.454s +23.931

This test two years ago, with the old car, was 1m21.848s.
 
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Much more positive from McLaren so far - JB putting in an 11 lap stint in the low 1m 28s.

Pole lap last year was just over 1m 25s. Fastest race lap was 1m 28s. The 2015 cars really have made a substantial jump - it is evident even on the tentative first laps of today.
 
Skeeter said:
Lol. 57 minutes into testing and were already almost faster than the fastest race lap last year! Why does anyone think F1 needs more power? These cars are going to be the fastest F1 has ever had by mid season!
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There is really very little reason the cars can't be going around as fast as they can at this point, to a degree. Last year it looks like here for the race Hamilton did a 1:27.2 in Q1 which lets presume was on the hard tyre as, afaik, Kimi was on. Then he did a 1:25.2 on softs in Q3.

Maldonado did a 1:24.8 at the two day test just after that race which is.... questionable, either the site I'm looking at had that down incorrectly, maybe they did it on supersofts and no one else ran them at testing or maybe they just ran way under weight trying to see what the chassis/aero was capable of.

I wouldn't be surprised to see them be a couple seconds faster. Maybe hit 1:25's on hards, 1:23's on softs maybe, potentially even lower from a couple of people, more chance if anyone breaks out the supersofts but I doubt the fastest teams have much want to use them and show off their speed in testing.
 
1 Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari), 1m27.523s – 17 laps
2 Jenson Button (McLaren), 1m28.182s – 12 laps
3 Felipe Nasr (Sauber), 1m29.276s – 17 laps
4 Pascal Wehrlein (Force India), 1m29.510s – 10 laps
5 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), 1m30.429s – 11 laps
6 Susie Wolff (Williams), 1m32.600s – 12 laps
7 Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso), 1m46.118s – 12 laps
8 Pastor Maldonado (Lotus), 1m51.454s – 6 laps
9 Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull), no time – 2 laps
 
Seems like Lewis isn't feeling well today so merc are setting the car up for Pascal Wehrlein instead. So who is going to run for Force India if Merc take Pascal back?
 
Tweet from Merc saying Hamilton unwell and not able to continue driving today, car being set up for Wehrlein for the afternoon running. New kind of reliability problem :p

EDIT:- beaten :(
 
drunkenmaster said:
There is really very little reason the cars can't be going around as fast as they can at this point, to a degree. Last year it looks like here for the race Hamilton did a 1:27.2 in Q1 which lets presume was on the hard tyre as, afaik, Kimi was on. Then he did a 1:25.2 on softs in Q3.

Maldonado did a 1:24.8 at the two day test just after that race which is.... questionable, either the site I'm looking at had that down incorrectly, maybe they did it on supersofts and no one else ran them at testing or maybe they just ran way under weight trying to see what the chassis/aero was capable of.

I wouldn't be surprised to see them be a couple seconds faster. Maybe hit 1:25's on hards, 1:23's on softs maybe, potentially even lower from a couple of people, more chance if anyone breaks out the supersofts but I doubt the fastest teams have much want to use them and show off their speed in testing.
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I believe both Lotus and Marussia used the supersofts in the post Barcelona test last year, Marussia ending up fasted on one of the days.
 
That's some day for Pascal Wehrlein, to be competent and knowledgeable enough about two different cars, two different years of design, to be able to drive and give good, relevant feedback to two different teams.

Great opportunity for him.
 
Interesting, it seems some of the fastest times are being removed from the timing board. Kimi and now JB have had their top times removed...strange.

Still, McLaren must be happy with how well they're doing, it's encouraging.
 
Keep in mind the temperatures are happy effectively happy hour (as Brundle called it) temperatures - the engines love the cold air being forced into them. The track will have had zero rubber on it though. What I'm trying to say is it's even more pointless than normal to attempt to compare times.

I seem to recall some of the pre-season testing laps at Bahrain last year were quicker than the weekend qualifying ones.



The times will be removed for cutting the chicane or using the old layout. It's the same every year. I wish they'd just ditch the bloody thing and use the old track, as MotoGP does. I understand why it was introduced, but it's hardly helped generate more overtaking, even with DRS coming into play.
 
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Hamilton retires from testing with illness and Merc are missing a driver until this afternoon - I'm surprised Rosberg isn't stepping up, or are they limited on driver days during testing?

McLaren looks a lot brighter this test.
 
No limit on drivers but a limit mostly on drivers necks ;)

If they could get him in the car within an hour he could do 100 laps today but then be up for doing 150 tomorrow. Regardless of who you are in general a big day of testing followed by some rest then another big day is probably healthiest and seems to be Merc's take on it as well.

Though I would put Rosberg in today and see what happens tomorrow, maybe Hamilton will feel fine tomorrow after some 24 hour thing, maybe he won't then put the test driver in tomorrow.

EDIT:- Rosberg is at the track today, someone showed a pic of him there...
 
drunkenmaster said:
If they could get him in the car within an hour he could do 100 laps today but then be up for doing 150 tomorrow. Regardless of who you are in general a big day of testing followed by some rest then another big day is probably healthiest and seems to be Merc's take on it as well.
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Mercedes have an alternating testing plan, yes, but plenty of the other teams (e.g. Red Bull and Ferrari) have plans to have one driver do the first two days and the other driver do the second two days so I'm not convinced by your reasoning.
 
Sauber have put in a good effort so far this morning with 40 laps under Nasr's belt and the fastest lap to boot.
Susie Wolf is having a very productive day with 60 laps and counting but seems well much slower than the others.
Haven't seen the Ferrari since early this morning, wonder what they are up to?
Likewise after a solid start Button hasn't made an appearance for a while
Same goes for Red Bull they haven't done a whole lot with only 14 laps
Verstappen now at 35 laps.

EDIT: looks like Button is out due to a knackered MGU-K with only 21 laps
 
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