F1 Testing week 1 @ Valencia

I originally thought it was just filming but saw Mike Gascoyne post the following on his Twitter feed:

Test finished for everyone else but we have tomorrow thankfully, when we will have the power steering and can get some performance work done
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We will be giving out all times and info via twitter tomorrow to keep you informed
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I read that as basically doing another days testing. Maybe they are incorperating it with the filming somehow.
 
JRS said:
Indeed. It was either so good right off the drawing board that it survived having Merc running gear bodged into the back of it at the last minute and retained huge pace, or it was so well developed and had so much money spent on it (the prevailing opinion) that it survived having Merc running gear bodged into the back of it at the last minute and retained huge pace. The car that became the BGP001 was actually a bit of a lash-up, all told. From Andrew Benson's blog on the BBC F1 site:
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I'm a bit surprised that the crank position was out. That is mandated in the rules along with the bolting pattern used for the bell housing, and there are very tight tolerances on the over all length of the engine, minimum weight, bore spacing, CofG position etc.

sunama said:
The previous years had seen Honda "concentrate on next years car". I think they did this twice before and on each occasion, they produced a lemon.

Based on this past performance and the fact that they were going to compromise their design by fitting a completely different engine, statistically, it was even more likely they would produce a lemon. How wrong could I have been.

One can only imagine how fast the car would've gone had Honda stayed in F1 and ran the 2009 car with the Honda engine it was designed to be used with.
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A few things were different that year though. There had been a major change in the rules so the other 'fast' teams couldn't just iterate their already existing fast cars, Ross Brawn had already joined and was directing efforts and Honda REALLY threw money at the project. It's rumoured to be one of the most expensive F1 cars of all time with an incredible amount of wind tunnel work behind it.
 
I believe Toyota were out-spending Honda. Its possible, but I doubt that Honda were spending more money, given that Toyota's budget was bigger.

Not only that, but Toyota continued to spend big, during the year that the Honda money disappeared.

I still believe that what Honda/BrawnGP did that year was a freak occurrence and that that sort of thing is unlikely to re-occur.

I honestly wonder how Honda felt after the left F1 and saw the BrawnGP win all those races and titles. I would love to know their real thoughts.
 
General thoughts:

Testing seems similar to how last season ended. Red Bull and Ferrari at the front, with RB holding an advantage. Mercedes haven't been ambitious enough and will probably have a tough time keeping 4th if Renaults approach proves to be reliable- might have cooling issues in warmer climates especially if in traffic.

Assuming the risk's that McLaren have taken don't blow up in there face then it should be a very tight season again this year as all of the top 5 teams really have the same end goal, i.e simulating a EBD, but some are taking more radical steps to get there.
 
1. Robert Kubica Lotus Renault GP-Renault 1m 13.144s
2. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m 13.201s*
3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 13.307s W
4. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m 13.553s*
5. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m 13.614s W
6. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m 13.844s* W
7. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m 13.936s
8. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m 13.938s* T
9. Felipe Massa Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 14.017s
10. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m 14.207s*

11. Gary Paffett McLaren-Mercedes 1m 14.292s* T
12. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m 14.299s
13. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m 14.353s* W
14. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m 14.469s
15. Michael Schumacher Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 14.537s
16. Nico Rosberg Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 14.645s W
17. Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 14.801s
18. Jarno Trulli Team Lotus-Renault 1m 15.679s F
19. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m 15.831s T
20. Heikki Kovalinen Team Lotus-Renault 1m 15.910s F

21. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m 16.003s* T
22. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m 16.023s W
23. Vitaly Petrov Lotus Renault GP-Renault 1m 16.351s T
24. Jaime Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 16.474s W
25. Narain Karthikeyan Hispania-Cosworth 1m 16.535s*

* denotes old car

T denotes Tuesday time
W denotes Wednesday time
F denotes Friday time (only Team Lotus ran on Friday)
All other times set on Thursday

all times unofficial
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Combined times if anybody is interested.
 
sunama said:
I believe Toyota were out-spending Honda. Its possible, but I doubt that Honda were spending more money, given that Toyota's budget was bigger.

Not only that, but Toyota continued to spend big, during the year that the Honda money disappeared.

I still believe that what Honda/BrawnGP did that year was a freak occurrence and that that sort of thing is unlikely to re-occur.

I honestly wonder how Honda felt after the left F1 and saw the BrawnGP win all those races and titles. I would love to know their real thoughts.
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Whilst Toyota may well have spent more money than Honda during 2008 that budget was split between updating and developing the 2008 car and the pre-lim work on the 2009 one. All of the money Honda spent in 2008 really went on the following years car.
 
Mclaren had some great devices strapped to 2010s car last year.. im expecting the same this year


Jenson-Button-strange-device_2417926.jpg
 
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sunama said:
I believe Toyota were out-spending Honda. Its possible, but I doubt that Honda were spending more money, given that Toyota's budget was bigger.

Not only that, but Toyota continued to spend big, during the year that the Honda money disappeared.

I still believe that what Honda/BrawnGP did that year was a freak occurrence and that that sort of thing is unlikely to re-occur.

I honestly wonder how Honda felt after the left F1 and saw the BrawnGP win all those races and titles. I would love to know their real thoughts.
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Honda just had to stop spending as the manufactering side was taking a big hit against retail profits.
I do believe Honda-Brawn had the right R&D on the car that Jason went on to win the campership in, and the rst of the field were play catch up. However, once the field did catch up Brawn did not have much money to continue the R&D on the car.
Even now Honda finances are in a dire mess !
 
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