F1 Testing week 2 @ Jerez

Talon said:
I really don't understand why Heidfled is the goto man for filling seats. He really hasn't ever light the F1 word alight but seems to have an ego the size of a planet.
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he's reliable, consistent, experienced and brings the points home. Just what teams want in a fill a seat driver. If they set the field alight they will already have a seat.

No blistering lap times from mclaren :(
 
AcidHell2 said:
he's reliable, consistent, experienced and brings the points home. Just what teams want in a fill a seat driver. If they set the field alight they will already have a seat.

No blistering lap times from mclaren :(
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Agreed.

Judging by how long McLaren have spent their time in the garage behind closed doors I'd guess they're constantly fiddling with their multitude of components whilst everyone else is putting in some good mileage :(
 
FrankJH said:
Remember beginning of last year - everyone expected LH to thrash JB, yet nothing of the sort happened......so you could be completely wrong:)
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I hope I am wrong but I don't think i will be. Look how long it took JB to come upto speed in comparison with Hamilton testing. I expected this year to be better than last year when JB bedded in with mclaren. Now we have Kers I expect him to be back at start again against a team mate that not only has had a year with KERS but was also pretty good with it.

Might all be irrelevant if ross brawn has mercedes fitting the restrictor to this years mclaren supply of engines :D

I hope this years Mclaren isn't slow out of the box as early indications look. If it is then I suggest it's time for lewis to look elsewhere. It's costing him titles having to start a fightback from midseason. Mclaren cannot build two great cars on the trot. Even the double they had in 98/99 was due to a broken leg for MS or the 99 title would have gone to him.
 
i seriously doubt that lewis would consider moving, after all that maclaren have done for him throughout out his carer.
personally if i was senna i would be royally peeded off about heidfeld possibly getting the seat, i mean surely that what a number 3 driver is for.
tyres are looking to be a bit of a disaster, now don't get me wrong i agree that last years bridgestone were just a bit too good without significant degradation but this years Pirellis seem to be way to far in the other direction.
 
bru said:
i agree that last years bridgestone were just a bit too good without significant degradation but this years Pirellis seem to be way to far in the other direction.
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For the teams, I do agree that the new tyres are going to be tough. They will have to come up with top class strategies to win races. No longer will it be the case that the fastest car wins the race with ease (as we saw last year with Vettel). This year, providing the tyres degrade fast, just because Vettel has a 10s lead at the front on lap 10 does not mean he will go on to win the race.

What these tyres will provide is uncertainty and unpredictability. Of all the dry races we saw last year, Canada was the only race which was unpredictable and saw the lead change a few times. We also saw the RBR cars unable to dominate, if only because their tyre strategy was poor. The only reason for this was that Bridgestone got their tyre prediction/choice wrong.

For spectators however, the Pirellis (providing they continue to degrade during the races) will provide an extra element of excitement and unpredictability. No longer will it be the case that we are all hoping for rain to avoid a processional borefest.

The new tyres get a MASSIVE thumbs up from me and Pirelli seem to have delivered on their promise.
 
bru said:
i seriously doubt that lewis would consider moving, after all that maclaren have done for him throughout out his carer.
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It all depends on how competitive McLaren are. If McLaren continue to produce lemons at the start of the season and rely on Hamilton fighting back from mid-season onwards (unless it rains...which levels the playing field), then Hamilton will definitely re-think his options. I do not think though, that he is at that stage yet.

McLaren have a big budget. They have the best driver line-up. After Denis' departure, they now have ambition and want to win at any cost. Their weakness seems to be that they produce poor cars over the Winter. They then develop their car at a faster rate than any other team, once the season begins. So, it isn't as straight forward as moving to a rival team.

Also, if he does move, he will have to move to a team who provide him with a fast car and outright No.1 status...otherwise there is no point. For 2012, he can't move to RBR or Ferrari (as these teams will not give him preferential treatment), so I can't see who else can offer him a better car, to increase his chances of winning titles. I actually think that Hamilton has no choice other than to stay with McLaren and hope they come good...eventually.
 
I've got to say I'm pretty pleased by the results from testing so far. Sauber, Renault and Toro Rosso all seem to have brought decent midfield cars perhaps capable to pressuring the front runners on a good day. After an early patch where it was looking dicey, the Mercedes has come good. Red Bull and Ferrari look to have really good cars, and the early indications from the new McLaren are promising. Meanwhile the backmarkers seem to have closed the gap to the front teams. It's generally looking good for everyone except Force India, and maybe HRT - although they're yet to show their hand.

Along with the tyres looking like they'll have much more interesting performance characteristics than the tedious Bridgestones of last year, it should make for a good season.
 
Don't forget that the Renault (at the hands of Kubica), finished the last test with the fastest time. If they finished quickest today (with a brand new driver who is still getting used to the car), Renault, could well have a very very good car this year.
 
Heidfeld went two seconds quicker than Petrov did (who's been in the car a few days) on his first day in the car and team.. pretty good going.
 
I wouldn't expect Bruno (its just wrong to call him Senna - when he clearly lacks quite a bit of talent to the original Senna) to beat Heidis time of today! Heidfeld has the seat in the bag and as Sunama quite rightly says, that car is looking superb - Renault definitely in the mix.

On a side note, Merc and more specifically Schui has once again played down the speed shown by the Merc :-(

here
 
Heidfeld on top... plays down how fast the Renault is. I do like the guy, actually.

NH: I think it means the car is not ****, but not a lot more than that. Most guys here, if they take the fuel out and put very soft tyres on all day, nearly anybody could be in front. But it is not a bad sign.
 
So MSc plays down being fast. Then Heidfeld goes fastest and says the same thing.

It's almost as if being the fastest is a bad thing and nobody wants to finish in top spot. Quite strange.

I remember a few days ago seeing an interview with M.Whitmarsh and what he said is that they don't go testing to be the fastest however, given that they are a racing team, they cannot help but feel satisfied if they are fastest. Similarly, if they are going slow, their morale can take a dent.
 
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