Probably a noise issue, or they are all hungry
F1 testing week 3 Catalunya
- Thread starter arknor
- Start date
Probably a noise issue, or they are all hungry
Soldato
the track itself is closed. Maybe its the catalan workers taking a nap.
Not sure whether its good news that JB is just ahead of Vettel (who could be sandbagging) or terrible news that he is 9 /10ths off alonso
Given Torro Rosso was faster , SV was probably sandbagging quite a bit (although they do have different engines of course)
I wouldnt be that surprised to see the Bahrain GP cancelled /postponed given that an early decision has to be made (even though I know a few teams have already started shipping stuff out there).
Given Torro Rosso was faster , SV was probably sandbagging quite a bit (although they do have different engines of course)
I wouldnt be that surprised to see the Bahrain GP cancelled /postponed given that an early decision has to be made (even though I know a few teams have already started shipping stuff out there).
It'll be a major inconvenience if teams start shipping equipment to Bahrain and after the items have been dispatched, they are then told that the GP will not be going ahead.
If they are going to cancel/postpone the GP, I think its fair if they made the decision sooner rather than later.
Without a doubt. I think BE has said early next week he will make a final decision
Its not so much the drivers and teams - it would be relatively easy to safe guard them away from the circuit (or to and from)
Its the public coming to watch the race that (imo) which cause the biggest issue. Imagine what the press would do if a memeber of the race audience was hurt by a mob or worse .....
Soldato
What are Renualt playing at? Petrov hasn't set a time yet he's had the car since 11am
Soldato
Doesn't exist
(as per most F1 related debates at one point or another turn up on this...)Im assuming everyone is doing different types of plans so Kobyashi stopped out on track earlier and the bbc feed mentioned that he's probably seeing the full extent of his fuel tank when others are doing runs for different types of tyres and things...
Caporegime
Did Red Bull finally show their hand? Ye gads, I hope that gap doesn't reflect a real performance advantage!
Doesn't exist
Well, assuming by sandbagging we mean, 'going slow on purpose'...why would any team want to do this? Its pointless.
Each team has its own testing schedule/agenda/pattern and to get the most benefit and data from the tests, the drivers/cars will be asked to do honest lap times over a whole range of settings. This gives the engineers the clearest picture of which setting makes the car go faster and which setting makes it go slower.
If drivers were only being allowed to lap with heavy fuel loads, the teams would not have a clear idea of how the car performs on low fuel loads. And if a driver is asked to go slow on purpose then it will become very difficult for the team to know which is setting is making the car go faster.
For this reason, the cars will be loaded with different fuel loads, throughout the testing program. They will also do some qualifying (simulated) runs, on low fuel loads.
The only time when you can afford to genuinely sandbag is if you know for a fact that your car is much much faster than the rest (e.g. about 2s/lap). In this instance, even I would sandbag and concentrate all efforts on doing reliability work, as opposed to performance based testing. I wouldn't want other teams to scrutinise my car and copy it every way.
This is why you will see the fastest cars in testing, translate their advantage into the opening GPs of the season. Once the season starts, other teams may accelerate their development and overtake the teams who did well at the start of the season.
At present, for example, Vettel is top of the time sheets, followed by Alonso. This is actually what I'm expecting to see in the first GP of the season. Ferrari and RBR at the top.
From what little we have seen of the McLaren...they seem to be slotting into the midfield. I expect Button and Hamilton to finish the early races behind the Ferrari and RBR cars (where the 2 drivers will enhance the true level of performance of the car), though as we have seen previously, I expect McLaren to develop their car faster than the rest, once the season begins and move forward. The 2 top class drivers they have will be expected to make up for the McLaren design team (who are not particularly great and are consistently trounced over the Winter, by the opposition).
RBR have shown that they now have the best set of engineers/designers, where for 3 years on the trot, they have produced one of the best cars on the grid. They have amazing personnel (and I'm not just talking about Newey, who is only a small cog), who work hard AND produce the goods.
Soldato
I heard his quickest time was right at the end of the day when he slapped on a set of super-softs. It was a 7 lap run, and by the end of it he was about 5-6 seconds slower.
Caporegime
I hope so. Although I'd be a bit surprised if that's the case. I figured after Pirelli announced they wouldn't be using the supersofts for the first four races everyone would stick to the hards and softs to get the most useful data. Still, I'm guessing their mechanics have a better idea what they're doing than I do
Soldato
The McLaren is still looking like a bit of a dog compared to the RBR and Ferrari though, which is worrying 
Yeah I know, it never happens. I just like seeing the use of the dreaded words...
The McLaren is still looking like a bit of a dog compared to the RBR and Ferrari though, which is worrying
I hope not as well, although it will be amusing to listen to lewis whinging and blaiming everyone again.
The man should jump ship if this years mclaren is a dog. If he made himself available there isn't a team on the grid that wouldn't hire him as no1.
I hope not as well, although it will be amusing to listen to lewis whinging and blaiming everyone again.
The man should jump ship if this years mclaren is a dog. If he made himself available there isn't a team on the grid that wouldn't hire him as no1.
Ferrari would never ask Nandos to step away from #1 I reckon Domenicali would have his babies if he could!
Day 1 times
Code:
[b]Pos Driver Car/team Time Gap Laps[/b]
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m24.374s 37
2. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m25.485s + 1.111s 101
3. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m25.638s + 1.264s 57
4. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m25.641s + 1.267s 78
5. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m26.365s + 1.991s 77
6. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m26.575s + 2.201s 26
7. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m26.912s + 2.538s 52
8. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m27.512s + 3.138s 90
9. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m28.393s + 4.019s 116
10. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m30.065s + 5.691s 54
11. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m30.950s + 6.576s 116
12. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m35.174s + 10.800s 20
13. Nick Heidfeld Renault 1m44.324s + 19.950s 27
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That just isnt true, I didnt see Renault come out of the midfield and challenge for the championship:
Day 4 from Barcelona (28 February 2010)
Driver - Team - Best Lap time - Laps
Hamilton - McLaren - 1:20.472 - 134
Webber - Red Bull - 1:20.496 - 61
Massa - Ferrari - 1:20.539 - 114
Sutil - Force India - 1:20.611 - 100
Vettel - Red Bull - 1:20.667 - 76
Schumacher - Mercedes - 1:20.745 - 123
Barrichello - Williams - 1:20.870 - 84
Kobayashi - Sauber - 1:20.911 - 67
Buemi - Toro Rosso - 1:22.135 - 88
Kubica - Renault - 1:23.175 - 107
Kovalainen - Lotus - 1:25.251 - 65
di Grassi - Virgin - 1:26.160 - 49
Day 3 from Barcelona (27 February)
Driver - Team - Best Lap time - Laps
Rosberg - Mercedes - 1:20.686 - 128
Buemi - Toro Rosso - 1:21.413 - 106
Button - McLaren - 1:21.450 - 105
Barrichello - Williams - 1:21.975 - 101
Massa - Ferrari - 1:22.344 -115
Petrov - Renault - 1:22.523 - 68
Sutil - Force India - 1:22.606 - 61
Vettel - Red Bull - 1:23.123 - 51
Trulli - Lotus - 1:25.059 - 102
Kobayashi - Sauber - 1:26.216 - 105
Glock - Virgin - 1:26.305 - 31
Day 2 from Barcelona (26 February)
Driver - Team - Best Lap time - Laps
Hulkenburg - Williams - 1:20.614 - 99
Alonso - Ferrari - 1:20.637 - 134
de la Rosa - Sauber - 1:20.973 - 114
Liuzzi - Force India - 1:21.056 - 90
Vettel - Red Bull - 1:21.258 - 125
Alguersuari - Toro Rosso - 1:21.571 - 104
Schumacher - Mercedes - 1:21.689 - 85
Hamilton - McLaren - 1:22.152 - 93
Kubica Renault - 1:24.912 - 53
Trulli - Lotus - 1:25.524 - 70
Glock - Virgin - 1:25.942 - 52
Day 1 from Barcelona (25 February)
Driver - Team - Best Lap time - Laps
Webber - Red Bull - 1:21.487 - 109
Hulkenburg - Williams - 1:22.407 - 82
Roserg - Mercedes - 1:22.514 - 107
de la Rosa - Sauber - 1:23.144 - 73
Button - McLaren - 1:23.452 - 101
Liuzzi - Force India - 1:24.064 - 65
Alonso - Ferrari - 1:24.170 - 74
Petrov - Renault - 1:24.173 - 74
Alguersuari - Toro Rosso - 1:24.869 - 111
di Grassi - Virgin - 1:27.057 - 31
Fauzy - Lotus - 1:28.004 - 76
Testing doesnt give anything away imo, on one of those days the Torro Rosso beat the sister Red Bull for Christ sake. The Red Bull was not consistently at the top, infact looking at it you would have thought Mark had the pace on Seb. Bar monza and Spa, the RB maintained it's dominance start to finish, knowone challenged it really on raw pace.
I was just reading on another form last week people hailing the glorious return of williams to the fold, schui apparantly getting an 8th WDC and renault having to debate whether to quick Nick would have to give up his first ever WDC for Kubicas return when Renault are on there way to a WCC. All this happened in the space of a week.
What if Mclaren suddenly start putting in the top times, hell, what if HRT go for the glory runs low fuel load?
Testing is certainly interesting, mainly because us F1 nuts have been starved of our sport since november which seems like an age ago but you cant possibly read anything into those times surely?
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