F1 Testing
Barcelona wraps up with McLaren, Ferrari & Red Bull all contenders
Mar 1st
Another dry day in Barcelona on Sunday marked the final day official pre-season testing in Barcelona and it was a day full of the top teams all trading top times whilst drivers worked on final setup of the cars.
All the times were very close, with the top 8 times all being within less then 1 second of each other. Massa, Hamilton and Webber traded top time throu-out the day, with the fastest man in the end being Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren with a 1:20.472. Hamilton spent a lot of time behind the wheel, notching up over 130 laps. Mark Webber was second fastest and did less then half the laps of Hamilton. He showed that RedBull has a very fast car this year when he recored a 1:20.496.
Massa was 3rd quickest just infront of Force India’s Adrian Suttil. Red Bull were the only team who had both their drivers for this year in the top 5. Sebastian Vettel was 5th quickest with a 1:20.667. Sebastian managed to do around 10 more laps in the car then Mark Webber managed. Sebastian’s fellow countryman and seven-time world champion, Michael Schumacher recorded 1:20.745 in the MercedesGP car to claim the 6th fastest time of the day.
Most teams were doing race distance simulations through the day and spending a lot of time measuring tyre wear.
RedBull allowed webber and Vettel to share the drives during the day due to both drivers having less time behind the wheel throughout testing, so they didn’t complete the same race distance simulations some othe teams did. None the less both of their drivers were on the pace placing in the top five.
With McLaren, RedBull, Ferrari and Mercedes all within a second of each other and holding out the top 5 spots on the timesheets. It appears the predictions that the title race this year could be a tight 4-way battle between said teams could prove to be true.
Massa emerged posative and said “We wanted a competitive car and I think we’ve achieved our goal. It’s difficult to say who worked best. Today the time sheet says Hamilton, but we’re all very close together, it’s just tenths of a second.” He did however mention that whilst they were very strong, he felt at this point they weren’t the strongest and needed to improve, but was very happy to be in the group of front runners.
Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher said “The four testing days here in Barcelona have helped us to make significant progress with the MGP W01 and I am feeling quite confident for the start of the season. It is always difficult to read too much into testing but knowing our programme, it is fair to say that the times did not always reflect the true picture. We have worked through many set-up and development evaluations this week and gained valuable information to study before Bahrain. We are heading the first race with a good feeling and we know that we will have our upgrades there. But most of all we know that our prospects for even the first races are looking very reasonable now.”
So at the end of the day, what do the times really mean? Well it is hard to judge, but the pace of the Ferrari’s, the McLarens, the RedBull’s and even Mercedes has been consitent thorugh-out the pre-season testing.
Massas is less then confident that his team will be the team to beat going into this season, however they have done more race-distance simulation and varying fuel load runs and varying tyre choice stints then other teams and they are still at the pointy end of the timesheets. Their car has also been very strong without many technical problems. They seem to have the pace and it appears that Ferrari are going to be one of the fastest teams in 2010, that cobined with obvioius reliability means the team should be a very strong title contender.
RedBull have had the apce, but not the ditance, meaning they have spent the least amount of time on the track compared to the otehr front runners. Engine reliability is also an issue for the team. They have the apce but could be let down by reliability.
McLaren were quickest over testing and have two very strong drivers. That combined with the reliability they have shown could mean that they are the team to rain on Ferrari’s parade and could also snatch the title this year.
Mercedes are also up their rounding out the top 4 teams. They have shown good strong pace at times, then also shown their pace can be a bit inconsitent. The team won last years championship and may not have done enough development on their 2010 package to fight with McLaren and Ferrari.
Time will tell however, with just 11 days left now till the first Friday practice in Bahrain, the teams have no more time for on-track testing. Will the practice sheets in Bahrain be reflective of Barcelona? most likely, yes.
A summary of the quickest laps from the final day in Barcelona are as follows:
1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 1:20.472 134
2. Mark Webber Red Bull 1:20.496 61
3. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:20.539 114
4. Adrian Sutil Force India 1:20.611 100
5. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:20.667 76
6. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:20.745 123
7. Rubens Barrichello Williams 1:20.870 84
8. Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber 1:20.911 67
9. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso 1:22.135 88
10. Robert Kubica Renault 1:23.175 107
11. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus 1:25.251 65
12. Lucas Di Grassi Virgin Racing 1:26.160 49
Webber shows they have the pace in 2010.
Feb 26th
As stated in an the earlier ‘live’ post I wrote on the morning’s proceedings at Circuit de Catalunya, the dryer weather in Barcelona was a welcome change to the conditions experienced in the Jerez tests and it was a good chance for teams to do some serious dry weather runs.
The day belonged to Mark Webber who set the fastest time of the day with a 1:21.487. He set this pace during the morning sessions and it was a clear warning to competitors the once again the Red Bull team meant business this season.
Webber’s closest competitor was Nico Roseberg in the MercedesGP, who were formally BrawnGP, Red Bulls main rivals in 2009. Rosberg showed fantastic pace in the Merc’, but was still around 1 second slower then Webber’s best time with a 1:22.407.
By Red Bull’s own admition, the RB6 was a bit light on fuel today, but none the less their genuine pace is un-deniable.
The main area of concern for the team however still seems to be the reliability of the Renault engine and the gearbox gremlins. The Renault engine is not as reliable as the power plants by Mercedes and Ferrari. They were plauged with engine trouble last season and already this year during their first test runs at Jerez the car suffered engine trouble and they lost a day of testing.
Webber’s car stopped out on track during the morning runs due to an issue with the Gearbox. When asked about the reliability of certain components in the car during his run at Barcelona, Mark said “to learn about the car sometimes you run parts close to the limit on mileage, which wouldn’t be the case on race weekends.”
He does make a valid point. The team brought new parts and ran them on the car for the first time in Barcelona. Adjustable front wing flaps this year are of many changes to the car that will take a lot of fine tuning and testing to get right.
The dry conditions also gave teams a good chance to look at tyre degradation of the soft and super soft compounds. Webber recorded his fastest lap on the super softs, but fuel loads also played their part and the super softs were not noticeably quicker then the softs.
Mark said that whilst 2009 was a good year for the team in regards to numerous podiums and wins, they plan on 2010 being even better and clearly want to win the next world championship.
He also did not want to get carried away with the teams pace today and made it clear that they still had a lot of work to do and plan on improving parts of the car prior to Bahrain.
“We still have problems, so we are not going on holiday tonight. We have more work to do, and we’re still improving this car.” said Webber.
The tests over the next few days will be the final opportunity for teams to refine their cars prior to the official start of the season in Bahrain.
The next few days should give us a much clearer indication of early season form. The conditions will be much warmer in Bahrain, Australia then Malaysia which are hosting the first 3 rounds, but with most teams now concentrating on practising pit stops, qualifying strategies and the likes, we shouldn’t see any new dramatic bits on the cars now and the times we will see in Barcelona this week should be much more indicative of the times we will see in the first official practice and qualifying of the season in Bahrain.
So early form now seems indicate that 2010 may start in a similar fashion to the way the 2009 season ending with MercGP (Formerly BrawnGP) and Red Bull being the two main front runners. However Ferrari have been very conservative so far in testing and it appears they have a lot more pace then has been reflected in the time sheets.
We very well may see over the weekend, Fernando Alonso impress his home crowd and up-stage Red Bull in the F10. The punters are tipping Alonso to win the Championship this year, whilst Bernie believes that it will be a Red Bull, either way we are now at the pointy end of the testing season and the teams form should now be indicating their race pace for the start of the season.
Below are the times from Day1 at Barcelona:
1. Mark Webber Red Bull 1:21.487 109
2. Nico Hulkenberg Williams 1:22.407 82
3. Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 1:22.514 107
4. Pedro De La Rosa BMW Sauber 1:23.144 73
5. Jenson Button Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 1:23.452 101
6. Tonio Liuzzi Force India 1:24.064 65
7. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:24.170 74
8. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1:24.173 74
9. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso 1:24.869 111
10. Lucas Di Grassi Virgin Racing 1:27.057 31
11. Fairuz Fauzy Lotus 1:28.002 76
True pace of the RB6 starting to show
Feb 26th
Warmer and dryer weather in Barcelona for the first time this testing season was a welcome change for most formula1 teams.
Day 1 of test in Barcelona got underway today and Mark Webber today in showed blistering pace in the RedBull RB6, setting the fastest time of the morning with a 1:21.487. Mark was running quali’ simulations all morning and was over 1 second quicker then the next quickest driver, Nico Rosberg in the MercedesGP.
Ferrari brought some new gear to this tests with a special setup on their wheels with two inner discs designed to aid air-flow. With wheel covers or ‘spinners’ banned this year, this is the frist we have seen a team use something different as an alternative. Fernando Alonso was out on track infront of his home crowd today, but during the morning sessions he could only manage a best time of 1:24.580, nmore then 3 seconds off Webbers pace.
With RedBulls next rival (mercedesGP) being more then a second behind, this was the first firm warning we have seen from RedBull so far this testing season that it will again be a force to be reconned with in the 2010 championship.
The afternoon sessions will be kicking off shortly, however if the track conditions deteriorate, we may not see much of a change in the timesheets from the morning runs.
We will have a more concise wrap-up of the days testing later tonight.
Kobayashi sets pace as Virgin falls apart in Jerez
Feb 12th
Kamui Kobayashi rushed out on low fuel at the end of the day in Jerez on Thursday and set the days fastest time of 1:19.950. Now whilst I have been rattling on about times won’t mean much this week with most teams doing long stints, shakedowns and by their own admission not concentrating on ‘times’, the fact still remains that the Sauber has shown some very serious pace this year. It was a similar story in the first round of tests at Valencia. I don’t think the competition should be alarmed however. Kobayashi set his time at the end of the day on very low fuel, it will most likely help the team to generate potential sponsorship interest, but the real pace of this car really won’t be known until the first race in Bahrain.
The sun was out for most of the day in Jerez and gave the ten teams present a good opportunity to put a large number of dry laps under their belts. After yesterdays wet weather and the predicted rain for the rest of the week, today was possibly the only dry day of running in Jerez. Sebastien Buemi showed consistent pace through-out the day in the Toro Rosso. He set the second fastest time of the day with a 1:20.026. Sebastian held the top spot on the times for most of the day until Sauber sent out Kamui on low fuel for one last dash at the end of the day.
The biggest dram of the day was late in the morning when the session was red-flagged due to the nose cone of the Virgin car being driven by Timo Glock fell off and spread debris all over the track. Teh team released a statement saying they would not continue that day and instead had to wait for parts to arrive from the factory in Oxfordshire.
Nick Wirth, the Virgin teams technical director said, “This morning we experienced a front wing mounting problem which caused the wing to come off the car at the beginning of a run. The cause has already been identified. Unfortunately, we’re missing one or two spare parts which will hopefully arrive this evening, so we won’t be able to run for the rest of the day. In the short amount of running that we’ve achieved so far, we are very encouraged by what we’ve seen and we have gathered some vital aero data which is very much in the range of what we were predicting. We look forward to resuming the programme tomorrow morning.”
Virgin now have lost what could prove to be a vital day of dry weather running, they should be out on track again on Friday provided they can fit the parts in time, however with rain predicted, it could be a bit of a blow to the teams test schedule.
Nico Hulkenberg in the Williams did a good job to record 67 laps considering the technical woes his team experienced during the day. The team had a hydraulic problem and also an issue with their driveshaft which kept the car in the garage for much of the day, none the less, their times were respectable and the teams confidence is high.
Mercedes, Ferrari and Redbull were all doing long stints in their cars and as a result were further down the times, however the Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari was the car to watch with a very long stint. Alonso didn’t pit for 48 laps and showed very decent pace in F10.
Alonso seems very comfortable in the car and the Ferrari team appear to be the most confident in their car out of any other runners. He said the he feels very good about the car and the it is easy to drive. “We’ve driven many kilometres without any reliability problems, which is something that makes me really happy.”. he said ” We put many components under pressure over these five days and we didn’t have any problems at all.”
Alonso recorded a time of 1:21.424, which is a respectable heavy fuel load time.
Tomorrow many of the teams will swap their drivers, with Vettel taking over from Webber in the RedBull, Nico in the Merc’, Mass will replace Alonso in the F10 and Hamilton will drive the McLaren.
The times from today are below, we may not see Kamui’s time broken over the next two days either if the weather plays it’s part.
1. Kamui Kobayashi, BMW Sauber, 1:19.950, 103 Laps
2. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 1:20.026, 121 Laps
3. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:20.618, 83 Laps
4. Nico Hulkenberg, Williams, 1:20.629, 67 Laps
5. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India, 1:20.754, 80 Laps
6. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes GP, 1:21.083, 124 Laps
7. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 1:21.424, 129 Laps
8. Robert Kubica, Renault, 1:22.003, 103 Laps
9. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 1:22.043, 99 Laps
10. Timo Glock, Virgin, 1:29.964, 11 Laps
A wet day of tests in Jerez
Feb 11th
Rain affected the day of testing at Jerez on Wednesday. The fastest times of the day were set very early in the morning before the first drops fell and fromt hat point on the times were never going to be beaten with all teams on inters and full wets for the rest of the day.
It was the first chance the world had to se RedBull’s RB6 in action, however it was a disapointing day RedBull. The RB6 stopped out on the track and brought out the red flag due to an oil leak. The team tok that car back to the garage but then spent a large amount of time working on he car, even removing it’s floorpan. Webber didn’t return to the track until 45 mins prior to the end of the day.
Despite this setback Webber did manage to put 50 laps in, all be it in mostly wet conditions. Mark remained upbeat however.
“It was a pretty positive feeling actually,” said Webber “It wasn’t exactly a clean day of testing with the changeable conditions but that is the same with everyone.
Webber admitted that the team was going to be doing a shakedown of their car over the next few days, and do not intend to even ‘look’ at lap times until later in the month. He said that the car felt as it should on a wet day in Jerez, but did hope for dry weather tomorrow so that they could continue their shakedown.
Engine reliability has been the only variable that could be the downfall of the RedBull team. The Renault engine was no-where near as good as other engines on the grid in 2009 and it could be the soar point of the team again in 2010. Regardless of the team and drivers remaining upbeat about todays test, the fact that and oil leak let them down was not a good first outing.
The day in contrast was far better for the MercedesGP team who were finally able to knck Ferrari off their perch and claim the fastest time of the day. Nico Rosberg put some strong laps in early in they day before the rain set in and his time was obviously not beaten. The times however may not mean much with most teams evidently concentrating more on shakedown and development rather then trying to prove pace.
McLaren tried to water down the concern onlookers had to the large metal rig stuck to the side of the car, used for measuring windflow and aerodynamics and comparing it to CFD and wind tunnel data.
Virgin Racing were also present for the first time, however they spent most of the day waiting for the fitment of new parts to the car and in the end.
Timo Glock only managed to venture out for 5 laps before the end of the day, not surprisingly coming bottom of the times on a day where thankfully the timesheet really didn’t mean much anyway.
Most teams are hoping for fine weather tomorrow as they continue their shakedowns.
For those interested, the times from today are below:
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes GP, 1:20.927, 57 Laps
2. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 1:21.031, 84 Laps
3. Nico Hulkenberg, Williams, 1:22.243, 118 Laps
4. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 1:22.895, 88 Laps
5. Kamui Kobayashi, BMW Sauber, 1:23.287, 55 Laps
6. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:24.947, 68 Laps
7. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India, 1:24.968, 71 Laps
8. Vitaly Petrov, Renault, 1:25.440, 27 Laps
9. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 1:26.502, 50 Laps
10. Timo Glock, Virgin, 1:38.734, 5 Laps
Valencia: Day3 Testing Wrap-up
Feb 4th
Ferrari have dominated the last 3 days of testing in Valencia, with Fernando Alonso taking over Massa on the final day. A huge crowd of almost 40,00 people turned out to see the former world champion drive the Ferrari for the first time. He didn’t disapoint either, once gain putting Ferrari at the top of the time sheets with a 1:11.470 and putting in a very healthy 127 laps at the wheel of the F10.
Alonso was one of 3 world champions all out on track during the day with Michael in the Mercedes and Jensen also out again in the McLaren. It was a historic day for Ferrari who seem already to be one of the favourites now for the 2010 title, returning to the success they have ben so used to. Alonso was clearly extatic after his stint in the F10 and said: ”It was an important day for me, being in a Ferrari for the first time. He went on to say: “I think I maximised the use of the day, in terms of laps and time on the track, and I feel good. In the car I have many things to adjust to – the seat, the pedals, the steering wheel and even the helmet, which is a new brand for me. I’ve also never run with Brembo brakes, so that was a first for me as well.”
Alonso admitted that the Ferrari was quick, but still didn’t really know how quick it is relative to fuel loads when compared to the pace of other teams.
The surprise of the week of course has been the consistent pace of the Saubers who are also running a Ferrari engine. Even though the Sauber has been doing short runs on low fuel, it is still a similar length stint to the competition. It is almost echoes the Brawns surprise pace in testing just prior to the start of the 2009 season. Kobayashi and De la Rosa have both set times in the low 1m12′s with Pedro De la Rosa today being the second quickest man with a 1:12.094
Schumacher did 82 laps in the Mercedes and quickly shook off rumours of his old neck injury playing up again. He spent some good time behind the wheel with Mercedes focusing on medium to long runs and Schumacher emerged from the car in very good physical shape.
Jensen Button was clearly trying to get used to the McLaren and wasn’t raving about the car. McLaren have admitted that they are using these tests as a bit of a technical shakedown for their car, however it is a far cry from they testing pace Jensen had last year in the Brawn when he knew he had a potential championship winning car. Jensen was far less enthusiastic and a bit more resevred with his comments: “That was a long day! We finished working at about 1am this morning, trying to get the seat right in the car! You obviously have it made in the mock-up but it’s always different when you get in the car and out on the circuit it’s always a bit different to what you expected; so we’ve been doing a lot of work to make me comfortable in the car because, initially, it wasn’t quite where I wanted it to be, I was sitting quite high up.”
McLaren have not been pushing the cars much yet and have also been doing far longer runs then Sauber, Mercedes and Ferrari. There may be some pace there, but we just haven’t seen it yet.
The times from Day3 are as follows:
1. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:11.470 127 Laps
2. Pedro De La Rosa BMW Sauber 1:12.094 80
3. Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 1:12.438 82
4. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso 1:12.576 97
5. Jenson Button Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 1:12.951 82
6. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1:13.097 75
7. Nico Hulkenberg Williams 1:13.669 126
Since the tests have now finished at Valencia, the combined times over the 3 days cleary show the Ferrari both holing out 1st and 2nd placings:
1. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1min 11.470secs
2. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1min 11.722secs
3. Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari 1min 12.056secs
4. Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari 1min 12.094secs
5. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1min 12.256secs
6. Robert Kubica Renault 1min 12.426secs
7. Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 1min 12.438secs
8. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1min 12.576secs
9. Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 1min 12.899secs
10. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1min 12.951secs
11. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1min 13.097secs
12. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1min 13.377secs
13. Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1min 13.669secs
14. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1min 13.823secs
15. Gary Paffett McLaren-Mercedes 1min 13.846sec
Fernando Alonso behind the wheel of the Ferrari F10 for time
Valencia: Day2 Testing Wrap-up
Feb 3rd
Day two at Valencia ended up in a similar way to Day1 with the pace setter again being Filipe Massa in the Ferrari F10.
Lewis Hamiltin and Kamui Kobayashi were also present on day2 and got to drive their respective 2010 challengers for the first time. Kobayashi however was the man on fire. He surprised onlookers by putting in some very good laps early and recording the 2nd fastest lap of the day, beating Hamilon, Rosberg and Kubica with a 1m12.056.
Fuel loads however are the obvious un-known variable. Williams were reportedly doing many ‘long run’ stints Knowing what kind of fuel loads were in the Ferrari or the Sauber are simply just a guessing game, Sauber most likely running the car very light to impress potential sponsors.
Lewis Hamilton was at the wheel of the new McLaren today for the first time. He did 108 laps and recorded the 3rd fastest time of the day being a 1:12.256, no bad and respectable enough. McLaren were reportedly performing aero tests on the car throughout the day, making use of special paint to measure flow vis.
Rosberg also did some long stints with an obviously heavier fuel load in the Mercedes, however he did complain of not being totally comfortable in the car yet. He also had to try an laugh off comments made by Rubins that he wouldn’t win the chamionship as long as Michaeal Schumacher was his team mate. Rosberg said he wasn’t worried about favouritism in the team .
Tomorrow we will see 2009 World Champion Jensen Button drive for his new McLaren team for the first time. The team is predicted to be running more aero testing on the car during the day and treating it as a bit more of a technical shakedown.
The top times from today are as follows:
1. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:11.722 124
2. Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber 1:12.056 96
3. Lewis Hamilton Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 1:12.256 108
4. Robert Kubica Renault 1:12.426 119
5. Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 1:12.899 119
6. Rubens Barrichello Williams 1:13.377 102
7. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso 1:13.823 107
Valencia: Day1 Testing Wrap-up
Feb 2nd
It was a busy day on Monday in Valencia with many 2010 cars breaking cover for the first time and the drivers stepping into their 2010 title contenders for the first time.
It was the first time the world got to have a look at the 2010 Toro Rosso, Williams and Mercedes W01.
RedBull and Force India were not present, instead opting to further develop their cars, also none of the ‘new’ teams on the grid this year were present.
Michael Schumacher finally stepped into the W01 after much anticipating. He was on the pace and very quickly bettered his team mate, Nico Roseberg’s, times. Schumacher was lapping in the mid 1:13.5′s before breaking into the low 1:13′s and even a very high 1:12.
The nose on the Mercedes W01 is a radical slopped nose similar to last years RedBull’s nose and the new Torro Rosso STR5 is and even more radical looking variation of the design.
Mercedes were the only team on the day run both their drivers on the day.
When asked about how he enjoyed his first day at the wheel of the W01, Schumacher responded: “It was a perfect roll-out for the new car today,” Schumacher commented. “I felt totally comfortable and really had a feeling that everything was very natural. It felt just like at the very beginning of my career in 1991 – when on the first lap, I thought, ‘Wow, that was really fast!’ and then on the second lap I was just extremely excited!
Schumacher “I feel like a young boy again and really enjoyed myself out there. We did a good job today, just making a few control checks, and the most important thing was that the car ran reliably. With Nico and I covering 79 laps between us, it was a superb job by the team.”
The big news of the day however was Filipe Massa’s successful return to Formula1 at the wheel of the new F10. He was on the pace from start to finish on the day. Ferrari’s F10 is already to be proving a far better package then lasts years car. Massa topped the morning sessions in the mid 1:13.5′s but then bettered his morning times to record a 1:12.574 which was not beaten. Massa however did record more laps then any other driver.
It was a dream start to the new season for Ferrari who’s reputation took a battering last year due to a very poor performance during the season and the loss of Filipe due to injury and lack of good reserve driver talent.
When massa stepped out of his car after his dream run, he said he felt “zero fear” he went on to say he was “happy to be back after such a long time watching the race on television and sometimes on the track,” he also said he felt very physically fit and could have easily done many more laps then he did.
A surprise pace-setter of the day was Pedro De la Rosa who managed to set the second fastest time of the day int he BMW-Sauber. He edged out both Rosberg and Schumacher in the Mercedes and Paffet in the McLaren to finish just two-tenths of a second of Massa’s fastest lap of the day.
Without getting too carried away, it is very hard to judge teams true pace this year during the pre-season testing, due to the large fuel tanks. The discrepency that is now possible between fuel loads means some cars could be running extremely heavy to do long distance runs and other teams could be cheating by only putting a small number of laps worth of fuel in their cars to impress the time sheets.
Williams seemed to struggle a little bit, with Rubins bringing out the red flag for a short time while his car was stopped out on track, however he managed to do over 70 laps in the car and set respectable pace ahead of the Torro Rosso and Renault team.
Renault were the slowest team of the day with Robert Kubica only managed a best time of 1:15 flat, however they managed to put in some decent track time with 69 laps.
On Tuesday we will see Hamilton step into the McLaren for the first time, with Jensen button taking over on the final day.
The times at the end of day 1 are as follows:
1. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 1:12.574, 102 Laps
2. Pedro de la Rosa, BMW Sauber, 1:12.784, 74 Laps
3. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes GP, 1:12.947, 40 Laps
4. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes GP, 1:13.543, 39 Laps
5. Gary Paffett, McLaren, 1:13.846, 86 Laps
6. Rubens Barrichello, Williams, 1:14.449, 75 Laps
7. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 1:14.762, 18 Laps
8. Robert Kubica, Renault, 1:15.000, 69 Laps
Ricciardo tops the time sheet at Jerez.
Dec 4th
Aussie Daniel Ricciardo has ended the final day of testing at Jerez on the top of the time sheets recording the quickest time of all 3 days with a 1:17.418. The day was not without drama though, after a large plume of smoke appeared from the back of his Renault powered RedBull, it was clear the engine had cooked and Daniel had to retire after 77 laps.
For the Aussie who won this years British Formula 3 cahmpionship it was important to show his abilities in an F1 car at Jerez this December. He has succeeded and is now rumoured to get a permanent test role for 2010 and a seated driver for the 2011 season.
Di Resta did a great job in the Force india to hold off the McLaren being driven by their test driver Paffet.
Times from the Thursday:
01. Ricciardo Red Bull 1.17.418s 77 laps
02. Di Resta Force India 1.18.736s 53 laps
03. Paffett McLaren 1.18.746s 59 laps
04. Conway Brawn 1.19.096s 77 laps
05. Hulkenberg Williams 1.19.226s 106 laps
06. Baguette Sauber 1.19.356s 70 laps
07. Turvey McLaren 1.19.358s 32 laps
08. Ericsson Brawn 1.19.382s 49 laps
09. Di Grassi Renault 1.19.602s 123 laps
10. Hildebrand Force India 1.19.873s 41 laps
11. Sanchez Ferrari 1.21.147s 39 laps
12. Zampieri Ferrari 1.21.279s 42 laps
12. Zipoli Ferrari 1.21.725s 41 laps
13. Hartley Toro Rosso 1.22.493s 50 laps
15. Bortolotti Toro Rosso 1.23.271s 34 laps
16. Tung Renault 1.32.477s 4 laps
Also a recap of the times from day 1 and day 2:
Tuesday
1. Andy Soucek, Williams-Toyota, 1:19.158, 87 laps
2. Paul Di Resta, Force India-Mercedes, 1:19.369, 46 laps
3. Gary Paffett, McLaren-Mercedes, 1:19.426, 54 laps
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 1:19.534, 113 laps
5. Jules Bianchi, Ferrari, 1:19.626 91, laps
6. Mike Conway, Brawn-Mercedes, 1:19.920, 58 laps
7. Alexander Rossi, BMW, 1:20.227, 82 laps
8. Marcus Ericsson, Brawn-Mercedes, 1:20.333, 50 laps
9. Bertrand Baguette, Renault, 1:20.511, 105 laps
10. JR Hildebrand, Force India-Mercedes, 1:20.537, 49 laps
11. Oliver Turvey, McLaren-Mercedes, 1:20.856 27, laps
12. Brendon Hartley, Toro Rosso-Ferrari, 1:21.325, 69 laps
Wednesday
1. Gary Paffett, McLaren-Mercedes, 1:18.718, 80 laps
2. Nico Hülkenberg, Williams-Toyota, 1:19.184, 94 laps
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 1:19.243, 92 laps
4. Paul Di Resta, Force India-Mercedes, 1:19.411, 58 laps
5. Esteban Gutierrez, BMW, 1:20.190, 68 laps
6. Mike Conway, Brawn-Mercedes, 1:20.222, 83 laps
7. Marcus Ericsson, Brawn-Mercedes, 1:20.440, 37 laps
8. JR Hildebrand, Force India-Mercedes, 1:20.517, 49 laps
9. Jules Bianchi, Ferrari, 1:20.586, 113 laps
10. Lucas Di Grassi, Renault, 1:20.898, 54 laps
11. Ho-Pin Tung, Renault, 1:21.492, 67 laps
12. Mirko Bortolotti, Toro Rosso-Ferrari, 1:21.761, 79 lap
Final times at Jerez, Paffet fastest on Day 2
Dec 3rd
Thanks to all those who followed our blog and re-tweeted our live tweets during Day 2 of testing at Jerez.
The times in the afternoon didn’t change much, with Paffet still remaining in first place with his tim of 1:18.718, however Seated driver for williams next year, Nico Hulkenberg finished just ahead of Daniel Ricciardo with a time of 1:19.184.
Ricciardo was the fastest man of the young rookies, with Paffet being a Test driver since 2006 and DTM champion and Hulkenberg driving for Williams next year Daniel did well to be in the top 3 of the day.
- 01 G. Paffett (GB / McLaren) 1:18.718-80L
- 02 N. Hulkenberg (GER / Williams) 1:19.184 (+0,466)-94L
- 03 D. Ricciardo (AUS / Red Bull) 1:19.243 (+0,525)-94L
- 04 P. Di Resta (GB / Force India) 1:19.411 (+0,693)-58L
- 05 E. Gutiérrez (MEX / BMW-Sauber) 1:20.190 (+1,472)-68L
- 06 M. Conway (GB / BrawnGP) 1:20.222 (+1,504)-83L
- 07 M. Ericsson (SWE BrawnGP) 1:22.440 (+1,722)-37L
- 08 JR Hildebrand (USA / Force India) 1:20.517 (+1,799)-50L
- 09 J. Bianchi (FRA / Ferrari) 1:20.586 (+1,868)-113L
- 10 L. Di Grassi (BRA / Renault) 1:20.898 (+2,180)-55L
- 11 H. Tung (CHN / Renault) 1:21.492 (+2,774)-67L
- 12 M. Bortolotti (ITA / Toro Rosso) 1:21.761 (+3,043)-79L
UBS Chinese Grand Prix