Posts tagged Nico Rosberg
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: 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
Official Mercedes GP Petronas Launch
Jan 25th
The Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart was the location of the teams official 2010 Launch today. Ross Brawn, Norbert Haug, Nick Fry, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg were all on stage to present the 2010 car’s livery, using a 2009 BrawnGP car. Nico and Michael sat on the car for PR photos, we will upload these official shots as they role in.
In the meantime we have photos of the car and the 2010 race suits for Michael and Nico which were taken from the live stream.
The cars livery is very similar to a mockup photo released by the team when the Petronas deal was announced
UBS Chinese Grand Prix