Posts tagged Pedro de la Rosa
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
BMW Sauber C29 released
Feb 1st
Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi were on hand to pull back the covers on this years BMW Sauber C29. The word BMW is still in the teams name, however BMW are just getting free advertising since they no longer support the team, the model disgnation has been dropped and the car is now powered by a Ferrari engine and even uses other Ferrari components such as it’s gearbox.
This years Sauer, like other 2010 cars, has a longer wheel base and is also wider then last years car to accomodate that larger fuel tanks. It also sports a new Dorsal or ‘shark fin’ similar to that seen on the 2010 McLaren.
Technical director Willy Rampf described some of the changes to the car:
“The increased length of the fuel tank means the car has grown longer overall. And because they are slimmer, the front tyres will be more heavily worked, requiring weight to be shifted further towards the rear of the car.
An eye-catching feature of the C29 is its highly intricate raised nose. Also very distinctive is an extremely long undercut at the transition from chassis into underbody. These and other aerodynamic measures also help to ensure optimum airflow to the double diffuser. Further changes were required to integrate the Ferrari engine and, in particular, the Ferrari gearbox.”.
Technical specs of the c29 are as follows:
Chassis: Carbon-fibre monocoque
Suspension: Upper and lower wishbones (front and rear), inboard springs and dampers, actuated by pushrods (Sachs Race Engineering)
Brakes: Six-piston brake callipers (Brembo), carbon pads and discs (Brembo, Carbon Industries)
Transmission: Ferrari Seven-speed quick shift gearbox, carbon, longitudinally mounted, carbon-fibre clutch
Chassis electronics: MES
Steering wheel: BMW Sauber F1 Team
Tyres: Bridgestone Potenza
Wheels: OZ
Length: 4,940 mm
Width: 1,800 mm
Height: 1,000 mm
Track width, front: 1,495 mm
Track width, rear: 1,410 mm
Weight: 620 kg (including driver, tank empty)
Sauber confirm Pedro de la Rosa
Jan 19th
Sauber today confirmed that former McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa has signed with the team for the 2010 season.
The 38-year-old Spaniard will partner former Toyota F1 driver Kamui Kobayashi this season who was confirmed as the Swiss teams first driver in December last year.
Team Principal Peter Sauber stated “Pedro has spent many years working for a top team at the highest technical level” referring to Pedro’s long standing relationship with McLaren. He wen on to say: “We as a team stand to gain from his experience, and the same goes for young Kamui. The combination of a seasoned racer and an up-and-coming young driver has repeatedly proved a very fruitful one. I don’t expect either of them to disappoint in 2010.”
Pedro de la Rosa has more then 70 Grand Prix starts under his belt and no doubt he is very keen to get back on the grid. Kumui Kobayashi impressed fans last year with a brave and well executed pass on Jensen Button at the Yass Marina round in Abu Dhabi. Kobayashi’s pass was voted one of the best passing moves of 2009 in the polls by many Formula1 fans.
With their driver line up now confirmed, the next official commitment from Sauber will be when they unveil their new car at the Valencia circuit on Sunday 31 January. The launch of their new car will take place the day before the start of official testing in spain from 1-3 February 2010.
