Archive for February, 2010

Feb201028

Rob

0

What does all the bad weather during the tests mean for the season

With three out of the four pre-season tests being affected by bad weather the teams will be well prepared for damp conditions but they won’t have done nearly as many miles in the dry as normal. How is a cold damp Spanish circuit going to compete with Bahrain?
I would imagine that the teams will have a very good understanding of how the new tyres perform in changeable conditions but they won’t have a very good understanding of the wear rates in hot conditions. Valencia – the only dry test is a street circuit and so will have different tyre wear rates to ‘real’ racing circuits and so it may effect the setup that the teams can run in the race.
The rates at which the engines burn fuel will also have been affected by the weather as the cars won’t have been able to push as hard around the circuits, this [...]

Feb201027

Rob

0

Rosberg and Mercedes take the top spot on the third day in Barcelona

Nico Rosberg took the top place in the times with Mercedes today at the penultimate day of pre-season testing. With most of the teams running race simulations to see how the cars perform over that distance Toro Rosso and McLaren with Jenson Button jumped back to the top.
Rain again frustrated the teams as they didn’t get a fully dry track for most of the day but it didn’t stop them racking up the miles. Virgin were the only team not to complete many, their luck really doesn’t seem to be with them as mechanical problems still seem to be holding them back.
It is surprising to see Sauber down in 10th place, this must be the first time that they’ve been that low down in all the tests this year. But then Red Bull are also down there and we know that the car is fast. Perhaps it’s the conditions that [...]

Feb201027

Rob

0

Retirements in 2009 and what that means for 2010

In 2009 there were 68 retirements from the races, that doesn’t seem very many considering what the sport was like only a few years ago. Even better when you see that 22 were accidents, 12 were spins, 1 was Hamiltons disqualification, 1 ran of of fuel and 1 withdrew. That leaves 31 mechanical retirements for the whole season, less than two a race.
What does this mean for 2010, bluntly that the drivers should be more careful. With so many rookies in the field this I’d expect accidents and spins to get worse not better this year but the established drivers should take note of these things. The cars are reliable and the drivers are now the weak link.
From these stats it seems that the engine homologation has at least done one thing, made the engines reliable. With only two failures last year and the engines running for two races it’s [...]

Feb201027

Rob

0

Nico Hulkenberg and Williams top the Friday times in Barcelona

Williams ended the second day of the last pre-season test at the top of the times with the young Nico Hulkenberg, though he says that it doesn’t mean anything as it’s only testing it means a lot more if you can’t do it which Mercedes haven’t really done yet.
Red Bull suffered some problems with their car in the afternoon, stopping it as a precaution, Renault also ran into some problems with something not right on the suspension. Virgin seemed to manage to get some laps done so perhaps they have dealt with the hydraulic issue that has caused them so much bother.
Alonso in the Ferrari finally jumped to the top end of the times taking second place in the listing, it was Alonso’s last action before the first race and he’ll have been pleased to get in some good times without any issues even if the Williams did beat him [...]

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