Archive for 'testing'

Mar201001

Rob

0

McLaren lead the teams across all four days of the last test with Lewis Hamilton

When we look at the full four days of the testing in Barcelona the picture is much the same as the last day of the test. Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber and Felipe Massa take the top spots again showing the form of these teams.
In this list Mercedes GP look of the ultimate pace taking 6th spot behind Force India and Williams but as the first seven places are separated by less than half a second perhaps the story that it tells is that this season will be very close. In this list the new teams seem to have a lot of work to do, they are five seconds adrift.
The odd teams are Toro Rosso and Renault, they seem to be off the pace of the others even if they have managed to impressive on particular days, the Toro Rosso was also fast at Jerez so perhaps it’s just the [...]

Mar201001

Rob

0

McLaren and Lewis Hamilton end the last test on a high

The McLaren is looking good for this year posting the fastest times of the last few tests. It looks quick in both the hands of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. The Red Bull and the Ferrari also ended the testing at the sharp end – it looks like the title contenders are starting to show themselves.
Force India take fourth spot in a reasonably impressive set of pre-season testing times, I wonder how they will perform at the first GP, the car was good at the end of last year so perhaps they can impress. Sauber have impressed at Jerez but they haven’t made a massive impact at Barcelona, does that point to a car that is hard to setup or one that prefers certain circuits? Whatever the reason they now have two weeks to understand it.
Lotus have made a good start to their F1 challenge too, they have completed the [...]

Feb201028

Rob

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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 [...]

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