Anyone following this? Kind of a litmus test of how good the Red Bull and Mclaren's are. With the exception of Ferrari and Renault, it appears the cars are running in order of what they ran the entire season. 1. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1:39.616 2. Oliver Turvey, McLaren, 1:40.725 3. Antonio Felix da Costa, Force India, 1:41.381 4. Esteban Gutierrez, BMW Sauber, 1:41.432 5. Dean Stoneman, Williams, 1:41.522 6. Mikhail Aleshin, Renault, 1:42.073 7. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso, 1:42.489 8. Paul Di Resta, Force India, 1:42.736 9. Sam Bird, Mercedes GP, 1:42.985 10. Jerome DAmbrosio, Virgin, 1:43.518 11. Pastor Maldonado, HRT, 1:43.750 12. Jules Bianchi, Ferrari, 1:43.894 13. Rodolfo Gonzalez, Lotus, 1:44.924 14. Rio Haryanto, Virgin, 1:49.439
Are the "big guns" gonna drive again before they switch to Pirelli's? [I guess they'd be ~2 seconds faster again.] The track is well and truly rubbered in, the teams are telling these kids "you can go flat/90%/whatever at this location" and they're probably all running underweight. IMO Cheers, Ian
No need to apologize - Nice to have a second opinion They were *flying* today: Pos Driver Car Time Laps 1. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1m38.102s 77 2. Jerome D'Ambrosio Renault 1m38.802s 83 3. Sam Bird Mercedes 1m39.220s 82 4. Gary Paffett McLaren 1m39.760s 84 5. Jules Bianchi Ferrari 1m39.916s 93 6. Sergio Perez Sauber 1m40.543s 91 7. Paul di Resta Force India 1m40.901s 27 8. Pastor Maldonado Williams 1m40.944s 81 9. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1m40.974s 61 10. Yelmer Buurman Force India 1m41.178s 67 11. Davide Valsecchi Hispania 1m43.013s 32 12. Luiz Razia Virgin 1m43.525s 70 13. Josef Kral Hispania 1m44.143s 61 14. Rodolfo Gonzalez Lotus 1m44.312s 41 15. Vladimir Arabadzhiev Lotus 1m45.723s 49 EDIT: FWIW, LH's fastest lap in the race was 1m41.274
Nope - that starts tomorrow (Friday). From Autosport: The link: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/88382 Cheers, Ian
my understanding is that they start driving with the pirellis tomorrow. http://yfrog.com/3wrdnej ian was one minute faster.
We will certainly find out tomorrow. It's going to be difficult to tell either way because the track is so well rubbered in right now. Look at the speedy times the rookies are laying down
I guess we're about to find out.... Pirelli are saying they have no idea if they'll even be competitive and that the compounds are far from settled. The Autosport story referenced above has more. Cheers, Ian
I would think so. Bridgestone steadily made the compound harder after requests from the FIA and especially in response to a reduction in the number of permitted sets of tires. We'll see what the baseline is for the Pirellis shortly. On another note, did you see how much it cost these kids to ride around for a few laps in an F1 car? From Motorsport.com: "Auto Motor und Sport reports that Venezuelan Maldonado's tests with HRT and Williams in Abu Dhabi cost his sponsors an incredible EUR 1 million, while Czech Kral reportedly paid HRT 300,000 euros for his single test day." WOW!
I wonder if that could mean that; yes, the Pirelli's are faster but with a caveat that they will not last very long and one will really have to smooth out their driving style. Driver's like Button would think these tires are the greatest if that's the case
Indeed. I think they were pretty wooden towards the end - Despite the constant "options are only good for 2-4 laps" and similar comments, they sure seemed to last OK in the race! [Generally] I can't recall the races, but a few times B/Stone were supposedly on record as saying "they won't last", and they did.... Pirelli are already saying there might be problems running their rubber on top of the nice thick layer of B/Stone that's there - A ready excuse *if* needed I do think they'll be faster though - That way everyone goes home happy while Pirelli hardens the compounds over the winter....... I enjoyed the days of true quali tires! 3-4 laps and they were *shot*! WOW x2! I honestly thought most of these guys were "on merit" for this test [OK, some of 'em have piles of $ behind them, but still!] Thanks for sharing, Cheers, Ian
another update : http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg121/scaled.php?tn=0&server=121&filename=50rp.jpg&xsize=640&ysize=640
