Massa Ahead of the Pack @ Jerez by a Mile

Reading too much into this? Have Ferrari got the RB-killer of a car this year instead of a flying turd? I sure hope so

Great stint Massa! From autosport:
Jerez F1 testing: Felipe Massa stays ahead on day three - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com

 

Well, everybody days winter times mean very litle but, i think they always mean something, if a car runs constantly in front...it can´t be a bad one!!! Let´s not get to much carried away but things are looking promissing.

 

Hey, I'll take whatever hope we can get. At least we're not behind in the times.

 

Timing: 7 february, thursday. Circuit of Jerez, Spain.


The Ferrari seems to be consistent with other top teams with regards to tire degredation, and that's about all we can tell at the moment.

Kimi did not go out much today.

 

I read that they were experiencing some sort of electrical issue.

 

Testing, schmesting.

Only Melbourne will show what's what.

 

Last year was Alonso to score the best Jerez' time on Sunday

 

Ron Dennis used to call it "The winter GP season", where all the testing is analysed and times recorded give wrong impressions of forms for the following season.

 

Hang on a gosh darn minute!..... Aren't you one of the proponents of a return of testing? Can't have it both ways.

While they're all following their own programs etc never underestimate their desire to be at the top of the time sheets.

They'll all claim that lap times aren't important, particularly if they happen to be slow of course (), and for sure parts of their programs will move 'em backwards - They'll play with ride heights and rake in particular to see what the CofP is doing and how it relates to tunnel data. Go too far and weird things happen for example - Does this weirdness correspond with the model etc.

But, at some stage, pretty much every day, they all want to run it on fumes and turn their best "qualy" time to see how they compare to the others.

Sure, there's a long way to go yet, but we'll have a pretty good idea of who's where by the end of next week. [FWIW, Pirelli are whining that Jerez is too abrasive these days.]

Cheers,
Ian

 

Early days but encouraging at least.

 

There is a great video of Christian Horner and Adrian Newey standing at I believe turn 9 watching. Their hand gestures regarding F138s composure at turn in is very interesting as it suggests F138 is flopping a bit or the track may just be bumpy there.


Sergio looks really out of place in the Mclaren so far, he's not clean or smooth from what I've seen.

Lotus looks good. Very clean.

Red Bull's front wing is bending again! Not kidding !


W04 looks good at lower speed turns and heavy braking but medium speed stuff went a bit wide compared to top teams.


Last year Nico set the quickest Jerez time followed very closely by Mclaren. That was a time when W03 was a very capable competitive machine, during qualy anyway.

I believe testing times are somewhat relevant if you view them from a mile high perspective ie. see the team and the driver lap time in a gray sort of way knowing that time is plus or minus 3 places higher or lower than it could possibly really be. It's very much a teams way of saying they can neither confirm nor deny their speed and have it be at least somewhat relevant when the first race arrives.

 

Not sure what that's got to do with my comment but anyway: I think more testing should be allowed (maybe not private testing in Fiorano, but like on Monday at F1 track where they raced on Sunday).

I'm just not giving too much weight to testing times anymore. Way too many parameters.

Not disagreeing with any you said. OTOH wasn't it a year (or two?) ago that first Sauber and then Toro Rosso set fastest times. I was naive enough to believe their times and the hoopla Benoit later wrote in Blick. But we know how the season played out and it became clear that their best times was just an effort to find sponsors.

Likewise Ferrari already got under fire in the Italian newspapers this week so they had to do something. A best lap time appeases the critics/journos just fine.

And lets not get started about all the BS that came from Mercedes, which had the fastest times in Barcelona.

When the flag drops, the bull**** stops.

 

I did not think Ferrari had a bad car last year. Just hard for the drivers and crew to get the setup right.

They definitely did not have a turd!

 

I want to know how RB9 has a wing that flexes again yet it passes the even more strict testing.

 

Ask Newey, he must know the exact place where they test it.

 

Could it be temperature sensitive?

 

+1 "A wise man indeed!"..... It just sounded like you were "rubbishing" all testing. Sorry.

Indeed. Melbourne will be first true arbiter of course.

Cheers,
Ian

 

there's the rascal bending again


RB9 is running a LOT more rake than F138. Just a note.

CF can't be temperature sensitive. Newey's people probably deduced a way to lay up the carbon fiber so it's rigid via one direction of force yet not in another. I believe the wing flex test is carried out more inboard than where there wings always flex anyway. They stiffened them up quite a bit last year so I'm wondering what's going on here.
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Could a passive drs on the front wing pipe down warm air from the engine department relaxing the carbon fibre structure?

 

No idea really



F138 rumored to be overheating the rear tires.

 

Agreed. I do not like them sounding the horns so early. They need to shut up and get on with it.