Link to live testing...Autosport

They have a good amount of fuel on board and are probably trying to find setup with this new arrangement. Their tire wear is definitely not as good with this arrangement. Thanks for the updates!

 

Di Resta is by far the smoothest driver out there. Everyone is choppy on and off The throttle and Paul is smooth throughout this entire complex of turns where we are now. following Autosport commentary as well -race simulations for force India and Williams. These test days are much better than the races! paid a whopping 2o euro to gt in.mclaren seems very slow. Force India and Williams having their own race. Di Resta passed Bruno.

Interesting comment on Autosport coverage regarding diResta and Senna -wonder if their sorts car racing has produced this similarity of which they speak. Scotland has produced some awesome drivers too.

 

Awesome first hand updates! Thanks for adding!!!

Still hoping MB will figure out the tire wear, I can't take another year of MS qualifiying in 8-10th and having Petrov within striking distance...

 

Sitting in main gs across from Ferrari box..Massa in, pushed into box, put up red screen so u can't see what is going on and back out. Weber in tire chg across from us too. Thank goodness for air dryers in bathrooms!! Got a bit wet. mb back out, they are next to Ferrari too. These cars are awfully loud. Here ones rain!,

 

Good gosh, reported hail in turn 1. yes, it was doing something doen there that wasn't occurring here...sun is back out here in gs across from Ferrari box. we see this strange weather at Spa but Barcelona?!? Sun shining now in turn 1...memory flash sitting here watching 2 LMP1's and 2 GT's four abreast going past this spot....Ferrari back out, red bull just started, Bruno's car on wrecker with slinky cover on it...30 minutes left!massa just went past

48.0 and L18 for Massa on board, toro Roso did really quick tire change - board for Massa now reading 47.3 - toro roso are practicing pit stops another quick tire change Massa 46.9 L15

Massa 45.8 L10

 

What's going on with Ferrari today?!

Reports said that they were running lots of straight line testing? Implying that they haven't figured out what the aero is actually doing, maybe there's no correlation to what the wind tunnel has told them.

Also that their communications director was pissed off at the Italian journos, and that the press conferences with the drivers today were cancelled.

Is panic setting in?

 

Firstly, thanks for the updates Carol; Great to have you back "in the fold"

Are you going again tomorrow? [IIRC, most of 'em are running their "other guys" on Sunday]

Very interesting observations from a well respected source..... As of right now (maybe wait for tomorrow evening?) what's your pecking order? Doesn't sound as if you're as impressed by the Cans as "everyone" else? And virtually no mention of the boys from Woking?

Do they look as bad in person?

Is HRT even in the paddock? [Sounds like a screw up to me if they are - Surely they know by now how long it takes to "build" a car...... Maybe they'll get it out tomorrow.] I guess they're a little in front of Marussia, FWTW.

Thanks again for the updates,
Cheers,
Ian
PS - You also said they're *loud* - Is that because the stands are empty? [I remember 2001 in Indy - They sounded a lot louder on Friday (admittedly from inside the S/F stand!) than on Sunday from stand H.

 

Brundle said the car has a narrow range where it can perform well so far. Outside of that and things are not so good.
Webber is also asking what is going on as well. He said they remain a mystery. I agree. Lets hope they are making progress.

 

Hi Ian,
No not going back tomorrow. We got into Barcelona on Friday am and went to see some sights we haven't had time to see in the past and had only today to go to the Test Day, have an 11 am flight back to Atlanta then back to DFW....short/ long weekend however you may want to describe a crazy adventure. NO, HRT did not show up..they at doing some promo deal probably Monday, guess I don't understand the total waste of money for a worthless attempt.
button had a hydraulic issue today and was put only a small amount of laps this am...he didn't even come in the rain that showed up briefly during the last part of the session. Yes, loud..I am used to the more quiet cars of Audi and Peugeot (unfortunately no longer around). Too bad the F1 cars couldn't harness the sound into more power. So I have had my F1 event for the year and it was better than attending any race!! it seemed that Lotus was having to justify Kimi by making prononucements about him today. rather lackluster attempt today. I can see diResta and Force India being a force to reckon with by the other players along with Bruno Senna. Got to admit it was like stepping back in time walking thru the vendor displays today. I added to my Schumi collection a really cute teddy bear for 35 euro and chatted with the vendor from Germany for a while the older merchandise. Have a great day!

 

09:22 Alonso goes fastest on the hard, or are they unmarked, tyres? Hard to tell with the way the sunshine is coming across. A 1m22.477s nonetheless
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Clever group they appear to be!

--10:16 We haven't talked about food today yet, so you will be pleased to know that we are having Oreos, double filling --

 

LH:
1:22.888 (55)
1:25.923 (56)
1:25.732 (57)
1:25.490 (58)
1:26.824 (59)

Average 5 lap: 1:25:371

MS:
1:22.939 (50)
1:24.850 (51)
1:25.137 (52)
1:25.314 (53)
1:25.509 (54)
1:25.771 (55)
1:25.786 (56)

 

The Red Bull is eating gearboxes. They are through their third box during Barcelona testing not including Jerez

 

Really?

Raikkoenen set the fastest lap time of all testing sessions this year.

http://www.motorsport-aktuell.com/automobil/tag-der-weltmeister-schlussakkord-in-barcelona-4466556.html

1:22.03

 

The Ferrari is looking much better although the Lotus is still just a bit quicker by a tenth or two average on full loads and medium loads.

mclaren and Mercedes appear to be separated by a hair out there with W03 being quicker on full load and low loads and Mclaren quicker on medium loads. Their tire degradation is about identical. Meanwhile Red Bull are clearly showing signs of tire wear but not quite as bad. They really are not all that much quicker than Mclaren or Merc. Just a very small amount similar to what Lotus and Ferrari are seeing.

 

Seems things are tightening up! Melbourne cannot get here fast enough!

 

16:03 Does Lotus being on top for three out of four days this week mean Raikkonen will be world champion in his comeback season? Probably not... but that car does look pretty handy.

16:03 Does that mean the champion team faces a disastrous Melbourne? We'd be very surprised...

16:03 Lowest tally was Vettel's: front wing damage and a gearbox problem meant just 23 laps for Red Bull.

16:02 But also doing plenty were Ferrari (114), Force India (101), McLaren (115), Caterham (101) and Toro Rosso (100).

16:02 Raikkonen also completed more laps than anyone else today: 120.

16:01 Everyone within 1.5s, but plenty of different programmes going on in there.

16:01 Final order for the final day: Raikkonen, Alonso, Senna, Hulkenberg, Kobayashi, Hamilton, Petrov, Schumacher, Maldonado, Ricciardo and Vettel.

16:01 So testing ends as it began: with Raikkonen fastest.

 

The Lotus looks very very handy out there.

 

It's unfortunate that the season has to begin at a non-track as the results could likely be askew to what each car is capable of. Regardless, RB are of course the favorites but everyone below is anyone's guess. If I remember right, Australia was light on tires last year. Anyone else remember?

 

Our friends from down under might see that differently.

About the only thing Melbourne lacks are elevation changes, other than that the track is every bit as racy as any other circuit.

 

Red Bull's B version of the RB8 has a new exhaust concept that was apparently modelled on Sauber's exhaust, Newey was said to be very impressed with their solution.

Behind all the hoopla about the heavily revised RB8 yesterday, McLaren's final Melbourne package of updates was more significant than a new wing or two - one report had a rival team comment that nobody seemed to notice that McLaren had changed half their car! Apparently McLaren brought their own version of the Mercedes W Duct front wing, and Button was very positive about the new wing on Saturday.

 

Ferrari say that it won't be a podium car in the beginning of the season. Tell us something we don't know, lol.

 

MAc copied RB last year so they probably copied MB cause they saw something there. No one's copying Ferrari...

 

HRT is. That's why they haven't shown up with their new car yet.

 

If the exhaust ports and engine mapping, create "blown" suspension components, are they not movable aerodynamic devices?