Barcelona Testing times. Rubens does not look to far off the pace at this one. 1. Ralf Schumacher, Williams (Michelin), 1:15.666 2. Juan Pablo Montoya, Williams (Michelin), 1:15.834 3. Fernando Alonso, Renault (Michelin), 1:15.920 4. Rubens Barrichello, Ferrari (Bridgestone), 1:15.989 5. Luca Badoer, Ferrari (Bridgestone), 1:16.991 6. Jarno Trulli, Renault (Michelin), 1:17.041 7. Takuma Sato, BAR (Michelin), 1:17.082 8. Anthony Davidson, BAR (Michelin), 1:17.309 9. Felipe Massa, Sauber (Bridgestone), 1:17.776 10. Ricardo Zonta, Toyota (Michelin), 1:17.965 11. Cristiano da Matta, Toyota (Michelin), 1:18.101 12. Timo Glock, Jordan (Bridgestone), 1:19.625 13. Christian Klien, Jaguar (Michelin), 1:19.781 14. Mark Webber, Jaguar (Michelin), 1:20.385
i know Jaguars not a very good team but to see tem at the absolute bottom is just awful.Even Honda and Sauber are better then them.I hope to see Alonso do some great things this year.If he keeps going like he is he could be another Schumie(well not quite but almost)
Alonso was running last years car so we shall see how he does in the new one once he gets the chance. Truli had the duty of shaking down the R24.
The Ferrari's are also still the old cars. Let's wait what happens when the new model (with according to JT a special front wing) comes out.
As always test times are hard to interpret, but these times are actually damn promising for our boys. Hope they weren't running on empty. The Jags are in the tank, no question. Notice how Klien matched Webber? Young kid, nice work.
Oops, just read that Rubens was indeed running with a qualifying setup. The Bridgestone gap remains. Sadly.
Here is todays times. 1 R.SCHUMACHER Williams 1m15.620 2 MONTOYA Williams 1m15.659 3 ALONSO Renault 1m15.718 4 BARRICHELLO Ferrari 1m16.026 5 BUTTON BAR 1m16.621 6 BADOER Ferrari 1m16.951 7 ROSBERG Williams 1m17.469 8 MASSA Sauber 1m17.539 9 DA MATTA Toyota 1m17.696 10 TRULLI Renault 1m17.785 11 ZONTA Toyota 1m17.895 12 KLIEN Jaguar 1m18.087 13 SATO BAR 1m18.507 14 LEINDERS Jordan 1m21.631
Here is todays times check out buttons time!!!!! New track record. At least MS was ahead of the williams walrus cars in the F2003-GA Testing times from Barcelona 1 BUTTON BAR 1m14.607s2 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1m15.410s3 ALONSO Renault 1m15.506s4 R.SCHUMACHER Williams 1m15.736s5 BADOER Ferrari 1m15.767s6 GENE Williams 1m15.820s7 MONTOYA Williams 1m16.251s8 PANIS Toyota 1m16.507s9 FISICHELLA Sauber 1m16.529s10 SATO BAR 1m16.560s11 WEBBER Jaguar 1m17.173s12 MONTAGNY Renault 1m17.447s13 HEIDFELD Jordan 1m17.530s14 KLIEN Jaguar 1m18.029s15 BRISCOE Toyota 1m18.106s16 GLOCK Jordan 1m18.236s
BAR is probably still looking for sponsors and sent him out with empty tanks. I'm surprised that Jordan let Glock back into the cockpit after he crashed.
Andreas; You are more than correct about the BAR running on fumes. But i am still suprised by that time since i seriously doubt that the michelins turned the BAR from a mid pack to front pack car also. They must have stumbled upon something in the setup to get that result. As for Glock, True he did crash but not as bad as Lienders did wadding the car up 6 corners into his first out lap. At least Glocks times are decent enough to competitive with a Minardi. Linders time would have had him blown away by a Minardi. Rob
Badoer shaved 1.2 seconds of his previous 2 days Michael shaves 0.5 seconds of Rubens While Ralf, and Montoya stay at constant lap times. Was the weather more favorable to Bridgestone than Michelin this day?
I haven't heard anything about the weather and Spain is fairly predictable, so I would exclude that as a factor. Ferrari sent Schumi there to discredit the negative talk about the Bridgestones and he did to some degree. However I have the feeling the Williams and others are sand bagging right now. When you have a new car, you want to see how fast it can go and they did. Now that they kinda now that they're at the head of the game, they can bluff with full tanks so they don't look as competitive.
Absolutely agree you would have to be an idiot to play your hand too soon. Even I when testing would try and keep my pace quiet at my lowly club level ... okay I could not stop somebody timing me, but if I suddenly found 2 seconds you would not see me running up and down the pit lane telling everybody ... instead I would be doing yippies inside and having excited chats with Dad (my team ). Bit worried about Ferrari ... but it is the old car. Basically having to use MS to make them look good just shows the car is slow. If Rubens was right up there then you know that they have a great car ... and MS will destroy the rest when it is his turn Pete
And Williams are the masters at sand bagging. I remember once they had Piquet doing test laps, but didn't want to show how fast he was. So he did the first half of the lap slow, then full speed. Continued full speed for the first half of the second lap and then slowed down. It took the competition a while until they realized Williams was timing two half laps in between of two slow laps. As far as Ferrari is concerned, I'm not worried about the new Ferrari. I bet it will be fast when it premiers next week. What worries me are the Bridgestones. There is nothing we can do about and if the Ferrari is a second slower because of them, then that's it. Ciao Mondiale. Did you hear, that Rubens engine catoed? We're starting to see signs of the new regulations. Also Sauber's new car seems to be no revelation. Just goes to show that copying last year's winner ain't gonna make you one this year.
BAR acknowledged that their best time was on fumes and in an experimental car (read: probably below the weight limit). Fisichella beat Massa by a second. Oops.
Here is the final day times. Look at Alonso go. 1 ALONSO Renault 1m15.433s 2 BADOER Ferrari 1m16.016s 3 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1m16.182s 4 GENE Williams 1m16.190s 5 MONTOYA Williams 1m16.300s 6 ROSBERG Williams 1m16.486s 7 MONTAGNY Renault 1m16.539s 8 PANIS Toyota 1m16.816s 9 HEIDFELD Jordan 1m16.877s 10 BUTTON BAR 1m17.041s 11 DAVIDSON BAR 1m17.079s 12 FISICHELLA Sauber 1m17.248s 13 BRISCOE Toyota 1m18.147s
I said it before and say it again: Alonso - future WC but not this year, not yet Look at Rosberg's time. Pretty darn good for a new kid. It just makes me smile to see that name on the charts again. Nostalgia.
Let's not make to much out of the pre season testing times. As said above, some teams are sandbagging, others are trying out various settings and are not really worried about times. Also remember some time ago the Arrows. They were incredible in pre season testing. When it really counted, where were they? Let's see what happens when it really counts in Melbourne. Joop
Exactly!!! During pre-season testing all these teams can break whatever records they want - including Ferrari - but, when it comes down to the REAL race season (Melbourne to Brazil) that's when we find out who is going to be the top dog. Papa G
Yes and no. The big teams normally rather sandbag not to give too much away whereas the midfield and end teams do qualifying laps to attract sponsors. That's why I'm not worried about Button in the BAR. But the original Williams and McLaren times do worry me. F1 is very competitive and on average everybody (of the big teams) makes about the same amount of progress over the winter season. Which is why we should always look at the overall trend. And the trend for Ferrari was downhill towards the end of last season. That's why I'm looking forward to Melbourne with mixed feelings.
Andreas; With that given and the fact that Ferrari can test at there own private track. It could be that Bridgestone has tires in development that Ferrari can test in privacy and pull the covers off of them to the world in Austrailia. I think the main issue here is that the new qualifing rules caught Ferrari off gaurd and would have required a massive overhaul of the chassis last year. Now that Ferrari has learned from there mistakes and qualifing is for all purposes the same as last year just held on the same day. This year might suprise a lot of people. I cannot wait just a little over 40 more days to go Rob
Gosh I love to argue with you, it's all in good fun you know. The "secret" test track of Fiorano is not that secret at all. You can stand on public ground and watch them and take their lap times. No secrecy. Also they have to play by the same rules as everybody else when it comes to the winter ban of testing (and they did). If you want to talk secrecy, how about the Mc Laren tests in Valencia. Those were really secret. But not totally: Word leaked, that Kimi set a new track record. I'm telling you Williams and Mc Laren on Michelins are gonna look mighty strong. Michael said in an interview that he sees Kimi as his main rival for this year. Michael also said there is no significant time difference between the Michelins and Bridgestones. If true, that'd be fantastic news. We'll see. With all the talk about the truth coming out in Melbourne I was thinking, maybe not: In the past it always took a few races to figure out where everybody really stood. We had freakish season starts that clouded the real strengths. So I'm not even sure we'll find out in Melbourne. We might know by the time the teams return to Barcelona for the GP. Hmm, Barcelona GP? Ah yes, my suitcase...
Are you stashing any fellow F-Chaters away in that suit case Alot of what you have said is true about some of the test sessions. But in reality Ferrari does have an upper edge in testing in that they can run several different tests ans race situations there in a more private enviroment than say at a public test. The Barcelona test while information can still be learned from the other teams present can also see what you are doing once the car is out of the garage. This year since we do have more stability in the rules i think that the first couple of races will be more of an indication of what the season will have in store for the rest of the year. I myself would not mind seeing another nail bitter like last year, Just this time lets take the controversy out of the equation.