Barcelona testing times

TOTALLY LAME. 5 seconds slower..... it's like playing racquetball with the ***** blue balls rather than the green ones...

 

also it's interesting that Renault is planning on running a reprogrammed V10 rather than a new 8.. and I am still anxiously awaiting BMW's paintjob... *please be all black please*

 

Those times don't mean dick because they're set with bastardized 2005 cars. And get used to 3-5 secs slower lap times . Toyota will run tomorrow with a true 2006 spec car and the first team to do so. And the only team worth paying attention to for now IMO.

 

You've got to be kidding me. It's not even the first of the year, it's preseason testing, and you're already complaining?!?

Go watch NASCAR. If any of you know anything about Formula One it's you can't put anything into preseason testing times. Especially this early in the off season much less when teams are having to design an entirely new car. And by new car I mean from a clean sheet of paper.

2006 should be a barn burner of a season. Handicapped V10s will be strong at the begging of the season and should really throw up some unexpected competition if some of the back marker teams should choose to run with them. I'm all for it.

 

Well I dont know about the BMW, but heres the new Williams....at least until they get the sponsorship situation figured out.

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=26593


Mark

 

I was referring to this individual more than you:

For that I suggest you do a search in this area (racing) of the forum and make up your own mind on that. I've also raced in KARTS (both 80cc & 125cc shifters), Jim Russell FF1600 series in England (mid 1980s), race mechanic (FF1600, FC2000, ITS, GT-1,2,3,4,& 5, FA), as well as a test driver for the FC2000 and FA cars that I worked on.

I do know a thing or two about making a race car go faster than the next guy.

 

No, unfortunately I don't. No cash to do so. I was racing them in 93-94. I was doing an arrive and drive with Kart-Connection back in Dallas. I was probably spending about $400 per weekend to race. That being said with testing and racing I probably shelled out close to $6-$7K for a good season of racing once you factored in testing and breaking things (I bent a frame at the GP of Dallas in a shunt, that was $1K alone). If I were running a 125 by myself at that time to be competitive I probably would have needed to spend about $10K. Karts were about $3.5-$4.5k brand new, then add on the expenses above and factor in the learning curve of how to run a Kart. I knew Collin was much better at it than I was so I just decided that I was better off in a season or two older Kart and his experience than doing it myself. Also I was pressed for time in my personal life anyway. Now I've been told to run competitively new karts are about $6.5K on average and then most are running data-acquisition so add another 4K if you want that. Then the average running cost for front runners is about 10K when you factor in engines, rebuilds, tires, fuel,... well you know the list.

I will say one thing though. I thought the 80cc was a better learning platform than the 125cc. The 80cc is more like a F3 car and the 125 is more like a F2 or F1 car. With the 80cc the power band is so small in comparison to the 125cc you have to be smooth and precise with your driving. If you make any mistakes there isn’t the power to overcome them. You’re just screwed. With the 125cc if you react quickly enough you can minimize your loss of momentum and speed. I’d often run with the 125cc group in my 80cc. Although I didn’t have the same power I did have a lower minimum weight so the power to weight ratio wasn’t that far off from the 125s. I’d get through the corners faster than them and loose out on the straights. That being said I could run in the top 5 with fresh tires. Good fun and a great learning experience.

Not to hijack the thread or anything. Have you had any other seat time other than the Karts?

 

I would bet that by the first race the V8s will be faster than this years V10s. It seems that every time the FIA does something to slow the cars down, teh team engineers figure out how to make the cars even faster.

 

I hope they could overcome the new regs and post similar lap times to last year, but theres no way. They couldnt claw back 6 seconds a lap in 3 months. The V8's are down to around 750 horsepower I heard somewhere, thats a loss of around 200 bhp, its going to take years to get that much hp back. Being able to change tires and the aero being better will help with gaining some of the lost ground, but not that much.


Mark

 

Oh btw, heres photos from the first round of testing.

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_gallery_display.php?fes_gal_id=503

Mark

 

6 seconds? Where did you get that number. The V8s are about 2 seconds a lap slower currently...

At the end of next year I'm guessing 1-1.5 seconds slower.

 

That's against a restricted V10 from last year. I'll bet they get to the same speed by the first race. It should be fun!

As far as getting the speed back to where they were who cares? Keke Rosberg's fastest lap record set in a turbo in 1985 wasn't broken until a few years ago by JPM. Was the racing in-between not any good? No. As long as it's close racing it won't matter. We've had this discussion before. It's the same discussion that occurred when they outlawed the turbos and how did that turn out? Hmmm? How about when they went to a V10 rule? Hmmm?

Teams will always claw back the performance. Once you realize that you'll look forward to the rules changes as I do to see how they get it back. For me that's as much fun as watching the cars race.

There's nothing better than some good problem solving and innovation. I'll take that over refining the same car year after year as has been the case.

 

Perhaps I was wrong, but I swore I read on Formula1.com or Pitpass.com that they were somewhere in the range of 6 seconds slower. If it is infact only a 1.5-2 second loss as of right now, then I have no doubt that the teams will be able to claw that back by the end of the season.

Mark

 

I'm not talking about that. The F1 official lap record at Barcelona is 1'15.641 set last year by Fisi. These times in hybrid cars are in the 1'17 range. Once the real cars come out that are actually optimized for V8 sized engines I see these cars becoming very fast.

 

Ummm... No. That's the fastest race lap from last year. Not the lap record. The fastest qualifying time last year was a 1'14.795 set by Jarno. I'll have to dig it up but I'm sure the fastest lap record is below that as well.

 

Fair enough, I just pulled it from the F1 site. I thought they included qualy. Irrelevant really, they aren't even running next years cars yet.

 

Toyota is.

 

So maybe we should compare the Toyota time from last year to compare to the new car?