Valencia testing times February 1, 2011 - official thread

Nice is right. This is just one of the reasons why no one will be going flat out initially. Lots of new toys to play with.....

 

Freddy not digging the tires...too much degradation...Pirelli is learning also...

 

While true they're not trying to do a balls-out Q3 lap, they are all, without exception, trying to go as fast as they can - If they're not close to the edge, they're learning virtually nothing.

Hence we get, if slow;

"We were concentrating on reliability"
"We wanted to test with high fuel loads"
"We were checking tire wear"
etc.

If fast;

"It's early days"
"We've got more to come"
"We're satisfied with the day"
blah blah.

You do not go to an F1 test to not go flat out..... There's very little benefit.

Sure, they have their programs, and *consistency* is the key, but you've gotta be consistently on what the jockey perceives as "the edge" - Otherwise there's no way to know if the new wing is better than the old etc.

As always, my 02c,
Cheers,
Ian

 

+1

 

Disagree. There is a ton of hashing out to do with the tires. Fernando does lot like the fronts and is stating there is a degradation issue. Most laps by all teams today were with medium or heavy fuel loads for tire testing. Pirelli is learning a lot.

from Vettel today:

after first best-time, vettel tries to keep expectations low according to msa.
hes quoted there saying "today was a very good day." "we never did 90 laps at a first rollout before."
"the car is really new, has nothing in comon with the rb6:"
"we didnt went for times today, we only checked systems and tires."
"its still too early to tell that this year is going an easy walk for us, we still have to work very hard for that."

 

I actually think we're really close to agreeing!.....

+1

Because this is the first time they're pushing the envelope. With multiple manufacturers rather than a single test car.....

Pretty much what I said above:

Cheers,
Ian
PS - Is this a 2 or 3 day test? IIRC, they should still be going on Wednesday (?) - If so, anyone wanna set the line at how much faster they'll be?.......

I'm going with -3 seconds......

 

After further thought, that's too conservative; -5 by Weds night.....

 

3 day test. Still don't agree. No one is going for outright speed these first couple days. They are learning the new cars and everything that goes with it: tires, suspension, adjustable rear wings (!), KERS. All kinds of stuff is being learned and no one is anywhere near being able to say, "go out and bring the heat".

 

+1

Again, we agree.

And they're not even sure where the heat may come from yet..... KERS? Wing adjustments? Tires?

Hopefully, Pirelli also have some stickies stashed away for Weds, that always helps.

Cheers,
Ian

 

We'll see. Word so far is Alonso is not liking the tires, specifically the fronts.

 

I realize it is only testing and day 1 at that, but if we filter the results for 2011 cars and throw in McLaren (which haven't run) at 2nd position:

1 RedBull
2 McLaren
3 Ferrari
4 Sauber
5 Renault
6 Mercedes
7 Toro Rosso
8 Williams

Then we compare this to last year's WCC standings:

1 RedBull
2 McLaren
3 Ferrari
4 Mercedes
5 Renault
6 Williams
7 Force India
8 Sauber
9 Toro Rosso

We realize: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Except that Mercedes got worse. LOL

 

IIRC Sauber ran very quick in last year's tests also. The rumor was that they were doing low fuel runs hoping to attract sponsors.

 

On the first day of testing?? Really? ugh

why don't you compare to last year's day one Valencia testing so you can see how utterly worthless the information is:

Felipe Massa Ferrari F10 72.574 102
Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari C29 72.784 74
Michael Schumacher Mercedes W01 72.947 40
Nico Rosberg Mercedes W01 73.543 39
Gary Paffett McLaren-Mercedes MP4-25 73.846 86
Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth FW32 74.449 75
Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR5 74.762 18
Robert Kubica Renault R30 75.000 69

Red Bull not even in the top 10.

 

Really.. first day of testing and Ferrari is a full second off. Domencalli said it's time to turn switch focus to the 2012 car.... only joking!

 

Just how is taking a rational view of testing 'hatin'', "Piddy"?

 

Only thing we can be sure of is that however things stand at the beginning of the year, they won't be that way later.

In 2010, the Ferrari was very fast at first, the McLaren was a dog. The Sauber looked very quick. The Williams looked quick. At the end, Ferrari was 2nd fastest to Red Bull and McLaren had caught up too.

The only reason RBR didn't run away with it was because of unreliability on Vettels car and dumb mistakes by the drivers (both of them).

I think RBR may do very well in 2011, but I expect Mercedes to be better than they are appearing. I think Renault and Sauber will be worse then they look now.

As for Virgin and HRT... .well, who cares, really.

 

For all we know Williams could come out and smoke everyone. Their back end is quite impressive.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I don't think you can mate.

 

Kubica came out today and basically said the adjustable rear wings are not going to make any difference in passing, but are however a PIA when you're thinking about 5 other things already.

Kub was running behind another car in testing and popped upon his wing right at the straight to test the thing out, he said there was not a chance of passing the other car.


I really really hope they do away with this wing crap very shortly. As in, within the first few races.

 

You're a well known Alonso hater and it's obvious that you would not have made that comment if Alonso was not fastest at the time. Your second comment about Alonso is even more evidence for that.

Now, get back in your cage...