Valencia Testing Times

From James Allen;
Quote:



McLaren MP4/25 is the fastest in all sectors at an average of 201.5 km/h while the new Ferrari F10 is at an average of 196.5 km/h

I thougt it was 10kmh my mistake.
Also I read that Mercedes has been using their 2009 front wing & rear diffuser. Probably waiting until Red Bull unveils their new car. Anyone confirm this?

 

Pardon my ignorance, but will there be a day 3 of testing at Valencia? Or is it only a 2 day test?

Thanks

 

Well the last sentence is obviously the key there...I wonder what he is basing his estimate on? It seems like a dumb question, but how do they get fuel in the cars on testing days? Is it in public view?

 

yes, tomorrow is another testing day. it's the big one. Schumey, Alonso, Hamilton all on track

 

I can hardly wait til morning!

Who's at the helm for Sauber tomorrow?

I'm very interested to see how Alonso fares against Masa's times. I wonders who'll carry the bigger stick? What a relief to see the F10 (and Ferrari power in Suaber) setting the standard though!

Also- it'll be interesting to see how JB does. They splitting seat time? Wonder if they can put together a hot lap.

I don't expect much from Merc but it'd sure be nice to see Schumi in the 1:11's.

 

+1

Especially since they seem to have a radically new diffusor in the pipeline.

 

and Me!

 

It would make sense to me if Ferrari would be running with light fuel loads more than heavy loads so to get their PR engine rolling at full steam due to MS stealing their thunder. 460 media personel all chomping at the bit for a piece of MS.

 

Being fast is only half the job done this year IMO.

Tyre degradation is a complex subject because not only does it vary circuit to circuit, but also year to year at any given circuit, and even day to day.

Fuel consumption another factor, the silence is deafing.

I still feel we will have to wait and see till they start racing, however the signs are encouraging for Ferrari and Mclaren at the min. Merc maybe are playing it safe and not showing there full hand yet!.

 

Massa has quite a few laps on Alonso in the same car so I would think that Alonso will be slower.

 

With McLaren being relegated to customer engine status and Mercedes having their OWN team, I look for Mercedes to have priority on important engine developments and McLaren to slowly wither on the vine and slowly slide down from the sharp edge of the grid for the next several seasons.

Look what happened to Williams once they lost BMW...or for those with longer memories, remember when they went from factory to customer support with Renault engines for the 98 season (97-factory team, World Champions, 98-customer team-no wins)...history often repeats itself.

McLaren has been tainted by too much scandal in recent years and I am sure this factored into Mercedes decision to buy a world championship team outright and rebrand it as their own. They are starting off with a clean slate with champions that have "been there done that" on their resumes (Brawn and MS).

I myself would be extremely surprised to see McLaren higher up the points table than Mercedes at the end of the season.

With limited testing forcing teams to make the most of their track time there is much less sand-bagging than in the past.

With the F10 showing good pace the tifosi should have something to cheer about this year

 

If thats the case it will hasten Mclaren building there own engines which I expect them to be doing any way, in the future.

But on the whole good post have half a ciger Frank..

 

I wouldn't put money on that. I think Alonso is bridled with as much, perhaps more, expectation than MS.

Masa has shown the car has pace. The track should be improving daily. I suspect there are expectations on all sides that in short order (unless conditions significantly change) Fernando should be within a few tenths of Masa.

The only question is over or under Masa's times.


I can't seem to find any info to confirm Hamilton will run tomorrow? I recall reading Button would get equal time?

 

We all know Alonso will bring an extra 6/10ths of a second to the car so there's nothing at all to worry about...lol

 

There won't be any, at least theoretically speaking.

 

I expect Alonso to be faster.

However if the track gets faster every day, that is a bit meaningless.

More important is where Alonso ends up in comparison to MS. I'm hoping/guessing ahead.

 

I am more interested in Jerez testing. This testing session seems to be shaking down a lot of the newer things they had only conjectured about. At Jerez they will have the knowledge of this testing session to further the precision of their setups.

 

Following the testing is fun; but it's not a true indication of where the teams are. We honestly don't have a clue until Bahrain. Although there are good indications on the pecking order, it appears like the top teams are indeed the top teams again.

 

Btw - it's very silent in regards to Force India, only news I know of is their signing ofa test driver. Have they set a launch date?

 

I thought engines were frozen?

 

Performance wise- yes. However there are many others parameters to an engine besides the top number such as reliability, fuel economy, etc. Improvements can and will be made in these other areas.

There are also other areas where gains can be made not to the engines, but the elements surrounding them such as improving the interfaces between the engine and other elements of the car (the packaging so to speak...). I still hold that Mercedes will receive priority over McLaren in engine-related matters.

Very few factory teams tolerate a customer team outperforming them for an extended period of time...

 

+1 on the last part. Hopefully Alonso can pick up where he left off in 2006.

 

Good on you Alonso!

http://live.autosport.com/commentary.php/id/173

 

I think we can safely say that the Ferrari is the quickest car, and it looks like the Sauber-BMW-Ferrari is pretty quick too. This tells us that the Ferrari engine has plenty of grunt. What we don't know is how thirsty it is. Will the Ferrari have to carry more fuel than the others at the start of a race?