Testing At Jerez – Day 1

With yet another wet test on the horizon, all the drivers and teams who make their debut want to make a positive start to their year. Lotus’ Fairuz Fauzy, Force India’s test and reserve driver Paul Di Resta, and Lotus themselves were the debutants on Wednesday.

The Red Flag flew four times during the session, which included the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton, new kid Paul Di Resta, Rubens Barrichello and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. A very hard start for the Lotus and Virgin teams.

Even so, Lotus’ test and reserve driver Fairuz Fauzy managed to bag his super licence by driving over the 300km mark. “It’s been an excellent day for the whole team,” said chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne. “Firstly I want to say a big thank you to Fairuz who did an excellent job today with the first proper day of running. With so much going on, such as doing systems checks, it can be a pretty disjointed day for the driver. When you add into that the changeable conditions, and also the fact we were running without power steering today, it could have been a tricky day for Fairuz but he didn’t put a foot wrong so well done to him and a big thank you. With the car we had no major reliability issues – a few niggles with overheating which were quickly solved and then the car ran pretty faultlessly. The power steering issue will be fixed for tomorrow so all in all a very successful first day and a busy evening ahead preparing the car for tomorrow.”

The Malaysian completed 76 laps and finished 11th with a time of 1:31.848.

Schumacher went well at the rain soaked track by completing 111 laps with the wet, intermediate, and finally the dry tyres.

“The weather was really changing all the time today which made it difficult to follow our planned programme and to have a clear picture of everyone’s performance,” the German explained. “From the laps that we achieved, we have again confirmed the reliability of the car, and from the impressions and data gathered, we can say that the pace and performance looks very good.”

Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi is testing the STR5 this Wednesday and Thursday.

He carried out a brake system evaluation in the STR5 and covered 79 laps and set a time of 1:23.322 which brought him 4th.

Scotsman Paul Di Resta also earned his super licence on Wednesday after completing over 300 km’s.

“Paul completed 76 laps today in unsettled conditions to get his first experience of the VJM03,” said Force India’s chief race engineer Domini Harlow. “He also carried out some control systems tests and ran wet, intermediate and dry tyres. During a very windy afternoon Adrian took over the car for a short programme in predominantly dry conditions continuing set-up development from last week’s test. The VJM03 ran reliably all day, which gives a good basis for the remaining three days.”

Felipe Massa continued his good pace by setting the 3rd fastest time of 1:23.204 over 72 laps.

Lewis Hamilton also kept up the impressive form from the last test and finished in 2nd with a time of 1:23.017 covering the same amount of laps as Massa.

But it was Sebastien Vettel in the RB6 who topped the time sheets with a time of 1:22.593 covering 104 laps.

“We got a lot of laps done and the car has been good and reliable,” explained Ian Morgan, Red Bull’s head of race engineering. “We’ve made a few small changes but we didn’t get through as much as the programme as we’d hoped because of the weather. Sebastian and the car were consistent on the long runs in the dry which is promising. We’re continuing to make steady progress; the car is better than it was last week and every time we turn a wheel we seem to be moving forward a little bit.”

Sebastien will continue to test the Red Bull on Thursday, then team-mate Mark Webber will take over for the next two days.

So with more rain coming, the driver line-up for Thursday looks like this:

Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, Heikki Kovalainen, Sebastien Vettel, Pedro De La Rosa, Rubens Barrichello, Nico Rosberg, Timo Glock, Sebastien Buemi, Vitaly Petrov and Paul Di Resta.

Unofficial Wednesday times from Jerez:
1.     Sebastian Vettel                   Red Bull                   1:22.593         104    Laps
2.     Lewis Hamilton                    McLaren                  1:23.017          72     Laps
3.     Felipe Massa                          Ferrari                     1:23.204          72      Laps
4.     Sebastien Buemi                   Toro Rosso            1:23.322          79      Laps
5.     Pedro de la Rosa                   Sauber                     1:23.367         76       Laps
6.     Michael Schumacher         Mercedes GP         1:23.803         111       Laps
7.     Adrian Sutil                            Force India           1:24.272         28        Laps
8.      Paul Di Resta                          Force India           1:25.088        74         Laps
9.      Vitaly Petrov                         Renault                   1:26.237       55          Laps
10.    Rubens Barrichello            Williams                  1:27.320     109         Laps
11.     Fairuz Fauzy                          Lotus                       1:31.848      76            Laps
12.     Timo Glock                            Virgin                       1:34.417     10             Laps

Testing Day 4 In Jerez

Saturday, the last day of the first session of testing at Jerez, once again started wet. Some drivers bothered to go out for some installation laps but apart from that the track was dead. Even Michael Schumacher was keeping himself warm!

 The teams just waited for the Spanish track to dry out, and dry out it did, so they started to brave it out, running their programmes.

Ex-Brawn GP driver Rubens Barrichello, had a good day in the seat of the Williams FW32; he kept posting fastest times throughout the day until he came across an issue with the gear-box which ended his day early, but still a good day.

“The car has performed well these past two days and we’ve discovered some interesting things which will help us move it forward,” said the Brazilian driver. “I was hoping to go for a performance run at the end of the day because the car felt good, but unfortunately my session was cut short. There’s work to do in terms of improving performance, but I’m happy with the results that are coming out.”

Kubica set out to improve the R30 on Saturday, and that’s what they did. To me, the new Renault (I know it’s early days) seems quite slow compared to the Sauber or even the Toro Rosso, but Saturday was a turning point for the wasp-like car.

“We were unlucky again with the weather this morning but it was dry in the afternoon and we managed to improve the car quite a bit,” said the Pole. “Each day of testing the car feels better and the progress we have made this week confirms that we are moving in the right direction.”

Brazilian Felipe Massa focused on long runs and tyre comparisons and made the most laps of 160, a record this week.

“I never drove as many kilometres as today, either in an F1 car nor anywhere else.” said Massa.

Red Bull worked on the new RB6 with Sebastien Vettel in the seat. A fuel pump failure cost them three hours in the day, but Vettel still  made 90 laps on the way to 6th.

“It’s been a productive first week with the RB6, despite the weather and lack of dry conditions.”  said the team’s Head of Race Engineering, Ian Morgan. “We’re pleased with the car overall, it’s showing a lot of promise.”

But it was McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton who stole top spot in the last few moments in the dry. The 2008 Champion, set out with brand new dry tyres near the end of the session and posted quickest time after quickest time on the way to 1st with 113 laps under his belt.

Lewis should drive the new MP4-25 on the first two days of the next test at Jerez on 17th and 18th of February, according to McLaren’s website. Team-mate Jenson should take over on the last two days.

Virgin finally got some running without any wings falling off in the dry – did they drink any Red Bull I wonder? Anyway, GP2 graduate, Lucas Di Grassi was in the cockpit for this opportunity.

“The car was behaving much better after the work we did since yesterday and I think what we have achieved today is a very good start for our team.” said the Brazilian rookie.

Michael finished his tea and came out on track to set the 5th fastest time.

“We completed everything that we wanted and were able to increase our understanding of the car a step further so overall it’s been positive,” stated the German. “It’s very tough to understand the order of the teams just yet as everyone can play so much with the fuel loads. So there is a lot of speculation going on but it’s very interesting!”

New Sauber driver Pedro De La Rosa made a time of 1:22.134 which gave him 8th.

“In the morning we started with a long-run of 20 laps on intermediate tyres,” explained Giampaolo Dall’Ara, the team’s head of track engineering. “We then worked on the mechanical set- up of the car. Around half past two we swapped into a tyre comparison programme and in the end we carried out some aero tests. Because of the difficult weather situation this week in Jerez we are a little below expectations in terms of mileage but we still managed to cover all our topics and had no major technical problems.” The Spaniard made 105 laps.

Time sheet topper from Friday, Alguersuari, finished slowest on Saturday, but the young Spanish driver was content with the two days.

“I’m pleased with how these two days of testing went,” said Alguersuari. “It was very useful to drive the car with different fuel loads and in different track conditions, in the dry, in the wet and ‘intermediate’ conditions. Overall, it has been a positive week for me and also for the team.”

Unofficial Saturday times from Jerez:
1. Lewis Hamilton                  McLaren              1:19.583      113      Laps
2. Adrian Sutil                         Force India        1:20.180       84      Laps
3. Rubens Barrichello          Williams               1:20.341       90      Laps
4. Robert Kubica                    Renault                1:20.358       86      Laps
5. Michael Schumacher      Mercedes GP      1:20.613        84     Laps
6. Sebastian Vettel                Red Bull                1:21.203       90     Laps
7. Felipe Massa                       Ferrari                  1:21.486      160    Laps
8. Pedro de la Rosa                Sauber                  1:22.134      105    Laps
9. Lucas Di Grassi                   Virgin                    1:22.912       63      Laps
10. Jaime Alguersuari          Toro Rosso         1:24.072      98      Laps

These are my thoughts on this test session:

McLaren: Jenson seems happy with the car now that he is comfortable in the seat! Lewis is going well and stamped his foot down on Saturday.

Ferrari: Felipe Massa doesn’t look in bad shape considering his crash at the Hungaroring last year in Hungary. New team-mate Alonso seems happy enough in the F10, setting quick times and long runs.

Mercedes GP: Nico Rosberg looked quick in the Silver Arrow, when setting the quickest time on Wednesday. 7 time World Champion Michael Schumacher, looks just like he never left the sport, as he sets quick times also.

Red Bull: The team keep their bad luck with Mark Webber having a oil leak on Thursday and Vettel having a fuel pump failure on Saturday. But they are going strong with developing the new RB6.

Renault: Robert Kubica seems to be working well with the French team, after his bad season with BMW Sauber. Vitaly “Rocket” Petrov, is going well with his first taste of F1 power.

Sauber: De La Rosa and Kobayashi are both doing their team proud while setting quick and consistent times throughout the test. Watch out for the white car….

Force India: The team were looking to keep up their form from 2009, and they are doing exactly that. Liuzzi looked quite fast but was dampened by the wet conditions. Adrian Sutil made sure of 3rd place on Friday with a quick time in the dry.

Williams: The team-up of expert Rubens Barrichello and new boy Nico Hulkenberg for the new season, seems a good choice in my eyes. Barrichello was setting quick times throughout Friday and Saturday, while Nico did well with his first days in a F1 car.

Virgin: The team didn’t really get off to a good start by not making many laps on Wednesday, a front wing failure on Thursday, and some new parts didn’t arrive in time for dry running on Friday. But GP2 graduate Lucas Di Grassi got the only long runs of the four days. Ex-Toyota driver Timo Glock was unlucky and will have to wait for next week’s test on Wednesday.

Toro Rosso: Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi are doing the ex-Minardi team proud by setting quick times and topping the time sheet on Friday.

Testing Day 3 In Jerez and Lotus F1 Launch the T127

Friday began with drivers such as Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, Sebastien Vettel and Rubens Barrichello.

The day started mildly dry and ended in a complete wash-out, so not many teams were able to work on their programmes. But for some inexperienced drivers it was a good opportunity.

Young Spaniard, Jaime Alguersuari, took advantage of the early dry conditions to set the fast time of 1:19.919, which went straight to the top of the sheet and stayed there as the weather worsened. But Jaime stayed out to get more laps in the wet. An impressive machine, I think everyone should be wary of the new STR5.

Hamilton and Massa both had their first days at Jerez, as seen above, McLaren and Ferrari are back on form, even  ‘ They’ say that they are back.

Hamilton, the 2008 World Champion,  used his few dry laps to conduct low-speed aero mapping runs, before the team switched to longer wet tyre runs in the afternoon. Hamilton came 9th with 1:23.985, and completed 68 laps.

Massa had a reasonable day, but could only grasp 20 laps in the dry, and came 4th with a time of 1:21.603. He made 72 laps in total.

Vitaly Petrov made most of the wet weather to get some experience. He made 68 laps with a 1:22.000. Pretty good for a GP2 graduate.

“In the morning we managed to do a bit of dry running and the car felt good and well balanced,” reported Petrov. “Then, when the rain arrived, we did quite a lot of work as it was important for me to understand how the car behaves in the wet conditions and the characteristics of the wet and intermediate Bridgestone tyres. That went well and we also did a lot of practice starts as I learn the procedures and systems on the car.”
Robert Kubica will take over for the final day on Saturday.

Brazilian Rubens Barrichello and Spanish Pedro De La Rosa are both veterans, and are both, from what we have seen so far, in relatively fast cockpits.

Barrichello made most of the time he did have, both in the dry and wet, and made 120 laps with a time of 1:23.217, but that could only get him 8th.

“We basically only had a few laps in the dry this morning but then the rest of our running was done in the wet, so it was hard to find where the limit was and evaluate our performance,” said the Brazilian. “I’m looking forward to getting back in the car tomorrow and getting some more mileage in.”

As for De La Rosa, he only made 58 laps but clearly the C29 car is fast as his time of 1:20.736, which brought him 2nd just behind his fellow Spaniard, Jaime Alguersuari.

“We managed to do a baseline run in the dry and later focused on balancing the car in the wet. We scanned different set-ups and worked on the brake system. Pedro’s comments on the car were quite positive in the wet. Nevertheless we certainly hope for better and dry track conditions tomorrow.”

Virgin had yet another bad day at the four day test, as the new parts they needed after Thursday’s shenanigans did not arrive in time for the early dry spell, and once they did have the car ready, they could only manage a mere 8 dry laps. The new team will be hoping for a dry day on Saturday, as will everyone.

Adrian Sutil gave the 3 year old Force India team some confidence by setting the 3rd fastest time and continuing their speed from last year, just a little technical glitch stopped them from going any faster.

“The car is good and I think it’s a positive place to start,” said the German. “I’m very confident on the general speed of the car. Unfortunately the rain came in quite early and then it was really waiting for reasonable conditions to go out. We had a problem in the afternoon that caused us to miss a bit of track time, but considering it was so wet it would have been very difficult to get a lot of running in anyway. I’m pleased to at least have had some dry running and some more time in the car and am looking forward to getting started again tomorrow.”

So as some Pedro fans brave the wet conditions, the verdict for Friday’s running has to go to Jaime’s time sheet topping time. None of the other drivers have yet to go that fast; on the last two days the closest was Kamui the day before, only just over 3 hundredths of a second slower than the teenager. As I said earlier, watch out for the Red Bull sister team…

Unofficial Friday times from Jerez:
1.    Jaime Alguersuari        Toro Rosso        1:19.919        76  Laps
2.    Pedro de la Rosa           Sauber                 1:20.736       58   Laps
3.    Adrian Sutil                    Force India        1:21.428        48   Laps
4.    Felipe Massa                   Ferrari                 1:21.603        72  Laps
5.    Sebastian Vettel            Red Bull               1:21.783        59  Laps
6.    Vitaly Petrov                  Renault                1:22.000       68  Laps
7.    Nico Rosberg                  Mercedes GP     1:22.820        53  Laps
8.     Rubens Barrichello     Williams               1:23.217       120 Laps
9.     Lewis Hamilton            McLaren               1:23.985         68  Laps
10.   Lucas Di Grassi             Virgin                    1:37.107         8    Laps

In other news, Lotus F1 launched their 2010 challenger, the T127 – the first Lotus to grace the sport in just over 15 years! With ex-McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen and ex-Toyota driver Jarno Trulli, Lotus showed off their new car in London on Friday. Team Principal Tony Fernandes who is also CEO of AirAsia, was there along with Chief  Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne, who has been working with the Force India, Spyker and Midland teams in the last few years. 

“I’d just love to finish every race,” Fernandes said. “If we can beat some of the other new teams, that would be a fantastic start. If we can beat some of the established teams that would be great. But we’re not here to finish last in every race. We aim to compete with the best, and our ambition is shown by the drivers we have signed.”

I’m just noticing the T127 has a complex Brawn GP style front wing…

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Every time I look at this car I love it more and more, it’ll be interesting to see how it performs.

Gascoyne started work on the design of the car in May, but until 12 September Lotus did not even know whether they would have an entry; as F1 fought a political civil war between the teams and Max Mosley, the then president of governing body the FIA.

“Given the time, I don’t think we could have done a single thing better,” Gascoyne said. “We always said we wanted to produce a good solid, current car – ie, not one that was two to three years old (in terms of technology) – and that is not too far off the back of the established teams. I’m confident we will have achieved that.”

(More at BBC Sport website: including driver interview videos: http://ow.ly/17eyn )

Report from the last day of testing soon. Expect drivers like Hamilton, Felipe, Schumacher, Barrichello, Alguersuari, Lucas Di Grassi, Sutil, De La Rosa, Vettel and Kubica.

Testing days 1-2 in Jerez

Testing restarted in a wet Jerez with the likes of Red Bull and Force India making their debut on Wednesday, Virgin also made their debut with Timo Glock in the seat. Glock had only done 5 laps in the wet on Wednesday but on Thursday a problem occurred when mounting the front wing onto the car, which led to it falling off on the track after 11 laps, about an hour and a half into the  second day of the four-day test.

“Unfortunately, we’re missing one or two spare parts which will hopefully arrive this evening, so we won’t be able to run for the rest of the day.” said Technical director Nick Wirth.

“In the short amount of running that we’ve achieved so far, we are very encouraged by what we’ve seen and we have gathered some vital aero data which is very much in the range of what we were predicting. We look forward to resuming the programme tomorrow morning.”

Obviously, there isn’t much chance for the teams to get any dry data, but for the new teams and Button it’s a great chance to get some miles done in their new machines.

Button made the 6th fastest time out of 10 drivers with 1:24.947, and did 68 laps, on day 1. But on the second day it was dry, so he focused on going fast, and that’s exactly what he did. He set a time of 1:20.618 and did 83 Laps. Here are some Q&A’s from formula1.com

Q: So what was your program today?
JB: I was working on the balance and trying lots of different things, mechanically and aerodynamically. A lot of it is not new but it’s a completely different car to work with so I am trying the extremes and finding a place where I feel comfortable and happy with the balance.

Q: How are you doing in the car?
JB: My day was good actually. Yesterday as well. It is always interesting working in the wet because the finer details you really need to work in the wet because you have a lot less grip. So we did a lot of work to make sure that I felt one hundred percent good in the car and I must say that my ‘new home’ feels comfortable and I feel great in the cockpit now. My two test days have been very promising. In the wet we did a lot of set-up work and tried to come to terms with two different types of tyres – the wet tyre and the intermediate. Today in the dry it was easier and for the first time I felt good in the car – good enough to do set-up work and find a balance with the car and work with different components. It was positive, although there is still a lot of work ahead of us. The basic car is a good base line I think. Jumping in the car this morning it immediately felt great, but I have no illusions that there is still a long way to go before we have a car that is capable of winning races. Most of the day the car was reliable until a little hiccough at the end, but it was nothing severe. I had a warning light so I stopped the car and now we have to find out what the reason was – probably a sensor issue. There was no damage.

Fernando Alonso completed the second most laps in the wet on day 1 and made a time of 1:22.895, and the most laps of 129 on day 2 but only the 7th fastest time of 1:21.424. And that’s about it…

Ex Williams driver Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets on day 1 with a best time of 1:20.927 which was set before the rain began to fall.      

“The car felt very good today,” said the German. “Compared to Valencia where I was sitting too low which affected my visibility and the set-up wasn’t perfect, today I felt really comfortable and I could push so it was an enjoyable day and a good start to the test for me. Our objective here is to learn as much as possible, put miles on the car and engine to check the reliability and to make progress on our set-up work. The rain is a little frustrating but the car feels good to drive and that’s what’s important.” Rosberg’s second day of testing will be on Friday, then team-mate Schumacher will take over on the final day on Saturday.

Robert Kubica had his first run in Jerez, in the new Renault R30 after taking over from team-mate Vitaly Petrov on Thursday. “Another very productive day as we completed over 100 laps and did a lot of set-up work with the car,” explained Renault’s chief engineer Alan Permane. “We had made a lot of changes for Robert since the last test in Valencia and he’s now much more comfortable and happier in the car. We steadily improved the balance and grip throughout the day and hopefully we can continue with this tomorrow if the rain holds off.”
He matched day 2 time topper Kamui Kobayashi’s 103 laps. But he only came up with a slow 1:22.003, which gave him 8th.

Aussie Mark Webber brought out the red flag late in to the morning on Wednesday with a oil leak, but apart from that the former 2009 championship contender was quite happy with day.

And Thursday was even better with more  dry running, “It’s been a very productive two days,” said the Australian. “We’ve had a few little niggles here and there with reliability, but despite that we’ve managed to complete quite a few laps with the new car. We’ve had one wet and one dry day and learned a lot on both. We’ve still got quite a bit of testing to go before we get to Bahrain, which we’re going to need to continue to understand the car and keep finding performance. But I’d say we’re off to a pretty solid start and we’ve got a great base to build on.”

Mark Webber set times of 1:26.502 on day 1 and 1:22.043 on day 2, both earning him 9th on each day. He completed 50 laps on Wednesday, and 99 laps on Thursday.

Michael Schumacher took over the new W01 from his team-mate Nico who set the fastest time on Wednesday, but could only manage a time of 1:21.083 which put him 6th.

“I am very happy with how the day went today even if we could not finish our schedule completely due to red flags,” said the German. “However I managed to complete a lot of laps which is very precious to me. A new car, a new team and new conditions, therefore our first goal has to be to make the car reliable. Days like today help massively in that respect, especially as the weather forecast for the next few days isn’t looking quite so rosy. I felt very comfortable driving the car and it was good fun today.”

New Renault driver, Vitaly Petrov came 8th on Day 1. “The bad weather meant it was a frustrating day for us as we only managed to complete one dry run this morning on scrubbed tyres,” explained Renault’s chief engineer, Alan Permane. “We then spent some time doing systems checks in the garage and discovered a small problem with the brake system, which we managed to fix by the end of the day.”

So, Wednesday was a pretty dull day with all the teams saying something like ‘Sadly the weather conditions were not as we would have liked’ and the like.

Unofficial Wednesday times from Jerez:
1.    Nico Rosberg            Mercedes GP      1:20.927    57   Laps
2.    Sebastien Buemi      Toro Rosso         1:21.031      84   Laps
3.    Nico Hulkenberg    Williams                1:22.243    118  Laps
4.    Fernando Alonso    Ferrari                  1:22.895      88  Laps
5.    Kamui Kobayashi    Sauber                  1:23.287      55  Laps
6.    Jenson Button          McLaren               1:24.947     68   Laps
7.   Vitantonio Liuzzi      Force India         1:24.968     71   Laps
8.   Vitaly Petrov              Renault                 1:25.440     27  Laps
9.   Mark Webber              Red Bull                1:26.502      50  Laps
10. Timo Glock                 Virgin                     1:38.734       5    Laps

And the story of Thursday was that the Teams spent all day making up for all the lost dry time, apart from Virgin that is. But Button, Buemi and Kobayashi stole the day. The young Japanese stole top spot from Buemi in the dying moments as Sauber continue to improve on 2009’s poor performance.

Unofficial Thursday times from Jerez:
1.    Kamui Kobayashi           Sauber                 1:19.950      103    Laps
2.    Sebastien Buemi             Toro Rosso        1:20.026      121    Laps
3.    Jenson Button                McLaren              1:20.618        83     Laps
4.    Nico Hulkenberg           Williams              1:20.629         67    Laps
5.    Vitantonio Liuzzi           Force India       1:20.754        80     Laps
6.    Michael Schumacher   Mercedes GP     1:21.083        124    Laps
7.    Fernando Alonso           Ferrari                1:21.424         129    Laps
8.     Robert Kubica                Renault               1:22.003        103    Laps
9.     Mark Webber                  Red Bull              1:22.043          99     Laps
10.  Timo Glock                      Virgin                   1:29.964          11      Laps

F1 Weekly Review (February 4th – 10th)

Virgin Racing gave their new VR-01 it’s first run around a slightly wet Silverstone on a two-day ‘shakedown’ spanning Thursday and Friday.

Timo Glock gave the car it’s very first outing on Thursday after missing the last three races in 2009, he said: “It was a fantastic moment for myself and the whole team to see the VR-01 come alive. It’s great to be back in a racing car.”

Team-mate Lucas Di Grassi then took over on Friday, I’m starting to like the livery of the VR-01, but I still can’t get used to the aerodynamics…

The new team will get their first proper test in Jerez on Wednesday.

Force India also revealed their new VJM03, the VJM stands for the team principal Vijay Mallya, “Our goal is to continue on the same path of performance improvement that we had at the end of 2009,” said Vijay Mallya. “I don’t think I am being over-proud when I say 2009 was an exceptional year for us. The bare statistics say it all: one podium, one pole position, one fastest lap, a further five top 10 starts and 13 points.”

“We’ve learnt from our experiences and we’ve come out a better team: resilient, resourceful and now resurgent. I hope 2010 will see this great progress carrying forward. We’ve got one podium so far but I would hope that, this time next year, I’m talking about more points and more podiums. I’m confident we can get this, why not aim high?”

I think the new Force India will be one of the most consistent teams in 2010, whether they will finish in the top 5 in the World Championship though, is another matter.

Thanks to autosport.com, we get to see the first glimpse of the new Lotus F1 car.

I don’t like it, but I like that it’s not similar to anything we’ve seen in the last few years! We’ll get to see the first Lotus testing on the second test at Jerez apparently…

The latest team to unveil their 2010 Challenger is Red Bull, they keep the same driver line-up as 2009 with Vettel and Webber at the wheel, and the car is more of an ‘evolvement’ than a radical change according to Seb Vettel.

Mark Webber gets to test the new RB6 first then Vettel takes over on Friday.

And finally, more politics go on even in winter testing…Jean Todt begins by saying all the new teams can miss the first three races in the season to give them more chance of even turning up – bad mistake by Stefan GP then? Shipping all their stuff all the way to Bahrain without even a slot on the grid? Then to find out that Jean Todt then says that ANY teams can miss ANY race in the season! 

But now the (F) errari (I) nternational (A) ssistance say that you can’t miss any races??? I thought Todt WAS the FIA?

Testing reports to come in the next few days….

Testing at Valencia – Day 3

The final day of testing at Valencia. Schumacher, Button and Alonso were the biggest names on Wednesday. McLaren had a successful day over Monday and Tuesday, and look to introduce Jenson into the team. Schumacher settles into the Mercedes GP team in his first full day of testing. And Alonso had his first go in the new F10.

Fernando Alonso had a successful day in the F10, as he posts the fastest time for Ferrari, their third fastest in a row. This proves that the Ferrari is definitely quick, even though the fuel loads tell a different story. With his new blue helmet, Alonso attracted a crowd of thousands of Spanish fans, and he didn’t disappoint. The Spaniard did 127 laps and set the fastest time of 1:11.470

GP2 Graduate, Vitaly Petrov, made his debut in a F1 car on Wednesday, and performed quite well. “I really enjoyed my first day in the car and everything went well,” said the 25 year-old. “The car is very impressive compared with a GP2 car and I enjoyed experiencing the power and braking performance. After about 30 laps I was starting to feel comfortable and understanding the limits of the car. It was also my first chance to work with my engineers and so far everything is going really well so I’m happy with the day.” Vitaly made 75 Laps and set a best time of 1:13.097.

19 year old Jaime Alguersuari, tested the new STR5 for the first time, and came out impressively fast. The 7-time world champion, Michael Schumacher was only just over a tenth faster than the teenager. “It felt good to complete my first-ever Formula one test session, as last season I was never able to do any testing,” said the Spaniard. “I was able to concentrate on understanding the car, without having to think about it in terms of a race weekend. Personally, I felt much stronger in the car, as I have been training hard in the three months since I last drove in Abu Dhabi. Today was a positive experience and I’m looking forward now to next week in Jerez. It’s too early to say much about the car’s performance, but it felt competitive.” Jaime Alguersuari completed 97 Laps and clocked a speedy time of 1:12.576.

Talking of the ex-Ferrari man…Schumacher, in his first full day of testing, went well and finished in 3rd behind the Sauber and Ferrari of De La Rosa and Alonso. “I’m very happy to have been back in a Formula One car this week,” he said. “We had a short run on Monday and then almost a full day today which has been good. The experience has been very positive and the car is running smoothly with just a small hydraulic leak which stopped us slightly early. The main focus is on reliability and doing as many laps as we can so we’re not too worried about looking at the lap times right now. Michael “Schumi” posted the third quickest time of 1:12.438 and made 82 Laps

                                                                                                                                              After a day of watching Lewis in the cockpit of the MP4-25, it was Jenson’s turn in the new McLaren. It took a while to fit Button into the seat… “Oh boy, it sure was a long day!” said the current world champion. “We finished last night at about one in the morning trying to get the seat right in the car. Obviously you have it made in the mock-up, but it is always different when you get in the car and when you get out on the track. It is always a bit different from what you’re expecting it to be. We’ve been doing a lot to make me comfortable in the car, because initially it wasn’t quite where I wanted it to be. I was sitting quite high in the car. Today we’ve done a lot of work and it has been really useful. In a way it would have been nice to get some more testing done, set-up work and so on, but this test was always to get used to the environment inside the cockpit, get used to working with the team and to run through all the checks that you always do at the first test. So it has been very useful. We have had to change a lot within the car, but I fit well now, which obviously is good. I feel comfortable and have a good height in the car and that is always important for your own confidence.” 2009 world champion Jenson Button completed an equal amount to Schumacher but was slower with a time of 1:12.951, 82 Laps

The second GP2 graduate and former Williams test driver, Nico Hulkenberg, put in an impressive 126 laps, just 1 lap less than double world champion Alonso. “We worked on putting as much mileage as we could on the FW32 and achieved over 500 kilometres at the end of the day, bringing us to a test total of 1,213.5 kms,” said Williams’ technical director, Sam Michael. “We spent the three days working on set-up and long runs; the main systems on the car are proving reliable and are cooling sufficiently. There are the inevitable minor teething problems to resolve between now and Jerez, but it’s been good to get out on track and start work with our new engine partner, Cosworth.”

                                                                                                                                                        De La Rosa, keeps up the impressive form for Sauber, by posting the second fastest time for the third time in Sauber’s name. “We are quite satisfied with the first test,” explained BMW Sauber’s technical director, Willy Rampf. “As well as being reliable, it was important to see that the car responded to changes in the way we expected. The drivers’ comments on the car basically were in line with that, which also helps the team to work in the right direction.”

Unofficial Wednesday test times from Valencia:
1.   Fernando Alonso            Ferrari               1:11.470     127   Laps
2.   Pedro de la Rosa              Sauber               1:12.094      80    Laps
3.   Michael Schumacher    Mercedes GP    1:12.438      82    Laps
4.   Jaime Alguersuari          Toro Rosso       1:12.576     97    Laps
5.   Jenson Button                 McLaren             1:12.951      82    Laps
6.   Vitaly Petrov                   Renault               1:13.097     75    Laps
7.   Nico Hulkenberg            Williams             1:13.669     126   Laps

That’s it for testing until the 10th of February, when we return for some more testing action in Jerez.

For those who don’t have much time after reading my article, here is a highlights video from the BBC Sport Website:

Highlights – Valencia F1 Testing: http://ow.ly/14oEE

And for those who want all the information, here are all the interview videos, also from the BBC Sport Website:

Lewis Hamilton: http://ow.ly/14oM6

Michael Schumacher: http://ow.ly/14oO3

Felipe Massa:  http://ow.ly/14oOH

Pedro De La Rosa: http://ow.ly/14oPf

Jenson Button: http://ow.ly/14oPC

Ross Brawn: http://ow.ly/14oSQ

Rubens Barrichello: http://ow.ly/14oTQ

Testing in Valencia – Day 2

Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Rubens Barrichello were the big names for Day 2 of testing in Valencia. Yet another dry day for the teams to capitalize on, Ferrari and Sauber were the best of the rest for the second day in a row. Felipe had his second day in the new Ferrari F10, and went fastest of the day again. While Kamui Kobayashi had his first go in the Sauber C29, and followed up his team-mate’s work and finished in second.

                                                                                                                                                    Lewis Hamilton had his first day in the new MP4-25, “Obviously, it’s been a couple of months, and it feels fantastic to get back into the car for the first time and feel something different, it’s really nice.” When asked what the difference between the 2009 MP4-24 and the new MP4-25 is: “It’s much better then the ’09 car, but there’s still alot of work to do, I think it’s been very reliable, and I think it’s been a great first day.”

Lewis set a time of 1:12.256 and did 108 Laps

Felipe, on his second day of testing since his season ending crash at Hungary 2009, posted the quickest time. BBC Sport’s Sarah Holt asked Massa if his two fastest times over two days couldn’t’ really get any better, and Massa said: “No, for sure it can always be better, you always need to work to improve the car everyday.” “But I mean it is always good to post consistent times and also many laps, I think I made the most laps today.”

Felipe posted the fastest time of 1:11.722 and completed 124 Laps

Nico was beaten by his new team-mate Michael Schumacher on Monday, so he set out to improve on his time on Tuesday. Rosberg had a few problems with the seating of the Mercedes car, but overall he was happy. “I’m very pleased with our first full day of testing and we were really able to get into the programme and achieve some good work today,” said the German. “We successfully completed a race distance on the car’s second day of running and I’m quite happy with how the car felt on the longer runs with heavy fuel. It felt like the same car, just a little bit slower, but the balance was good.

“We’ve still got some work to do on my position in the car as I dropped down by 1.5 centimetres during the day which explains why the visibility got a little difficult towards the end but that’s something we can fix before the next test. Overall it’s been a positive start to our pre-season testing and I’m enjoying working with the team and feeling very comfortable here.”

  Nico posted a quick time of 1:12.899 and made 119 Laps

Kamui Kobayashi set the second fastest time behind Massa on Tuesday. “It was definitely a good day,” said the 23 year-old. “We had no problems with the car and covered a lot of mileage. The car felt good. I enjoyed driving a lot and also working with the team. It was a difficult winter for everyone but they seem to have done a good job; I want to thank them for that. Now it is important to keep working hard for the remaining test opportunities.”
Kobayashi Posted the second fastest time of 1:12.056 and made 96 Laps

With only one more day in the three day test at Valencia, Ferrari are on top with Sauber in second. But there is still the issue of fuel loads… Michael Schumacher, Jenson Button, Vitaly Petrov, Fernando Alonso, Pedro De La Rosa, Jaime Alguersuari and Nico Hulkenberg all tested on Day 3 – post to follow.

Unofficial Tuesday test times from Valencia:
1. Felipe Massa               Ferrari                1:11.722   124    Laps
2. Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber                1:12.056     96    Laps
3. Lewis Hamilton         McLaren            1:12.256    108   Laps
4. Robert Kubica            Renault             1:12.426    119    Laps
5. Nico Rosberg             Mercedes GP   1:12.899    119    Laps
6. Rubens Barrichello Williams             1:13.377   102   Laps
7. Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso      1:13.823    107   Laps

Renault, Sauber And Virgin F1 Launch Their 2010 Challengers: The R30, The C29 And The VR-01

The three final big launches, (Mercedes GP, Toro Rosso and Williams all “Launched” their cars on the 1st day of testing, but it was only small and not much to write about…I’ll post pictures though) and Pre-Season testing day 1 will be topics of this post…

Ok, for the new Renault R30, there isn’t much difference to talk about on the outside. The front wing is more detailed but compared to the McLaren and Ferrari, it’s just not that different.

Well, of course the livery is radically changed, below is a picture of the old Renault in 1980. So, they have reverted to their old colour scheme. But the 2010 livery is more wasp like.

Renault have finally announced that Vitaly “Rocket” Petrov, will be driving the No.2 car in 2010. Vitaly has been racing in GP2 since 2006 and in 2009 finished 2nd behind new Williams driver Nico Hulkenberg.

As for Sauber, their new car, the C29 has many changes.

Just like the McLaren MP4-25, the C29 is elongated, sports the shark fin, and and has the higher nose.

In my opinion the livery should be re-designed. (Don’t ask me how it should be though!)  Peter Sauber has said that there should be more sponsor stickers later on.

Ex-McLaren test driver Pedro De La Rosa, says: “At last I can feel like a proper racing driver again. I’ve really missed the competition out on the track. At the same time, though, I’ve learned a lot technically and on the systems side, and now I want to bring that knowledge to the team.”

Virgin F1 also launched their VR-01 on Wednesday. (The 3rd day of testing)

Here is a video of the launch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CTT8qEr6fI 

The livery just had to be luminous orange/red didn’t it? Just like Midland and Spyker of 2006 and 2007. To me the aerodynamics looks just like the 2000 Arrows…and I’m not so sure how fast it’s gonna go…it has none of the complex stuff like McLaren/Ferrari/Sauber.

We’ll see by 14th of March won’t we?

As for Pre-Season testing, on Monday, the likes of Rosberg, Barrichello, Schumacher, Paffett, Massa and Kubica all took to the track with their new cars.

Buemi also tried out the new STR5, which is the new 2010 Toro Rosso.

The STR5 is the third team to sport the shark fin this year. Buemi ended up 7th out of 8 drivers with 1:14.762. But he could only do 18 Laps
because of a gearbox problem.

Williams also unveiled their new FW32 for the first time.

Rubens Barrichello was in the seat for day 1 and day 2, Williams have a flat wide nose, and no shark fin…Rubens made 75 Laps with a time of 1:14.449 and ended up 6th out of 8, just ahead of Buemi.

Mercedes GP launched their livery earlier on in the week, but on day 1 of testing they revealed the new Wo1. Nico and Michael took turns in the new car but Schumi beat Nico to it in 3rd with Nico in 4th. Schumi made 40 Laps  and clocked 1:12.947, 
Nico made 39 Laps and clocked 1:13.543.

McLaren were also in Valencia with their test driver Gary Paffett in the seat.

Gary had the opportunity to have first dibs on the MP4-25.

The Brit ended up in 5th, just behind the two Mercedes cars. Gary made 86 Laps and clocked a best time of 1:13.846.

Ferrari are on quick form as Felipe tops the timing sheet on Day 1.

Massa, who returned to an up-to-date F1 car for the first time since his crash in 2009, posted the fastest time of 1:12.574 and made the most laps of the circuit, which was 102.

Although we can’t tell much from the times as we don’t know the fuel loads, Renault seemed pretty slow all day with Kubica in the cockpit.

Robert has changed his helmet design for the new Renault livery. The Pole came 5th, made 69 Laps and clocked a slow time of 1:15.000.

Sauber were in good form, with De La Rosa in the driving seat for Day 1, he managed to set the 2nd quickest time of the day behind the Ferrari of Massa and ahead of the two Mercedes. Pedro made 74 Laps and clocked a best time of 1:12.784.

Unofficial Monday test times from Valencia:
1. Felipe Massa                    Ferrari                 1:12.574     102 Laps
2. Pedro de la Rosa            Sauber                  1:12.784      74  Laps
3. Michael Schumacher   Mercedes GP      1:12.947      40  Laps
4. Nico Rosberg                  Mercedes GP      1:13.543       39  Laps
5. Gary Paffett                      McLaren              1:13.846       86  Laps
6. Rubens Barrichello       Williams               1:14.449       75  Laps
7. Sebastien Buemi             Toro Rosso         1:14.762       18  Laps
8. Robert Kubica                 Renault                1:15.000       69  Laps

Day 2 and 3 are to follow tomorrow with Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, Rubens Barrichello, Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Buemi, Kobayashi and Kubica on Day 2 and Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher, Jaime Alguersuari, De La Rosa and Petrov on Day 3…

McLaren Launch Their 2010 Challenger: The MP4-25

On Friday, McLaren lifted the cover off of their MP4-25. Ferrari were the first to unveil their 2010 car, with McLaren, Sauber and Renault following…this post is on the launch of the MP4-25.

The MP4-25 carries the No.1 following the arrival of Jenson Button, which then means his fellow Brit, Lewis Hamilton will carry the No.2 instead of No.5 if the grid were to stay as it were from 2009. 

After an awful start to the 2009 season, McLaren look to get off to a good start this time around. So, here are the first comparisons between the old MP4-24 and the new MP4-25…

So, as you look at the picture of the side view comparison, (All credit goes to www.f1fanatic.co.uk for the comparison pictures) the biggest change is the shark fin, and the whole length of the car is greatly increased. To put it simply, the MP4-24 was much less aggressive than the new MP4-25, the 2009 car is more curvy and small, whereas the 2010 car is more straight and sharp.

On the front comparison, you can see that the rear wing is quite a bit higher than the 2009 car. The nose cone is higher, and the front wing is much more intricate.

And the overhead comparison, reinforces the length of the new car, as you can see; the side pods are longer to accommodate the larger fuel tank, and the gap between the drivers cockpit and the nose cone is also elongated.

The 2010 season will be the first to have two world champions in the same line-up since 1989 , when McLaren had Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, and the first time ever in F1 history to have the two most recent champions driving for the same team.

“I’ve seen just  how much effort and attention has gone into making this car what it is,” said Hamilton. “we’ve been pushing like crazy to find the performance and the result is something that looks very special and very uncompromising. Both Jenson and I are world champions, and we both want to add to the team’s incredible winning legacy.”

“I think a strong driver line-up will be very important this year as there are a lot of very competitive teams and drivers- and the stronger we can be, the better chance we will have of winning races. We all understand that. Obviously, I want to win the drivers’ world championship, that’s clear. But, just as important, I want to help the team win the constructors’ world championship. I think it’s set to be a great year for Formula 1- it should be brilliant.”

Jenson Button will be racing his debut season for McLaren, after his 7 year stint at BAR/Honda/Brawn GP.“I’m incredibly proud to be standing here today knowing I’ll be carrying the number one for the whole season: that’s a great responsibility but also a great honour,” said Button. “It’s something I’m relishing. From the very first day of testing, I’ll be working with the team to learn about the car and to develop it ahead of the first race. I’ve said it before: the pace of development in those opening tests could well determine the outcome of the championship.”

After the 2007 saga between a certain Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, McLaren are very keen to make sure that Button-Hamilton combination will run much more smoothly…

“For us, it’s so important to work together as a team or you’re not going to get a British world champion,” said Button.

“We have so much experience, we have both been in different situations. You will see at the end of the year who has done the best job over 19 races, but there is no point thinking about the now.”

 

Hamilton added: “In 2007 we didn’t work together well enough, in some cases we didn’t work together for the team.”

“Of course we understand we want to beat each other but we want to get to the end of the year with the team winning the constructors’ championship and one of us winning the drivers’ championship. If we understand that, hopefully it will be a lot better.”

Renault and Sauber’s launches to follow as well as the report of Pre-Season testing Day 1…

Ferrari Launch their 2010 Challenger: The F10

As the season comes ever closer, the teams are beginning to unwrap their art works that they have been creating since the middle of the 2009 season for some! And as I write this, there are only 39 Days 12 Hrs and 12 Mins until Friday Practice 1 in Bahrain goes green. But this particular post is focused on the new Ferrari F10. Ferrari’s new driver, Alonso says he is very hopeful to win the crown this year, but you would say that wouldn’t you?

Ferrari were the first to “officially” unveil their new car on Thursday (Mercedes GP Launched their new livery earlier in the week, but on the old Brawn car…)  and McLaren did the next day, with Sauber and Renault launching their cars today.

Well, if you look at the pictures below, the first big change you can see to the livery is the white branding of Santander mainly under the side pods, front and rear wings. 

Santander now sponsor McLaren and Ferrari in 2010. This replaces the “Bar-Code” style branding of Marlboro.

Apart from that, there’s not much change to the livery. But the aerodynamics are dramatically different. The side pods next to the driver are raised, and so is the nose cone.

The next big change you can see here (Apart from Alonso standing next to Massa) is the nose cone sticks out more; in a 2009 Red Bull style than the old Ferrari, but they have not gone with the Shark Fin that so many teams did in the last couple of years…

Felipe Massa, who had his season ending crash at Hungary said: “It is undoubtedly a great pleasure to be here to present another Ferrari,”.  “It is a special moment because last year was very difficult. I really feel that I want to work more than ever, so I really hope that this will be a very competitive car and that we will be fighting for the championship and that our red car, our Ferrari, will always be in pole position. We are really willing to do this and I am very happy to be here.”

Fernando Alonso, who is joining the Italian team from Renault said:    “This is my first presentation with Ferrari, and it means a lot to me,”.  “I’d like to thank the whole team because I know they have worked really hard over the last few months to create this dream, this new car. We are ready to take on this challenge. Felipe and I will be a very strong team and we hope that we will make all the Ferrari supporters around the world very proud to see this car winning the championship.”

McLaren, Sauber and Renault’s launches to follow….

(Interview paragraph’s taken from Formula1.com http://ow.ly/12kkt )