Sort of testing news --Lotus completed their shakedown today and the car had several changes from the launch-spec. Different nose, front wing and a few other small differences: please log in to view this image
Yeah that was great, Nobody really had a period of dominance. Vettel would win two in a row then Webber then Hamilton then Alonso. Button grabbed two early wins aswell. Qualifying was great to watch to.
If any team were to dominate then I would prefer it to be Mclaren because if Red Bull dominates then we saw last year that Vettel will walk away with it, if Ferrari dominate then Alonso will walk away with it, but at least if Mclaren dominate then you will get a Button/Hamilton battle.
I'm with you on this one. I'm all for anything which makes F1 better and domination by one car for more than a season at a time tends take the edge off it. But I think what BrawnGP achieved was actually good for F1. I wouldn't really class myself as a fan of any one team, but I'd like to see McLaren redress what I perceive as disproportionate punishment some time back, from an important person who admits his favourite F1 team is, and always was; Ferrari… Yes. I am pleased to see that people are already beginning to see the 2010 season as an all-time classic. It was. And anyone who witnessed its unfolding was privileged to have witnessed it. Yep. A real classic. And with so many genuine contenders at the end, it is unlikely to be repeated for many many years.
If the FIA want to have another entertaining season it would help if they allowed the leaders to close up together again and give us a couple of years without any more drastic rule changes. But then Bernie will be forever looking for the quick fix won't he.
Quite warm in Jerez. I bet Merc were hoping they'd get the Arctic conditions we've got right now to scupper the other teams' testing. Good to see you posting more again Genji. As a Vettel fan if anyone's going to dominate I hope it's him again. I'd rather have another classic season with him clinching it at the last race though. Even as a Vettel fan I found last season boring towards the end and I've been looking forward to this season for about five months as a result. I think if you really want to see how good he is it would be with a car that's just off the pace, so the pressure to win is still there but with a special effort required to win. If McLaren were dominant it would take the pressure of Vettel not being in the heat of a title race. Edit: Took me ages to find this thread by the way. Started to wonder if I'd dreamt it.
But we have seen Hamilton, Button & Alonso win and have great races with a car that was no where near the class of Red Bull. Vettel has had the best car for 2 years and has won 2 championships.
Not official but some cars were out today: [TABLE] [TR="bgcolor: #ffffff"] [TD="align: right"]1. [/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD]Kimi Raikkonen [/TD] [TD]Lotus [/TD] [TD]E20 [/TD] [TD]1:22.504 [/TD] [TD="align: right"][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD="align: right"]21 [/TD] [TD][/TD] [/TR] [TR="bgcolor: #f0f0f0"] [TD="align: right"]2. [/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD]Kamui Kobayashi [/TD] [TD] Sauber[/TD] [TD]C31 [/TD] [TD]1:24.407 [/TD] [TD="align: right"]+ 1.903 [/TD] [TD="width: 10"][/TD] [TD="align: right"]21 [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]
Wonder what I'll have on in the background in work tomorrow. God bless Autosport and their live text Also a bit of a chance for some sneaky forum promotion
From last year's Jerez test, the fastest lap of each driver (if anyone wants to compare to this years times): [table="width: 300"] [tr] [td]Driver[/td] [td]Team[/td] [td]Best Lap[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Barrichello[/td] [td]Williams[/td] [td]1:19.832[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Schumacher[/td] [td]Mercedes[/td] [td]1:20.352[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Heidfeld[/td] [td]Renault[/td] [td]1:20.361[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Massa[/td] [td]Ferrari[/td] [td]1:20.413[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Alonso[/td] [td]Ferrari[/td] [td]1:20.493[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Kobayashi[/td] [td]Sauber[/td] [td]1:20.601[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Button[/td] [td]McLaren[/td] [td]1:21.009[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Hamilton[/td] [td]McLaren[/td] [td]1:21.099[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Buemi[/td] [td]Toro Rosso[/td] [td]1:21.213[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Alguersuari[/td] [td]Toro Rosso[/td] [td]1:21.214[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Senna[/td] [td]Renault[/td] [td]1:21.400[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Perez[/td] [td]Sauber[/td] [td]1:21.483[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Webber[/td] [td]Red Bull[/td] [td]1:21.522[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Vettel[/td] [td]Red Bull[/td] [td]1:21.574[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Kovalainen[/td] [td]Team Lotus[/td] [td]1:21.632[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Ricciardo[/td] [td]Toro Rosso[/td] [td]1:21.755[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Sutil[/td] [td]Force India[/td] [td]1:21.780[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Rosberg[/td] [td]Mercedes[/td] [td]1:22.103[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Glock[/td] [td]Virgin[/td] [td]1:22.208[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Petrov[/td] [td]Renault[/td] [td]1:22.493[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Maldonado[/td] [td]Williams[/td] [td]1:22.591[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Di Resta[/td] [td]Force India[/td] [td]1:22.945[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]D'Ambrosio[/td] [td]Virgin[/td] [td]1:22.985[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Trulli[/td] [td]Team Lotus[/td] [td]1:23.216[/td] [/tr] [/table] Amazing when you look back at these times in hindsight and see how much Red Bull were sandbagging. Testing starts 8am GMT tomorrow.
With the team mates times so close for most of them it is suspiciously engineered. Always have to look at the tests with the fact thats its all fake in mind sadly.
Yes, looking at last year's times reminds me of what I've been thinking all day... Red Bull always play it very cool pre-season: they don't show off, no fanfare, no hype, no killer lap times... Softly, softly...Then suddenly, come quali at the first race they annihilate all opposition. "Suspiciously engineered" indeed!
