On Marks last stint he was on average a second a lap faster than Grosjean even with the interruptions.
So Button getting excuses in again early about car set-up again? If McLaren are lost with the new car, Button is not the man to get them out as his set-up ruts can last quite a long time!
Jenson's setups are pretty complementary to himself. When they are right they are great for him, the slightest offset and it's not the car for him....
I've always said he will struggle with setup. This is why I still think Perez will beat him this year.
Pressure is Perez's only problem. But the Mexican is good when the car isn't so great, in my opinion he showed that late on in 2011 when the Sauber wasn't that good.
Driver interviews: Red Bull Mark Webber: "We had a pretty good run today, we're learning plenty, so a positive outing for us. Overall the car ran smoothly and once again we amassed a huge amount of data for the guys back at the factory to go through. We'd like to get a bit more mileage tomorrow in the dry, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen, it looks like it will be wet. "As usual at tests, the question of the pecking order comes up all the time but, honestly, I have no idea. There are a few quick cars out there, but in winter testing it's so hard to say if anyone's better than anyone else, especially with the tyres going off the way they are - you're losing four or five seconds over the course of a stint, so figuring out who's doing what is pretty difficult. All we can do is keep pushing, keep developing and keep our eyes fixed on the first race." McLaren Jenson Button: "It's going to be wet tomorrow so it is going to be tricky, and for me, I don't feel that I have had enough laps in the car and I think it is the same for Checo as well. "We are doing a lot of work to understand the car, in terms of the aerodynamics - you are doing a lot of brake work in the morning and you lose a lot of time doing that - but it is important for us if it helps us throughout the year to understand the car and the direction. "But it does limit the testing and I am really looking forward to a good test next week in Barcelona as I don't feel that we have been able to do enough to really understand the car and where we are with the car." Lotus Romain Grosjean: "I think I'm ready for a sleep after so many laps in the car! It's good to see reliability today to add to the pace we've already seen in the car. We're still at an early stage of development so it's really promising to see where we are. "It was difficult out on track as temperatures were so low, but we've gained a lot of useful data. The 2013 tyres certainly feel different from last year's but already we're starting to understand them. I hope it's dry tomorrow so we can get some more laps under our belt." Mercedes Nico Rosberg: "We didn't have a perfect morning and it was tough out there with the low temperatures. They were causing a lot of tyre graining, which made it difficult to do much useful testing. It was a few degrees warmer after the break and that gave a completely different picture. "In general, I'm pleased with what we've achieved this week - I did a lot of mileage and the team has done a good job over the winter. I feel more comfortable in the car and the balance is quite good, but we still need to work in a number of areas. That's why I'm looking forward to testing next week and to see what progress we can make." Sauber Nico Hulkenberg: "It was a positive day. We got a lot of testing done with just minor problems. I ran the soft tyres in the morning here in Barcelona for the first time to get a feeling for those, which was interesting. The car is performing pretty well, and I'm as happy as I can be." F1 on Sky Sports in 2013 Sky Sports F1 is the only place to watch every grand prix live in 2013. Our dedicated F1 channel will broadcast every race, qualifying and practice session live, along with highlights shows, analysis and even more coverage via the Red Button. Find out more at sky.com Williams Pastor Maldonado: "It was a good morning for me. The track was still very cold when we did our first run on new tyres, but the time still looked competitive. We then moved into a race simulation and our race pace looks consistent. We completed our full programme without issue which is positive. The FW35 feels very comfortable to drive so I'm feeling happy." Valtteri Bottas: "We started the afternoon with some shorter runs but we still haven't seen the full potential of the FW35. I have been able to improve some things in my driving since yesterday, but there are still things I can work on compared to Pastor. We then completed a race simulation. Unfortunately it was cut a little short due to the red flag at the end, but we were still able to try all the tyre compounds and I was able to get a good feeling for how the tyres behave. Overall, the car feels really nice on the longer runs, which is promising." Toro Rosso Jean-Eric Vergne: "We did a solid day's work on a track that is definitely more demanding than Jerez and that gives you a better picture of what your car can do. We did a really good job with a lot of laps, so I am very happy about that. "Everything we test seems to give us more tools to work with, for when the time comes to start looking for the best set-up and balance and getting performance out of the car. I'd say the car shows excellent potential, which we will begin to exploit at the next test." Caterham Giedo van der Garde: "We've had a pretty productive day and completing 93 laps meant we were able to run through the whole plan we'd set out for today. We had a technical issue in the afternoon which meant we were running without KERS for the whole session after lunch but despite that we were still able to try a number of different setups that give us more to work on tomorrow and several options to work through at the next test. "One area we are focusing on is improving the rear stability of the car. It definitely has a sharper front end than the 2012 car but we need to take a more detailed look at that tonight and, assuming the rain stays away tomorrow, we can keep working on that on day four of this test."
It's a question I've frequently wondered too. Each team will have someone analysing every single lap time, working out what fuel loads people must have had, and whether they were pushing, etc, so I think teams have a reasonable idea. On top of that, no team is going to turn around and say "They don't look quick, let's ignore their car because we can't possibly learn from it". I'd imagine the Marussia is analysed nearly as much as the Red Bull is. The only thing I can think of is that maybe it disguises how much an individual aero device is having an impact. So if the passive DRS systems could offer an awful lot of time, deliberately running a little slower could mask just how effective they are.
It is an evolution from last years, what can they not understand. Unless he is bluffing like someone mentioned before.
Mark Webber said there was room for improvement after his first race simulation in the Red Bull RB9 at Barcelona on Thursday, but on the whole was happy with his first day back in the car since Jerez. Webber and Red Bull resisted the temptation to set quick laps on the soft tyres and after some set-up work in the morning set about a race simulation in the afternoon. The end of the run was interrupted by a red flag, but Webber said it was good to put some extra mileage on the RB9. "Yeah, it was pretty good, we're learning plenty but overall a pretty positive day for us," he said. "We'd certainly like to have a bit more mileage tomorrow but that looks like it isn't going to happen, it looks like it will be wet, but overall I think the car ran pretty smoothly. "[There were] a few little things here and there but in general, again, a huge amount of data for us to go through and it was not a bad race sim. I'd say we could do better with another attempt, but that's the way it is and it's the same for everybody, so a positive day for us." He said Red Bull had several stages of improvements planned over the next test and ahead of Melbourne. Well, like we've always said this is race 21 from last year so we just keep moving along with the car. In terms of from Jerez to here, yeah, it's a different track all together... the tyres are behaving very differently to Jerez and we will have to keep pushing in terms of development. "We had some stuff here, we'll have to have some more stuff next week and we'll have to have some more stuff for Melbourne. That's the way it is, that's the way Formula One is... we have to keep focussing on ourselves, keep improving the car and our job is not to make the development of the car slower, our job is to make the development of the car quicker, so that's what we'll try and do in the coming weeks and the coming races." He added that it was still too early to get a clear reading of the pecking order. "Absolutely no idea. I think that there's a few quick cars out there, I think we're going okay but certainly it's so hard to read in testing, it's impossible especially with the tyres going off as much as they are. You're losing four or five seconds over the course of a stint like we do with the Pirellis and also it's more difficult to read who's doing what, so if you guys can't guess what's happening, we don't have any idea either."
Would of been interesting to see Mark try out a qualifying lap after all the data Seb got the day before.
BONG! Public outraged as man walks dog. BONG! New study in to the obsessive nature of sports fans finds they just need a girl. BONG! Man arrested for indecent-exposure in public toilet possessed naked photos of Christian Horner.
Hopefully its a bluff from Button but he did spend a fair portion of 2012 not understanding the car. I lost count of the times he had p3 to quali "issues"
BONG! Fan found to be stalking Silver by attacking everything he posts and says I need a girl? BONG! Silver reveals he isn't that type of guy, "thanks but no thanks!" he says to the stalker though he is flattered. BONG! Stalker gets annoyed by enthusiastic fans that are not as a depressed as he is, scientists suggest he is just an emo...
Hard to not stalk you...your post rate is higher than my heart rate. It's like trying to avoid clipboards in a shopping precinct.
