Yes, but by "Originally posted by BBC", it means Benson, which means a Hamilton love-in. Impressed with Hulkenburg's pace today though, I'd love for that to be genuine. Benson does crack me up with the way he insists on comparing lap times, despite including a paragraph every time saying that lap times in testing mean nothing, using that as a justification for ignoring Hulkenburg's pace. Surely by the same logic his precious Hamilton's lap times mean nothing, and the article was never needed in the first place? -I know this should be in another thread, but never mind.
Nah, I think Benson got curious about the comments on his articles from Not606F1, had a look around here, and we've made him realise that he needs to up the standard. I expect a '2012: Hamilton set to dominate' article in the next few days now.
Just realised this is the whole test. Must be a pretty major issue, just as well they were one of the teams that completed the most laps in Jerez.
From the article, it sounds like the problem is a structural weakness which is only apparent at higher speeds. But as they've already worked out the problem and how to solve it, it sounds promising. Mercedes planned to miss a day at Jerez and were allowed a private test, so will Lotus be allowed to do the same, even if missing days at Barcelona wasn't intentional? It would seem harsh if they weren't.
Gary Anderson suspects an engine mount problem for Lotus. Also from Autosport's website, Ross Brawn believes Red Bull are still to the team to beat, while Vettel thinks McLaren are competitive.
I'm not, I hate Boullier and his team the dog. I do like Raikkonen, and I am definitely gutted for his future at that team.
Private test was the one at Silverstone? if so I bet certain parts on the car were being tested more than others ..
Does anyone know why the BBC didn't do live text for today's pre-season testing? They did live text for Jerez but seemed to have stopped doing it now...
Its time for the .... I was bored chart!!! please log in to view this image Upper points being the lap times whilst the lower are the number of laps
[table="width: 400"] [tr] [td]P[/td] [td]Driver[/td] [td]Team[/td] [td]Time[/td] [td]Laps[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]1[/td] [td]Hulkenburg[/td] [td]Force India[/td] [td]1.22.608[/td] [td]63[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]2[/td] [td]Perez[/td] [td]Sauber[/td] [td]1.22.648 +0.040[/td] [td]51[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]3[/td] [td]Vettel[/td] [td]Red Bull[/td] [td]1.22.891 +0.283[/td] [td]51[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]4[/td] [td]Ricciardo[/td] [td]Toro Rosso[/td] [td]1.23.639 +1.031[/td] [td]45[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]5[/td] [td]Alonso[/td] [td]Ferrari[/td] [td]1.23.640 +1.032[/td] [td]52[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]6[/td] [td]Hamilton[/td] [td]McLaren[/td] [td]1.24.040 +1.432[/td] [td]45[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]7[/td] [td]Rosberg[/td] [td]Mercedes[/td] [td]1.24.555 +1.947[/td] [td]75[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]8[/td] [td]Bottas[/td] [td]Williams[/td] [td]1.25.858 +3.250[/td] [td]69[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]9[/td] [td]Petrov[/td] [td]Caterham[/td] [td]1.26.605 +3.997[/td] [td]36[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]10[/td] [td]Pic[/td] [td]Marrusia[/td] [td]1.28.092 +5.484[/td] [td]47[/td] [/tr] [/table] btw what the hell is Bottas doing in the Williams? Makes little sense to me.
I know testing times don't mean a lot (hell, I've slated Benson for it enough), but I'm slightly worried by the size of the gap between Rosberg and Bottas. All the other main teams are within 2 seconds of each other, but as it stands Williams are 1.2 seconds slower still. I wonder if they'll end up as a back of the grid version of Mercedes last year, with a comfortable gap to Caterham and co, but nowhere near as fast as the midfield.
