It's probably a flight of fancy but yeah - as an example if those cables were exerting a massive amount of tension to pull the wing into a position level with the reference plane against its natural inclination to point downwards at the front. Of course, you'd expect to have seen some evidence of that in various accidents over the past year or two but maybe they've just never had one strong enough and still delicate enough to break the tension without ripping off the wing. Other people have speculated, however, that it's a test-only spec wing designed to simulate the, shall we say, 'velocity-responsive' front wing at lower speeds for aero evaluation.
I just keep hoping most of the cars are roughly equal (silly I know) and that we get lots of different teams on the podiums. I dread RB disappearing off again.
Me too, but I have a feeling the top teams haven't put 3 laps worth of fuel in the car all testing, but just imagine if the lotus ride height adjustment was approved? I suspect it would've been another brawn 09
It looked to me earlier as though Mercedes were just starting to get on top of things but Schumacher's last run was on softs and, without overly punishing them on the first couple of laps, he lost 3½ seconds in ten laps.
Still reckon the ride height adjuster hid what they were really up to. EDIT: 15:12 Petrov is out on medium tyres. The Caterham hasn't been stunningly quick today, but it has been very consistent - only losing 0.5s in pace across a stint whatever tyre it has run. That's encouraging news for them...
@f1enigma adds more grist: ... and @laiaferrer's nose is still out of joint over Ferrari's decision not to give the media access to its drivers: Alonso gave an interview to Spanish football media but it touched on Ferrari's lack of performance. Perhaps they don't want him to talk because he wouldn't have nice things to say?
RB are packing up. I have a feeling now the Mclaren will be ahead of Red Bull come Aus. Ferrari im not sure about. If they can stabalise the car then it looks very quick and could be in contention. Lotus on the other hand are the other dark horse. They could have a great car and be a suprise winner this year or its been a big bluff.
Two different aerodynamic philosophies on view here: please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
I'm very hopeful of a closer title fight this year, then again what do we all know about testing and... teabagging. I think that Ferrari has significantly less drag than the McLaren, maybe a threat in a straight line.
It sounds like Ferrari have some speed, but they just can't unleash it. How long before they start to think that maybe that potential isn't there I wonder. I can't wait for Aus when we get to find out how fast they all really are.
Final times...<style type="text/css"> table.tableizer-table {border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;} .tableizer-table td {padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc;} .tableizer-table th {background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold;} </style> <table class="tableizer-table"> <tr class="tableizer-firstrow"><th>P</th><th>Driver</th><th>Team</th><th>Time</th><th>Laps</th></tr> <tr><td>1</td><td> Raikkonen</td><td>Lotus</td><td> 1m22.030s</td><td>121</td></tr> <tr><td>2</td><td> Alonso</td><td>Ferrari</td><td> 1m22.250s +0.220</td><td>115</td></tr> <tr><td>3</td><td> Senna</td><td>Williams</td><td> 1m22.296s +0.266</td><td>53</td></tr> <tr><td>4</td><td> Hulkenberg</td><td>Force India</td><td> 1m22.312s +0.282</td><td>101</td></tr> <tr><td>5</td><td> Kobayashi</td><td>Sauber</td><td> 1m22.386s +0.356</td><td>72</td></tr> <tr><td>6</td><td> Hamilton</td><td>McLaren</td><td> 1m22.430s +0.400</td><td>115</td></tr> <tr><td>7</td><td> Petrov</td><td>Caterham</td><td> 1m22.795s +0.765</td><td>101</td></tr> <tr><td>8</td><td> Schumacher</td><td>Mercedes</td><td> 1m22.939s +0.909</td><td>100</td></tr> <tr><td>9</td><td> Maldonado</td><td>Williams</td><td> 1m23.347s +1.317</td><td>48</td></tr> <tr><td>10</td><td> Ricciardo</td><td>Toro Rosso</td><td> 1m23.393s +1.363</td><td>100</td></tr> <tr><td>11</td><td> Vettel</td><td>Red Bull</td><td> 1m23.608s +1.578</td><td>23</td></tr></table>
Interesting cameo. He lost about 3½ seconds in six laps. Not sure if that means anything at all, but it's interesting in light of your earlier feeling. Some of those car launch threads might come into their own now with assessments of various teams' performances in testing... So, with no relevance at all to the sweepstakes, which will be based on 2011 finishing positions, what tiers would you guys organise the teams into following winter testing?
Teams that will definitely get podiums: Red Bull, McLaren and Lotus. Teams whose seasons could be brilliant or awful: Ferrari, Force India and Mercedes. The lower midfield: Sauber, Torro Rosso, Senna, Caterham. Back markers: Maldonado, HRT, Marussia. All contenders listed in the order I'd expect them to finish if the season started tomorrow. I would point out though that if Mercedes sort the tyres out they'll be a force to be reckoned with.
