The BBC reported that Michael Schumacher completed an entire race simulation, with three pit stops: "We had a good day and it is certainly satisfying to finish a race distance with all of the systems operational and to have everything working fine," said Schumacher, who ran 68 laps during the race simulation. You can see his lap times on this site: http://www.msfree.gr/includes/livelaps.php?name=SCHUMACHER From lap 26 onwards, he starts his race simulations. What's interesting is that his lap times don't have a massive drop of at the start of the sim - and the super soft tyres lose about 1.5 seconds between lap one and two. In his first stint the lap times start in the 1:30's, and the times get slower each lap, and it looks like Mercedes were using the medium or soft tyre (although we don't know this for sure). Based on the lap times, it's definitely not the super softs, and Mercedes would have real problems if they were using the hard tyre. As far as I'm aware, the Q3 tyres rules still exists, so Mercedes aren't planning to qualify on super soft tyres? The second stint starts in the 1:31's - and the lap times are far more consistent then the earlier stint. Also he has less fuel in the car at this point, but the lap times start off slower than at the start of the race - all of this suggesting that MS was on the hard tyre on this point, meaning that Mercedes were probably running the soft/hard compounds for this simulation. The next stint shows a very high level of consistency, just like the earlier one - suggesting he was using hard tyres again. I am very intrigued to see Mercedes pitting three times, when Pirelli made it clear that their aim was for two pit stops. Based on the lap times, it seemed necessary to pit three times, but I don't think this means Mercedes have tyre problems - we will have to see what others do in next few days. With the loss of the double diffuser and increased minimum weight, it is obvious that the 2011 cars aren't going to be as quick as the 2010 cars. Schumacher's fastest lap in this simulation was a 1:27.569, while in 2010, the fastest lap of the race was Lewis Hamilton's 1:24.357. As no other teams have done race simulations, it would be stupid to make any judgements about the pace of the Mercedes. So far, I don't think Mercedes have anything to worry about. Tomorrow the track will have rubbered in quite a lot, so lap times would be quicker. If we see the McLaren/Ferrari/Red Bull/Renault doing a race sim with slower lap times then Mercedes have done today, then it is fair to say that Mercedes are comfortably quicker.
It's obvious, as you said the cars of this year will be considerably slower, can't wait until... "well Australia".
I think Mercedes are looking good at the moment - and if the other teams are quicker in their simulations, track condtions will be the reason - so things looking good for MS and Merc at the moment.
As for tyre compounds how long do you think the: Super Softs will last? Softs will last? Medium will last? Hard will last? based on the testing in Valencia, Jerez and Barcelona so far.
From what i've heard, the super softs are effective for about 2 laps and then there is a massive drop off. Alonso said that he made the hard tyres last about 40 laps, but they were not all in one go.
