Official: Testing Thread

Massa was also team mates with Schumacher

 

It's a shame he has driven with the greatest drivers on the planet, and gained next to nothing. Sad really.
Anyway testing over for today.
Schumacher top. 1:18:561 132 laps.

 

Yeah edit

Massa: Raikkonen, Alonso, Schumacher and Villeneuv

lol

 

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<table class="tableizer-table">
<tr class="tableizer-firstrow"><th>Pos </th><th>Driver </th><th>Team </th><th>Time </th><th>Laps</th></tr> <tr><td>1 </td><td> Schumacher</td><td>Mercedes</td><td> 1m18.561s</td><td>132</td></tr> <tr><td>2 </td><td> Webber</td><td>Red Bull</td><td> 1m19.184s +0.623</td><td>97</td></tr> <tr><td>3 </td><td> Ricciardo</td><td>Toro Rosso</td><td> 1m19.587s +1.026</td><td>100</td></tr> <tr><td>4 </td><td> Bianchi</td><td>Force India</td><td> 1m20.221s +1.660</td><td>46</td></tr> <tr><td>5 </td><td> Raikkonen</td><td>Lotus</td><td> 1m20.239s +1.678</td><td>117</td></tr> <tr><td>6 </td><td> Di Resta</td><td>Force India</td><td> 1m20.272s +1.711</td><td>69</td></tr> <tr><td>7 </td><td> Massa</td><td>Ferrari</td><td> 1m20.454s +1.893</td><td>95</td></tr> <tr><td>8 </td><td> Button</td><td>McLaren</td><td> 1m20.688s +2.127</td><td>85</td></tr> <tr><td>9 </td><td> Perez</td><td>Sauber</td><td> 1m20.711s +2.150</td><td>68</td></tr> <tr><td>10 </td><td> Maldonado</td><td>Williams</td><td> 1m21.197s +2.636</td><td>97</td></tr> <tr><td>11 </td><td> Kovalainen</td><td>Caterham</td><td> 1m21.518s +2.957</td><td>139</td></tr> <tr><td>12 </td><td> De la Rosa</td><td>HRT</td><td> 1m22.128s +3.567</td><td>64</td></tr></table>

Few long runs in there, just need a breakdown of any long consistent times.

 

69 laps was race distance last time races were held at Jerez. Impressive from Kovalainen and co to be running double race distances. Whilst they may not have been right on it all the time, it goes to show just how fit these drivers are.

 

Im quite impressed by the HRT pace in this test. hopefully they will turn up with a half decent car for the next test

 

Out of interest, we've seen that the pace of testing this year is faster than last years, but are this years cars faster than those that finished the 2011 season? Clearly the Mercedes is quick, but will that still be the case when they launch their new car? Equally, will HRT be closer to the rest of the field, or still cast adrift.

 

Speaking after his second day of running at Jerez in Spain on Wednesday, where he completed 95 laps to set the seventh best overall time, Massa admitted that there was a long road ahead for his Maranello-based outfit.

When asked if he had experienced any unwelcome surprises during testing, Massa said:

Massa said that the fact Ferrari has embarked on such a different philosophy with its car meant that there was likely to be a pretty intense testing plan for the team over the next few weeks.

From Autosport

A cagey interview from Massa at best. We all know testing is just testing but are there already underlying issues at Ferrari?

 

Thats an interesting interview, he was nowhere near as enthusiastic about the new car as others have been. Button, Kovalainen and Di Resta have all been full of praise for their new cars.

 

Is this a sign of another poor car by Ferrari?

 

Playing mind games.

 

I won't believe the pace of any car until we see the end of the first round of pit stops in the first race. I will say that I don't expect HRT to be the worst car next year, I think it'll be faster than the marussia.

 

I hope you're right. For all their ongoing woes you can't deny HRT's passion or their tenacity to survive; those aren't impressions I've ever felt from the Virgin/Marussia camp.

 

http://peterwindsor.com/2012/02/08/notes-from-jerez-testing/

 

If Branson wanted to get into F1 seriously, he'd have bought the Brawn team. That said, I think there's a fair chance that Marussia could do what Force India have (although definitely not as quickly).

Hats off to Hispania for their tenacity, and I agree they're not shoe-ins for the wooden spoon, but I'm pretty sure they'll be gone within five years.

 

I reckon Force India might be able to run Mercedes and Lotus close this year, though that's just a guess.

Caterham's mileage implies they aren't showing their true pace yet. I highly doubt Kovi would enjoy doing 139 quali laps in a row

 

Encouraging stuff

 

Will Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel push the cars more tomorrow I wonder. They all seem to be holding back a fair bit at them moment and McLaren and Red Bull at least are making positive noises about their platforms. Usually the first test is about understanding the car and then the following tests are about building on that, I just want to know who the fastest is

 

Just checked the Not606 twitter account and I see we have a certain person following....

 

What is this account?