Official 2011 Testing Thread

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El_Bando said:
Massa has set the fastest time today with a margin over his rivals yet the BBC have gone with the headline of 'Lewis Hamilton tries out new McLaren in Jerez F1 test'. Its a bit ignorent of the fact that not all its readers are fans of Lewis. bit of a biased point of view <doh><doh><doh>
Click to expand...

Not really El_Bando,it's the BBC.

Times don't really mean jack **** either, at this stage of the proceedings.

Qualifying in Bahrain will give us a true picture of the pecking order. <ok>
 
The headline should be 'Massa goes fastest as Lewis rolls out new McLaren' or something like that. Not tottally ignoring the fact Massa was top. They have been headlining who was fastest on other testing days.
 
Current times:
1 Schumacher Mercedes 1m20.352s
2 Massa Ferrari 1m20.413s +0.061
3 Webber Red Bull 1m21.613s +1.261
4 Button McLaren 1m21.614s +1.262
5 Perez Sauber 1m22.256s +1.904
6 Alguersuari Toro Rosso 1m22.556s +2.204
7 Maldonado Williams 1m22.591s +2.239
8 Sutil Force India 1m22.895s +2.543
9 Trulli Lotus 1m23.216s +2.864
10 Petrov Renault 1m23.671s +3.319
 
I think the general feeling is that the Ferrari is the kindest on it's tyres, despite Alonso being the most critical about tyre degradation. Button seems to love the tyres and hope that, like Massa, he will not have problems generating heat into the tyres for qualifying.
 
Afternoon timings:

1. Schumacher Mercedes GP W02 1:20.352 79 Laps
2. Massa Ferrari F150th 1:20.413 + 0.061 66 Laps
3. Alguersuari Toro Rosso STR6 1:21.214 + 0.862 41 Laps
4. Button McLaren MP4-26 1:21.543 + 1.191 32 Laps
5. Webber Red Bull Racing RB7 1:21.613 + 1.261 65 Laps
6. Perez Sauber C30 1:21.857 + 1.505 48 Laps
7. Sutil Force India VJM-04 1:22.066 + 1.714 47 Laps
8. Petrov Lotus Renault GP R31 1:22.493 + 2.141 49 Laps
9. Maldonado Williams FW33 1:22.591 + 2.239 31 Laps
10. Trulli Lotus F1 T128 1:23.216 + 2.864 40 Laps
11. Glock Virgin Racing MVR-02 1:23.808 + 3.456 34 Laps
 
Final times for the day

1. Schumacher Mercedes GP W02 1:20.352 112 laps
2. Massa Ferrari F150th 1:20.413 + 0.061 116 laps
3. Button McLaren MP4-26 1:21.009 + 0.657 69 laps
4. Alguersuari Toro Rosso STR6 1:21.214 + 0.862 72 laps
5. Webber Red Bull Racing RB7 1:21.613 + 1.261 113 laps
6. Sutil Force India VJM-04 1:21.780 + 1.428 73 laps
7. Perez Sauber C30 1:21.857 + 1.505 56 laps
8. Glock Virgin Racing MVR-02 1:22.208 + 1.856 57 laps
9. Petrov Lotus Renault GP R31 1:22.493 + 2.141 65 laps
10. Maldonado Williams FW33 1:22.591 + 2.239 37 laps
11. Trulli Lotus F1 T128 1:23.216 + 2.864 40 laps
 
Neither McLaren seems to have opened up the potential of the car if they're to be believed and are focusing on reliability. In which case, I feel we wont see them really open the taps until first qualifying session.

However Schumi seems happier today, which I really dont like the thought of, as a confident schumi seems to be one who had the ability to dominate, and I want an open season this season!
 
1. Alonso Ferrari F150th 1:20.493 49 Laps
2. Schumacher Mercedes GP W02 1:21.054 + 0.561 39 Laps
3. Kobayashi Sauber C30 1:21.242 + 0.749 37 Laps
4. Vettel Red Bull Racing RB7 1:21.574 + 1.081 61 Laps
5. Buemi Toro Rosso STR6 1:21.790 + 1.297 53 Laps
6. Heidfeld Lotus Renault GP R31 1:21.849 + 1.356 26 Laps
7. Hamilton McLaren MP4-26 1:22.057 + 1.564 16 Laps
8. Kovalainen Lotus F1 T128 1:22.793 + 2.300 37 Laps
9. di Resta Force India VJM-04 1:22.945 + 2.452 50 Laps
10. Barrichello Williams FW33 1:23.063 + 2.570 27 Laps
11. D'Ambrosio Virgin Racing MVR-02 1:25.471 + 4.978 45 Laps
 
Heifeld goes quickest with a 1m20.361 - He has not spun like Petrov did several times yesterday, and his lap time is over 3 seconds faster than what Petrov managed yesterday. IMO Nick Heidfeld is very underrated and I really hope that Renault can see his talent, and give him the seat.
 
Alonso has done three long runs and seems to be carrying a lot of fuel.

1st Run (16 laps):
2:05.9, 26.3, 26.3, 26.4, 26.3, 26.5, 26.4, 26.9, 26.8, 26.7, 30.0, 27.1, 27.4, 27.6, 27.8, 28.9

2nd Run (13 laps):
1:26.4, 26.4, 26.7, 26.5, 26.6, 26.7, 27.0, 27.5, 27.8, 27.7. 28.0, 28.8, 29.1

3rd Run (19 laps):
1:24.9, 25.1, 25.4, 25.6, 25.4, 25.4, 25.5, 25.8, 25.8, 25.8, 31.3, 26.5, 26.2, 26.3, 26.6, 26.7, 26.6, 28.2, 27.4

Autosport on Alonso's 1st run: "Ignoring Alonso's very slow first lap, they (Alonso and Schumacher) began with similar first laps. Then Alonso was able to stay in the 1m26s for nine laps. 11 laps in, the Ferrari was 1.1s slower than its quickest"

Autosport on Alonso's 2nd run: "10 laps into his run, Alonso's pace is in the mid-to-high 1m27s as his Pirellis begin to show signs of wear."

Autosport on Alonso's 3rd run: "Barring a couple of slower laps, Alonso's pace was generally in the mid 1m26s zone in the latter stages, so it looks like the Ferrari was working pretty well with that combination of tyres and fuel load."

Vettel is also currently on a long run, and a few seconds quicker than Alonso's . I will post about this when he pits.
 
Vettel's lap times are: 1:28.7, 21.9, 29.5, 27.7, 22.8, 22.8, 22.8, 22.8, 22.9, 23.0, 23.5, 22.9, 23.2, 23.5, 23.4, 23.4

Based on the tyre degradation, I think Vettel was on hard tyres - and a reasonable amount of fuel. Nick Heidfeld I suspect was on the super softs when he set his fastest lap time, based on the high degradation for that run:

1:22.4, 20.3, 22.2, 2.6, 22.4, 23.1, 23.9, 24.0, 25.3

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton has only done 30 laps, with his longest run being just 5 laps. I can understand low mileage on the first days and maybe the second day as well, but why have McLaren done such little running today?
 
Solid lap times from the top three,

MSC back into the mix and Heidfeld increasing his reputation infront of the other teams.
 
The third day of testing has finished, with Nick Heidfeld setting the fastest time of the day. I doubt it was a glory run - but this doesn't mean that Renault is quickest. I'm sure a lot of teams (including Renualt) could set much faster lap times if they wanted. The final lap times for the day are:

1. Heidfeld .............1m20.361s
2. Alonso ...............1m20.493s (+0.132)
3. Schumacher .......1m21.054s (+0.693)
4. Hamilton ............1m21.099s (+0.738)
5. Kobayashi ..........1m21.242s (+0.881)
6. Vettel ...............1m21.574s (+1.213)
7. Buemi ...............1m21.681s (+1.320)
8. Kovalainen .........1m21.711s (+1.350)
9. Barrichello .........1m22.227s (+1.866)
10. Di Resta ..........1m22.945s (+2.584)
11. D'Ambrosio .......1m25.471s (+5.110)

Alonso completed 131 laps today, the highest of any 2011 testing day. Lewis Hamilton completed just 33 laps - with McLaren's excuse being a shortage of spare parts or something like that. So far, I think it's fair to say that both Red Bull and Ferrari have very good cars, which both have impressive reliability.

Vettel's long run in the afternoon was seriously fast, and I'm just guessing here, but I reckon he had hard tyres and about 25-30 laps of fuel, whereas Alonso was likely to be carrying much more fuel when he did his longer runs. The final hour was interrupted by 3 red flags. Alonso was on another long run at the end; his lap times between the red flags were very similar - which suggests he was on the same tyres and same fuel load as before. His lap times were:

1:23.5, 23.9, 24.0, 24.1, 23.9, 24.1, RED FLAG, 23.7, 23.9, 24.2, 24.3, 24.4, 24.2, 24.3, 24.7, RED FLAG, 24.8, 24.9, 25.0, 25.5, 26.0, RED FLAG.

Nick Heidfeld's fastest lap was probably set on super soft tyres, or possibly softs (based on degradation levels). I'm happy that Nick set the fastest time today, and although we don't know fuel levels, I think Heidfeld did very well and proved he is worthy of Kubica's seat. Alonso set his fastest lap in the morning on a very short run, where he probably had a lot of fuel, but soft/super soft tyres. Alonso's longer runs in the afternoon suggest that the Ferrari is kind on it's tyres - one of his runs was 19 laps - lap three being a 1m25.4s and lap 17 a 1m26.6s, a drop-off of just 1.2s over 14 laps.

The general impression from most people (including James Allen) are that Red Bull have the fastest car, with Ferrari not too far behind. Mercedes and Renault seem to be the next best. It is impossible to say where McLaren fits, because the drivers have had limited running and have not pushed the car. I think, after Barcelona, we will have a clearer picture.
 
Apparently JB's just banged in a 20 lap stint with very promising pace. Looks like McLaren have joined the party, I'm predicting a three way scrap between Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton.
 
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