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BradSpeedMan

Testing Starts!!!

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I guess it's some kind of baseball.

Pointless.

What is this baseball you speak of?

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The last of the preseason testing starts!!!

Will the Lotus car hold up?

Will ferrari show signs of being on the right track, according to their drivers.

Will RB show signs of being ominous again?

At least we'll get some clear idea of the speed of the cars after this test....

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The last of the preseason testing starts!!!

Will the Lotus car hold up? Trulli doesn't drive for them anymore, so there will be no more Trulli-trains to hold up anyone

Will ferrari show signs of being on the right track, according to their drivers. Just so long as they program their sat-nav right and don't go to Mugello

Will RB show signs of being ominous again? They're red bull's, not Jaws....what are you thinking?

At least we'll get some clear idea of the speed of the cars after this test.... Faster than a bus, slower than a shuttle...space shuttle that is :P

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LOL@Handy

Lotus has now done 6 laps, let's hope they go past 7...

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and they're stuck on 7 for a while now while everyone else is running! Mileage is what we need guys!!!!

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09:31 Also lots of people emailing us concerned about Lotus having only completed seven laps so far following its problems last week.

09:32 So here's some timely reassurance from @Lotus_F1Team: "7 laps completed so far. We ran some sensor equipment on the car during the 1st run, takes a bit of time to remove. All part of the plan."

Bloody hell, hope it's true

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Quite action-packed this morning, teams trading fastest laps... Grosjean has gone back out too, which is a relief

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10:47 News from Lotus. This morning the programme is centred around aero work that the team missed out on the chance to complete at last week's test. It will then move onto the 'more meaty' stuff this afternoon.

10:47 Lotus also says the chassis has been redesigned around its strongest part, following the issues last time.

Button did quite a quick time on hards this morning, the fastest so far...

1 Button McLaren 1m23.510s 27

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15:32 A 1m23.252s for the Lotus driver on his 62nd lap of the day to move ahead of Button by 0.258 seconds ...

he's on softs though while Button's lap was done on hards...

RB with MW dropped 1 second over a 15 lap stint...remarkable

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What is this baseball you speak of?

I don't know, I heard Eric was a fanatical baseball supporter when they played the English anthem. Or maybe it was crocket? :unsure:

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"The car was feeling very good and it's great to bounce back from our dramas to set the fastest time of the day," Grosjean, whose best lap of one minute 23.252 seconds came on the soft tyres and in the afternoon while most others were doing long runs, said on the team website (www.lotusf1team.com).

Technical director James Allison explained that, due to the lost time, Lotus had to compress as much set-up work as possible into the first day and that involved making many short runs.

Grosjean added last week's problem had clearly been solved.

"Now we have to complete a very full test programme this week. The feeling in the team is fantastic and it's like last week's issues never happened," the Frenchman said.

What this tells me is that Toleman isn't going to show up to the first few races prepared. Short stints on soft tyres will give you the fastest potential of the chassis with a basic set-up. Those runs help the team to nail down the baseline balance and from there you put on race-specific bits and run longer race simulations. They aren't to the race-specific bits yet and the big boys are way past them with McLaren doing alternate scenarios and basically wasting time on silly stuff.

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What this tells me is that Toleman isn't going to show up to the first few races prepared. Short stints on soft tyres will give you the fastest potential of the chassis with a basic set-up. Those runs help the team to nail down the baseline balance and from there you put on race-specific bits and run longer race simulations. They aren't to the race-specific bits yet and the big boys are way past them with McLaren doing alternate scenarios and basically wasting time on silly stuff.

Like suduku?

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I don't expect testing to throw up too many surprises, there have not been enough new regs to offer such a surprise.

It's looking like RBR and McL will be close - again! ( Vettel needs a good challenge from mark this year and the McL boys should be more even)

Ferrari have not had a good time since the endless testing was banned. (so alonso could struggle this year, I can't see webber and hamilton having another crappy year - thus promoting him from his designated 5th position as happened in '11)

Merc look better than last year (so maybe rosberg may get the better of ferrari a few times)

I suspect Lotus will finish as 5th best team ( Kimi seems keen - for now!)

Pretty much all the other teams seem far more occupied with their balance sheet - rather than the balance of the car ( there are probably too many teams on the grid and a few of them should amalgamate or die)

F1 only really works when it's projected as the pinnacle of motor-sport and innovation (marisia?! caterham?!) and paid drivers only prove the old adage that " the least reliable nut on a car is the one behind the wheel"

Personally, I would love not to have ANY testing (other than safety) - that would make for more intrigue and anticipation. As some teams prove every year, new parts and processes can be brought to race weekends without any prior track time. (some work, some not - but that all helps to maintain the uncertainty - nobody likes a predictable procession) - ok - moan over!

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09:09 Alonso drops down to a 1m23.990s, and Grosjean starts his day with a 1m24.131s

09:09 Grosjean beats Alonso to the top spot with a 1m23.782s.

09:09 The Lotus is running on hard tyres, the Ferrari was on softs.

09:15 Alonso comes into the pits after a stint that went 1m25.3s, 1m23.9s, 1m24.1s, then 1m27s and 1m43s.

all over the show from Ferrari at present... they have yet to complete a race simulation. If things go on like this Alonso will have to depend on inherited wins AGAIN for another title....

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Hard tyre performing very well...

11:19 Still no one doing very long runs - Alonso's seven-lap stint on hards, which included the day's top time, is the longest we've had so far.

Vettel also just set his best on it...up to 3rd behind Grosjean

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11:20 Alonso's run saw a 2.5s drop-off, while Kobayashi's times went up by 2.4s.

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Remember MW did a 15lap run on hards with a drop-off of 1 sec yesterday

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11:25 And it's very close at the top, where only 0.089s covers Alonso, Grosjean and Vettel. All their best times came on hard Pirellis.

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F1 only really works when it's projected as the pinnacle of motor-sport and innovation (marisia?! caterham?!) and paid drivers only prove the old adage that " the least reliable nut on a car is the one behind the wheel"

Allow me to disagree here: F1 NEVER existed without paid drivers/Sh#tty back of the field teams. We mentioned in another thread (or perhaps in this one, I am too lazy to look it up) the Lola/March cars, and then you got the Eurobrun, the Merzarios, the Copersucars, the Ligiers, the Lotus (surprised? they were Sh#tty cars for longer than nowadays revivalists would like to admit), the Tyrrells, the Brabhams, the Tolemans, the...you get the picture. Yes, some of them actually had better seasons and even some wins and championships, but all of these were considered crap at one time or another, and most of them were crap through all their rather short lives. They were underfunded, under staffed, underwhelming.

As for paid drivers, alsoe mentioned before that it was not the usual practice for most of the first days of Formula One, it is also de the backbone of Williams philosophy, for example. Not to mention that is usually unfair as in some sense, ALL drivers are paid drivers. Even more so, you have four combinations as follows: good driver (paid), lousy driver (paid), good driver (er...not paid? how to call them?), lousy driver (ditto).

Until somebody proves me that there is a significant number of paid drivers who were worse than the lousy "not paid" drivers I still see no difference between the two. Again and again we've seen how all the glory in those minor categories means zero when it comes to even a moderate level of performance in F1.

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Allow me to disagree here: F1 NEVER existed without paid drivers/Sh#tty back of the field teams. We mentioned in another thread (or perhaps in this one, I am too lazy to look it up) the Lola/March cars, and then you got the Eurobrun, the Merzarios, the Copersucars, the Ligiers, the Lotus (surprised? they were Sh#tty cars for longer than nowadays revivalists would like to admit), the Tyrrells, the Brabhams, the Tolemans, the...you get the picture. Yes, some of them actually had better seasons and even some wins and championships, but all of these were considered crap at one time or another, and most of them were crap through all their rather short lives. They were underfunded, under staffed, underwhelming.

As for paid drivers, alsoe mentioned before that it was not the usual practice for most of the first days of Formula One, it is also de the backbone of Williams philosophy, for example. Not to mention that is usually unfair as in some sense, ALL drivers are paid drivers. Even more so, you have four combinations as follows: good driver (paid), lousy driver (paid), good driver (er...not paid? how to call them?), lousy driver (ditto).

Until somebody proves me that there is a significant number of paid drivers who were worse than the lousy "not paid" drivers I still see no difference between the two. Again and again we've seen how all the glory in those minor categories means zero when it comes to even a moderate level of performance in F1.

strange, Alonso insisted just yesterday that he will never be a pay driver :eusa_think:

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Q.O. - I think you disregarded the word "projected" before you bothered typing your rant.

Crappy teams have indeed always been part of F1 - but not to really compete in F1, they are seduced by the global audience and the potential advertising revenue!

in no other global premier sport would you have players able to have a place in the 1st division simply because they were financially attractive.

Footballers are paid highly BY THE TEAM not the other way around - otherwise all the top football (or soccer for our american friends) would be composed completely of the sons of bankers and dictators - this simply does not happen (usually!)

Sadly that implies that other sports have more talent competing for places than F1, and this will never change when most teams start their negotiations for a new driver with the opening gambit "HOW MUCH CAN YOU PAY US TO DRIVE?".

I would rather have 6 or 7 well funded teams, with the possibility of relegation from the grid if they fail to offer anything.

They all big up the talk to get the place on the grid, but after they've coughed up for uncle bernie - nothing. lapped once purely on performance - pretty bad, lapped more than once - obviously unworthy!

As RBR and MERC have proven, you can come to the grid and mean business .

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BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson

"I've been watching the cars out on the track this morning, down at the chicane at Turns seven and eight. The Ferrari looks particularly difficult to drive - Fernando Alonso has caught a couple of lurid slides when he lost rear-end grip. He's trying to drive the car he wants to have rather than the car he has. Felipe Massa was also struggling yesterday, but the way he drives the car looks nervous. Alonso just makes it slide. The Red Bull looks neat and tidy, although it does build up a bit of understeer. The Ferrari looks like it has very 'peaky' grip whereas the Red Bull looks more comfortable to drive. I suspect if the drivers were to really have a go, the pace of the two cars would be close, but you'd be less likely to make a mistake in the Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton has not done many laps - and when he has been out the McLaren has looked heavy with fuel."

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Q.O. - I think you disregarded the word "projected" before you bothered typing your rant.

Crappy teams have indeed always been part of F1 - but not to really compete in F1, they are seduced by the global audience and the potential advertising revenue!

in no other global premier sport would you have players able to have a place in the 1st division simply because they were financially attractive.

Footballers are paid highly BY THE TEAM not the other way around - otherwise all the top football (or soccer for our american friends) would be composed completely of the sons of bankers and dictators - this simply does not happen (usually!)

Sadly that implies that other sports have more talent competing for places than F1, and this will never change when most teams start their negotiations for a new driver with the opening gambit "HOW MUCH CAN YOU PAY US TO DRIVE?".

I would rather have 6 or 7 well funded teams, with the possibility of relegation from the grid if they fail to offer anything.

They all big up the talk to get the place on the grid, but after they've coughed up for uncle bernie - nothing. lapped once purely on performance - pretty bad, lapped more than once - obviously unworthy!

As RBR and MERC have proven, you can come to the grid and mean business .

:lol: Actually I read the word "projected" and it made me hesitate before replying to you...then, of course, my "I want to make a rant anyways" took the better part of me. I don't regret it, though, that's what's behind most forum posts, everywhere :P

I agree with you that looking at a guy's pockets instead of his skills is by no means the ideal selection process for the self-designated pinnacle of motorsport. But my point wasn't that. My point was that it has been going since the beginning, thus the prevalence or not of paid drivers is irrelevant to asess any season above any other.

And yes, I am fully aware that it was not your point. You will find that I have this unnerving practice of picking up some post (usually #46's ones) and take from there to make an entirely different point, so I am not actually replying to it but merely taking it as a starting point for my rambling posts, sorry about that! :lol:

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Q.O. please don't apologise for ranting. it's the only thing that makes this ever decreasing circle still interesting!

For my part, my moaning is simply to disguise the fact I'm desperately trying to convince myself that this season will not be as predictable as last.

RBR have the best package right now (and I use the word package to mean CAR, Designers, engineers and drivers), perhaps none the top trump, but the some of their parts .... etc etc. (History suggests that the best package always ends up on top - only the margin differs)

McL are pretty close, but still no cigar - I'm not too convinced that there current driver line up truly compliment each other (or the team)

Given the fact that Ferrari publicly give up on last years car quire early and started to work on this mid way through last season - should we be expecting more from a team with 4 months head start?!

Meanwhile, back to the testing! the times don't mean sh#t, but the reports on handling are very informative - more please!

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...

And yes, I am fully aware that it was not your point. You will find that I have this unnerving practice of picking up some post (usually #46's ones) and take from there to make an entirely different point, so I am not actually replying to it but merely taking it as a starting point for my rambling posts, sorry about that! :lol:

This is true. It is, of course, a great regret whenever one of my posts leads to QO posting anything!

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Ferrari simply can't afford to fail yet again this year, but the noises coming from motorsport enthusiasts, pundits, and even to some degree the team itself aren't all that convincing. Something simply doesn't seem right in their camp.

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