An interesting assessment of winter testing from Autosport

[Senna 0]

Dear Jonathan,

During pre-season testing at Barcelona both BAR drivers broke the lap record, albeit running light fuel loads. In earlier test sessions, McLaren and Williams drivers broke the lap records at Jerez and Valencia. Are these accomplishments a show of true progress in car and tyre development? Or is setting the lap record in testing a tactic to destabilise the competition psychologically? I know taking testing results at face value can be perilous, but what's the game being played?

Richard Pontello, Calgary, Canada

Dear Richard,

The winter world championship is by far the easiest motor racing series to win. With the ever increasing focus on Formula 1's winter testing series, it is inevitable that more and more fans, media and sponsors are focusing on the lap times – and that leads to temptation to take the fuel out (and perhaps a little more) in a bid to grab the headlines.

When Jenson Button set a new record time at Barcelona in the week before BAR's new car launch, and then bettered it with the BAR006 almost immediately, there were plenty of sceptics in the paddock who believed that the British ace had been running on vapours – and that the team may have even taken out some ballast for a bit of a speed boost.

In some senses such behaviour is fully understandable. Teams are fighting for sponsors and column inches and to set a lap time takes the heat off the team – irrespective of how quick the car is over the rest of the day. The fact that more teams don't just put a quick time in during an early test session with their new car baffles me, because it has to be easier than constantly being forced to justify why your team is slow because it has been working on reliability or race distance runs. A good lap is also a brilliant way of boosting team morale and giving mechanics and engineers a lift during the long, often monotonous, test days.

What a low fuel run does allow teams to do is see how aggressive they need to be with new tyres and in full qualifying trim. Such a behaviour is especially important for BAR this season after its switch from Bridgestone to Michelin. It needed to establish a baseline of performance for its old car and its new car – something that teams that are sticking with the same tyre manufacturer do not need as badly.

The real trick to understanding winter testing times is to take into account lap times over long distances. The recent analysis of long runs at Barcelona indicated that BAR's performance was certainly no flash in the pan – and that it appears to be well in contention with the top four teams.

A few years ago Prost Grand Prix, desperate for sponsorship, did most of its winter testing with low fuel runs – heightening expectations and building up interest in the outfit before the Australian Grand Prix. When its form subsequently dipped in the cold light of day it left a lot of people with a sour taste in their mouth. Let's hope those teams setting the times this winter have not gone down the same route.

[Taku 0]

i especially like the part where he acknowledges that the bar pace is in all likelihood real. maybe not top-of-the-timesheets stuff, but competitive nevertheless.

in latest testing they've also started doing race simulations, and both cars are still on the pace.

i just can't wait for melbourne already!!!