McLaren fastest in testing

[Senna 0]

from a website:

If McLaren are in crisis with a slow race car and no chance of the Championship, they forgot to tell Pedro de la Rosa.

McLaren Ferrari and Williams were at the top of the timesheets during the third day of testing at Valencia on Thursday, with McLaren tester Pedro de la Rosa proving to be the fastest round the Spanish circuit.

Apart from Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello, it was a battle of the testers with Marc Gene (Williams), Anthony Davidson (BAR), Luca Badoer (Ferrari), Franck Montagny (Renault), Ricardo Zonta (Toyota) and Ryan Briscoe (Toyota) taking part. Most of the F1 driving squad is taking the opportunity to acclimatise to the intense heat of Malaysia before what is likely to be the most strength sapping race of the year.

Though the track was sunny in the morning, cool conditions in the afternoon produced several spinners.

BAR's Friday tester Anthony Davidson, quickest yesterday, was one of those caught out by the conditions, but still managed 130+ laps. 'Shrimp' Davidson was testing out components that went missing between factory and test circuit earlier in the yea and came in with the fourth fastest time.

Valencia testing, Day 3:

1 Pedro de la Rosa McLaren 1m09.967s

2 Marc Gene Williams 1m10.245s

3 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1m10.462s

4 Anthony Davidson BAR* 1m10.850s

5 Franck Montagny Renault* 1m10.950s

6 Ricardo Zonta Toyota* 1m11.147s

7 Ryan Briscoe Toyota* 1m11.176s

8 Luca Badoer Ferrari* 1m11.302s

*2003 car

[Senna 0]

Looks good but this is what DC apparently said of McLaren

"I'm still of the view that McLaren are one of the top two teams in the sport," he told The Daily Telegraph. "We have the infrastructure to get it right. Getting it right in time is the issue. With Ferrari's reliability, it is going to be very difficult to make up the points lost this weekend. It's not rocket science. We need more power, more aero and more mechanical grip.

"The car is just not fast enough."

[Taku 0]

interesting, esp that the michelin teams were so quick in the cool. i wonder if the mclaren was somewhat trying to counter the negative publicity of the past few days.. ie running light

[mclaren 0]

I dont look at warm ups , testing or anything pre qualifying anymore , we get built up so much that all our teams do soooo well pre race but then shuey always comes out of the rock hes hiding under , rips of a flying lap , grabs pole and then hides again till race time next day .

[Sato 0]

raikkonen borke the lap record there before they went to aus....and the were crap. same thing will happen in malaysia i see them struggling for points again...the Mclaren being a top team era might be gone for awhile.

[nojvnof1 0]

I think the major lesson I've learnt from the Australian GP is to disregard all testing results and only discuss race results. Now honestly, who would have thought Ferrari would have been so so far ahead of everyone. The only teams who lived up to the hype in my opinion were Renault and BARf.

shaun

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I don’t think BAR lived up to their hype, although they are undoubtedly quick. Pre-season testing saw them break lap record after record yet they left Australia having qualified 4th and 7th and finished 6th and 9th with only 3 points. I think Button might be slightly disappointed, after all according to him BAR have a good chance of winning a world championship by 2005.

[juany 0]

but wasnt Ferrari running with last years F2003 at this recent test?

[Taku 0]

I dont look at warm ups , testing or anything pre qualifying anymore , we get built up so much that all our teams do soooo well pre race but then shuey always comes out of the rock hes hiding under , rips of a flying lap , grabs pole and then hides again till race time next day .

well-put. even if you look at the practice times, ferrari was probably only doing it for shock-value and could have hidden their pace like they did in the preseason till quali. he just chose to have a bt of fun andf embarass the hell out of mclaren and co on friday.

there's no doubt they're the master team, and i really hope there is a better balance on teh hotter tracks.

[nojvnof1 0]

I don

[webber 0]

the thing that shocked me most was Toyota. there pre seasion testing was alright but yet in Australia there were bad from Friday

[nojvnof1 0]

the thing that shocked me most was Toyota. there pre seasion testing was alright but yet in Australia there were bad from Friday

Yeah me too. They had no grip or speed, however Gascoyne said its down to poor aero and they'll have some bits in for Sepang then basically a b spec car by Imola. He mentioned something about the centre of gravity not being low enough so they'll try to fix that. Also on Jaguar, Webber said he expects more technical probs as the ones they had on his and Kleins car here never happened before and they havent had a chance to rectify it, he expects more probs until they get back to Europe. I think Ferrari have really got everyone by the balls!!

shaun

[webber 0]

and the short nd cirleys

[nojvnof1 0]

Good one mate!!

shaun

[amjay 0]

their testing is some what eye deceiving... probably ferarri and all dont show their true strength in testing so when it comes to race day mac laren shows the same strngth and are off the pace.... hope tht made sense... al that a side i'll still be at sepang cheering on mclaren....