Official Pre-season Testing Thread

[Boudica 0]

1)Kimi R

[Boudica 0]

According to TS, Ferrari and Toyota will follow up their qualification simulation from the morning with a full four car race simulation in the afternoon.

Thus Raikkonen will start from pole, followed by Felipe and the two Toyotas.

Kimi used only 1 set of new tyres for the qualy runs and immediately got that 1.30 time.

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The Ferraris are just criminal.

[Boudica 0]

And both Ferrari's dnf, due to suspension/ hydraulic problems.

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Bahrain Test

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Fifth day of testing for the Scuderia in Bahrain

Maranello, 10th February

Circuit: Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir - 5.412 km

Drivers: Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen

Cars: F2008

Weather: air temperature 18/24

[Boudica 0]

Massa had to stop 17 laps before the end of the scheduled programme.

In the morning, during a short stint of 5 laps (1:30.010, 1:30.424, 1:30.627, 1:30.654, 1:30.456) Raikkonen set the fastest time of the day. Apart from the problems the car was running brilliantly.

[Boudica 0]

[Rainmaster 7]

Thanks for the info, the Ferrari's aren't completely bulletproof it seems.

[F1 FANatic 1]

well, I think like all the teams Ferrari is setting up the car to be as fragile as they think it can be to get max speed and times out of it during testing so that they can then slowly scale back and see just how far they can safely push the car. from the other testing sessions everybody has had problems. I think once we get into the season teams will really tighten up and not run the risk of failures.

but remember, testing isnt saying very much. Sure Ferrari looks good in testing but they did so in 03 as well and then just barely squeaked away with the championship, and in 04 people were saying it is time for Honda, Williams and Renault to take over and Ferrari would be 3rd or even 4th and then look what happened. And that is just within the last 5 years.

[Boudica 0]

TS reports on Sunday Bahrain tests.

There were more technical gremlins in Massa

[BradSpeedMan 6]

TS reports on Sunday Bahrain tests.

There were more technical gremlins in Massa

[Boudica 0]

Raikkonen and Massa were both very happy about the car till the problems came. Raikkonen switched off his engine (due to an oil leak), which he had been using since Monday and had covered 1,834 km. Today he will continue to use this very Engine.

Massa's engine had indeed surpassed the engine life span and showed signs of weaknesses, no damage actually. In the afternoon, after a number of checks on the engine, the engineers decided it was best to change it, which meant Massa's day was over though. His engine, also used by Badoer, had done 1,758 km.

It's upto Simon to decide whether or not the engines performed as expected. Signs are good though, at the end of the engine mileage, Massa was still able to do a lot of 1:31's and only a few 1:32's during his race simulation.

Before the simulation (before lunch) Massa had done 27 laps, Raikkonen 44.

Massa: ''It's been a good day, eventhough I didn't complete the race simulation due to an engine problem. They've now taken away the chassis to investigate. It doesn't seem to be a grave problem, solvable before the Australian GP. We would all like to finish the races, it's better to have problems now and not, like in 2007, at the first Grand Prix and at my cost.''

''I like the car: it's not in its definitive configuration yet but the performance and the reliability are very good. The times 'valid' with respect to last year and with respect to Toyota. The comparison with the others will come son. We're not yet overly satisfied already because we know that we will still improve.''

Only today, for the first time, Ferrari is going to set a proper fast/qualifying time, aiming to beat the 1:29.989 set by Massa last year.

Raikkonen was leaving the track in a big Range Rover together with some team members. It was said with a smile by one of them that "Kimi is very relaxed and never goes above the speed limit."

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1. R

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1. R

[Boudica 0]

Testing at the Sakhir circuit

Maranello, 11th February

Circuit: Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir - 5.412 km

Drivers: Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen

Cars: F2008

Weather: air temperature 22/24

[Boudica 0]

Bahrain, day 6

1. F. Massa Ferrari 1:31.189 91

2. T. Glock Toyota 1:31.209 71

3. K. Raikkonen Ferrari 1:31.329 85

4. J. Trulli Toyota 1:31.689 86

The reason why Ferrar's times were 'slower' is that the temperatures were a lot higher and both cars always had a lot of fuel on board. Today there were no problems and at the end of the day Costa seemed very satisfied.

Massa downplays his best time: ''I haven't won anything, it wasn't a race.''

Glock ended up second in the final ten (extended minutes) of the test after 17:00.

Toyota did not have problems either.

[Boudica 0]

Latest from Turun Sanomat.

-Wind and setup problems meant Kimi didn't get into his groove today (a rather liberal translation from me ). [Kimi:] "I just didn't get excited with the wind and we didn't get the car to work so well today. But that's okay, we had a very good test here. We learnt a lot after trying so many things. Now we know what worked and what didn't, that's why it was worth coming here."

-On Sunday the problem on Kimi's car caused an oil leak and a fire, which meant that his car need to be worked on. This lead to changes like the floor of the car being different and not to Kimi's liking, plus the wind (on Monday) didn't help.

-Ferrari and Toyota practiced starts on Monday. Kimi says they are doing well in starts, but it is more difficult with less driver aids now. He says the difficulty comes from varying grip levels. (I suppose he also means that it is difficult to get consistently good starts.)

Then there's some general talk about how the Bahrain tests will help in the first races (Melbourne, Malaysia) but there's still work to do in Barcelona, especially being directly compared to other teams.

There's now also another short article:

In that Kimi denies that lack of TC might make him faster. He takes a very cautious attitude and says the differences between drivers might grow now, but there's no saying who will benefit and who will struggle.

[Boudica 0]

Jerez, day 1

1. D. Coulthard - Red Bull racing - 1:20.645 86

2. M. Webber - Red Bull Racing - 1:20.789 98

3. K. Nakajima - Williams - 1:20.831 96

4. N. Rosberg - Williams - 1:20.945 95

Williams had no problems today, which is a reassuring start for them after what happened at Barcelona.

The Williams drivers were 4 km/h faster than the Red Bull drivers on the long straight.

[Boudica 0]

Testing distances covered so far by the drivers in 2008:

1. Raikkonen - 4270.456 km

2. Glock - 4063.378km

3. Kovalainen - 3883.480km

4. Trulli - 3294.722km

5. Hamilton - 3132,389km

6. Massa - 3091.056km

7. Vettel - 2922.552km

8. Bourdais - 2919.066km

9. Alonso - 2766.200km

10. Nakajima - 2686.746km

11. Webber - 2686.134km

12. Coulthard - 2185.084km

13. Heidfeld - 1986.255km *

14. Kubica - 1898.221km *

15. Rosberg - 1874.143km

16. Piquet - 1585.834km

17. Sutil - 1104.800km

18. Fisichella - 1038.284km

19. Button - 966.041km

20. Barrichello - 778.079km

* Shakedown test at Valencia not included

- Super Aguri has only done a collective amount 44.28km, of testing.

[goferrarigo 0]

Testing distances covered so far by the drivers in 2008:

1. Raikkonen - 4270.456 km

2. Glock - 4063.378km

3. Kovalainen - 3883.480km

4. Trulli - 3294.722km

5. Hamilton - 3132,389km

6. Massa - 3091.056km

7. Vettel - 2922.552km

8. Bourdais - 2919.066km

9. Alonso - 2766.200km

10. Nakajima - 2686.746km

11. Webber - 2686.134km

12. Coulthard - 2185.084km

13. Heidfeld - 1986.255km *

14. Kubica - 1898.221km *

15. Rosberg - 1874.143km

16. Piquet - 1585.834km

17. Sutil - 1104.800km

18. Fisichella - 1038.284km

19. Button - 966.041km

20. Barrichello - 778.079km

* Shakedown test at Valencia not included

- Super Aguri has only done a collective amount 44.28km, of testing.

very interesting numbers down the order...

Force India doing more testing than Honda and SA doing almost no testing at all.......

[F1 FANatic 1]

its amazing that the Ferrari engines are doing almost twice as many km/s as they need to before shutting down. seeing as how a normal weekend sees a driver doing about 500 km

and SA are not testing b/c they have no moneys, I doubt whether they will even make the first GP

[goferrarigo 0]

its amazing that the Ferrari engines are doing almost twice as many km/s as they need to before shutting down. seeing as how a normal weekend sees a driver doing about 500 km

and SA are not testing b/c they have no moneys, I doubt whether they will even make the first GP

I think my Monaco they will quit. But first GP i think they will be there, and get beaten by Force India....

[aussief1 4]

Force India doing more testing than Honda and SA doing almost no testing at all.......

Honda are doing their part for the environment by not testing & and they realise their is no point in testing a sh!tbox.

[HandyNZL 1]

Interesting to see how little mileage Alonso has done against the other big guns - especially Kimi. Ok - I come from a cycling background and there was once this guy with one testicle that would train and train until the cows came home, and rode up steeper climbs rain, hail or snow, whilst others packed it in, and that same guy with his one testicle would then proceed to blow away every other contender (pretender) come The Tour.

One Master Kimi is 1500kms ahead of one Master Fernando by the numbers. Those who put the effort in get the results. Kimi is doing just that.

Number 2 on the way for him?