Official Pre-season Testing Thread

[Fed up 0]

back to the sandbagging theory hee hee

Alonso still sandbagging to hide his performance from Piquet

[Quiet One 15]

UPDATED 16:40 TIMES

1 .- Hamilton -1:21.234 - 66 laps - 10. 1:22.011

2 .- Kovalainen -1:21.434 - 58 laps - 4. 1:21.309

3 .- Raikkonen - 1:21.722 - 72 laps - 9. 1:21.933

4 .- Rosberg-1:22.309 - 70 laps - 3. 1:21.293

5 .- Kubica - 1:22.625 - 86 laps - 14. 1:22.299

6 .- Button - 1:22.659 - 67 laps - 18. 1:22.754

7 .- Massa - 1:22.675 - 90 laps - 13. 1:22.286

8 .- Fischella - 1:22.913 - 88 laps - 12. 1:22.233

9 .- Liuzzi -1:22.942 - 78 laps - No data

10 .- Nakajima -1:23.078 - 95 laps - 8. 1:21.796

11 .- Alonso - 1:23.112 - 65 laps - 7. 1:21.454

12 .- Barrichello - 1.23159 - 74 laps - No data

13 .- Trulli - 1:23.241 - 81 laps - 1. 1:20.801

14 .- Heidfeld - 1:23.284 - 65 laps - 17. 1:22.264

15 .- Bourdais - 1:23.323 - 88 laps - 15. 1:22.457

16 .- Vettel - 1:23.438 - 101 laps - No data

17.-Piquet - 1:23.467 - 45 laps - 6. 1_21.443

18 .- Webber - 1:23.520 - 53 laps - 5. 1:21.368

19 .- Glock - 1:23.561 - 72 laps 11. 1:22.155

These are yesterday's times and in bold I copied today's times and position.

This proves, once again, that test lap times are crap. We can't arrive to any conclussion's on a single day's lap times without knowing exactly what are they testing. Are they running on fumes? Are they making full racing simulations? Are they testing some part that won't probably be ever used during season? Or a part that increases downforce but reduces speed which will come useful for Monaco, but not for Barcelona? Now that we all got this out of our chests, we can move forward on making theories about this year's WDC being won by Trulli.

[David Adams 0]

Or by Glock, maybe he will be the rookie of the season this year, fighting for the WDC?

Now wouldn't that be sure cool :-)

*would like to point out I drive a Toyota Yaris* Go team Yaris!

[la force supreme des mclaren 0]

From motor21.com..........

Automatically translated text:

Alonso and Renault iran to Australia with a pathetic R28

(Test Barcelona - Day 3) Fernando Alonso and Renault will arrive in Melbourne without many options to get a good result, the simulation race that the Spaniard had made on the afternoon of the last day of test showed further problems pace of the R28 respect to Ferrari and McLaren to continue to be the fastest pace in the race.

Fernando Alonso has finally made a mock race.

Fernando Alonso will start the year with a car to squeeze impossible to make it go fast, these days if the Spaniard showed little was optimistic because he knows what it faces, a single that lacks pace and today has been even more evident with a mock race that has left the Asturian far from the times he has been getting Ferrari with Raikkonen in a similar drill.

Alonso has been testing this afternoon how the R28 in a race with pit stops included. The Spaniard has been marking time 1:24.2-1:24.9 heavily loaded with fuel and has only managed to go down to 1:22.8 with little cargo just before each pit stop. At Ferrari painted things better; heavily loaded with gasoline pilot Finnish rodaba in 1:22.9-1:22.3 and low gasoline and worn tyres came to 1:21.0.

However, Ferrari has not been the most consistent team in batch simulation long career. McLaren may seem to challenge Ferrari because its mock Grand Prix has been rolling a little faster than the Ferrari on some occasions but the difference is so invaluable that the rivalry between the two will be very intense in the opening stages of the season .

The day has been charged with two incidents of off-track excursions spectacular. The first Glock in the rise of the Moreneta which has led the Toyota against the wall of tires. The second has been starring the French Sebastien Bourdais Toro Rosso who has lost control of braking in the final straight and has gone to great speed but has not impacted against the wall.

The problems of today BMW has been evidenced in the two broken gearbox of Heidfeld. It must be remembered that this is very worrying for the German team because this season should last until 4 GP's, ie, more than 1600km.

The end of the preseason has been marked by equality in the middle of the table as Williams and BMW RedBull battling for third place in the expectation that Renault were not rapidly in such a competition, but it seems that by now French house Alonso is a little behind.

[la force supreme des mclaren 0]

Ferrari Test Report

Today marked the end of winter testing for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro in preparation for the start of the World Championship, which gets underway on Sunday 16th March in Melbourne during the Australian Grand Prix.

Today both drivers - Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen - were out on track running different programmes. Felipe was working on set-up, using up the remaining kilometres of engine life in his car: he completed 49 laps, the quickest in a time of 1.22.286. Kimi had a race simulation on his agenda, which he completed despite several interruptions caused by red flags and one precautionary stop to carry out a check on the car at the start of the afternoon. By the end of the day, Kimi had done 80 laps, the quickest in 1.21.933.

The Scuderia will next be on track on 6th March at Fiorano, where Luca Badoer will carry out the shakedown of the cars that will be used in the Australian Grand Prix.

[la force supreme des mclaren 0]

McLaren completes busy Barcelona test

It was a busy final pre-season test week for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Team at the Circuit de Catalunya. The team has been concentrating on long runs to prepare for the season opener at Australia. Next week, the Woking-based outfit will conduct a straight line test at Menorca before flying to Melbourne.

Martin Whitmarsh

[la force supreme des mclaren 0]

BMW evaluating new aero updates for Australia

With the third day of testing in Barcelona the team basically concluded the preparation for the 2008 season. In perfect weather conditions Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld worked again on the set-up of the BMW Sauber F1.08 evaluating the latest aerodynamical updates for the upcoming race in Melbourne/Australia.

Both drivers also conducted several practice pitstops and starts. In the morning Nick Heidfeld did a precautionary stop on the track because sensors were indicating a gearbox problem.

Covering 189 laps (880 km) and 213 laps (992 km) respectively over the three days period Kubica and Heidfeld continued development work on the team

[Rainmaster 7]

Sandbagging is BS - you can not test your car and it's improvements by sandbagging. You have to go 100% to test the compenent/car/compound/setup otherwise the results are going to be false positives or true negatives or positive negatives or negative falses...thats so confushing me!

Thus, you can sandbag some of the time, but you can not sandbag all of the time, thus the fastest lap of the day will be your fastest possible lap of the day.

So in conclusion my dear fellow race watcherers, sandbagging is only useful when there are floods.

Agree.

Last year Williams were more competitive as the season unfolded, offcourse we dont have the same money as work teams, but RBS, Lenovo and AT&T aren

[DOF_power 0]

Holy crap, so now it's

1/2. McLaren/Ferrari

3/4/5. BMW, Williams, Red Bull

6. Renault

[Max Mosley 2]

We can but hope, DOF!

[aussief1 4]

Sandbagging is BS - you can not test your car and it's improvements by sandbagging. You have to go 100% to test the compenent/car/compound/setup otherwise the results are going to be false positives or true negatives or positive negatives or negative falses...thats so confushing me!

Thus, you can sandbag some of the time, but you can not sandbag all of the time, thus the fastest lap of the day will be your fastest possible lap of the day.

So in conclusion my dear fellow race watcherers, sandbagging is only useful when there are floods.

I agree, sandbagging is complete BS, what is the point????

Trulli's best lap may be cancelled because they're claiming he cut chicane

Poor Trulli, he thought no one would notice!!!!

[HandyNZL 1]

It has been revealed by a totally reliable source (some guy called Eric living in the U S of A), that Trulli's stunning lap time was actually achieved by circumnavigating the pitlane. He was black flagged before completing a second circumnavigation for driving in reverse along the pit straight away.

Trulli stated "like my engineers back in Japan said...F1 is boring, so I thought I'd spice it up by reversing up pit straight...my chrome helmet is no longer thought of as exciting, and since the FIA rejected my request to install flashing Xmas lights around my visor, and to hang fluffy dice in the air intake, I thought this would have given people something to talk about."

Trulli continued stating "Unfortunately the tech team in the pits reported to me that we were achieving a higher top speed along pit straight in reverse, so it has now been decided that we will be lining up in Melbourne a## about face so as to compete for a podium. Timo is regarded as one of the best trailer backers in the paddock, so it looks like Toyota is set for a bumper year."

[aussief1 4]

It has been revealed by a totally reliable source (some guy called Eric living in the U S of A), that Trulli's stunning lap time was actually achieved by circumnavigating the pitlane. He was black flagged before completing a second circumnavigation for driving in reverse along the pit straight away.

Trulli stated "like my engineers back in Japan said...F1 is boring, so I thought I'd spice it up by reversing up pit straight...my chrome helmet is no longer thought of as exciting, and since the FIA rejected my request to install flashing Xmas lights around my visor, and to hang fluffy dice in the air intake, I thought this would have given people something to talk about."

Trulli continued stating "Unfortunately the tech team in the pits reported to me that we were achieving a higher top speed along pit straight in reverse, so it has now been decided that we will be lining up in Melbourne a## about face so as to compete for a podium. Timo is regarded as one of the best trailer backers in the paddock, so it looks like Toyota is set for a bumper year."

Classic, love your work

[Boudica 0]

Some news from TS:

Kovalainen went to the wrong way with setup today, never quite got the hang of it.

Admits he is slower than Hamilton at the moment, but is improving.

Massa: New package better.

Kimi: Didn`t try the old package at Barcelona, so difficult to compare.

Trulli: new car feels good.

Asmer will drive BMW at menorca.

Alonso was 0,7 seconds per lap slower on low fuel at the end of the stint and 1,2 seconds off on heavy fuel.

To McLaren it was respectively 0,4-0,5 and 1 second.

So TS thinks McLaren is losing 0,2 seconds to Ferrari.

[Boudica 0]

A summary of the testing this week from motor21 (Thanks to rodlamas)

- Fernando Alonso and Renault will start the year with car that nothing that's done to it makes it fast. Alonso has been on a non-optimistic mood for the last days and this has beem emphasized by the race simulation he did today at the same as Kimi, with much slower times.

- During the mentioned race simulation when beginning the stints with tons of fuel, Alonso was lapping in between 1:24.2-1:24.9, whereas Kimi was in between 1:22.9 and 1:23.3. At the end of the stint Alonso was at 1:22.8 and Kimi at 1:22.0.

- Ferrari hasn't been the most consistent team in terms of long stins during race simulations. Mclaren has been running a bit faster in some occasions but the gap is small that both teams seem to be going head-to-head during the first rounds of the season.

- The day had lots of incidents including two spectaculars spins by Bourdaus and Glock.

- BMW still has major reliability issues with its gearbox. Heidfeld broke another one today.

- The group just behind Ferrari and Mclaren seems to be pretty even and with 3 teams fighting for 3rd place, BMW, RBR and Williams. It's expected that Renault will join them, but at the moment they're lacking a bit of pace.

[Boudica 0]

Some points from amus.

- Symonds thinks Ferrari is up front, but only by a small margin: ''According to our calculations McLaren is part of the group BMW Sauber, Red Bull, Williams and we (Renault) belong to. Depending on track there's just three tenths difference between the best and worst. The form of the day decided.''

So far Renault and BMW Sauber haven't really been underway with little fuel.

Symonds admits this year to 'read the testtimes: ''Perhaps it's down to the fact that they're all so close to each other. The laptimes are not always clear, the picture swings from track to track.''

- Michael doesn't agree: ''Ferrari is in front of McLaren by three to four tenths and seven to eight tenths to the group with BMW Sauber, Red Bull and us.''

- A Toyota engineer: ''We're better than many think.''

- Ferrari admits that according to their calculations they're up front. Depending on track, one to three tenths. Relative weak point would still be the flying lap: ''What' the best speed bringing us over a distance when we're behind others at the start and we cannot overtake ?''

The tests have shown that Ferrari has the fastest car on the straight.

[Boudica 0]

Videos from today:

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=OyDaxo-T184

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=XJlLFhppsv4

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=hrN85b8vgTc

[Max Mosley 2]

Thanks Boudica!

[aussief1 4]

Interesting to see that the R28 is sporting a BMW like vane connecting the side pod panel to the barge board.

Thanks for the info Boudica

[DOF_power 0]

We can but hope, DOF!

Hope for what ?!

That a top driver like Alonso won't stand a chance to fight for the title ?!

Or

That the wake turbulence combined with relative equal cars will make overtaking impossible.

I say get ready for many races like the Monaco 2007 GP.

This so called driver aids nonsense is ridiculous, what's causing the lack of overtaking is the tremendous wake turbulence on the racing line, combined with the fact that the cars can't go fast or at all outside the racing line, that's if there's even an "outside" (Monaco, Hungaroring, Magny-Cours). The days when the likes Mansell, Piquet, Senna and Prost were "pressing the overtaking button" on the turbo and/or active rides cars (witch extracted lots of downforce from the underbody) are long gone.

[Fed up 0]

Some points from amus.

- Symonds thinks Ferrari is up front, but only by a small margin: ''According to our calculations McLaren is part of the group BMW Sauber, Red Bull, Williams and we (Renault) belong to. Depending on track there's just three tenths difference between the best and worst. The form of the day decided.''

So far Renault and BMW Sauber haven't really been underway with little fuel.

Symonds admits this year to 'read the testtimes: ''Perhaps it's down to the fact that they're all so close to each other. The laptimes are not always clear, the picture swings from track to track.''

- Michael doesn't agree: ''Ferrari is in front of McLaren by three to four tenths and seven to eight tenths to the group with BMW Sauber, Red Bull and us.''

- A Toyota engineer: ''We're better than many think.''

- Ferrari admits that according to their calculations they're up front. Depending on track, one to three tenths. Relative weak point would still be the flying lap: ''What' the best speed bringing us over a distance when we're behind others at the start and we cannot overtake ?''

The tests have shown that Ferrari has the fastest car on the straight.

Thanks for your continued ferrari bias- It must have been quite difficult finding those quotes from Michael when he has recently been reported as stating that it is too close to call between the two - Kimi & Lewis' race simulation showed the mclaren marginally head on pace, but as ususual, you've conveniently omitted it

[Kati 0]

BMW will be testing aerodynamicals in Menorca friday and saturday (I emailed the track to find out, like a month ago) but with Klien, and next week will be McLaren. As says Toyota (with Jarno) will also test before the beggining of season.

[Max Mosley 2]

You emailed the track? Now there's devotion for you! And btw, I'm not surprised BMW are testing aerodynamicals - they are some of the fiddliest part-icals of a car.

[hookedon-f1 0]

You emailed the track? Now there's devotion for you! And btw, I'm not surprised BMW are testing aerodynamicals - they are some of the fiddliest part-icals of a car.

hahahahaha

[Argento Reloaded 1]

I