2011 Young Driver Test Thread

teabagyokel

teabagyokel

#dejavu
Valued Member
So, this years last Test session gets away this week with these drivers (according to the F1 website):

Jean-Eric Vergne
Gary Paffett and Oliver Turvey
Jules Bianchi
Sam Bird
Robert Wickens and Kevin Korjus and Jan Charouz
Max Chilton and Johnny Ceccotto Jr.
Fabio Liemer and Esteban Gutierrez
Stefano Colletti and Kevin Ceccon
Valterri Bottas and Mirko Bortolotti
Rodolfo Gonzalez and Luiz Razia and Alexander Rossi
Dani Clos
Adrian Quaife-Hobbs and Charles Pic and Robert Wickens

I wonder if Robert Wickens will be taking any Lotus (Renault) data back to Maruissa?
 
I'm quite excited by this one too. Is there any TV coverage

After Friday looking forward to seeing Vergne in a Red Bull and Bianchi and Bird in Ferrari and Merc respectivly. I'll have my eye on Chilton and Colletti too.

Hadn't realised Clos was testing the Hispania - trial for next season maybe?
 
Sorry - Double post but just wanted to say do you think Mclaren are making a mockery of the 'young driver test' by running Gary Paffett? He's hardly a young up coming driver at 30 odd is he? feels like its a cheeky way to gain a bit of data too me.
 
RasputinLives said:
Sorry - Double post but just wanted to say do you think Mclaren are making a mockery of the 'young driver test' by running Gary Paffett? He's hardly a young up coming driver at 30 odd is he? feels like its a cheeky way to gain a bit of data too me.
Click to expand

I often wondered why they never let him take a drive with a smaller team...now we discover the reason why!
 
These are the results of today's morning session

Unbenannt.webp
 
Sam Bird has barely found himself on track this morning, has he?

RasputinLives said:
Sorry - Double post but just wanted to say do you think Mclaren are making a mockery of the 'young driver test' by running Gary Paffett? He's hardly a young up coming driver at 30 odd is he? feels like its a cheeky way to gain a bit of data too me.
Click to expand

Anyone who's raced less than two Grand Prix is eligible. So you could still have Stephane Sarrazin if you wanted!
 
teabagyokel said:
Anyone who's raced less than two Grand Prix is eligible. So you could still have Stephane Sarrazin if you wanted!
Click to expand

yeah I understand that but its kind of not in the spirit of what the test is for right?

Not really sure what settings they're running but times seem slower than quali by quite a way yet faster than race laps. Although Vergne is a full 2 seconds faster than Webber's fastest lap in the race he's also a full 2 seconds off Vettel's pole time. If you look at the times though they're all roughly 2 seconds slower than the Quali times so it could be the conditions so you've got to look at it relatively.

A Red Bull wouldn't out qualify a Ferrari by a full 2 seconds so you have to say Vergne is probably doing the better job than Bianchi and at the same time there is a smaller gap between Vergne's and Bottas time as there was between Vettel and Maldonado so you have to say Bottas has done a good job too.

Between Ricciardo's time in Q1 and Vettels in Q3 there was 6.2 seconds which is nearly the identical gap between Vergne and Dani Clos. There is also a smaller gap between Gonzalez and Vergne's time than there was between Vettels pole lap and Kovi's Q1 time which is worth noting.

I'm sure its all relative and without being there and knowing the exact conditions its hard to tell but looking at it like that I'd say Bottas, Clos and Gonzalez are the 3 that are impressing most - possibley Vergne as well but theres not real a measure for him.
 
Are they using DRS? That accounts for a big part of the difference between qually and race lap times. Fuel adjusted, Lewis did a best lap of 1.40.8 with Alonso also close with a 1.40.9 on Sunday.

Vergne must be using DRS to get a time like that? Fuel is also a big factor, each lap is 0.11s there. The other unknown is the tyres of course. Pirelli are also testing too.
 
For comparison, some of last year's times from the comparable test:

1. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull RB6) 1:38.102
2. Jerome D'Ambrosio (Renault R30) 1:38.802
3. Sam Bird (Mercedes MGP W01) 1:39.220
4. Gary Paffett (McLaren MP4-25) 1:39.760
5. Jules Bianchi (Ferrari F10) 1:39.916
6. Sergio Perez (Sauber C29) 1:40.543
7. Oliver Turvey (McLaren MP4-25) 1:40.725
8. Paul di Resta (Force India VJM03) 1:40.901
9. Pastor Maldonado (Williams FW32) 1:40.944
10. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso STR5) 1:40.974
 
Well there all beating the race fastest laps for their respective teams so I think we have to assume that they are using DRS.

Something I've just noticed is that if you take Chilton and Coletti out of the equation the 3 I sited as standing out also did the most laps! You could put this down to young drivers learning the track and how the car handles better or maybe we could factor it to the track rubbering in more?

As for fuel as this is supposedly more about the drivers than car development you'd hope that each team would give each driver at least one run in quali set up just to see what they're made of. You'd hope anyways.

As for the Pirelli testing from the way I read it the new tyres are suppose to wear more evenly so should produce more consistant lap times if a little slower. Have I read that right?

Anyways - all very interesting. Its quite exciting seeing all these new faces in F1 cars and trying to figure out which one's will eventually be doing it for real. I reckon at least 4 from this session will drive in F1 for real one day(Vergne, Bianchi, Wickens, Clos) - although I might add Bottas to that list only really just heard of him but he looks pretty impressive.
 
RasputinLives said:
As for the Pirelli testing from the way I read it the new tyres are suppose to wear more evenly so should produce more consistant lap times if a little slower. Have I read that right?
Click to expand

I can't say for sure, this bit's quite confusing... :dunno:


On top of the 100 sets of tyres teams are allowed to use for testing under the current FOTA agreement, Pirelli will supply each team with eight sets of extra rubber for the Abu Dhabi tests. The extra sets will include the current range of compounds and some soft compound development tyres.
Click to expand

The bit that is clear is that they are trying to reduce the time difference between the four compounds. Having 1.5s a lap between soft and medium is not good at all. It was 25 laps before the soft degraded in Sunday's race so that a brand new set of mediums was faster. It might take forever for the lines to cross between those two compounds right now.
 
thats a shame - I've already had a go at Mclaren for not being in the spirit of the event.

However both Vergne and Bianchi have the car for all 3 days so hopefully they'll let them have at least one session with quali set up to see how they live up.

Hopefully
 

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