Pre-Season 2012 Testing: Barcelona

[Bill Boddy]

From Germany 2010 to the end of the 2010 seaso:

Alonso 154 points
Vettel 135 points

Even if you take the British GP to be in the second half it only improves Vettel's points by 6.

 

[Josh]

Well, fair enough.

 

[FB]

Ah, lies, damned lies and statistics. If they handed out the WDC for half a season then these numbers would be of interest but they don't so they're not. It's would be like Manchester City claiming the Premier League title at Christmas "'cos we're top", come back when the fat lady has sung.

 

[Porceliamone]

Testing is over and there's quiet optimism that the McLarens have perhaps pegged the Redbulls, despite the obvious sandbagging of both teams. Of the traditional top 3, Ferrari look precariously placed. Even their own designer says that testing has been a disappointment.

A couple of key issues to remember when considering how the season might turn out:

Have McLaren, or rather the regualtions, now negated the disadvantage of carrying extra fuel for hot off throttle diffuser blowing and will McLaren be able to stop the Redbull scampering off in the first two laps before DRS comes into play? It's widely acknowledged that the Reanult engine is less thristy than its Mercedes foil and with Redbull cold blowing their diffusor last year they typically started the races with a few less KG's of fuel than the rest.

Will McLaren, Ferrari or Mercedes for that matter discover the secret of Redbulls qualifying success? Is Sebastien Vettel just that much better than everyone else over one lap or is there something going on with the car that the other teams just can't fathom? Only in Australia will we really know.

I'm really looking forward to what I will get to see of the new season.

 

[johnnoble1990]

Vettel won the championship so it's safe to say that Alonso did not beat beat them. Unless you're only looking at podium places.

??? There was nothing inaccurate about what I said. Hamilton was top for most the season, Alonso bettered Vettel in the final 10. Remember Alonso was like 40 points behind them all and finished within 4.

My point was that we are basing Vettel's dominance on one season. Other than last season, teams haven't needed the fastest car to beat him, so why the assumptions..

 

[Slyboogy]

??? There was nothing inaccurate about what I said. Hamilton was top for most the season, Alonso bettered Vettel in the final 10. Remember Alonso was like 40 points behind them all and finished within 4.

My point was that we are basing Vettel's dominance on one season. Other than last season, teams haven't needed the fastest car to beat him, so why the assumptions..

They didn't need a faster car in 2010, just one that was more reliable.

Reminds me a bit of 2005 and 2006.

 

[racecub]

Testing is over and there's quiet optimism that the McLarens have perhaps pegged the Redbulls,

This is really good newsNow...which drivers does it favour? the ones that can deal with leary backsides or the ones who likethings super smooth and just so??

 

[Andyoak]

Leary backsides or backslides?

The image of the former could be better than the latter, I suppose, but neither of the McLaren drivers does it for me ... too scrawny.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

"smeary"?

 

[racecub]

Leary backsides or backslides?

The image of the former could be better than the latter, I suppose, but neither of the McLaren drivers does it for me ... too scrawny.

Definately backsides!!................Of cars

"smeary"?

Guess that depends how fast they're going

 

[FB]

Courtesy of Andrew Benson's blog on the BBC these are the average laps times across all tests for the fastest 4 drivers:

Vettel one minute, 25.340 seconds
Button 1:25.664
Hamilton 1:25.937
Webber 1:25.951

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/03/kimi_raikkonen_was_to_the_poin.html

 

[The Artist.....]

Courtesy of Andrew Benson's blog on the BBC these are the average laps times across all tests for the fastest 4 drivers:

Vettel one minute, 25.340 seconds
Button 1:25.664
Hamilton 1:25.937
Webber 1:25.951

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/03/kimi_raikkonen_was_to_the_poin.html

It's just a shame that not even averages are going to save us at the moment! - Since we don't know the weightings of how many laps the drivers did with high fuel-loads , with what tyres etc etc. In fact, this average could be even MORE mis-leading than absolute times!

 

[Galahad]

Does that combine Jerez and Catalunya? Because as a lap of Jerez is 4-5s shorter, whoever did the bigger proportion of their laps in Andalusia will have the faster time. Surely that must have been factored in?

 

[FB]

Agree that it is an exact science - this was the was what Benson wrote before the numbers:

Analysing the lap times also produces some interesting numbers.

While it is not possible to know the programmes each team is running at any time, it is a reasonable assumption that over the course of winter testing all the teams will get through pretty much the same sort of work.

So, logically, an average of every lap time a driver has done over the three tests should give some indication of where each team is.
On average, over the whole of winter testing, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel was the fastest of the drivers from last year's top two teams, by 0.3secs from Button, with Hamilton a similar margin further back and just in front of Webber.

 

[Porceliamone]

This is really good newsNow...which drivers does it favour? the ones that can deal with leary backsides or the ones who likethings super smooth and just so??

From my armchair I can only surmise that the new car is more suited to Lewis. From what I've read (an awful lot) the McLaren is pretty strong with front downforce and the rear is pretty planted too. The only factor that draws me to favour LH is that the rear WILL have less dowforce than last year (to begin with, at least) since they banned direct and hot exhaust blowing.

 

[downforce]

This link ( http://www.pitpass.com/45683-Pre-season-testing-stats ) has all the teams and drivers mileage actually in miles and kilometers rather than laps.
Hamilton and Massa are already close together in 2012 having the 1st and 2nd most milage under their belts

 

[johnnoble1990]

Courtesy of Andrew Benson's blog on the BBC these are the average laps times across all tests for the fastest 4 drivers:

Vettel one minute, 25.340 seconds
Button 1:25.664
Hamilton 1:25.937
Webber 1:25.951

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/03/kimi_raikkonen_was_to_the_poin.html

I did consider knocking this up myself. As already pointed out though, it represents as much the programs of individuals than it does speed.

Also, if you look further down the article it points out Alonso is faster than them all...

Also also, it seems the little race simulations I did the other day weren't a million miles from the truth.

But according to BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson, who spent some time watching trackside in Barcelona, it seems to quickly drop in performance, initially losing grip on turn-in, and later on corner exits too.
It seems to use its tyres particularly aggressively. Ferrari have been afflicted these last few years by a car that raced better than it qualified because it used its tyres too gently. In seeking to fix this trait, have they now gone too far the other way?

 

[Porceliamone]

Rumours still abound about McLaren having a passively blown front wing. Clearly no hole at the top of the support pylon as some people claimed, but check the bottom. Definitely a small hole there. One wonders what such a small hole can contribute?