Silverstone Young Driver Test

[chreden]

After the traditional bickering among the teams Williams, HRT and Marussia decided to go to Silverstone for the young driver test instead of Abu Dhabi at the end of the year.

Times after the first morning:

1.  Valtteri Bottas        Williams-Renault        1m31.436s
2.  Max Chilton            Marussia-Cosworth       1m36.558s  + 5.122s
3.  Ma Qing Hua            HRT-Cosworth            1m39.462s  + 8.026s

(from http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/101149)

A few extra days of testing might help Williams push the car further up the grid - I think the fact they've gone for this test instead of waiting until the end of the year (where they can test parts for next year) emphasises how tight the midfield is. We'll see if they made the right choice soon I guess

 

[KekeTheKing]

It's good to see Botttas get some more running. He's got to find his way into a Williams race seat at some point, right?

 

[landogeorgelewis1]

HRT Testing - well i never. Good for them .

Also good to see Max Chilton getting in some much needed F1 miles.

Surely those three teams won't be going to the test at Abu Dhabi then now after the Abu Dhabi GP?

 

[RasputinLives]

KekeTheKing Williams are letting Bottas get as much track time as possible because:

a) he's the driver who's really developing the car

and

b) they need to keep him race sharp for when Maldo picks up his one race ban

 

[soccerman17]

KekeTheKing I don't know if he has either a) the money or b) the crashing pedigree. When (not if) Maldonado gets a one race ban they'll probably just pick up Nelson Piquet Jr and nobody will notice the difference, not even Frank's wallet.

 

[Galahad]

First day of the second part of this season's young driver testing today in Abu Dhabi.

Kevin Magnussen, son of Jan, was fastest for McLaren. After a disappointing season in Formula Renault 3.5 he recorded a time of 1:42.561 in his morning running (Gary Paffett took over for the afternoon and finished up third in the times). Second, only seven hundredths down on Magnussen, was Red Bull's Antonio Felix da Costa, the Portuguese who shone in Renault 3.5 after replacing Lewis Williamson. Sauber, Lotus, Caterham and Toro Rosso were also present.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/104080

 

[tranquility2k9]

Interesting on the McLaren website:

"Gary Paffett undertook the afternoon’s running, undertaking a challenging programme primarily focusing on evaluating a wide number of aerodynamic and suspension developments – either for imminent use in the final two races, or for future development for next year’s car. He completed 44 laps/244km.

Gary’s large workload also required a consistent baseline, meaning he drove without the benefit of DRS and some way below the limit in order to eliminate unwanted variables."

Looks like McLaren could benefit from this young driver's test. Also they wanted to make it clear why Paffett was not so fast, which I think is fair on him.

 

[FB]

Is running 31 year old Gary Paffett in the "Young" driver test really in the spirit of the rules? Makes you wonder why McLaren can't be as imaginative with some of their other interpretation of the rules.

 

[Fenderman]

Very interesting FB . I have been under the impression that new parts for a current car could only by tested in "straight line" testing. It seems a visit to the sporting and technical regulations is in order. Can't be arsed to do that tonight, too

 

[The Pits]

My understanding was that for promotional runs the teams are only allowed to run parts which have already been raced, for a test session, the teams can run pretty much whatever they like, providing the parts have passed crash tests.