Pre-Season The first Test of 2011 - Valencia

[McZiderRed]

Oh yeah. I forgot about that (it was mentioned on CTA before, wasn't it?)

 

[snowy]

Ferrari are amongst many teams that have placed their exhausts down low close the cars centreline. In doing this they are passing some of the exhaust gas through the starter motor hole in the diffuser to create more downforce. This solution was likely given the cars exhaust and diffuser layout, but was proven when Felipe Massa’s fire on the third day of testing showed the flames passing not only over, but also through diffuser via the starter hole. Given the rule changes this year, this solution is surprisingly legal.

http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/

 

[Andyoak]

I was looking for some photos for the back end of the williams. With that very small gearbox they must be running a similar sort of set up. In many ways a set-up that seems a logical progression fothe teams but the critical thing will always be how effective is it?
Given the difficulties of reading anything in testing (other than enjoying the build-up) I'd say it doesn't give anything more to the Ferrari that the other teams cannot match with similar or unique systems.
Still, I suspect that Ferrari will follow form and just stay conservative at this stage; wait and se what works with the other teams then throw shed loads to copy it in super short time...

 

[fat jez]

They keep hiding the cookie jar from me, the swines!

That's cause last time you emptied it and didn't fill it up again!

 

[snowy]

Jenson Button apparently has read the script:

"Over one lap it felt very strong and on a longer run with the super soft tyre you get degradation quite a bit. But that is what we sort of expected and that is what the fans probably want – two different tyres in a race that really stand out to be different. I think we will have that this year."

Good man.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89277

 

[sportsman]

Jenson Button apparently has read the script:

ju
Good man.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89277

Indeed.That is exactly the mandate that Pirelli were given by the FIA and what the fans wanted.I see already that some are saying that Pirelli will have problems during the season.I think not.
Pirelli know exactly what they are doing.They can produce tyre that will perform just like the Bridgestone's if asked.
They were specifically asked not to do that.So they didn't.Well done Pirelli.

 

[RickD]

Jenson Button apparently has read the script:


Good man.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89277

 

[AlexM]

Is it just Team Lotus running today?

 

[Galahad]

Thanks again to snowy for keeping us all up to date. I've had a play with the numbers (and a practice using the tables designer) to see if there's anything we can draw out in terms of conclusions.

First, the complete standings for each driver across the three days:

Robert Kubica	Renault R31	-	-	1:14.412	104	1:13.144	96
Adrian Sutil	Force India VJM03	-	-	-	-	1:13.201	117
Fernando Alonso	Ferrari F150	1:14.553	98	1:13.307	108	-	-
Jenson Button	McLaren MP4-25	-	-	-	-	1:13.553	105
Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull RB7	1:13.769	93	1:13.614	43	-	-
Paul di Resta	Force India VJM03	1:14.461	28	1:13.844	111	-	-
Mark Webber	Red Bull RB7	-	-	1:17.365	17	1:13.936	105
Nico Hülkenberg	Force India VJM03	1:13.938	71	-	-	-	-
Felipe Massa	Ferrari F150	-	-	-	-	1:14.017	80
Timo Glock	Virgin VR-01	-	-	1:15.408	34	1:14.207	114
Gary Paffett	McLaren MP4-25	1:14.292	91	-	-	-	-
Pastor Maldonado	Williams FW33	-	-	1:16.266	29	1:14.299	101
Lewis Hamilton	McLaren MP4-25	-	-	1:14.353	83	-	-
Sergio Pérez	Sauber C30	-	-	1:16.198	42	1:14.458	104
Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP W02	1:16.450	15	-	-	1:14.537	110
Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP W02	1:19.930	9	1:14.645	69	-	-
Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso STR6	-	-	1:16.359	46	1:14.801	73
Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber C30	1:15.621	68	-	-	-	-
Jérôme D'Ambrosio	Virgin VR-01	1:16.003	71	-	-	-	-
Rubens Barrichello	Williams FW33	1:17.335	78	1:16.023	50	-	-
Vitaly Petrov	Renault R31	1:16.351	28	-	-	-	-
Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso STR6	1:17.214	20	1:16.474	64	-	-
Narain Karthikeyan	HRT F110	1:18.020	45	1:17.769	80	1:16.535	63
Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus T128	-	-	1:20.649	15

[td]Driver[/td][td]Car[/td][td]Day 1 Time[/td][td]Day 1 Laps[/td][td]Day 2 Time[/td][td]Day 2 Laps[/td][td]Day 3 Time[/td][td]Day 3 Laps[/td]

That could best be described as messy! The mixture of modified 2010 and 2011 cars doesn't help. We can see, though, that across the three days the pace of the cars didn't improve too much among those who were doing quick laps - from 1:13.7 on Tuesday through 1:13.3 on Wednesday and 1:13.1 yesterday. Clearly on days 1 and 2 there were a number of teams who were considerably outside their possible pace, and not completing as many laps. Initial impression based on a comparison with last year's testing is that the 2011 cars are indeed significantly slower than the 2010 equivalents, by up to 1.0-1.5 seconds per lap at Valencia. The primary suspect for this may be Pirelli; though the ban on the double-diffuser will have reduced overall downforce, anecdotal evidence suggests most have clawed back nearly all of the losses (though this may be propaganda, of course!)

Next, a table focusing solely on the 2011 cars (excluding Lotus). This shows the time differences between the fastest laps set on each day, per car (driver initials given in brackets. Where two drivers shared running time, the faster one is shown).

Red Bull (SV)		Ferrari (FA)		Renault (RK)
Ferrari (FA)	+0.784	Red Bull (SV)	+0.307	Red Bull (MW)	+0.792
Sauber (KK)	+1.852	Renault (RK)	+1.105	Ferrari (FM)	+0.873
Renault* (VP)	+2.582	Merc GP (NR)	+1.338	Williams (PM)	+1.155
Merc GP* (MS)	+2.681	Williams (RB)	+2.716	Sauber (SP)	+1.314
Toro Rosso* (JA)	+3.445	Sauber (SP)	+2.891	Merc GP (MS)	+1.393
Williams (RB)	+3.566	Toro Rosso (SB)	+3.052	Toro Rosso (SB)	+1.657

[td]Day 1[/td][td]Diff.[/td][td]Day 2[/td][td]Diff.[/td][td]Day 3[/td][td]Diff.[/td]

*indicates completed fewer than 30 laps on that day

In terms of raw pace, we might opine that the Red Bull, Ferrari and Renault are all in the mix. Differences of less than a second cannot really be considered significant, since over the course of a race the fuel effect equates to around 4-5 seconds per lap from full to empty tanks. Williams and Sauber can feel reasonably confident given their showing on Day 3, bearing in mind that both times were set by the teams' rookie drivers - so you can decide for yourselves how many tenths to knock off for equivalent Barrichello/Kobayashi times.

The Mercedes has not been close to the overall pace on any of the three days. Rosberg's failure on Day 1 may have set back their timetable and prevented them going for a quick lap later in the week, still I feel that this may be concerning, since both drivers set almost identical fastest times with the car, on different days. Toro Rosso at this point certainly seem to be the slowest of the new cars that have done some representative running.

 

[Brogan]

You certainly didn't waste any time getting to grips with the new table code G