2013 Testing - Barcelona 1: 19 - 22 Feb

[GrizzleBoy]

Far too early to say those kinds of things.

[f1316]

In saying that, Grosjean did a similarly quick lap, followed by a "rest" lap and than still had similar(ish) drop off.

[Sevach]

Sauber showing their teeth too.

[SchumiSutil]

Maldonado is set for a three stop race sim, with consistent lap times. He only loose 2.5 s on his set of mediums, not bad at all giving the first two days...

[GrizzleBoy]

Here's a summary of Maldonado's "first lap on new rubber" times for each stint.

First stint:
1:32.612 (timed lap no.15)
2nd lap of stint was a 1:32.794 (two tenth drop on second lap)
Last lap was a 1:34.490

Second stint:
1:30.283 (timed lap no.31)
2nd lap of stint was a 1:30.396 (tenth drop on second lap)
Last lap was a 1:31.867

Third stint:
1:29.059 (timed lap no.48)
2nd lap of stint was a 1:30.704 (1 second+ drop on second lap)
Last lap was a 1:31.363

Fourth stint:
1:28.862 (timed lap no.65)
2nd lap of stint was a 1:29.888 (1 second drop on second lap)
Last lap was a 1:31.017

[khaliweed]

What is Ferrari on? Alonso keeps on lowering the benchmark. He has practically matched Perez's time of 1.21.8s

[StrikeForceF1]

Andrew Benson makes a good point, that Ferrari seem to be running a similar programme to Vettel's yesterday, and that the lap times are very similar. Vettel was doing those soft tyre, two-lap runs yesterday morning that Alonso is doing now.
Interesting.

Vettel had far less drop on the second lap, though.

I said it yesterday: I think Ferrari's deg looks the worst so far. Difficult to tell so far - if he does do a race sim this afternoon, it will be more demonstrable.

Don't you guys think that Nando and vettel were doing one quick lap and than just backing it off and gradually bringing the tyre temps down and than pitting........They maybe analysing rate of degradation versus temperature......maybe using a set on another run and see what they feel like......maybe a new qualifying strategy to go with the new tyres......way too soon too tell that the Ferrari has the worst degradation of all unless you are in the pit garages analysing the data from the teams.....

[Sevach]

Maldonado is set for a three stop race sim, with consistent lap times. He only loose 2.5 s on his set of mediums, not bad at all giving the first two days...

3 stops, one less than last year, hard to know how competitive his times are at this point given that this new tyres seem better for qualy and worst for the race.
Plus adequate track temperatures, more rubber... all that.

[f1316]

Don't you guys think that Nando and vettel were doing one quick lap and than just backing it off and gradually bringing the tyre temps down and than pitting........They maybe analysing rate of degradation versus temperature......maybe using a set on another run and see what they feel like......maybe a new qualifying strategy to go with the new tyres......way too soon too tell that the Ferrari has the worst degradation of all unless you are in the pit garages analysing the data from the teams.....

Oh no, I know. You can take everything I say - pretty much anything anyone says on here - as pure opinion and speculaion. Frankly, it's also probably part of inate pessimism on my part.

But I'm really talking more about his longer runs yesterday. These may be coloured by any number of things - not least the temperature in Barcelona - but it was just something I noticed and something Alonso was complaining about (with many others, it should be noted). Just (semi)educated guesswork, based on the patterns of lap times we've been watching.

[GrizzleBoy]

Mercedes haven't been out for almost an hour with only 24 laps in the bag. Wonder what's going on in there.

If there are no technical faults, they may just be gearing up for a long run in the afternoon?

[radosav]

If this drop in performance of Pirelli's is true , teams will have a lot of troubles finding qualifying setup . With limited numbers of tyre sets they won't have many attempts to try different variations of setup. Probably they will focus more on race setup!

[GrizzleBoy]

I wonder, can teams even afford to do setups anymore, at least in terms of aero speed/cornering efficiency?

As far as I can tell, all they can do is strap on Monaco level aero and hope that it helps with degradation.

[StrikeForceF1]

Oh no, I know. You can take everything I say - pretty much anything anyone says on here - as pure opinion and speculaion. Frankly, it's also probably part of inate pessimism on my part.

But I'm really talking more about his longer runs yesterday. These may be coloured by any number of things - not least the temperature in Barcelona - but it was just something I noticed and something Alonso was complaining about (with many others, it should be noted). Just (semi)educated guesswork, based on the patterns of lap times we've been watching.[/quote]
I can understand the pessimism but for me I have a good feeling for this years Ferrari....that car still looks pretty much like the launch spec car and Fry said it was way down on developement compared to what they had in the wind tunnel....also i think they said that so far track and tunnel are correlating which is the most important thing for Ferrari....and yeah I also seen it on the longer runs.....but personally I think they lapped thosed times at will....ofcourse we will never know...but that is just my gut feel that they are equal sandbagging together with redbull and macca.....but thanks for the educated guessing coz somewhere we may see something that others haven't noticed....so its always good to read ...thanks

[Mika1]

No reliability problems for Merc according to Auto Motor und Sport. They have changed some parts.

[raymondu999]

Maldonado is set for a three stop race sim, with consistent lap times. He only loose 2.5 s on his set of mediums, not bad at all giving the first two days...

3 stops, one less than last year, hard to know how competitive his times are at this point given that this new tyres seem better for qualy and worst for the race.
Plus adequate track temperatures, more rubber... all that.

No, last year was a 3-stop race. The 4-stopper was Barcelona 2011, not 2012