2013 Testing - Barcelona 1: 19 - 22 Feb

[hollus]

Jerez is expected to have temperatures of up to 15, even 20C at midday in the sun, at that time of the year. Neither Valencia nor Aragon are.
Of course one can then be unlucky and end up testing at 7C. Still better that the snow you get in Aragon if you are unlucky.
The weather forecast for tomorrow midday in Jerez is 13C. In Barcelona 8C, in Aragon 5C and in Valencia 11C.

[NathanOlder]

Is that actually a Lotus guy? Jenson should have done a burnout, im sure that would have got rid of him lol

[raymondu999]

Since the beginning of the tests we hear that Jerez is an unusual track, high degradation, temperatures and layout unlike any track they use during the season. In short: not very useful. So forgive me for asking the obvious: why test there at all?!

Because testing can still tell you a lot of things – like whether air is flowing to the places you expect it to flow, whether suspension is reacting the way you expect it to, whether the gearbox blows up 3 laps short of a race distance, ...

It's an interesting issue really. Teams have also sometimes opt out of the Jerez test, in terms of bringing their new car, citing an extra week of design time as being more beneficial than having the Jerez test. Brawn in 09 (though to be fair - that wasn't exactly how they planned things) - RBR in 2010 - McLaren in 2011 - Mercedes in 2012 and Williams in 2013.

Here's an excerpt from an article on Autosport Plus:

There has been a lot of talk about Williams opting to mess the Jerez test, but technical director Mike Coughlan left no doubt as to his feelings on that venue.

He was damning in his evaluation of the relevance, or lack thereof, of running at Jerez, making you wonder why F1 doesn't just go with his suggestion of taking up permanent pre-season residence in Catalunya.

"To begin with, we didn't plan to do Jerez at all," admitted Coughlan. "We only did Jerez because Pirelli was bringing its new tyres and we felt it would be better to run with the old car so that we had a known platform.

"I'm sure that a lot of people went to Jerez with a new car, new driver and new tyres and got lost. We didn't.

"If it was Barcelona, then we'd have gone, but it was Jerez. Jerez is unique; very high degradation, very aggressive, very rear-limited. You have to ask yourself is there really a track we go to that is even a similar type? And with weather conditions, you have to say 'do we learn a lot?'

"Barcelona is very good. We all have lots of simulations of the track. It's easy to get to, cheap flights, nice hotels. I'd rather see three tests at Barcelona."

Source: http://plus.autosport.com/premium/featu ... -pitstops/

[CjC]

Taking spy pictures of the opponents' cars during winter testing - Lotus style.

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/1235/r ... 702058.jpg

Should the team of whoever that employee is employed by heed the wrath of a 100 million pound fine?
I suppose this picture proves there is no espionage or copying in f1

[Anon123]

I've just found this brilliant analysis of testing
http://formulaoneanalysis.blogspot.co.u ... 22013.html
it made me wonder why the BBC employed Gary Anderson.

[beelsebob]

I've just found this brilliant analysis of testing
http://formulaoneanalysis.blogspot.co.u ... 22013.html
it made me wonder why the BBC employed Gary Anderson.

Awesome stuff! I'm really pleased someone thought the technique I used adjusting for number of laps remaining and tyre type was worth while. I also like the addition of track state to the equation. The only thing I find odd about the analysis is the that grade Mercedes a B+ for speed, despite acknowledging that it set 4 of the 6 fastest adjusted times, and 6 of the 20 fastest. The only basis for this seems to be that Hamilton said "meh, we're not winning yet".

Aside – the data in the analysis also highlights something else interesting. 5 of the top 6 adjusted times were set on hard tyres. It may well be that 0.5 between the tyre types is in fact too much, and that pirelli have inadvertently produced tyres with a much smaller gap between them.

[f1316]

I've just found this brilliant analysis of testing
http://formulaoneanalysis.blogspot.co.u ... 22013.html
it made me wonder why the BBC employed Gary Anderson.

Exactly what I've been saying about Ferrari's tyre deg.

In saying that, however, I'm not sure that the article takes into account the cold conditions enough. It's a different kind of degradation than they would experience in hotter conditions, so it may be that different characteristics contribute to different degradation depending on the conditions. Given what Button said about the tyres being easier to understand, I'd be surprised if Ferrari suddenly had a car that ate tyres (having had a car relatively easy on tyres for the last two years).

But I think the drop off in their times was noticeable even from a superficial analysis.

[JimClarkFan]

Guys is there another test before the first race or no, I've looked about and can't see any but I swear there were three last year or am I being stu stu stupid???

[munudeges]

I've just found this brilliant analysis of testing
http://formulaoneanalysis.blogspot.co.u ... 22013.html
it made me wonder why the BBC employed Gary Anderson.

Probably because he's been there and done it.

It's nothing spectacular. The analysis of the times is quite good with the reading into Red Bull's sandbagging and Lotus's obvious speed that they're struggling to conceal. However, it then descends into a lot of speculation about where McLaren are which I think is somewhat wide of the mark. The car has looked OK but not that fast nor do they look as if they've been constantly carrying high levels of fuel. Button and Perez have already been making noises, and Perez in particular has already talked about high levels of degradation. Personally, I think those who have gone pull-rod at the front trying to get aerodynamic advantage are going to be disappointed on that front.

The big information is on tyre degradation and that's the key with performance. Looking fast is not enough. On that front Lotus are a massive danger to everyone. If Lotus, and Raikkonen in particular, can qualify well on softer tyres and then are able to go harder then everyone else on harder tyres then they're going to win races because there is no downside for them like there was last year. Raikkonen was already picking his lines carefully early on in stints to lean on the tyres less. A car's tendencies on degradation and tyre wear are almost impossible to design in or out, unlike just adding performance.

[munudeges]

In saying that, however, I'm not sure that the article takes into account the cold conditions enough. It's a different kind of degradation than they would experience in hotter conditions....

In hotter conditions things are going to be exponentially worse. That's why I'm particularly interested in Lotus.

[Rikhart]

In saying that, however, I'm not sure that the article takes into account the cold conditions enough. It's a different kind of degradation than they would experience in hotter conditions....

In hotter conditions things are going to be exponentially worse. That's why I'm particularly interested in Lotus.

Actually Pirelli says it´s exactly the other way around, with hotter track temperatures we will see milder degradation.

[GrizzleBoy]

They are actually televising the next test which is taking place next week.

[Hail22]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYuyUjEdZEk[/youtube]

[stefan_]

Williams racks up most laps in Barcelona (1)

1. Williams / 367 laps / 1708.385 km / 1061.541 mi
2. Ferrari / 363 laps / 1689.765 km / 1049.971 mi
3. Sauber / 343 laps / 1596.665 km / 992.121 mi
4. Mercedes / 335 laps / 1559.425 km / 968.981 mi
5. Toro Rosso / 329 laps / 1531.495 km / 951.626 mi
6. Red Bull / 322 laps / 1498.910 km / 931.379 mi
7. McLaren / 315 laps / 1466.325 km / 911.132 mi
8. Caterham / 294 laps / 1368.570 km / 850.389 mi
9. Force India / 283 laps / 1317.365 km / 818.572 mi
10. Lotus / 247 laps / 1149.785 km / 714.443 mi
11. Marussia / 241 laps / 1121.855 km / 697.088 mi
via gpupdate

[Dyanxx]

Guys is there another test before the first race or no, I've looked about and can't see any but I swear there were three last year or am I being stu stu stupid???

Yes, and it starts on Thursday!