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2012 Testing Round-Up – Jerez

By Mav | 10 Feb 2012 | 6 Comments | 1,420 views

The first week of testing of 2012 ended with Lotus’ Romain Grosjean setting the quickest lap of this year’s cars. The team also racked up the most mileage – an impressive 404 laps over the four days. However, that pace wasn’t always apparent and for the majority of the week more circumspect lap times were put in by Grosjean and team mate Kimi Raikkonen.

A similar tale applies to Ferrari, where a quick stint that put Fernando Alonso second fastest barely reflected a week were Ferrari languished down the time sheets and ended with half the final day lost to hydraulic problems.

At the other end of the timesheets, Williams, who set the fastest lap in Jerez in 2011, looked disappointing while Caterham are yet to show any signs they have caught up with the midfield teams.

For more information, see the Testing Statistics pages.
 
Pirelli Tyres
Pirelli TyresSauber Motorsport AGPirelli Tyres
 
Best laps of the week and distance covered:

Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1 minute 18.419 Day 3 212 laps
Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1 minute 18.877 Day 4 106 laps
Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1 minute 19.184 Day 2 151 laps
Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1 minute 19.297 Day 3 146 laps
Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1 minute 19.464 Day 3 166 laps
Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1 minute 19.587 Day 2 157 laps
Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1 minute 19.597 Day 4 159 laps
Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1 minute 19.670 Day 1 190 laps
Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1 minute 19.772 Day 1 170 laps
Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1 minute 19.834 Day 4 182 laps
Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1 minute 19.977 Day 4 90 laps
Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1 minute 20.132 Day 4 250 laps
Jules Bianchi Force India-Mercedes 1 minute 20.221 Day 2 46 laps
Felipe Massa Ferrari 1 minute 20.454 Day 2 164 laps
Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1 minute 20.688 Day 2 145 laps
Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1 minute 21.197 Day 2 122 laps
Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1 minute 21.518 Day 2 167 laps
Jarno Trulli Caterham-Renault 1 minute 22.198 Day 4 117 laps
Giedo Van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1 minute 23.324 Day 3 74 laps

 
Meanwhile, Mercedes and HRT ran their 2011 cars in order to evaluate the new Pirelli tyres while they await this year’s chassis. Mercedes were markedly quicker than their 2012 counterparts but Pedro de la Rosa and HRT were slower – read into that what you will.

Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1 minute 17.613 Day 3 174 laps
Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1 minute 18.561 Day 2 173 laps
Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1 minute 22.128 Day 2 108 laps

 
Weather: Dry and sunny, maximum of 18°C, track temperatures up to 26°C

Next Test: 21-24 February, Circuit de Catalunya, Spain

Last Year at Jerez (10-13 February):
1:19.832 – Williams, Rubens Barrichello (Day 4)
1:20.352 – Mercedes, Michael Schumacher (Day 2)
1:20.361 – Renault, Nick Heidfeld (Day 3)
1:20.413 – Ferrari, Felipe Massa (Day 2)
1:20.493 – Ferrari, Fernando Alonso (Day 3)
Weather: Largely dry and sunny, maximum of 22°C, wet towards the end of the final day.

Related Links:
Testing Statistics

Credit: Pirelli Tyres, Sauber Motorsport AG

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6 Comments »

  • kimi
    10 February 2012 at 19:06

    may I ask why your page headline says 2010? you should try proofing before publishing. looks quite pathetic.

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  • Lucky777
    10 February 2012 at 19:41

    kimi,

    If anyone wants to see pathetic, look no further than that comment.

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  • saltire
    10 February 2012 at 20:35

    Maybe this is a silly question but pitot tubes don’t look very aerodynamic, would having one of those big camera mount type ones like the one in the McLaren photo slow the car down? Are they really the best thing for monitoring data or are they afraid that ECU data could be intercepted?

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  • Mav (author)
    10 February 2012 at 23:23

    looks quite pathetic.

    ?

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  • Mav (author)
    10 February 2012 at 23:50

    …pitot tubes don’t look very aerodynamic, would having one of those big camera mount type ones like the one in the McLaren photo slow the car down? Are they really the best thing for monitoring data…

    Pitot tubes measure local air velocity (remember, it’s air speed not car speed that is important to aerodynamics). They’re common use in testing is about correlating the track data with windtunnel data and CFD models and Pitot measurements are a simple way of working out flowfields in a windtunnel and on track.

    They are slightly intrusive on the airflow, especially the large arrays of several tubes (although I wonder if the weight penalty would be more costly, I guess it depends on positioning). So of course, they’re removed for the race (even if they didn’t fall foul of bodywork regulations)

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  • Jasso
    11 February 2012 at 10:27

    Mercedes were markedly quicker than their 2012 counterparts but Pedro de la Rosa and HRT were slower – read into that what you will.

    2011 all the top teams like Mercedes had a blown diffuser. This year it is banned so the 2011 Mercedes is faster because of it. But HRT didn’t have a blown diffuser last year so, when compared to new cars, their 2011 car doesn’t benefit from banning it the same way Mercedes does. Caterham (and possibly some other teams too) got the blown diffuser during last season but they were faster than HRT even before that. Therefore 2011 HRT is expected to be even more behind the 2012 Caterham than it was compared to 2011 – simply because of the development made during the winter time.

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