Barcelona Testing – Day 4
That concludes testing for 2010, next stop Bahrain. On the final day of testing Lewis Hamilton and McLaren stole the headlines with a fastest lap of 1 minute 20.472 also the fastest lap of the week. The 2008 World Champion also put in the most laps of the day – 131. Hamilton’s time came as a number of teams ran full qualifying simulations. Interestingly, Hamilton’s time came on his fourth lap of the run as traffic held him up on the first three laps, suggesting McLaren still have a bit in reserve. For comparison, Felipe Massa set his time, all be it slightly earlier in the day, on a two lap run. Despite a dry day, the majority of teams spent the rest of the day on heavy fuelled runs and only McLaren, Mercedes and Force India ran race simulations.
McLaren have been quietly been doing their own thing in the four tests, and yet have put in the fastest lap of the week at three of the four. Barcelona followed a similar pattern with the team again showing what it is capable of on the final day. Yesterday, with Jenson Button at the wheel, McLaren were comparable to Mercedes and Ferrari. Today Hamilton appeared to be streets ahead of Michael Schumacher in the Mercedes. The one time it wasn’t, near the end of the simulation, there was a simple explanation: Hamilton was tucked under the rear wing of the Mercedes waiting to get past. Once he did, the times tumbled although to be fair the Schumacher was carry a bit more fuel having started his simulation later. The difference in average lap times was a whole second although Schumacher’s run was curtailed a few laps from the end due to a succession of red flags.
The other team to do a race simulation was Force India. Their race simulation began in the morning, the third and final stint taking place after the lunch break. Adrian Sutil’s times were not that far off those of Schumacher and it is fair to say that the track was running a little slower in the morning.
The final pre-season testing statistics can be found here. Ferrari completed the most testing and yet their 7344 kilometres still fell short of half the available testing limit which makes you wonder why the FIA bother with the 15,000 km number. Ferrari’s two drivers were also the two drivers with the most track times, Felipe Massa pipping his team mate with 3720 km.
So there ends pre-season testing, Ferrari and McLaren look very strong, with Red Bull right on their tails. Lotus and Virgin look like having a tough year and reaching Q2 will be a huge achievement. Frustratingly, I still have no idea how good/bad the Renault is, I suspect the latter but for a definitive answer, Bahrain beckons…
For more analysis of today’s testing, you might want to take a look at Making Up The Numbers.
I am a bit lost because everyday has looked different in winter testing. I don’t know what to make of it. Now I think Mclaren are quickest followed by Ferrari and Red Bull in equal second (i would guess around about a tenth or 2 behind.)
But then we don’t know what aero packages are on the plane to Bahrain, that could spice the order up incredibly. This all makes our chasing up to see who is quickest rather unimportant.
Great work though :D, I don’t know how you make these graphs and your amazing work over the winter have made it so much easier to follow and understand what is going on and who is quickest, thanks very much :). Kimster(Quote)
It’s okay, I’ve arranged for everyone to do their race simulations at the same time to make comparisons easier – somewhere called Bahrain. Maverick(Quote)
What I thought was interesting was the single car testing. Surely, if a team really did have a problem, they’d build up a second car – I’m sure that they used to do this in the past – you know, one driver testing a last year mule while the other had all the parts and stuff like that. Presumably it was part of the agreed cost reduction programme that only one car was allowed to be run. Spenny(Quote)
Ferrari’s Massa recorded his best lap earlier in the morning. He wasn’t in one of those cars that were running qualifiying laps when Hamilton set the best lap time. Hamilton’s best lap came later in the day with a higher track temperature (3 degrees I believe) and more ‘rubber’ on the Montmelo track. In the long runs, I believe that the Ferraris are stronger. I still believe the stronger team is Ferrari, followed by Red Bull, McLaren & Mercedes (in this order). Drmaldition(Quote)
But Massa did it on a shorter run so I don’t think there is much difference – is there ever in qualifying?
I don’t think there is much to choose between McLaren and Ferrari, nor Red Bull, and we’re in for a treat. Curiously, I think it may be the McLaren that prefers the high speed circuits and Ferrari the slower stuff in a bit of a reversal of recent patterns – McLaren have been very quick through the speed traps. Of course, a lot of that may depend on how they develop over the year. Maverick(Quote)
Mav,
Some brilliant work here mate – was really helpful when writing my testing posts and I duly linked to each day. Thanks very much for linking back and for the great posts! Gavin Brown (RubberGoat)(Quote)