Barcelona Testing (February 1-3)

Sauber89 Wrote:
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> theres been a huge surge of rasist comments aimed
> at him during testing what would it be like with a
> 150,000 strong crowd? if they allow them to have
> the races they'll have idiots like that turning up
> if they suspend the races for a year it sends a
> huge message, and stops it straight away.

Have you been there?

I was and I can tell that 99,9% of the people was enjoying the testing as they always do.
The problem is that about 40 guys decided to behave like that because for only 6€ you can have some "fun", that's the reality and the shame.
But I can assure you that for the price of the ticket people go to the track to see racing.

English clubs got banned from European football due to the actions of a few people.

If the Spanish GP gets cancelled due to the actions of a few people its tough luck it should not have happened in the 1st place. What happens if there is a fan with a Hamilton flag would he get his head kicked in? what happens if there is a coloured guy in the crowd he will get offended.

Its wrong and should not have happened in the 1st place, he done nothing wrong and even if he had its still not right.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/05/2008 10:38AM by marcl.

times from Bahrain so far this morning :

The best time of the morning:

1. Räikkönen - Ferrari - 1:30.593 (17 laps)

2. Badoer - Ferrari - 1:32.231 (44 laps)

3. Glock - Toyota - 1:32.883 (41 laps)

4. Trulli - Toyota - 1:33.371 (38 laps)

"Have you been there?" no had a mate there though who told me about this papers got hold of it
mob mentality is infectious, spain doesn't deserve a grand prix for about a decade they let in people with there faces painted black. End of story it's not the 60's.

vesuvius schrieb:
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> times from Bahrain so far this morning :
>
> The best time of the morning:
>
> 1. Räikkönen - Ferrari - 1:30.593 (17 laps)
>


Amazing time of Räikkönen... Where do you get these times from?

Very good times by ferrari but the gap to toyota is about the same as it was in spain I think so the other teams should be close to that.

But it does look like ferrari have fixed the problems they had last year and got the car as kimi likes.

berst Wrote:
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> vesuvius schrieb:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > times from Bahrain so far this morning :
> >
> > The best time of the morning:
> >
> > 1. Räikkönen - Ferrari - 1:30.593 (17 laps)
> >
>
>
> Amazing time of Räikkönen... Where do you get
> these times from?


from forums.autosport.com-wintertesting topic

On another note, Bernie's FOM has changed McLaren's pit place from the last position to 5th.Bernie would have raised McLaren even as a high as to the third place but Renault was against that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/05/2008 02:43PM by vesuvius.

i'm surprised teams like toyota and red bull didn't object.

---

X (@ed24f1)

I am very supprised by that but at the end of the day all the teams below mclaren gained money anyway maybe thats enough for them.

It could also be due to the fact mclaren are a team that can fight for the world championship but being that far down the pit lane with less space could affect the world championship fight? I dont know seems strange

yeah it's strange indeed but Bernie Ecclesstone is a huge McLaren and Lewis Hamilton fan and without him McLaren would have been exluded from last seasons championship.anyway I think it's fair that McLaren will get better place on the pitlane etc..

Bernie bending the rules and possibly paying the teams or using his influence to get no complaints eh? Doesn't matter if McLaren is a top team and 'should' get the bigger space because of chances of winning. They should be in the garage designated for the last team and deal with it. Garage room won't affect them.

Its not just the garage though which would affect them, as at the moment they get 3 spaces i think rather than 2?.

Its the paddock area, they would not be able to look after all the sponcers.

marcl Wrote:
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> What I would be worried about is if Lewis has to
> walk around the track if he broke down what could
> happen to him?
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To be honest I don't think there would be any concern about that. Breaking down in testing is a common thing for all the teams. When a car stops on the track during a test the circuit officials red flag the session, meaning all traffic on the track has to return to the pits.

During the red flag, a rescue vehicle picks up some team members from the pit lane, whilst a recovery vehicle makes it way out to the stricken car. They arrive, the team crew greet their driver, then help the recovery marshall take the car back to the pits. Meanwhile the driver is driven back to the pits by the rescue vehicle driver.

So there's little opportunity for spectators to properly interact with a driver in those situations. Unless they trespass onto the circuit, or the driver enters the public areas no contact is made.

I have very rarely seen a driver take to public areas. They prefer to avoid the attention. The closest I've seen is Ralph Firman using a Marshall's post after breaking down at Bridge Corner at Silverstone. He was good enough to respond to fans, although he still had the fence protecting him!

Other than that I once saw Timo Glock on the public terrace at Luffield during a lunch break. This was back in 2004, when he was having his initial tests with the Jordan team, so he wasn't that well known, and it was February so there were very few people there. I was the only person to stop him for a chat.

Circuit security at F1 tests is generally quite effecient, you have the circuit full time security teams, who use CCTV to keep an eye on proceedings, and for larger events they often contract out to bolster the numbers.

Final Times:

1. K. Räikkönen Ferrari F2008 1:30.595 77
2. L. Badoer Ferrari F2008 1:32.230 +1.635 64
3. T. Glock Toyota TF108 1:32.889 +2.294 71
4. J. Trulli Toyota TF108 1:33.379 +2.784 60

Very Quick Indeed.....

1st Free Practise 2007 : 1.33''162
2nd Free Practise 2007 : 1.33''527
3rd Free Practise 2007 : 1.32''543.
1st Qualifying 2007 : 1:32''443
2nd Qualifying 2007 : 1.31''812
3rd Qualifying 2007 : 1.33''131

Fastest lap of the 2007 Bahrain gp was a 1.31.812, that is with low fuel, a 1.30.5 is almost 1.3 seconds faster then the that time! I have a feeling that ferrari is unstable, good for me as a kimi fan but i think it will be a dominating season, wich i wont like

Byron - don't forget that Massa did a 1m29.6 in February 07. The times in Bahrain aren't totally reflective on quali and race pace, due to the change in conditions between February and March/April.

I dont know much about Spanish people, but from the (very) little i have seem to be total smum...
In the Racing gaming scene, seems theres a hell of a lot of leachers from Spain, and when they leach, their mods and productions are lower quality then other nationality people.
Now i see this racism towards Hamilton, why???? so backwards...
Then i remember it was Alonso and De la rosa who were trying to gain an advantage between themselves from Ferrari data (these 2 being spaniards)

Is this what the Spanish race is really like?

The one positive i do see from Spain but is the talent of Alonsos driving.

Diax F1 Wrote:
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> Byron - don't forget that Massa did a 1m29.6 in
> February 07. The times in Bahrain aren't totally
> reflective on quali and race pace, due to the
> change in conditions between February and
> March/April.
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Also take into account that today Kimi carried out a Grand Prix simulation. He did 3 qualifying sessions, and a complete race with, including the pit stops.

Toyota meanwhile were still tinkering with the mechanical set-up on both cars and had gearbox issues again on both cars. I think the differing situations distort the image a bit with regards to projected performance.

Now obviously I'm not suggesting that Toyota will be any where near Ferrari in terms of ultimate performance, but they will be a heck of a lot closer than 2 seconds.

It just shows that you really can not gauge the form by looking at a bunch of lap times from a test and comparing them to past statistics. If you could, then going on the evidence from Barcelona over the weekend, Both RBR and STR will be winning races, whilst Force India will be chasing the podium.... nope I don't actually think that is going to happen either. But it does rather illustrate the point.

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With regards to the abuse Lewis Hamilton received. I am off the opinion that it was a select group of idiots, and not a fair representation of Spain itself in general. I think the circuit authorities did their best efforts to respond to the situation, and will be able to prepare for it in the future. The Spanish authorities have been saying all the correct things.

I don't recall any reports of similar occurrences at the recent tests at Jerez and Valencia.

As regards to the arseholes who painted their faces black and wearing stupid wigs, well people like that should be taken behind the grandstands and given a good beating. And I'd dish out exactly the same treatment if it were Brits doing a similar thing to taunt Alonso at Silverstone.

Diax F1 Wrote:
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> Byron - don't forget that Massa did a 1m29.6 in
> February 07. The times in Bahrain aren't totally
> reflective on quali and race pace, due to the
> change in conditions between February and
> March/April.


Felipe's time was 1,29,9 and it was done with soft tyres on 1 fast lap kimi today used medium compound tyres.

In the midday Raikkonen concentrated on three long runs of each 15 laps. In race configuration the F2008 set a best time of 1:31.438, which is almost 1,5 s faster than the TF108 in qualifying configuration.

At 14.25 Raikkonen kicked off a race simualtion ending at 16.10, at the end of his 77th lap. He drove a few 1:31's, a lot of low 1:32's and very little laps towards the 1:33. This indicates that the F2008 is already one second faster than the F2007 was.

Some of the good performance is down to the 2008 medium Bridgestone tyres which are close to the characteristics of the 2007 soft tyre but have a greater consistency on one of the most abrasive circuits of all, also due to the sand.

Trulli's gearbox went bust and probably Glock's also.

dkpioe Wrote:
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> I dont know much about Spanish people, but from
> the (very) little i have seem to be total smum...
> In the Racing gaming scene, seems theres a hell of
> a lot of leachers from Spain, and when they leach,
> their mods and productions are lower quality then
> other nationality people.
> Now i see this racism towards Hamilton, why???? so
> backwards...
> Then i remember it was Alonso and De la rosa who
> were trying to gain an advantage between
> themselves from Ferrari data (these 2 being
> spaniards)
>
> Is this what the Spanish race is really like?
>
> The one positive i do see from Spain but is the
> talent of Alonsos driving.

mmm... what?