Barcelona Tests Feb 19th - 27th

What's this rule change that Rosberg is talking about? Is it the rule where the aerodynamics will be dramatically reduced?

We need to take a step this year and then another big step next year. We will have our chance next year, there is such a big rule change that everybody has a chance. It's going to completely mix it up again. That's the big chance that we need to take as Team Williams.

If it is the aerodynamics, maybe this shows that it's going to be almost certain to happen, seeing as we were unsure about it happening :D

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You know you want to. [judgegrudge.mybrute.com]

I was at the 25-27 test for theracingline.net and got a whole load of photos of all kinds of stuff. Check 'em out!

[theracingline.net] Monday

[theracingline.net] Tuesday

[theracingline.net] Wednesday

@zscott

have you a got hi res photo of kimi "ready" from wednesday?

would love to make it my wallpaper

Nice pics

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

did anyone noticed that Honda's nose is damn high compared to the top runners? Doesnt make sense to me to have a damn high nose with so much space under it, could someone point me out how the hell they expect the airflow there to help the car?

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the nose is lower than the paint suggests... also mclaren have raised their nose from last year...

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

"You have to say since then, Frank really has wanted to get his hands on every young gun who looks to be good."

You might find this interesting.

[www.autosport.com]

To be fair, Williams/BMW didn't have quite the connections in the junior formulae. OTOH how much would it cost to finance 2-3 years of F3/GP2 and possibly buy out Hamilton's contract?

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Rofl that almost made my day...

Imagine Hamilton/Rosberg at Williams?

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Zcott did a pretty awesome job at Circuit de Catalunya.

To view my galleries, vist [www.j-images.com]

Checked out pics on the racingline site too, nice :D
you two got some awesome pictures!
much better than the @#$%& f1-live/f1racing give us!

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

Yes, but those sites get their pictures from agencies. And agencies have to cater to the taste of the editor, and unfortunately there isn't always room for artistic licence.

Many professional photographers agree than an editor would probably chose an image that the photographer did not consider their best.

I don't feel your comment is a fair tack on the agencies that feed gp-update etc, because they tend to use xpb.cc and Sutton etc. I happen to know those agencies have some very photographers indeed, and sometimes I've seen that work first hand. And the generic news site gallery really is not a good platform to display their quality.

What myself and Scott did was produce an untypical gallery, so it's different. But it also works quite well and has enough material to give an impression of the venue.

Translated article about the final test in Barcelona, originally from the portuguese autosport website -> [autosport.clix.pt]. Enjoy:


quote:
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Ferrari, McLaren and BMW didn’t show their cards

Who has hidden their game better?

The teams that are contenders to win in Australia hidden their game in the last big testing session before the start of the season. Both Ferrari and McLaren, but also BMW, didn’t do the slightest attempt to put laptimes that would impress their opponents, therefore last week’s tests ended up with Trulli topping the times, beating Hamilton, while Coulthard and Rosberg got the following places.

To find the first Ferrari, Raikkonen’s, we have to go down until we reach the ninth time of the week, while Massa was only 13th, behind even Fisichella’s Force India, and the visiting Schumacher got the 15th time, more than 1,6s second behind Trulli. As for the BMW drivers, Kubica was the quickest with the 14th time of the week, while Heidfeld only got the 19th place in the times table, which shows well how far the germans also hidden their game.

Ferrari remains stronger

With the top constructors revealing little about the team’s momentum, it was necessary to observe closely the Grand Prix simulations to get a better picture on the ability of each car and driver two weeks before the World Championship starts. And it was again very clear that Kimi Raikkonen is the strongest right now, even if his only Grand Prix simulation was briefly interrupted by a gearbox problem, after only six laps.

But when the finnish came back to the track he shown an impressive rhythm, so much that his best lap of the week was the last lap of his “Grand Prix”. No-one else could lap in under 1m22s in race conditions, but Raikkonen managed 1m21,7s in his best lap, after having done the final laps of his simulation around 1m21,9s.

Without the new aerodynamics, but with new mechanical components, namely in the hydraulic system and in the gearbox, Massa did two Grand Prix simulations, and if the first had on average times 0,3s slower than Raikkonen’s, the second was not so good, with the brazilian complaining about having to pass many slow drivers in most of the laps, but also admitting to commit some mistakes.

Hamilton isn’t far

In McLaren both MP4/23 were also in different configurations, with Hamilton testing more new aero bits – namely a new rear wing. Both drivers did short stints, lapping with less fuel than usual despite being far from running on qualifying conditions, so it was also in the longer stints that we saw the true potential of McLaren.

In these conditions it was Hamilton who impressed more. The englishman did his only Grand Prix simulation of the week at the same time Massa was doing a similar attempt (his second and worst attempt), being consistently quicker than Ferrari’s driver. Hamilton ran in similar times to Massa’s previous day race simulation, but was also far from the times Raikkonen put in his last day of work.

Big fight for third place

The fight for third place between constructors seems to have opened itself to five teams, even if the general consensus is that BMW and Williams have an advantage over their rivals. But Toyota, Red Bull and Renault aren’t very far, which anticipates a very emotive fight for the last six available places between the top 10 in qualifying, and the last four points-scoring places in the initial part of the championship.

In Barcelona it was Trulli who amazed everyone by being clearly the fastest on track, but if the italian admitted to have ran in qualifying conditions, there was an idea on the air that his TF108 was below the minimum weight when he scored the 1m20,801s lap, because out of the blue the veteran driver removed half a second from his best time until then.

The fact Glock was 1,3s away from team-mate reinforced that idea, but by observing the track we got the idea that the TF108 has evolved a lot and if Trulli already found a good setup for his chassis, the GP2 champion is yet to find the best setup tweaks for his driving style.

In Williams the new aero package was only available on the last two days of testing, but Rosberg was again impressive in the shorter lap stints. On the other hand, for once, their speed in race conditions was clearly inferior to Ferrari and McLaren, even if the german and Nakajima kept running in competitive times.

BMW’s consistency

Who only ran in race conditions was BMW, since their F1.08 cars always went to the track with 60 kilos of fuel on board. This means that in qualifying conditions (with only eight kilos on board), their drivers could’ve been 1,6s quicker than the case, leaving in the air the idea that the german cars are right now the third most competitive of the pack.

In Red Bull it was Coulthard who ran more with the new aero bits, despite Webber having tested them in the day the scottish driver had to rest (see separate news), and the team liked the improvements in development. Now in Renault, the new bits tried by Alonso ended up being discarded for the last testing afternoon, leaving the idea that they didn’t work on track as the team expected, which might justify the more pessimistic words by the spaniard, which we have a separate news story for.

Finally, Toro Rosso had only one car with new mechanical bits, showing itself more reliable than in the previous tests, while Honda did many kilometres and tested new wings and deflectors, without, however, managing to develop in a clear way the little competitive RA108.

written by Luís Vasconcelos in Montmeló



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2008 10:20AM by vesuvius.