2009 Pre-Season Testing

are you admitting piquet is no good in the rain?

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X (@ed24f1)

Them times were from Sunday.

Maybe Alonso has found a light tank in his car

Tbh piquet seems to be really off it and the new regs are not suiting him at all. I am shocked they signed him and will be shocked if he lasts the year.

These test times are so hard to predict, Mclaren seem a good bit off Kovy has had hardly any dry running this winter.

What seems interesting is the smaller teams seem to be doing well at the mo.

[en.f1-live.com]

And for grandepremio.com.br, Piquet says he's happy with the way the car is progressing, getting better.

His only complaints are, that there are improvements that need to be made to the tyre wear & traction.

As for the laptimes, he's not worried, arguing that atm many teams are testing with different programmes, running kers or not, light fuel or not, and some focusing on Melbourne aero-setup while others aren´t.

He's confident that they will be closer to McLaren and Ferrari.

Same excuse could be said by others about Alonsos topping the timesheets but yesterday the weather wasn't good, now it is decent and dry, and we could see how far the R29 had progressed

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/2009 03:26PM by Bruninho.

[en.f1-live.com]

And Briatores words in short form: "Piquet is incredible slow and even his name is not going to save him anymore. I have FAILED once again to develop a young guy into an established driver and after this season he is going to fly out.."

Kimi, so, Massa Fernando Sebastian is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/2009 03:56PM by IWE.

marcl Wrote:
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> These test times are so hard to predict, Mclaren
> seem a good bit off Kovy has had hardly any dry
> running this winter.

I don't know about today, but on Sunday they were testing 2010 tyres. I agree that they seem a little off the pace, but listening to drivers, they expect 2009 to carry on where 2008 left... McLaren and Ferrari up front.

//edit: Still, one worry for McLaren fans was that Heikki started the day with the new high-downforce 2009 wing but then reverted to the 2008 wing again towards the end of the day (which is what he set his best time with). They're clearly still struggling with the rear of the car at this point.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/2009 06:10PM by gav.

gav Wrote:
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> They're clearly still
> struggling with the rear of the car at this point.

If that's still the case in the opening races it'll be cool to see how Lewis copes with it. Considering how the Macca has been over the last couple of seasons, relatively easy to drive in the overall scheme of things, I'd love to see how he copes with a really awkward one.



Looks like a Tonka toy at the front end! I know the 80s are back in fashion, but that's getting ridiculous.

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I love how they painted the underside of the nose in a blatant attempt to make it look less hilarious than before.

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theRacingLine.net
SportsCarArchives.com

Why dont they try a nose similar to the 1993-1994 Benetton?

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Bruninho Wrote:
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> Why dont they try a nose similar to the 1993-1994
> Benetton?
>


It just wouldn't be big enough to fill with Piquets half tonne of failed promises. :P


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

"I am a competitive person and being team principal adds a little zing this year," Whitmarsh told the Independent on Sunday.

"But in 12 months' time I don't want to be the team principal who did not help Lewis to win the world championship again, so that does add pressure."

[www.itv-f1.com]

Really, it seems Kovalainen will need to find some strong performances. Otherwise then, personally, I do believe the team has correct reasons to put their hopes on Lewis in the majority of the cases.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/2009 07:25PM by Rodrigo007.

Just have that whole car painted black Flavio, you'll find it suddenly magically loses about 3s/lap worth of aerodynamic drag

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Bruninho Wrote:
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> Oi, the weather was bad yesterday, its sunny today
>

They were the times from the day before - note how everyone else's times are broadly the same

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Bruninho Wrote:
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> Why dont they try a nose similar to the 1993-1994
> Benetton?


Probably because their 09 one is faster.

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DaveEllis Wrote:
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> [www.f1-live.com]
> o_157.jpg
>
> I love how they painted the underside of the nose
> in a blatant attempt to make it look less
> hilarious than before.


Lol. Does look alot better though, similar to Honda's idea last year about painting the underside.

edit - Also new endplates and front wing. look alot more functional to me!!

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



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/2009 09:24PM by chet.

DaveEllis schreef:
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> [www.f1-live.com]
> o_157.jpg
>
> I love how they painted the underside of the nose
> in a blatant attempt to make it look less
> hilarious than before.


LOL, it works for me, I had to look several times at that picture to see what you meant.

________________________________________

Some say... he's even smaller than 20kb.
And some say... he's so offensive he could get you into trouble...
The only thing we know is that he's called...

THE SIG


Felipe Massa, World Champion 15:34:11pm- 15:34:21pm.

What a big difference between Alonso and Piquet...mmm...
Is McLaren having some problems with its 09 contender? I think Kovalainen set his fastest time with the hybrid car again.

In defence of Piquet Renault did say the car would be made for Alonso. If that the case I do think the gap will be monumental, even compared to last year.

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

sato to replace piquet mid season? since di grassi will be in GP2...?


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

If the Renault does turn out to be bad...i wouldn't put it past Alonso to squeeze a win or 2 out of again later in the season.

I'm glad Piquet got another chance...but it really is a last chance i reckon...and one that might not last long if he fluffs it up....he needs to be on it from the first second of the first practice in Melbourne and keep it going.

I think it'll be Ferrari and McLaren again...but I have a feeling Red Bull might just replace BMW as the team breathing down their necks.

chet Wrote:
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> In defence of Piquet Renault did say the car would
> be made for Alonso. If that the case I do think
> the gap will be monumental, even compared to last
> year.


Yes but ultimately, what does that mean? Renault provides a car "built" for Alonso since the beginning? or it is Alonso the one guiding and telling the team what he wants or what he would like? Because if Piquet was capable of such a thing Renault would give him that responsability or at least more room. Anyway, I think a lot of drivers in the current grid would look that bad compared to Alonso. It is clear that he knows how to comunicate with the team and the team knows what to give him.

Also, if that (build a car specifically for a driver) was so easy, all teams would probably do that and it is not the case (there isn't more teams where the difference seems so big).