The Final F1 Pre-Season Test :O

[www.planet-f1.co.za]

Barca update: Brawn GP hits the ground running
Monday 9th March 2009

Jenson Button hit the ground running as he showed off the new Brawn GP car to the public for the first time at Barcelona on Monday morning.

The week's action began under dark clouds with a light drizzle falling over the circuit, forcing the drivers to venture out on intermediate tyres. After an hour, though, the rain cleared up and the sun came out, quickly drying out the track, allowing the drivers to put on the slicks.

Two teams, Brawn GP and Toro Rosso, debuted their new cars this morning, both cutting it fine as this week's test is the second last before the new in-season test ban kicks in. As such both were eager to get in as many laps as possible with Jenson Button completing 30 laps while Seb Bourdais amassed 45X.

Button and his BGP01 were quick out the box, with the Brit hovering around the top three times for much of the morning's session. Half an hour before lunch Button even managed to put his BGP01 into first place with a 1:21.140, finishing ahead of Jarno Trulli and Nelson Piquet Jr.

Meanwhile at the other end of the timesheets lay Nick Heidfeld and Heikki Kovalainen. Heidfeld, though, missed out on much of the morning's session as he was forced into the team's garage after completing just one installation lap. It is not known the cause of the problem, however, his mechanics worked furiously to ensure that he made it back out onto the track.

Kovalainen and McLaren will be concerned to find themselves languishing at the bottom of the timesheets after 54 laps. Trying out a new 2009-spec rear wing, Kovalainen struggled for pace and was just over three seconds down on Button's P1 time.

Times
01. J. Button Brawn GP 1:21.140
02. J. Trulli Toyota 1:21.794
03. N. Piquet Jr. Renault 1:22.008
04. A. Sutil Force India 1:22.452
05. S. Bourdais Toro Rosso 1:22.660
06. M. Webber Red Bull Racing 1:22.679
07. K. Nakajima Williams 1:22.813
08. K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:22.869
09. N. Heidfeld BMW 1:23.605
10. H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:24.289



:D Even just for show, thats still awesome! :D


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

God knows what mclaren are doing, the ferrari dont look that great either.

The smaller teams apart from Toyota are having much better winters than the big teams.

Prost.

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Lola were fastest when they tested (admittedly they tested against an old Lada and a bag of cement and were only 1 second ahead of them, but it still counts!)

Yes there is little doubt that button was very light on fuel.

But the rest of them like Force India and Toyota probably are not light, but its testing and we dont know.

I just hope mclaren find some pace, unless that are holding back.

the topic says final pre-season test, yet in the article posted it says 2nd last test.

I hope Mclaren were just testing certain part's on the car or something otherwise we are screwed this season :/

mika19b Wrote:
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> I hope Mclaren were just testing certain part's on
> the car or something otherwise we are screwed this
> season :/

Maybe hidding some speed but...what for? I don't find any explainable reason why they should be hidding their true speed (if that's case) but if those times are real, McLaren won't make it into Q2.

kubica2 Wrote:
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> the topic says final pre-season test, yet in the
> article posted it says 2nd last test.


This is the last test where all the teams will be present. There is another one, but then I think each team can choose where they go, and only a few of them will do that test.

There is just no way though they have built a car that is over 2 seconds slower than the Toyota so they must be testing stuff differently from the others and happy with the pace of the car.

But as I said before who knows whats really going on. Some teams are quick one day and then slow the next.

Ali Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> mika19b Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I hope Mclaren were just testing certain part's
> on
> > the car or something otherwise we are screwed
> this
> > season :/
>
> Maybe hidding some speed but...what for? I don't
> find any explainable reason why they should be
> hidding their true speed (if that's case) but if
> those times are real, McLaren won't make it into
> Q2.

they haven't looked great so far, but i'd be suprised if they genuinely were that slow.

To be honest this years tests have produced some pretty random times so far. though that is probably partly related to the weather(be it rain or sand!).

you kind of just assume that ferrari, mclaren and bmw are going to be quick and are just concentrating on their specific aspects of their testing programs rather than going for the headline grabbing lap.

but having said that, that toyota looks quite usefull, as does the redbull so maybe they are a bit behind?

i guess we'll have to wait a few weeks until australia to find out.

Updated times:
J. Button Brawn GP BGP 001 1:21.140 68 pit
J. Trulli Toyota TF109 1:21.552 +0.412 87 pit
K. Räikkönen Ferrari F60 1:21.565 +0.425 60 pit
N. Piquet Jr. Renault R29 1:21.681 +0.541 94 pit
S. Bourdais Toro Rosso STR4 1:22.158 +1.018 86 pit
N. Heidfeld BMW Sauber F1.09 1:22.194 +1.054 65 pit
A. Sutil Force India VJM-02 1:22.452 +1.312 107 pit
M. Webber Red Bull Racing RB5 1:22.582 +1.442 95 pit
K. Nakajima Williams FW31 1:22.813 +1.673 100 pit
H. Kovalainen McLaren MP4-24 1:23.600 +2.460 70 pit


Hmmm still wondering about mclaren. surely they cant be hiding their speed if they have some this late into testing?

It looks like McLaren will have another 2006 season, I think Toyota has a good car but we can only have a good idea on March 29

[www.viasatsport.se]

"am a bit surprised that McLaren seems to be having problems. I believe that I have got it verified from within the team that they can't get the settings right. I talked to a friend within McLaren that said that they haven't found the right balance in the car and that "we can in retrospect conclude that we pot a lot of effort into the title and that we have now fallen behind".

I can venture a guess that it is the aerodynamics that is causing the trouble and they tested a few models of the rear wing."

McLaren are having problems with their 2009 spec wing and have to resort to the 2008 spec at a few tests. So that might be the problem or most of the top teams are sand bagging

I have to say that the Brawn GP has the most complex and ugliest front wing but it's seems to be working for them Jenson did some consistent laps in the 1:21's. And Heidfeld did the fastest lap a 1:20.338 on a 2 lap stint. I believe that time is faster than any of last year test times there. Toyota debuted a new quite unique front wing and a slight modification to the sidepod mountings, I don't know how to post photos so I can't show them sorry.

final times after 1st day:

1. N. Heidfeld (BMW-Sauber F1.09) 1:20.338-96v
2. K. Raikkonen (Ferrari F60) 1:20.908-81v
3. Trulli 1:20.937-121v
4. Button 1:21.140-82v
5. Piquet 1:21.662-126v
6. Bourdais 1:22.158-86v
7. Webber 1:22.246-117v
8. Sutil 1:22.452-119v
9. Nakajima 1:22.813-111v
10. Kovalainen 1:22.948-90v

It will be bad for them if both Force India and Brawn are faster.

Am sure they will get it sorted though still a few weeks to go.

Heh, yet another random day - Heidfeld hasn't exactly been tearing up the timesheets thus far.

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Well BMW has been in the top 4 in most test this year, also interesting is that the three teams that went to Bahrain seems to be the most consistently quick through testing.