The Final F1 Pre-Season Test :O

it look like any body could win races this year......

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Sorry for the OT but Hey danm, did you take the missus with you to Silverstone? I'm having trouble finding anyone waving a brazilian or rosberg flag but I have found a couple of people who could match you and the girlfriend's description lol (Friday, pic 10 of 60)

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Circuit Thermalito

Liverpool Waterfront Circuit (WIP)

it look like any body could win races this year......

except Mclaren :D:D:d axaxaxxxaax

Wanna see Jenson do it as got a 40-1 bet on him to win. And the odds for him now are at 16-1 so it shows that the bookies believe he is a title challenger. Barrichello was also 125-1 annd is now 25-1. Read what you will into that

What are the odds for the Toyota drivers??

when i went to ladbrokes and coral glock and trulli were on at 66-1 and 60-1 respectively.

wish id put some on jenson when I said, and rubens was 125-1. i thought i was being cocky and chose not to.

oops! lol


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

Your gonna regret that it seems!

[batracer.com]

Button is now 12-1 to win the title

i see serious financial losses for some gamblers :p

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RELEASE => Physics (under FIA Technical Regulations)
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i am still not convinced that they are championship material. even assuming their fantastic testing pace was completely real, i would see it unlikely that, even without in-season testing, the bigger teams could not overhaul them by the end of the year.

it will be fascinating to watch though, and it looks like we could have over half the teams fighting for regular podiums and wins.

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X (@ed24f1)

wow ill be truly amazed and impressed if brawngp will be fighting for wins this season. Then again they have been focusing on this car for a long time so i dont see an excuses to why they shouldnt be.

Still though, il be speechless if they turn up in australia and get a top 5 quali spot!

TS-report from the final barcelona testday:

The speed of Brawn is true

POIKKEUKSELLISESTI ENGLANNIKSI

Turun Sanomat, Barcelona

LUIS VASCONCELOS

BARCELONA TEST REPORT - DAY 4 OF 4

BEST TIMES

1) Rubens Barrichello (Brawn BGP001-Mercedes), 1m18,926s (110), 2) Nico Rosberg (Williams FW31-Toyota), 1m19,774s (120), 3) Timo Glock (Toyota TF109), 1m20,091s (128), 4) Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull RB5-Renault), 1m20,576s (83), 5) Fernando Alonso (Renault R29), 1m20,664s (64), 6) Felipe Massa (Ferrari F60), 1m20,677s (92), 7) Robert Kubica (BMW F1.09), 1m20,740s (134), 8) Lewis Hamilton (McLaren MP4/24-Mercedes), 1m20,869s (70), 9) Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso TR4-Ferrari), 1m21,013s (62), 10) Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India VJM02-Mercedes), 1m21,045s (141), 11) Sebastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso TR4-Ferrari), 1m21,629s (27)

WEATHER

Foggy early in first hour of testing, dry and sunny for the rest of the day. Max. Temp: 18º (air), 32º (track); min. temp: 8º (air), 12º (track).

REPORT

Rubens Barrichello confirmed Brawn Grand Prix's tremendous potential as he shattered the 2009 track record at the Circuit de Catalunya on the last day of testing in the circuit build close to Barcelona. The Brazilian picked it up where team mate Jenson Button had let it off the day before and making the most of the better track conditions in the end of the afternoon took 2/10s from his team mate's best time to establish a new record for this year's Formula One cars.

The Brawn BGP001 continued to impress not only with its speed, but also with the consistency in the long runs and reliability. For a car just in its fourth day of testing it was pretty impressive Barrichello managed to complete a full Grand Prix distance without the slightest problem, before reverting to a qualifying simulation, where he ended up being the only driver to lap under the 1m19s barrier at Barcelona.

Naturally, Barrichello was delighted at the end of the day: "Things have gone even better than I had hoped for. The team has really done a great job in the preparation for this test as we managed to complete two Grand Prix simulations without finding any serious problems in the car. The pace and the reliability is good, so now we have to do a good job in the three days of testing we'll have in Jerez de la Frontera to put ourselves in a good position to be competitive in Melbourne."

More than 8/10s behind Barrichello, Nico Rosberg set the second quickest time of the day, after doing a qualifying simulation as well. Like Barrichello, the young German driver also completed a Grand Prix distance without problems, showing that Williams is heading in the right direction. Still, he was worried with the pace of some of his rivals and hoping for more to come next week in Jerez: "The balance of the car, in the end, feels vary much like last year's car. It's a well-balanced car but we certainly seem to be lacking a bit of speed, compared to others. We still have three days of testing ahead of us, while most of our rivals are done with it, so I'm hoping for a bit more performance to come." Asked about Williams' plans about the KERS, Rosberg smiled and said: "I've be told to say there is ongoing development program with the KERS, with the of putting it in the car as soon as possible. But I don't know when that will be."

Timo Glock showed again the Toyota TF109's potential as he went through a program that included a new diffuser and some parts for the rear suspension. The German did most of his quick times in the middle of the afternoon, when the track was not particularly quick and was quite optimistic about the prospects for Melbourne: "For sure we have to target our first win this year. I think we've done a very good job with the car and the testing program and now all we can hope is that we've done enough to be fighting for wins."

Red Bull bounced back from a difficult week, with Vettel setting the fourth quickest time of the day, after doing a couple of runs with lower fuel levels. The RB5 didn't do as many laps as its rivals, as the car still had some minor issues to be addressed, mainly in the gearbox, but at least Red Bull seemed able to return to the right path with the set-up choice, something that had been gone amiss since the middle of last week's test in Jerez.

With the top four of the day running without KERS, Alonso was the quickest of those using this new device. Ahead of Massa, Kubica and Hamilton, in what was a highly unusual midfield line-up! The Spaniard's day was spoilt by a massive oil leak that forced him to stop on the track at 2.39PM and it took nearly two hours for the team to get him back to running. With was in the last 30 minutes of the session that Alonso improved his times, showing that some of the new parts, that included a new floor and a slightly different arrangement for the front wing endplates, were helping the car improve the performance.

Felipe Massa completed Ferrari's pre-season testing - although Badoer will be in Vairano next week to validate the aerodynamic configuration the team will take to Melbourne - with a series of long runs in which he was quite impressive, although marginally slower than Barrichello in the initial laps. Once again the tyre degradation level was low, showing the F60 is a well-balanced car even in a track that is hard on the tyres like Barcelona.

BMW managed to complete a Grand Prix distance with Robert Kubica, but the Pole was not delighted with the way things had gone. The lap times were quite competitive in the first part of the stints, but in the last few laps of each un rear tyre degradation was high and he was running in the 1m22s bracket before coming in for fuel and new tyres. While the car seemed well-balanced it was clearly putting too much strain on the rear tyres and if that's the case in a track that induces massive understeer, then the F1.09 could be a rear tyre-eater in tracks where oversteer is the name of the game.

McLaren finally managed to get out of the back of the time sheets, with Lewis Hamilton testing with new aerodynamic parts in the rear of the car - floor, rear wing endplates - and also some slightly modified rear suspension bits. The results of the changes introduced were positive, even though the MP4/24 was showing some difficulties in bringing the tyres up to temperature. Hamilton was doing two slow laps at the start of each run, before he could start to push and reach the 1m20s bracket, but the car was still visibly lacking in traction out of the corners, albeit progressing from what had been seen in the previous days.

Fisichella completed a Grand Prix distance for Force India, bringing the team's pre-season testing to an end, but as he set his quickest time in the end of the morning, he was on a different program during the afternoon when the track was at his quickest. Therefore, he estimated, "I could have gone 0.5s quicker in the end of the day, but times are not important in testing and I'm pleased with the progress we've made over these two sessions we had before the start of the championship."

Toro Rosso completed Buemi's program with another series of long runs before the Swiss hand it over to Bourdais, who had been restricted to just one day of running with the TR4. The Frenchman managed just 26 laps in the last two hours of testing, as he worked on various set-up changes and pit stops, to complete his preparation for Melbourne.

Its possible in 2004 bar/honda jumped to the front from midfield. I know they were woefull last year, but it is definately not impossible to consider they fight for wins

Honda must be kicking themselves for leaving when they final had a great car.

On AtlasF1 there are times about the place for the long runs.

Just comparing Massa's and Buttons long run set on the same day and of the same amount of laps is quite interesting...

Massa did 19laps averaging a 21.667.
Jenson did 19laps averaging 20.974. The only thing I did was miss out Buttons final lap which was 1.25 something. So Buttons was taken from 18 laps rather than 19. Quite impressive.

Then Rubens's stint posted earlier at Atlas of 20 laps averages 21.106. That was his first stint of the race simulation.

Still fuel loads, and tyres are unknown, but this just gets me more excited.

Its testing and only testing but you can understand a long time Button and BAR/Honda fan for being this excited cant you. The last time we had something to cheer about was end of 2006. Even then Jenson adn Honda were still the 'also rans' and before that it was 2004!

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

What's surprising is many of the drivers are coming forward and asserting that Brawn's pace is genuine: Alonso has already put it out there, and now Massa has said the same thing. When Prost were at their trickery in 2001, very few of F1 inside were of the same position.

I am convinced that BGP will be among the top in the first races, they can only get better in next week test. I would put some money on Trulli and Glock, I have a feeling that they being Toyota and because of the Brawn surprise are not getting too much attention but if Glock said they where only doing long runs and set his fastest lap without optimun track conditions yesterday, that 1:20:091 looks very good,also they seem incredibly optimistic and Toyota have always been somewhat reserved and realistic, I would love to see their stints times but alas they are Toyota. Also almost every problem the RB5 have had is related to the gearbox that could be worrying for Red Bull.

Only 16 days left, like Glock said " roll on the race"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2009 04:23PM by ROBITUSSIN JR..

Trulli is another i would like to see to have another chance with a decent car.
I hope this years Toyota is as good as it seems :D

What a time for Honda to leave. With the prospect of a Japanese duel!

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

i think Brawn and co. will do a much better than Honda would have. i know its largely the same people, but a lot of the honda personnel didn't seem to be up to scratch.

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X (@ed24f1)

SchueyFan Wrote:
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> i think Brawn and co. will do a much better than
> Honda would have. i know its largely the same
> people, but a lot of the honda personnel didn't
> seem to be up to scratch.


Agreed. I dont think Honda had the heart, Brawns takeover has showed that the Brackley staff are capable and spirits seem much higher this preseason