2010 Testing Thread

Looking at pictures of tyres the rears are getting chewed up! But then its again its difficult to compare because I dont there have been many new tyre runs.

I think its looking pretty tight between Mclaren and Ferrari but RedBull and Merc are still unknowns imo, and they are the two teams which scare me! RedBull just looks like they've tried to perfect an almost perfect car!!! Same with Brawn really!

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

The Hulk reports that the Cosworth is a vast improvement on the Toyota engine, which he drove with in December, and they've yet to have any reliability or installation issues so far with the units they've used.

The gearbox issue at the end of today on Rubens car was a part that was past its normal life cycle.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/14/2010 12:35AM by 97kirkc.

chet Wrote:
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> Looking at pictures of tyres the rears are getting
> chewed up! But then its again its difficult to
> compare because I dont there have been many new
> tyre runs.
>
> I think its looking pretty tight between Mclaren
> and Ferrari but RedBull and Merc are still
> unknowns imo, and they are the two teams which
> scare me! RedBull just looks like they've tried to
> perfect an almost perfect car!!! Same with Brawn
> really!

Only Brawn finished the year with a car that was not on the pace of RBR or Mclaren, the current car was designed during 2009 so they probably did not have a huge budget to develop. When you look at the car it is only really the front that has changed the back is near enough the same.

I think Merc will be just behind Mclaren, Rbr and Ferrari tbh I just dont think they have done enough.

But we do not know the true pace of any cars and I do not think we will until 1st quali at the 1st race.

to be honest , i dont think we will have that close battle. i watch f1 for yeaaars , and there has never been more than 3 teams close in terms of pace .
so from ferrari red bull, mclaren and mercedes, i thnik maximum 3 teams will be on the top .... but then again , if mercedes are off the pace, we shouldn't forget who's driving this car...

and love him or hate him , you can never ignore M.Schumacher :p

I broadly agree.

We do plenty of ingredients for an epic season. With potentially Merc, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren all building winning cars from the start, and with maybe the mid-fielders, Findia, Williams, STR & Renault maybe ocassionally upsetting the apple cart.

But in reality it will probably be the same old classic two horse race from pretty early on.

I wish in testing they would say the fuel loads lol.

Not even the teams know who is quick really.

Marcl - I think Brawn were still pretty close with RBR in the right circumstances (such as Button on options at Abu Dhabi). But Mclaren said KERS was giving them 0.3 - 0.4 still. I still think the top teams end of last year were Brawn and RBR. I think its hard to judge Mclaren because to me it looked like Lewis was able to hussle that car corner after corner and he was miles in front of Heikki. Mclaren and Ferrar have had alot to do this winter to catch up.. I wouldnt supprised if we get to Bahrain and see Merc and RBR lock out the first two rows.

But in reality it will probably be the same old classic two horse race from pretty early on.

I sure hope not! I really think we could see the 4 teams going for wins but in the end i think it will be a two-horse race. bets on Alonso and Lewis :p

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

As you are saying, Brawn were close in the right circumstances. That's the same as not at the top.

Without wishing to offend... I'm going to use one of my favourite little phrases.... "there's a lot of speculation out of thin air going on" I'm not basing having a view on the form but in all honestly some people have been making conclusions based on observations of basically nothing.

Marcl summed it up perfectly, "Not even the teams know who is quick really".

We'd have a pretty empty forum in the pre-season without over-analysing everything we see. There's harm in stating observations based on little more than what the eye can see and a bunch of very basic statistics.

Regarding the teams knowing, while they don't know what teams have to come (with most still to introduce new aero packages and many still to evaluate data from their first tests... we don't even have all the cars yet!), I'm pretty sure most will have a good idea of where each team stands right now. For example, even a few years ago teams could analyse the fuel being carried in a competitors car just through examining the tone or pitch of the exhaust note. Clearly that will be more difficult without access to onboard cameras, but if they wanted to, I'm sure they could still get an idea on such things if needed from the trackside.

Turun Sanomat says that some top-engineer said at the end of the jerez tests that the current order despitate all the fuel messing at the moment is Mclaren a bit ahead of RedBull and then come Ferrari and Mercedes.

[f1.gpupdate.net]

It would make sense for them to go to Bahrain instead for testing, would it not?

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Circuit Thermalito

Liverpool Waterfront Circuit (WIP)

Thought they'd have a circuit on standby for testing if indeed the weather does turn out to be as bad as is being reported. Didn't Bahrain say they were preparing for the cars just in case they needed to test there?

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You would have thought so.

But shipping all the equipment to Bahrain for a test is expensive. Virgin and Lotus would probably find that difficult, and it's been a very long time since Williams did a far away test for the weather.

And Bahrain isn't exactly guaranteed clement conditions either, remember last year when sandstorms disrupted testing?

everyone is talking about two horse race..................
don't forget who those two were, the last time when Bahrain was the season opener
I put M.S. on my list for W.C. on 1st place ! GOOOOOO MICHAEL

Yeah, I know the costs would have been astronomical but I'm surprised that all the tests have been (and will be) conducted in Spain.

A wider variety of circuits would surely help the development of the cars for the teams?

But I suppose the FIA knows best...

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MS from what I read is having to change his driving style. The Merc the way it is does not allow it to be flung into a corner, I am sure he will get used to it but in the past he has not had really strong seasons when the car is like that.

I still think they got lucky last year and as a team will do the same job they done as BAR/Honda and be good for the odd top 3.

More of the same weather in Jerez

Rain again in Jerez.

Based on a quick google search, it looks like rain is also forecast at some of the closest F1-standard tracks (Valencia, Barcelona, Algarve), so its probably not worth leaving Jerez. After all, it will be the same for everyone.

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X (@ed24f1)

Yep, I guess wet testing is better than no testing at all.

But I think Virgin and rookie di Grassi did well in Jerez to be under 4 seconds away. They may yet surprise.