Sauber was the team with the biggest update package as F1′s ultra-rare in-season test began on Tuesday.

Kamui Kobayashi was in charge of the revised C31, which including a new exhaust and front wing represented “the biggest update package” of all the teams at Mugello, according to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

McLaren, in contrast, have taken “no great updates” to Tuscany, which explains why Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have left the task up to the British team’s test drivers.

It was a similar story in the Mercedes camp.

Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, however, was in charge of testing a new McLaren-like exhaust for the FW34, while Ferrari also has a new exhaust for the F2012.

On Thursday, as the three-day test wraps up, the famous Italian team will debut other developments, including a new engine cover and sidepods.

A new front wing, nose and floor will only be ready for Barcelona.

There were no radical modifications on display by Red Bull, who instead want to use the Mugello test to work on car setup.

“We still need to learn how to get the most from what we have,” confirmed Bahrain winner Sebastian Vettel.

For that purpose, the Ferrari-owned Mugello circuit might not actually be the best venue.

“It’s great for driving,” said Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, “but for the engineers Barcelona would be a bit better because there are all types of corners.

“At Mugello they are mainly fast, and virtually none at low speed.”

Polyphony Digtial has today fully revealed the “X1 Prototype”, a project in conjunction with Red Bull Racing.

All races that exist in today’s world are restricted by regulations. However the X1 is a machine born from a fantastic “what if” dream of Polyphony; “What would the fastest racing car on Earth, free of any and all regulations look like?”

Initially the X1 prototype was a single seater, canopied prototype wing car with covered front wheels. The performance brought about by the 1500ps direct injection V6 Twin Turbo would have been spectacular as is, with a top speed of 400km/h and a maximum lateral acceleration of 6G. But this concept showed an even greater advancement through the help of Red Bull Racing, who became a partner in this project.

Red Bull Racing’s chief technical officer, the genius aerodynamicist Adrian Newey proposed that “Fan Car” technology, a dream that he had held to himself over the years be added to the X1 Prototype.

A “fan car” is a vehicle having a fan mechanism which forces the air out from underneath the car, to reduce air pressure under the car’s floor. The resulting suction draws the car to the ground surface and creates a massive amount of downforce. And because it can create downforce regardless of the vehicle’s current speed, it dramatically raises it’s cornering speed even in low speed corners.

The incredible ability of fan cars has already been proven in history. The Chaparral 2J fan car entered in the 1970 Can-Nam series was so fast that it was banned after just 1 season. Even in the F1, the BT46B fan car entered in 1978 by Brabham dominated the opening round of the series with extreme speed, and was banned just after that single race.

With this proposal from Mr. Newey, the machine was transformed with a large fan added to the rear end of the body. With additional advice regarding the shapes of the front and rear wings and rear diffuser, its aerodynamics became even further refined. As a result, the X1 prototype attained an astonishing level of performance, reaching a top speed of over 450km/h, with a maximum lateral acceleration reaching up to 8.75G. This is a performance level that is at the very limits of what a normal human body can withstand.

The driver who performed the shakedown test of the machine in Gran Turismo 5, was the world famous Sebastian Vettel. In his very first run on the Suzuka Circuit, he shortened the record time of the course by over 20 seconds. And in the test drive on the Nurburgring GP Course, he marked a record time of 1 minute 4 seconds, drawing out the incredible potential of the X1 Prototype.

This is the dream of the fastest racing car on land, brought to life through the collaboration between Polyphony and Red Bull. Witness for yourself the power of the X1 through the in-game “X1 Challenge”, the first driving lesson ever in Gran Turismo to be performed by a top professional driver.

Adrian Newey, Chief Technical Officer at Red Bull Racing

The results were thrilling. X1 is about evolution. Delivering the optimum combination of tested technologies in a single integrated design. This would be the future of racing were we not bound by regulations, but one that is achievable today. And as Sebastian has shown, it is about devastating speed coupled with real handling control. Today thanks to PlayStation®3 and Gran Turismo we can test drive the future.

Kazunori Yamauchi, President, Polyphony Digital Inc and creator of the Gran Turismo series

X1 sees the marriage of virtual and real worlds as we explore the boundaries of our technology and aesthetic senses. The X1 Prototype Project has been motivated by curiosity and passion, powerful forces that brought together the best the world has to offer in design, physics simulation, racing car product technology and driving.

X1 Downforce Specifications

Lets try calculating the cornering G’s of the X1 at 300km/h from the total tire load and coefficient of friction for the tires.

The total load on the X1′s tires at 300km/h is 1142.7kgf at the front tires, and 1432kgf at the rear tires. The coefficient of friction for the tires isμ=1.97. From these conditions, the maximum cornering force that the tires can exhibit can be determined to be 5073kgf. Dividing this by the wet weight of the X1 of 615kg comes to be 8.25, which is the maximum cornering G of the X1.

8.25G greatly exceeds the G’s felt during the launch of the Space Shuttle, and is roughly the same as that of a jet fighter plane at full afterburner. It is a figure at the very limits of what a human body can withstand.

Test Calculation: Cornering G at 300km/h
Total Tire Load: 2575.6kgf (Front Wheel 1142.7kgf+Rear Wheel 1432.9kgf)
Coefficient of Friction of Tires: μ=1.97 (baseμ=2.16, model calculates an efficiency reduction to 91.5% under high load)
Cornering force that can be exhibited by tires: 5073.9kgf
Cornering G: 8.25G (= 5073.9kgf / 615kg)

Read more: http://www.worldcarfans.com/110102929262/red-bull-x1-prototype-revealed-for-gran-turismo-5-video#ixzz13tUTExBi

A secret of Red Bull’s superior pace in the decisive Q3 phase of qualifying may have been revealed.

Autosprint’s auto.it website reports that the team has a special electronic setting for the Renault engine that maintains a constant exhaust gas pressure.

When the setting is selected, the stream of gases flow constantly from the exhaust through the double diffuser, even when the driver of the RB6 is not pressing the throttle.

This would increase downforce at slow speeds.

The setting, revealed initially on the blog of the British journalist James Allen, is reportedly used sparingly – for example only in Q3 – because it is damaging to the engine.

The RB6 has been on pole position at 8 of the 9 grands prix so far this season.

Jun.9 (GMM)  Jacques Villeneuve is tipping a strong race for the McLaren team in Montreal this weekend.

The 1997 world champion will be at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, whose layout is named after his late and revered father.

“I really love this track and I think the cars equipped with the F-duct should have a good performance,” Villeneuve, 39, is quoted in a column at rds.ca.

“It is a circuit requiring low downforce and with low speed corners, which I think will suit McLaren,” added the French Canadian.

“But we must not forget about Red Bull, whose qualifying this year has been monumental.”

The Red Bulls have indeed monopolised pole position so far in 2010, and for the past couple of months have been the standout favourites for grand prix victories.

But Turkey two weeks ago showed that McLaren’s MP4-25 is stepping up to the pace of the RB6, and combined with the Mercedes engine and the F-duct, the British team might now be seen as the favourite for the Montreal win.

“A few races ago people were predicting a Red Bull runaway and I think people now suspect that the whole thing’s going to be a lot closer than that,” said team boss Martin Whitmarsh.

“I think predicting the outcome of this coming weekend is impossible for any pundit to do and that’s how the sport should be,” he added.

Held at the state of the art Shanghai International Circuit on the outskirts of China’s largest city, the Force India Formula One Team will be heading to this event with high hopes of keeping its recent run of form going after scoring points in the first three races of the year. Adrian Sutil picked up his first points-finish of the year in Malaysia with a fighting fifth place, taking the team’s season total so far to 18 points.The Chinese Grand Prix will be the fourth round of the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship and the final event in the quartet of flyaway races that opened the season.

Team Q&A
Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal
Dr Mallya, the team is currently sixth in the constructors’ championship and has 18 points from three races. You must be pleased with this progress so far?
At the start of the season I said we wanted to be regular points finishers and here we are, three races in, with three points’ finishes. It’s very pleasing when you see just how far we’ve come in one year: after three races in 2009 we had nul points and were tenth. The difference, I believe, has been keeping the focus on what we want to do. We’ve kept our heads down, got on with the job and to a certain extent kept out of what the other teams are doing – we’ve focussed on our own game. It’s a real credit to Mark Smith and his team that we’ve got the points we have. The team at Brackley and Silverstone are tight-knit, efficient and the results are now coming through.

You’ve made a lot about wanting fifth in the championship. Three races in, do you still think this is possible?
The grid is very tight as we saw in Malaysia and Australia and there’s no clear delineation between the front and the midfield. The most important at this stage is that we are still up there fighting. Renault look very strong right now but there’s still a lot more races to go this year and we have a clear direction about where we are going that will keep us with them, or hopefully leapfrog them. The drivers are confident and the team is working well so I think fifth is still realistic.

Driver Q&A
Adrian Sutil (car 14, VJM03/03)
Adrian, you scored your first points of the season in Malaysia. What were your feelings after this race?
It felt really good to finally get them. It was an exciting race as well in the end, racing against Lewis. Fighting against each other is always a pleasure, as we did it a lot in F3 and sometimes in F1. We have a lot of respect for each other; I am happy for him when he wins and he is happy for me when I do well. I was happy, relieved, proud – all of the above really – when we got to the finish. I knew we had the car to do it so it was only a matter of time before we scored some points. I’m now full of motivation for the rest of the season.

What do you think about the next race in China?
The next race in China will be a bit different but there are some similarities to Malaysia as well. The circuit layout is different, of course, but you need a good top speed, which we have, and you need a little bit of downforce for the mid sector, for the slow corners so I think it should suit our car really well. I don’t think we should be concerned about our performance at the moment, we are strong and we can fight in the top 10, and that’s very encouraging at this point of the year.

What is possible in Shanghai?
I’m confident, definitely. It was encouraging in Malaysia, and also the last races in Bahrain and Australia. I think we can show a very similar performance in China. Temperatures will be a bit cooler, but there is a long straight and you need to be very fast on that, and that’s what our car can do. It has also the downforce required for the slow speed corners. My feeling is that we can perform well again in Shanghai.

Tonio Liuzzi (car 15, VJM03/01)
What are your thoughts on the next race in China?
We are pushing to try to bring some more steps forward for the car. I have been in the simulator and we are pushing to bring updates to China as we want to be ready to score points again and not let our momentum slip. For sure it’s one of the circuits that I like, and I’ve always had good results there. In fact my best result in F1 was at that circuit – in 2007 Sebastian Vettel and myself finished fourth and sixth for Toro Rosso. We go to China pretty positive about our potential. It was good to finally get into Q3 in Malaysia and from there we have to hope for a good race. In Malaysia we were quite comfortable in the car and I have to hope that the luck stays with me this time and we can get some more points.

Do you enjoy driving at the track?
It’s pretty similar to Malaysia. There are a lot of high speed corners, and it’s quite technical, especially Turns One and Six and Seven. It’s got a flow as a circuit and there are some technical corners, and it’s always a crazy race because there can be some different weather conditions. So overall I’m looking forward to it! More points are the aim and we can do it, for sure.

Paul di Resta, test and reserve driver
Paul, you’ve driven two practice sessions now. What are your key learnings from this?
It went relatively well in Malaysia. It was always going to be a difficult task as I hadn’t had any running in the simulator beforehand so it completely new to me and very different conditions. With the high temperatures and the different behaviour of the tyres it was an uphill curve but I felt I moved forward, I improved and I got some good experience. I didn’t find it physically tough but the heat and humidity was something else. In DTM you get very hot inside the car but this wasn’t something I’d ever experienced. It’s all part of that learning curve and I felt I acclimatised to it well.

You’ve also had the chance to sit in different cars, with you driving Adrian’s in Australia and Tonio’s in Malaysia. Is this a particular challenge for you?
Each crew has their ways of doing things as there are different engineers and mechanics but the cars are very similar. I am now getting a feel for how Tonio or Adrian want their base set-ups, but in terms of the programme it is entirely the same as the race drivers. At the moment I’m still conscious it isn’t my car so I have to be careful to build up gradually, be controlled and constructive and get the data for weekend

Have you driven on the Shanghai International Circuit before?
No it will be new again to me and I won’t have any simulator running beforehand so it will be starting from the bottom, learning the new track. At least I have now got some experience on this type of wide, Tilke track so it should just be a case of making steady progress again.