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Wednesday Morning’s Jerez TestComments Off Michael Schumacher led the way in the opening hour of Wednesday’s Jerez test as two red flag situations kept running to a minimum. Overcast skies and a damp track greeted the drivers on the first morning of this week’s four-day Jerez test. Felipe Massa was the first to venture out, followed by Fairuz Fauzy, who was given the honour of getting behind the wheel of the new Lotus T127 in its first official test. Following a brief break after the installation laps, which were completed by all the teams excluding Virgin Racing within the first 20 minutes, Fauzy hit the track again to put in his first timed lap. The Lotus test driver clocked a 1:46.652 in his brief two-lap run. However, the team had no complaints. “Fairuz just did a couple of laps on a wet track with no problems, he’s in now for some adjustments,” Lotus reported on Twitter. The Malaysian driver’s time, though, was over 16s off the lead time set by Michael Schumacher. While his rivals were lapping in the 1:33s to start with, Schumacher’s first flying lap of the day was a 1:30.549. It wasn’t a good start to the test for Lewis Hamilton and McLaren as the Brit brought out the red flags when he stopped out on track. After a 16 minute hold-up the session was resumed only to be stopped four minutes later as Paul di Resta spun his Force India. Schumacher therefore ended the opening hour in the P1 slot with Pedro de la Rosa 0.214s behind and Felipe Massa in third place. |
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Review of fourth day of unveilings’ morning sessionComments Off The rain that affected the programs of the teams on Friday was still pouring down at the beginning of the session. However, dry conditions as of mid-morning allowed the single-seaters to roll out with more confidence on this test day at Jerez (this week), where Rubens Barrichello, did best time with 1:22.319. Robert Kubica was the first to start out to a wet racetrack, with Sebastien Vettel in the Red Bull and Barrichello behind the wheel of the Williams FW32 following his trail. Nonetheless, it was Felipe Massa, who did the first timed lap of the day with the Ferrari F10. In his first attempt, the Brazilian made a time of 1:29.534, but little by little he found the rhythm until his car stopped on the grass of the pit-lane entrance. It seems as though the team is pretending to go the limit. There was the rumor that the car was deliberately left without fuel to confirm the tank’s capacity. Michael Schumacher, Massa’s ex-team mate was slightly shaky during the first moments, achieving the best lap with 1:29.768 before taking his Mercedes GP W01 to boxes, where it remained the rest of the morning. The spectators were surprised. The changing weather conditions forced the teams to the difficult task of choosing tires. Even though the pools of water in different parts of the racetrack were drying, the teams decided to play it safe and made pauses, waiting for the track to dry. Barrichello informed through the radio that the driving and visibility conditions were quite good and hoped that the team could realize an evening session “to its fullest.” Lewis Hamilton was glad with these news, who seemed distraught after he began his work with Jenson Button’s McLaren MP4-25, on Friday. He declared that the day had been a waste of time, since neither him nor McLaren had been able to make a remarkable progress on their test program due to the wet racetrack. On the contrary, Nico Rosberg, was filled with confidence after his second day with the Mercedes W01 GP, despite the fact that he was not allowed to drive in dry during two sessions. He announced feeling comfortable with the car and to be sure that the Silver Arrow “will be near the racing pole positions when the competition begins in Bahrain, on March 14th.” “We have some valuable data, like all the procedures. It’s difficult when you change teams; there is so much to learn. It’s like airspace science, you know? Two days ago I did four dry laps, and a one and a half today. I felt extremely comfortable with the car, as if I could really up. That gives me a lot of confidence, so I’m not worried with the fact that there was not much time to roll in dry” Nico assured. The first appearance of the red flags came when Vettel skidded out of the racetrack and left the Red Bull trapped at the circuit end. Yet, the delayed caused by this incident was minimal, thanks to the quick response of Jerez circuit recovery team. In 15 minutes, the RB6 was back in the boxes. At the end of the morning session began to improve quickly. Barrichello did 1:22.319 after 39 laps and Massa stopped the chronometer at 1:22.697 after 94 laps. The red flag indicated that Barrichello reached midday as time leader, three tenths faster than Massa.
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BMW Sauber C29 AnalysisComments Off Although BMW decided to interrupt the development of its single-seater in the middle of the season, the C29 is the result of the permanent evolution of the BMW Sauber F1.09. In its first test in Valencia in February 1st, one could see its front aileron clearly influenced by the 2009 Brawn GP design. The nose’s cone drops a little further down, after an update similar to the one already carried out last year. The top part of the nose is now almost flat, from the pilot’s cockpit to the tip of the racing car. The front aileron is carefully sculpted to improve the nose’s air flow condition. The front suspension has been modified and has an independent steering arm to help the front aileron work more efficiently. Also, following Brawn’s example, the sides have smaller air inlets and big pontoons, the mirrors mounted over them. We have seen that the rear part has a more pronounced drop to provide with better air flow towards the rear aileron. As a result, most of the rear suspension arms are open for air flow. Once again, the racing car’s sculpture has been optimized to improve the new double diffuser. SpecificationsChassis: Carbon-fiber monocoque. DimensionsLength: 4.940 mm EngineBrand: Ferrari, 056 engine |
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