Testing

Testing seems less prominent

Sunday, 20 May 2012 11:54

The only in-season testing of the stretched out season has drawn to a conclusion in Mugello. It is essentially a trade off between teams and FIA to conduct a test during the season – postponing one of the winter tests.

Alonso has gone fastest in day one followed by Grosjean twice in the next two days. The times on the sheets denotes just proves nothing and counting it for judging a team is irrelevant.

Many teams have done more laps which shows their utilisation of running new components they have brought up and managing the stringent time in on-track development which is good. The circuit where it’s been done also renders issues.

Drivers have acknowledged their desires to race at this unfettered track. It is atypical to any track in the racing calender perhaps signs of silverstone partly. It has fast corners and flows well subjected, though, it has less track width which arises safety concerns.

But the big names in F1 believe that in-season testing is money spent needlessly. conspicuously less time in testing, logistics and workload are some reasons. Further more, the data gathered doesn’t lift the cloak of performance every time. It is up to FIA to extend the testing chances and make it propitious which has been bogged down in terms of cost cutting measures.

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Ferrari's look back at Mugello test

Sunday, 20 May 2012 11:54

DAY 1: Ferrari have been looking to find some lost pace from the testing days at Mugello. Fernando Alonso took to the wheels of F2012 in the opening day. The overwhelming crowd of 15,000 in number arrived at the scenery to witness the action and they were all over the trackside. Being the track owned by Ferrari the teams are tempted to test there with free rental cost.

Alonso’s day was scheduled for improving newly developed parts only to be disrupted by rain showers. He topped the timing days when track dried out after the downpour before lunch. He tried runs on the inters and mainly focused on understanding the Pirelli rubber.

He expressed his desire of racing on the Italian track, after all, it was only the second time he visited this beautifully bounded circuit under Tuscany hills.

DAY 2: Felipe Massa took charge the second day on the track. He often tested here when testing during the season was not prohibited in his early Ferrari career. Bright sunshine was the day forecast but he only tested in his Bahrain Spec Ferrari. Turning vanes under noses could be seen testing and they worked mainly on the tyres, their behaviour over short and long distances and also tested the feasibility of handful of aerodynamic components, as well as various different set-ups on the car.

DAY 3: The attention turned towards Alonso in the final day and he again gone fastest in the morning session before his shunt. It had taken them two hours to recover from the damage. He had some vital upgrades in his car, mainly revised exhaust exit, rear body work and also rear wings. They had also been reported to have moved their exhaust exits to the car’s centre – aiming to obtain tenths or two from it which was more conventional along with sidepods.

However, they say their engineers taking extra time out in Maranello to develop more update package which is due to arrive on the race weekend of Barcelona in over a week’s time.

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Jerez Testing Day 2 - Caterham F1

Sunday, 20 May 2012 11:54

Circuito de Jerez, Spain - 8th February 2012

Driver: Heikki Kovalainen

Chassis: CT01-#2

Total laps: 139

Best lap: 1.21.518

Heikki Kovalainen: “I feel very happy with the work we have completed today. Yesterday we had a problem that was nothing to do with the car so today was our first real day of testing and we had a trouble free day, completing most of what we wanted to on day one and day two and working through a variety of setup changes. We ran on each of the tyre compounds and I’m really starting to get a feel for the car. Basically it’s good news because it confirms what I thought yesterday. This car is a lot better than the 2011 car, it’s quicker and everything works as we want it to. We’ve made very solid progress and I feel really good physically, so I think there’s a lot more to come.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “An excellent day of testing and I want to congratulate Heikki and the whole team for the job we have done today. We ran KERS for the first time and completed everything we had planned with that system, so thank you to Red Bull Technology and Renault Sport F1 for helping make that part of the program run so smoothly.

“Today we were concentrating on the setup program, using long runs to really start understanding what this car can do, so having completed 139 laps we have made a huge amount of progress, particularly compared to last year, and now we have to make sure we keep up this sort of momentum for the rest of the tests.”

Riad Asmat, Caterham Group CEO: “That was the sort of day that makes this job so enjoyable. We were reliable, quick and we learnt a huge amount about the car. Quite a contrast to yesterday when we had to deal with a problem that we had never encountered before, but the team worked very hard and had it all rectified last night. Today we completed more laps than any other team and had no problems at all. That enabled us to make up the ground we lost and give the engineers and the team back at the factory a huge amount of data to work on tonight in preparation for Giedo getting into the car tomorrow. We want more days like this as it is the hard miles we put in now that will put us in the best possible shape for the season ahead.”

Giedo van der Garde has his first taste of the Caterham F1 Team CT01 tomorrow as he takes over from Heikki Kovalainen all day. During his seat fit at the factory last week he recorded a short video interview which can be watched here: http://www.caterhamf1.com/tv

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Jerez Testing Day 2 - Sauber F1

Sunday, 20 May 2012 11:54

Jerez de la Frontera, 8th February 2012 – Today Sergio Pérez got his first taste of the new Sauber C31-Ferrari. He completed 68 laps. The pit crew had a busy day implementing some new aero parts and fixing a fuel system problem in the afternoon.

Circuit - Jerez de la Frontera / 4.428 km

Driver - Sergio Pérez (MX)

Weather - Sunny all day but windy, air 5-12°C, track 6-17°C

Chassis / engine - C31.02 / Ferrari 056

Mileage today - 68 laps

Fastest lap - 1:20.711 min

Giampaolo Dall’Ara

(Head of Track Engineering)

“It was Sergio’s first day of testing with the new car. To start with he had to familiarise himself with the C31 and he did a bit of set-up work in the morning. During the lunch break we implemented new aero parts on the car. They are working well and as expected which is important and good news. In the afternoon we unfortunately lost track time because of a problem with the fuel system. So far we have only used the medium tyre compound.”

Sergio Pérez:

“For me it was a positive day. It was great to be back on track after the winter break and so far I’m happy with the new car. I feel confident. It was a shame that we lost track time due to the fuel system problem in the afternoon, but I think we can catch up tomorrow. We have a huge programme for Thursday and I’m looking forward to it very much. Compared to yesterday we have already learnt a great deal more about the C31.”

What comes next

Tomorrow Sergio Pérez will be driving again before handing over the car to Kamui on Friday.

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Jerez Testing Day 2 - McLaren F1

Sunday, 20 May 2012 11:54

Date

Wednesday February 8 2012

Driver
Jenson Button

Location
Circuito de Jerez

Track length
4.423km

Weather
Sunny, but cold and very windy. Maximum ambient temperature 11.6°C, maximum track temperature 21.1°C

Laps completed
85

Kilometres covered
376km

Best laptime
1m20.688s at 12:18

Programme

Jenson’s second day of testing with MP4-27 and another day spent getting used to the new chassis and evaluating a series of braking, set-up and software changes made to the car – particularly the effect on balance and stability at both high and low speeds.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team manager David Redding said: “Despite the cold and windy conditions, Jenson was able to log further mileage with MP4-27 today. It’s still early days, and this was very much an exploratory day, but we were able to get a useful understanding of how the car behaves and reacts out on the track.

“It’s satisfying that Jenson’s been able to complete more than 600km of trouble-free running over the past two days; that puts us in a good position for the rest of the week.”

Driver for day three
Lewis Hamilton

Duration of test
Four days (February 7-10)

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