Valencia Testing

[zenvision]

1. Alonso McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:12.682 84
2. Fisichella Renault (B) 1:12.737 37
3. Kovalainen Renault (B) 1:12.770 43
4. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:12.869 51

That is close, 0.2s! I think we might be in for a great season this time with 3 teams fighting for it. McLaren seem to have eroded the failures, as Alonso completed 84 laps (apparently) without a glitch and it's said that he ran a full gp distance. Renault are very evenly matched, although they had an engine failure, but to know the limit you need to surpass it! Raikkonen is getting up to speed pretty nicely and Ferrari are showing promising signs.

nice!

[Sawtooth-spike]

i dont belive a thing till they roll out on the first race.

Pre season means nothing. if we went by last years honda should of won every race. Williams should of been good as well.

pre season is a good chance to see new bits on cars

[zenvision]

Besides, what does this new testing mileage limit affect? McLaren seem to be going to use it all at once, with 2 drivers getting as much laps as possible while Ferrari seem to be taking it conservatively, one car at a time.

Could a special dispensation made on new drivers, or else no one would want to test new drivers as they would waste mileage.

[Rob W]

....McLaren seem to have eroded the failures, as Alonso completed 84 laps (apparently) without a glitch and it's said that he ran a full gp distance.

I think, historically, McLaren's reliability comes right just late enough in the season that they can't win (again).

I truly hope they've sorted it this year. Perhaps Kimi was overdriving the cars as someone said recently.

Rob W

[Ranald]

Zenvision, the testing limit doesn't come into place until the season starts. Pre-season testing is almost unlimited.

[johny]

i think they also have a certain amount of tyres, so they try to ecconomise them

[Principessa]

Does anyone know what that 'antenna-kind of thingie' is on top of the MP4-22?

[allan]

they've been running it for a while now... i wonder if it's some kind of and IR camera

[johny]

i think so to

[spanner]

I presume it's a measuring device for collecting data on something like wind speed or pressure, although that's a wild stab in the dark. It might just be a coat hanger. Hi btw.

Here's a side view, you can see they've moulded it as part of a camera housing.



I wonder if we'll see these mounted on other areas of the car during testing? I presume it would be of benefit to identify areas of high/low pressure/air speed as the car laps the track.

[allan]

notice how the upper flap of the rear wing is so big, that it passes the wing's sides!

[zenvision]

Zenvision, the testing limit doesn't come into place until the season starts. Pre-season testing is almost unlimited.

Hmm, so why are teams taking it relatively easy in testing?

I don't think Kimi necessarily overdrives the car, there was a video last year which showed that he and Schumi had practically the same style of driving.

What did you make of the Toyota time, today?

[m3_lover]

It is pre-season not a accurate measure of the cars...Most of the time... it is useless if you saw last year Honda was on top most of the time and toyota was in upper field positions... but they both did poorly in first half of the 2006 season.

[dumrick]

Does anyone know what that 'antenna-kind of thingie' is on top of the MP4-22?

That's a "Pitot tube", that measures dynamic air pressure.
And I also believe that the mileage control only begins at the start of the season. What is keeping some teams away of testing is new chassis availability and budgetary concerns...

[midzt]

I was wondering why McLaren don't put Lewis in last years car, surely any expeirence for him in a F1 car would be better than none at all? He could get use to the control systems, new tyres (or for him just tyres really, seeing as he hasn't really been on the old ones), and gnereally getting some on track time?