Valencia test 22-24 January

[Principessa]

Wurz caused a red flag situation it appears. He crashed into the tyre wall at turn 3 during the afternoon session. Good that he was still testing with the RA107 today and not with the new car

[johny]

it should be nice for some drivers to have such a large croud in a test day.

[Principessa]

Yeah should be great! 35.000 fans turned up, that's huge!
http://www.f1technical.net/news/8075

[Roland Ehnström]

I know that the fastest laptimes from a test day doesn't say much, but it's the only thing we have to go by, and sometimes you can really get a good clue as to which cars are going to be fast and which are not in the coming season. For example in the winter testing 2005, it was very easy to see that Ferrari had lost a lot of speed compared to 2004.

So, looking at the laptimes from the first test day at Valencia, it looks like Ferrari and McLaren are still fastest (no surprise there), and that the Williams FW30 is very fast already on it's first proper day on the track. Toyota and BMW on the other hand, were not on the pace today. It will be interesting to follow the laptimes over the next couple of days, to see if these trends stay the same.

[m3_lover]

How did Heidfeld get outpaced by his test driver like that?

[mx_tifoso]

How did Heidfeld get outpaced by his test driver like that?

Different programs perhaps I would guess that teams aren't comparing their own drivers every test day, they make each driver run different programs and "car features". Problems could also hamper a drivers program thus not allowing for maximum laps and/or laptimes.

[Ciro Pabón]

Valencia web cam (already posted): http://webcam.comunitatvalenciana.com/w ... _camara=22

Following Roland Ehnström (welcome! ) train of thought, I put this together:

Best Lap Time in 2004: 1:08.995 Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren)
Best Lap Time in 2005: 1:09.005 Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren MP4/20) - 3 Feb
Best Lap Time in 2005 (05 spec): 1:09.005 Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren MP4/20) - 3 Feb
Best Lap Time in 2006 (V10 Engine): 1:11.607 Pedro de la Rosa (McLaren MP4/20B) - 03 February
Best Lap Time in 2006 (Any car - V8 Engine): 1:08.543 Anthony Davidson (Honda RA106) - 02 March
Best Lap Time in 2006 (06 Spec car - V8 Engine): 1:08.543 Anthony Davidson (Honda RA106) - 02 March
Best Lap Time in 2007 (06 Spec car - 07 Bridgestone Tyres): 1:12.169 Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber F1.06B) - 17 January
Best Lap Time in 2007 (07 Spec car): 1:11.119 Lewis Hamilton (McLaren MP4/22) - 2 February
Best Lap Time in 2008 (08 Spec car): 1:12.182 Felipe Massa (Ferrari F2008) - 22 January



Well, maybe you can say something from the test times, it's only that I don't know what to say...

On the other hand, you could say that Super Aguri should buy a McLaren 2004 in the used racecar market... Maybe I could buy one and beat Raikkönnen times next weekend!

BTW, I had the slightest of ideas about who Ricardo Tormo was. I knew he was a motorcycle pilot. Now I know that he was born in 1952.

He won 7 times the national championship on different series. He won twice the World Championship (in the 50 cc class), the second time in 1981, as a privateer.

He was riding a bike on a testing at Martorella industrial complex in 1984 when he had an accident that ended his career. In that times, there were only two permanent tracks in Spain, Jarama and Calafat, so the moto factory Derbi lended their provisional track to Tormo's team. A car entered the circuit and crashed into Tormo's bike.

He wrote a book with a journalist, under the title of "Yo Ricardo. Una vida por y para la moto" ("I, Richard. A life for, and devoted to, the bike"). He died of leukemia in 1998.

[Principessa]

How did Heidfeld get outpaced by his test driver like that?

Heidfeld was in the F1.08 and Asmer in the F1.O7B. Heidfeld was as well conducting aero work and worked on the suspension settings. This might have caused his times to be slower than the one Asmer set.

[FLC]

I've read in more than one place that Heidfeld was complaining about balance problems.

[ben_watkins]

Opposite of the very thing that they said was the essence of their design philosphy.. balance and driveability!

[Roland Ehnström]

Roland Ehnström (welcome! )

Thank you!

Well, maybe you can say something from the test times, it's only that I don't know what to say...

Well, from the statistics you gathered, one can say that the new tires for 2007 made the cars some 3 seconds slower, while the banning of TC for 2008 only made the cars slightly slower, if any slower at all.

[Ciro Pabón]

Well, things are always convoluted, so maybe. Why, then, moving from V10 to V8 made the cars 3 seconds faster? I don't know.

Let me put forward this wild guess: if, for example, in a certain year, a car wins 3 seconds because of better aerodynamics and then the team gets a V8 engine that delivers the same power as a V10, what you observe in January is 3 second faster laps.

You only see in the numbers presented the "peaks of the seesaw". Something like this, :



If that's the case, you have to know how much the cars gained during the year to deduce how much time FIA "took away" from the cars. I'd say this year the gain and the loss were more or less balanced.

On the other hand, drivers are learning a new behaviour without TC, so, who knows...

Anyway, I don't read too much into Heidfeld times. All I know is I'm happy to see the cars running again. I like the sound.

[Roland Ehnström]

Why, then, moving from V10 to V8 made the cars 3 seconds faster? I don't know.

It certainly didn't. With all due respect, I think your statistics are misguiding in this area, as very few teams tested with V10 engines during the winter of 2005-2006. The fastest lap was probably set on in sub-optimal track conditions. Also, I believe the teams put rev limiters on their V10 engines during winter testing that year, to simulate V8 power. Combine this with the higher weight of the V10 compared to V8, and it's understandable that V10 in those conditions were slower. But the V10 cars of 2005, were faster than the V8 cars of 2006. However, improvements in the tires meant that the laptimes stayed the same.

[Roland Ehnström]

So, looking at the laptimes from the first test day at Valencia, it looks like Ferrari and McLaren are still fastest (no surprise there), and that the Williams FW30 is very fast already on it's first proper day on the track. Toyota and BMW on the other hand, were not on the pace today. It will be interesting to follow the laptimes over the next couple of days, to see if these trends stay the same.

The times from day 2 confirm what we saw yesterday: Williams have found excellent speed, the BMW doesn't go quite as fast as some would have hoped, the new Toyota is not fast at all, and the new Honda doesn't look promising so far.

[NaZzO]

Today's fastest time (1:11:00)by Kovy is interesting, given that 2007's fastest lap recorded was 1:11:119 by Lewis http://www.autosport.com/f1/testing/

So despite all the changes in regs teams were still able to perform at least the same as last year. Am I missing something here ??