2009 Testing - March (Jerez & Barcelona)

[xpensive]

Mark Webber is very polite to his previous employers.

[MattF1]

Right guys, BBC's pit lane reporter lee Mckenzie is updating her twitter live from tests, so log on here for all the latest info. http://twitter.com/leemck
Don't think this has already been posted.

[WhiteBlue]

Interesting! She thinks that BMW will be alone to bring KERS to Australia. Didn't they say that this is still undecided before?

[xpensive]

Nick Heidfeld is now so skinny that Theissen no longer thinks the KERS-contraption will be a weight-penalty.

[mattclinch]

the brawn on top again atm by 3 tenths....

[Afterburner]

Testing times and number of laps at 11h40

1º Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m20.314s 37
2º Rubens Barrichello Brawn GP + 0"808 40
3º Nick Heidfeld BMW-Sauber + 1"012 69
4º Jarno Trulli Toyota + 1"672 29
5º Fernando Alonso Renault + 1"746 38
6º Mark Webber Red Bull + 2"203 26
7º Heikki Kovalainen McLaren + 2"496 27
8º Kazuki Nakajima Williams + 2"579 20
9º Sebastien Bourdais Toro Rosso + 2"725 14
10º Adrian Sutil Force India + 3"388 16

[Afterburner]

I believe the pecking order for Melbourne will be pretty similar to this chart with Mclaren/Brawn GP exchanging places.

[Rikhart]

Then mclaren have to find only around 1.5/2 full seconds in two weeks, should be cake

[Mikacouli]

Then mclaren have to find only around 1.5/2 full seconds in two weeks, should be cake

McLaren is not showing their back of their tongue! Do you really think McLaren is 2 seconds slower than the rest of the pack? McLaren did not show anything in testing also last year en 'bam'they were there in Melbourne. They will be ready, I am sure!

[Spencifer_Murphy]

@ Miguel - yep u got the gist of what I was saying, Renault & Mclaren have seen two sides of the same coin.

Back to the general discussion:

I REALLY doubt the Macca is THAT far off the pace. I'm not saying its definately going to be at the top, or even in the top 3. But I am saying I cannot believe its going to be a full 2 seconds off the pace. When was the last time a Mclaren was consistently 2secs off the pace? (I don't have figures so pls don't flame me if it was quite recently! lol)

At the first few tests this winter they were relatively competitive, and sometimes fastest. So lets just wait and see.

[timbo]

McLaren did not show anything in testing also last year en 'bam'they were there in Melbourne.

Not really. In the las preseason test at Barcelona last year they were fastest in 2 days out of 3.
Of course times doesn't mean much but if they won't show anything in next few days there will be big question marks for them at Melbourne. They have to test qualifing setup anyway, right?
However, I've heard somewhere that they have a single private test left before season starts, is it correct?

[Miguel]

I'm again with Spencifer in the case of McLaren. People were saying that Renault was horrible two weeks ago with Piquet, and after a couple of days with Alonso onboard they no longer many bad things about the R29. Back then, McLaren was doing fine, and nobody said they were in trouble. But after 4-5 "bad" tests and some paraphine, now McLaren is in deep brawnie. This doesn't seem very serious or scientific to me.

[Moanlower]

After just 14 laps Buemi took over from Bourdais. Still not clear what the problem with Bourdais or the car was.

[axle]

Steering wheel...Renault I'm guessing...

[axle]

Yep deffo Renault