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Pastor Maldonado recorded the fastest time on the penultimate testing day of the current 4-day session at Barcelona. The session was dominated by 4 red flags and was eventually cut short 3 minutes earlier than planned because Felipe Massa came to a halt in the pitlane.
The beauty of testing, hopefully Mercedes and Ferrari find its achilles heel and fix it!banibhusan wrote:Yeah. And the drop in performance seems to be significant. Doesn't look that consistent as compared to the times set by the McLaren and the RB.
This seems pretty significant, if true. Would certainly explain why the Ferrari, from what we're hearing, is less stable in the fast corners than the RB / McLaren.f1motta wrote:According to Polish blogger Renault and Mercedes are still using off-throttle maps http://www.f1talks.pl/2012/02/23/zespol ... klopotach/
Mercedes I Group 1 & Mclaren in Group 2. Or mayb even in the Border or Grup 2 & 3. Force India to beat Mclaren this year.banibhusan wrote:Hope so. Or else there will be probably 4 groups of teams fighting with each other.
Group1: RB, McLaren
Group2: Mercedes, Ferrari n may be Lotus
Group3: FI,TR, Sauber and williams
Group4: Caterham,Marussia and HRT
It will be soon...f1316 wrote:This seems pretty significant, if true. Would certainly explain why the Ferrari, from what we're hearing, is less stable in the fast corners than the RB / McLaren.f1motta wrote:According to Polish blogger Renault and Mercedes are still using off-throttle maps http://www.f1talks.pl/2012/02/23/zespol ... klopotach/
Still, odd that it's not been picked up by, say, Autosport if there's anything to it.
If memory serves correctly wasn't there a team last year who had somewhat of a specialty for pulling away at the start and controlling the race from there? RBR always looked very strong in 1st stints so seems logical that this is an area Macca are trying to find performance in.raymondu999 wrote:Why would they keep on repeating the 1st stint?Lorenzo_Bandini wrote:Mclaren didn't do a real race sim. After the first stint, at the end of each stint, Hamilton back to the pit for 3 minutes.
After the first stint he was always with a big tank because Mclaren refueled the car into the pits. We know that because his time didn't drop off like during a proper race.
He was always in 1.28 - 1.29 range, like at the start of a race.
Mclaren car is very good, at the first stint, with the set of tyre, Hamilton was as fast as Vettel.
May be or may be not. The true picture will only be revealed in Australia or may be after the first round of fly away races are over when teams bring their major upgrades to the car.Mr.S wrote: Mercedes I Group 1 & Mclaren in Group 2. Or mayb even in the Border or Grup 2 & 3. Force India to beat Mclaren this year.
Besides the times are much better than Mclaren's. Mercedes doing heaps of laps in 1-24's & 1-25's & 1-26' whereas Mclaren's times were mostly in the higher 1-26's,1-27's,1-28's.
Vettel was doing 2.5s faster than Mclaren when the Mclaren was on Mediums & Vettel on Hards. Mclren's pace is nothing exceptional & I doubt that they are anywhere in the title picture this year.
Whoever will do will get screwed badly. Last year Mclaren got lucky with their exhaust but that does not happen every year. It takes a lot of time to understand each component & get the pace out of the upgrade package.banibhusan wrote:May be or may be not. The true picture will only be revealed in Australia or may be after the first round of fly away races are over when teams bring their major upgrades to the car.Mr.S wrote: Mercedes I Group 1 & Mclaren in Group 2. Or mayb even in the Border or Grup 2 & 3. Force India to beat Mclaren this year.
Besides the times are much better than Mclaren's. Mercedes doing heaps of laps in 1-24's & 1-25's & 1-26' whereas Mclaren's times were mostly in the higher 1-26's,1-27's,1-28's.
Vettel was doing 2.5s faster than Mclaren when the Mclaren was on Mediums & Vettel on Hards. Mclren's pace is nothing exceptional & I doubt that they are anywhere in the title picture this year.
Agreed!! The major upgrade part was only for races after the first round of fly away races when teams usually get a major upgrade to the car.Mr.S wrote: Whoever will do will get screwed badly. Last year Mclaren got lucky with their exhaust but that does not happen every year. It takes a lot of time to understand each component & get the pace out of the upgrade package.
In case of Mercedes all their upgrades failed & they aborted the whole package in Australia. I doubt if there can be ANY big or Game Changing Upogrades. Maybe a few tenths here & there but nothing Major.
Besides all teams would like to complete most of their upgrades by the last test. I am sure that last 2 Practise Sessions (p2 & P3)will most be focussed on finding a proper balance & setups for both short & long runs.
Having 1 Practise Session to understand any major Upgrade can be Counter Productive.
Hate to burst your bubble. Maybe people will feel I am ranting but Hamilton's time last day in his Race SIM(He himself said he did a race sim kind of stuff) varied from 1-26.5 odd to 1-31.3 odd with an average of 1-28.something.Hail22 wrote:Highlights so far: McLaren and Red Bull are close with Ferrari struggling and Mercedes looking good. (Autosport).
Looks like Ferrari will have another lack luster year, or is this an indirect protest approaching the concorde negotiations later this year?
