Young Driver Tests - Stealing A March?

[ESPImperium]

Ive had a thought on the young driver tests at Magney, have Force India, Ferrari and Mercedes stolen a march on the teams ahead of them by using the test as a "in season test" in disguise.

Mercedes are using the test as a way to update the car, Ferrari are running a overall improved package and Force India are by the looks of things looking to improve set up. All teams have used them so far to improve engine mapping and understanding of the Coanda and Magnus effect to increase downforce and greater understand the Pirellis for the rest of the season.

Could these 3 teams have stolen a march somehow, and saved a ton of money in the mean time by not testing at Abu Dhabi. I know that same could have been said about Williams, HRT and Marussia at Silverstone earlier, but i don't think the effect of testing at Silverstone are as much as testing new parts now for the final 7 fly-aways.

Discuss.

[bhall]

If stealing a march means what I think it means, then of course they are. That was the whole point of teams opting out of the end-of-seaon test in Abu Dhabi. Some teams took advantage at Silverstone; others have now taken advantage at Magny-Cours. As I recall, every team had the same options.

Teams will always look for a competitive advantage. That's why even the teams that called the Mugello test unnecessary showed up anyway.

[f1316]

I thought exactly this.

Ferrari and Mercedes will get the benefit of their tested upgrades for the rest of the season and, for the next five races, will have that advantage vs. where they would have been compared to RB/McLaren. Whilst McLaren and Red Bull may then take a step for the last two races of the season after Abu-Dhabi, this doesn't seem the optimum timing.

I'm quite shocked that the other teams chose to stick with the traditional young driver's test, knowing their rivals would be doing otherwise.

[turbof1]

Ive had a thought on the young driver tests at Magney, have Force India, Ferrari and Mercedes stolen a march on the teams ahead of them by using the test as a "in season test" in disguise.

Mercedes are using the test as a way to update the car, Ferrari are running a overall improved package and Force India are by the looks of things looking to improve set up. All teams have used them so far to improve engine mapping and understanding of the Coanda and Magnus effect to increase downforce and greater understand the Pirellis for the rest of the season.

Could these 3 teams have stolen a march somehow, and saved a ton of money in the mean time by not testing at Abu Dhabi. I know that same could have been said about Williams, HRT and Marussia at Silverstone earlier, but i don't think the effect of testing at Silverstone are as much as testing new parts now for the final 7 fly-aways.

Discuss.

Depends on how you look at. For Mercedes this could be especially true; they introduced a massive upgrade, though in their case it more about making up lost ground rather then stealing a march. But yeah you could say they have quite a big advantage with testing now; these are the kind of upgrades you rather want to test very extensively and not quickly at friday practice.

For Ferrari and Force India I don't think it'll matter much. The top teams ussually brought out big updates without testing them extensively (only the free practices), which worked perfectly fine. Just look at McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull who were able to completely change the back without such test days (though Ferrari did started the revamping of the sidepods at the Mugello test). Especially McLaren were able to do so, essentially changing the complete car throughout the season. The only thing they evaluated during a mid-season test was the higher nose, and even that was only put on for one hour during that test at Mugello.

[strad]

I'd do it...They want to severely limit my ability to test? I'd use every opportunity to test something

[raymondu999]

They've been using the YDTs to test these things since the YDT came into play. In a way you're also testing the driver's ability to give feedback on an upgrade. Which leads me to sort of be sorry for the purebreed "YDT drivers."

Gary Paffett for example seems to be a McLaren test driver for no other purpose than to be used for these YDT events, because he can get away on the technicality that he's never started a grand prix before. I fear Oliver Turvey and Sam Bird are following that same dark route now.

[f1316]

Just seems like a no-brainer to do it now rather than later.

I still don't buy that simulator testing is enough without any on-track testing; McLaren seem to be able to get upgrades to work, but then there was still debate about which rear wing to run in Spa, so...

[skgoa]

@raymondu999: Gary Paffett is also a very very fast driver who has a huge amount of experience. Using him is a no-brainer.

[raymondu999]

It's a no-brainer for McLaren - but I can't help but think he will never race in a grand prix.

McLaren, in my view, are keeping him from racing in Grands Prix on purpose, so they can continue to use him in the young driver tests.

[bhall]

Two questions:

Can a team/or teams decide to wet the track during testing?

What useful information can a driver who tests for two teams convey to one team or the other?

[LHamilton]

It can also work in reverse. Are the teams whos done the YDT now, gonna be hampered next season? Other teams can use the YDT in Abu Dhabi to look at improvments on the 2013 cars.