2011 F1 Pre-Season Testing

Kevski

The first test session begins in Valencia tomorrow with most teams trying out their new cars for the first time.

The driver line up for this test is as follows:

Tuesday 1st Feb
Red Bull (RB7) - Sebastian Vettel
McLaren (MP4-25) - Gary Paffett
Ferrari (F150) - Fernando Alonso
Mercedes (W02) - Nico Rosberg (AM), Michael Schumacher (PM)
Renault (R31) - Vitaly Petrov
Williams (FW33) - Rubens Barrichello
Force India (VJM03) - Nico Hulkenberg (AM), Paul di Resta (PM)
Sauber (C30) - Kamui Kobayashi
Toro Rosso (STR6) - Jaime Alguersuari
Lotus (T128) - None
HRT (F111) - TBC
Virgin (VR-01) - Jerome d'Ambrosio

Wednesday 2nd Feb
Red Bull (RB7) - Sebastian Vettel (AM), Mark Webber (PM)
McLaren (MP4-25) - Lewis Hamilton
Ferrari (F150) - Fernando Alonso
Mercedes (W02) - TBC
Renault (R31) - Robert Kubica
Williams (FW33) - Rubens Barrichello (AM), Pastor Maldonado (PM)
Force India (VJM03) - Paul di Resta
Sauber (C30) - Sergio Perez
Toro Rosso (STR6) - Jaime Alguersuari (AM), Sebastien Buemi (PM)
Lotus (T128) - Heikki Kovaleinen
HRT (F111) - TBC
Virgin (VR-01) - Jerome d'Ambrosio

Thursday 3rd Feb
Red Bull (RB7) - Mark Webber
McLaren (MP4-25) - Jenson Button
Ferrari (F150) - Felipe Massa
Mercedes (W02) - TBC
Renault (R31) - Robert Kubica
Williams (FW33) - Pastor Maldonado
Force India (VJM03) - Adrian Sutil
Sauber (C30) - Sergio Perez
Toro Rosso (STR6) - Sebastien Buem
Lotus (T128) - Jarno Trulli
HRT (F111) - TBC
Virgin (VR-01) - Timo Glock

Lotus will not be running on Tuesday but plan to stay an extra day to do a private test.

BoardsRanger

Sauber's rear wing operation:

voxpop

is it the driver that moves the rear wing or does it move automatically ?

frostie500

voxpop wrote: »

is it the driver that moves the rear wing or does it move automatically ?

It is driver controlled, presumably by a button in the cockpit. It will return to its normal state when the driver brakes

BoardsRanger

frostie500 wrote: »

It is driver controlled, presumably by a button in the cockpit. It will return to its normal state when the driver brakes

The mercedes system returns the wing to a normal state when the driver releases the button before braking. I presume this is to do with stability under braking and I'm sure most teams will do the same.

lolie

rosberg and schuey have identical lap times of 1:16.450


http://www.msfree.gr/ms.php?id=18694

amacachi

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Hopefully with all these moveable aero devices we wont have a return to spectacular wing failures of the 60/70`s. That said considering the amount of dials the driver has to operate I am expecting some big crashes this season.

Oh no, can't have anyone crash ever!

mickdw

amacachi wrote: »

Oh no, can't have anyone crash ever!

To be fair, there are crashes & there are rear wing failures. Rear wing breaking off suddenly puts the driver in a terrible situation usually at max speed and just entering braking zone. I wouldnt wish that on my worst Alonso

amacachi

mickdw wrote: »

To be fair, there are crashes & there are rear wing failures. Rear wing breaking off suddenly puts the driver in a terrible situation usually at max speed and just entering braking zone. I wouldnt wish that on my worst Alonso

Aye, don't think anyone wants to see wing failures but the construction quality of F1 cars has gotten too good in the last 15-20 years. :pac:

frostie500

Ficus wrote: »

Not sure if thats a tongue in cheek remark but with wing failures of older cars resulting in fatalities and even in the modern era causing proper big accidents like the ones i have linked to below is something to be taken very seriously. Infact, that was the one thing Rosberg mentioned he was worried about on the new car today.

Those clips really do show that its only when something goes wrong that you realise how fast the cars are actually travelling and just how unbelievable the braking power of an F1 car is

Kevski

Looks like Renault have the first big innovation of this season. They've positioned their exhausts to exit at the front of the sidepods and blow the floor of the car, generating downforce in a manner similar to the blown diffuser.





I'm quite possible wrong, but seems to me as if they intend for the exhaust gases form a low pressure zone along the side of the floor and effectively act as a skirt. Either way, it's innovations like this that really set Formula 1 apart from everything else!

voxpop

Oh you mean their Front Exit Exhaust

losthorizon

images from testing

http://www.sutton-images.com/tvplayer.asp?v=38&c=2

losthorizon

The Flying Lap -Testing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWQoPNB-L5A

frostie500

I was working away on this after Valencia but the Kubica crash took up quite a bit of focus over the weekend! With the second test of the year kicking off tomorrow, from Jerez, I thought it was important to look at what Valencia indicated for the new season.

The main thing that it showed was the the Pirelli tyres are on a knife edge in terms of wear rate. We all want a more "aggressive" tyre but the one on show at the opening test was a bit too radical and I'd expect the compound to change by the time we get to the start of the season. Valencia was also the first opportunity to see the movable rear wing and KERS in operation and neither posed any particular headaches to the teams.

*********************************************

Tomorrow the Jerez circuit in Southern Spain will play host to the second four day test of the 2011 Formula 1 season.

Testing has always been a “phoney war” with teams able to disguise their deficiencies with lower fuels and fresh tyres in a bid to top the timesheets and get noticed by potential sponsors. Even so when the dust settled from last week’s Valencia test certain elements of 2011 have become clearly. The most notable of these was the performance characteristics of the new control tyres offered by Pirelli.

Last season, the main complaint in relation to tyres was Bridgestone had developed a tyre that was too durable. Drivers were easily able to complete races with just the single mandated pitstop; in fact at Monza Sebastian Vettel left his tyre change until the penultimate lap. With such efficient tyres a critical variable was taken out of the drivers hands. The Valencia test showed that the Pirelli tyre is much less durable than the Bridgestone and as a result drivers’ will need to conserve their tyres during this year’s races should they wish to single stop.

The test showed that there is a large drop off in performance after an initial hop lap; the test showed a drop off of 0.2s on the supersoft and 0.1s on the medium tyres. If these tyres were used in a race at the Valencia track this would see a performance drop off of five seconds over the course of each stint for the supersoft tyre, this figure does not take into account the fuel load lowering during the course of the stint. While Pirelli has repeatedly said that they are looking to create a tyre more “on the edge” this is too much wear to be effectively used in a Grand Prix.

It is also quite understandable that Pirelli has made such a mistake; it is twenty years since their last involvement in Formula 1. Going forward it is likely therefore that Pirelli will adapt their tyres and try and balance the tyre wear for the supersoft rubber at somewhere between 0.05 and 0.1s per lap degradation. The reason that I believe that Pirelli will change the design of their tyres is that if we such excessive wear on the tyres it would be quite easy to see a situation where drivers run out of their allocated amount of tyres before the end of the race. As a result, it is very easy to see why tyre management will be a key to a successful 2011.

The tests also suggested that Ferrari have designed a car that is particularly kind on its tyres. During long stints Fernando Alonso was able to post consistent fast times as he conserved the tyres. Any opening test of the year can be misleading in relation to determining the performance characteristics of cars, drivers and tyres because the sample size is just too small. They do however give clues as to what to look out for in subsequent tests. At Jerez it will be interesting to compare the relative performance drop off of the Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren during their longer stints.

This will also be the on-track debut of the new McLaren. The team spent as long as possible working on development of their striking MP4-26. At Valencia the team focused on understanding the new tyres, and comparing the results with their simulator models. By all accounts from team insiders the results correlated well and as a result their new car should be expected to be very fast when it finally hits the racetrack.

Valencia also gave each team the opportunity to focus on the various new technologies on the grid this year. KERS has been reintroduced and will be used by the majority of the teams. When it was last used in 2009 it was clear that Mercedes had, by some distance, the most effective system. It will be interesting to see whether the opposition has caught up. Also on show at Valencia was the movable rear wing. The device will be used to aid overtaking and teams reported no issues with its use.

On-track action will conclude on Sunday.

Grim.

1. Michael Schumacher Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 20.352s
2. Felipe Massa Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 20.413s
3. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m 21.009s
4. Jaime Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 21.214s
5. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m 21.613s
6. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m 21.780s
7. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m 21.857s
8. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m 22.208s
9. Vitaly Petrov Lotus Renault GP-Renault 1m 22.493s
10. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m 22.591s
11. Jarno Trulli Team Lotus-Renault 1m 23.216s

ro_chez

Grim. wrote: »

1. Michael Schumacher Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 20.352s
2. Felipe Massa Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 20.413s
3. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m 21.009s
4. Jaime Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 21.214s
5. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m 21.613s
6. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m 21.780s
7. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m 21.857s
8. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m 22.208s
9. Vitaly Petrov Lotus Renault GP-Renault 1m 22.493s
10. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m 22.591s
11. Jarno Trulli Team Lotus-Renault 1m 23.216s

Could it be that Ross Brawn has designed the F2002 Part 2?

Is the THE year of the comeback? :pac:

amacachi

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Go on Mickey Schu!

I want him to do well just so I can hear all those people who said he was past it eat their words.

Same here.

lord lucan

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Go on Mickey Schu!

I want him to do well just so I can hear all those people who said he was past it eat their words.

Ditto. With a year back under his belt and i'd assume major input into the 2011 car i'm expecting much more from him this season.

Iron Hide

Fair play to Timo Glock too for landing the Virgin in front of a Williams and two Lotus cars!

Grim.

article on autosport about todays testing

bit early to tell but it sounds like redbull may have another beast of a car

Jerez test: Sunday

When you're on the ground at a Formula 1 test, the most common question you receive – from friends, colleagues, and fans – is "what can you tell about the competitive order?"

There are so many variables in F1 these days that can skew performance to a huge degree. Last year, the return of fuel tanks capable of doing a full race distance made the 2010 pre-season much harder to judge than its predecessors. This year, we have four tyre compounds from Pirelli that are more spread out performance-wise than we ever had from Bridgestone.

Timesheets can be – sorry, are – a misleading source of information at tests. So with that in mind, I ventured out trackside today to see if there was anything to be learned from seeing the cars up close.

And how's this for a stat? The car that impressed the most in sector one at Jerez (that's Turns 1 to 4, so a good variety) was only eighth fastest today. For those that haven't memorised the times yet, that car was – surprise, surprise – Red Bull's RB7.

Once you've finished groaning with disappointment, we'll move on. Sebastian Vettel was mind-blowing on corner entry into Turns 1 and 2. In comparison to its rivals, the Red Bull looked like it was accelerating towards the corners in the braking zones.

With the outrageous entry speeds dealt with, the only word to describe the RB7 once it was thinking about leaving a corner is 'planted'. The cars from Renault and Ferrari didn't seem too far behind, but neither looked like it was glued to the road.

Vettel was even able to get the adjustable rear wing slot open almost as soon as he was on the power exiting Turn 2. It then stayed open throughout Turns 3 and 4; both quick left handers.

The Renault wasn't too far behind with the use of its new toy, whereas Fernando Alonso had to wait until he was on the straight between the two quick lefts to get his slot open, and then closed it to have a bit more downforce for Turn 4.

Vettel seemed to have more than enough grip in the quick stuff, even with the wing open the whole time, which tallied with some useful information on the timing screen. Sector one ends on the exit of Turn 4, meaning we've had figures all week revealing which cars are getting spat out of the fast stuff at the highest speeds.

Only the Red Bull and the Renault could consistently clear 270kph through this speed trap. The Ferrari wasn't far behind, but you could see Fernando Alonso forcing the car to do something it would have rather not.

Grim.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56VDcq6j6SE

lord lucan

Great video. Don't ever recall seeing a video with that much detail from pre-season testing. I wouldn't think RB are overly worried about other teams seeing it,i'd guess every team has a group of "spies" who monitor and record each others new motors and tests.

BoardsRanger

Great video but check out the crazy camera men at 11:11. Its obviously only a video shoot but you never can predict a tyre/component failure which would put them up sh1t creek!

lord lucan

BoardsRanger wrote: »

Its obviously only a video shoot but you never can predict a tyre/component failure which would put them up sh1t creek!

Or Vettel arriving behind him and running him off the road!:pac::pac:

vectra

Rosberg quickest in testing today
Hope this is a good sign for this years Merc

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/testresults/1316/formula-1-test-at-circuit-de-catalunya-20-february-2011/

Grim.

vectra wrote: »

Rosberg quickest in testing today
Hope this is a good sign for this years Merc

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/testresults/1316/formula-1-test-at-circuit-de-catalunya-20-february-2011/

gwan the petrov:p