1st Pre Season test - Jerez - All info and photos here

[Hermann]

Off-topic: Wow I would really want to be at the place where Fernando is and drive my bike! It's raining all days in Netherlands so I haven't got the possibilities to drive outside.

Try Dubai.

[OSS EL BOSS]

[anialonso]

Jerez Test Day 3: Ferrari Show Their Potential as Massa lets rip

Felipe Massa underlined Ferrari’s statement of intent by topping the times on the penultimate day of testing, in Jerez. He set the two fastest times of the week to end the day around a second clear of Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel. After two difficult days of unreliability for Mercedes, Rosberg managed to make up for lost time with 148 laps, or 655km of running; more than two race distances in one day.

Ferrari have been one of the first teams to start bringing development parts to the car after starting tests on Tuesday with a fairly standard launch car.

After spending much of yesterday concentrating on constant speed runs for aerodynamic measurement, fitting a different exhaust configuration and a new floor, he was able to let loose in the F138 today during a series of short runs on the soft tyre this morning. He lowered Romain Grosjean’s benchmark from Wednesday and became the only driver to dip in to the 1m:17s. He did this twice during the day.

He did the time on the first lap of a six lap run, which means he will have had around 20 kilos of fuel on board, so there is another six tenths of a second there for a low fuel time.

The Ferrari looks consistent on the longer runs too, the degradation looks well managed and the drop off in performance not as severe as McLaren and Mercedes’ long runs at this stage.

Ferrari found the same issues on the softer compound tyres that other teams have during the week. Although temperatures have been considerably lower than we can expect to see later in the year, Pirelli have admitted that the Jerez circuits abrasive surface prohibited teams from attacking over a a series of laps, with driver’s having to adopt a one-lap-on one-lap-off strategy.


So far this week Red Bull have been able to lap most consistently and quickly over a longer run. With Sebastian Vettel behind the wheel of the RB9 for the first time today they were able to complete an eleven lap run on the medium tyre with an average lap time of 1:21.7s – a pace which any other team is yet to show of a run of similar length. As a comparison to the changes in lap times over the course of the week, Jenson Button averaged 1:24.1s over an eight lap stint on the medium tyre, on Monday.

“It is an evolution of last year’s car and we have tried to keep the strengths and address some of the weaknesses. Obviously with relatively stable regulations the car is an evolution as are some of the others,” Christian Horner said today.

Red Bull has now done 1,222 kilometres of running on the new car. Vettel was one of three drivers to complete more than one hundred laps today, alongside Esteban Gutierrez and Nico Rosberg. Mercedes were in need of a faultless day, and after completing 148 laps they will be looking to Lewis Hamilton for some short, light fuelled runs when he returns to the car tomorrow.

Rosberg and Vettel ended the day in second and third places, both around a second off Massa’s pace.

Rosberg’s time was set on the first lap of a 16 lap run in the Mercedes. He will have had 60 kilos of fuel on board at the time, which is 40 kilos more (equivalent to around 1.1 seconds of lap time) than Massa’s fastest timed lap. However the Mercedes lap times tail off steeply towards the end of the run. This is worth keeping an eye on in the next two tests when the teams will do race distance runs and we will get a clear picture of which cars are looking after their tyres the best.

At this early stage it looks positive for Ferrari.

Kimi Raikkonen had his first day in the Lotus E21 and spent much of the morning getting himself comfortable and conducting constant speed aero tests. A series of short runs this afternoon brought him to within 2/10ths of Vettel.

Raikkonen was closely followed by Jean-Eric Vergne, in his first outing in Toro Rosso’s STR8, and James Rossiter in the Force India. Vergne continued Toro Rosso’s promising pace this week as he completed a number of short runs and he too ended the day within 2/10ths of Vettel.

Rossiter had a troubled morning after striking his front-jack man. The mechanic has been checked and given the OK, but Force India were hit by exhaust troubles later in the afternoon when Paul Di Resta took over.

After topping the times on Monday, Jenson Button ended the day in seventh. McLaren chose to concentrate of long, fuel laden runs in the afternoon with Button completing eighty-three laps in the process.

Source: http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2013/0...eir-potential/

[XXX132]

So do the testing times matter now? Or not..?

[bluesilhouettes]

Hopefully we'll see Vettel fight with people. As we saw last season, he had troubles everytime he had to fight with others. The more he fights, the more we know he's "not good".
Fernando fought very well last year. Hope that he can keep good mood to clinch his 3rd.

Red Bull says no car will dominate in 2013 Formula 1 season

[bluesilhouettes]

Can anyone explain what exactly RB duct below the exhaust :

[bluesilhouettes]

Hey guys, I have a question.
What's exactly the device look like a sword on top of the car ?
What is it used for ?

[Hornet]

Can anyone explain what exactly RB duct below the exhaust :

When you look at all the car's sidepod, its curved in at the bottom. This is where a large amount of airflow is flowing through and they are supposed to flow to the rear of the car above the diffuser. In fact, the reason why we see cars with the ugly nose is because they want to raise the nose up to gather as much air so it flows along the side here to the rear.

In Red Bull's design, they wanted to connect the exhaust to the side of the diffuser with a ramp so the exhaust gas will flow there. However, this ramp will interrupt the sidepod airflow because the sidepod flow is supposed to go towards the rear center, not the side. So Red Bull introduce that tunnel to solve this problem. The tunnel allow the sidepod air flow to go into it and exit at the back of the car where it should be going.

[speedmaster]

Hey Guys, don't read too much into the timings or our P1. Check the below comments from Massa on McLaren, this worries me a bit but I'm confident that we'll take care of this before the race day

Massa surprised by McLaren's 'incredible' pace

Felipe Massa believes Ferrari are heading in the right direction after posting the fastest lap of the test so far on Thursday, but he admits the McLaren looks like the car to beat.

The Brazilian lapped the Jerez circuit in 1:17.879 on the soft tyre to go quickest, but he described Jenson Button's day one lap - a 1:18.861 - as "incredible".

"I still believe his [Button's] lap was incredible," said Massa.

"On the hard tyres on the first day on the dirty track and everything, it really was a quick lap. I didn't have the car to do this lap time on the first day."

Whilst Massa went a second quicker, albeit on soft tyres, he isn't getting carried away despite admitting Ferrari are in a much better place than they were at this point last season.

"The car is much more balanced. I felt a good direction on the rear of the car as well, with traction. This is a track that is very difficult on the rear, degradation is very high.

"I think it was a good lap I did, but we can't say what we're going to have at the beginning of the championship.

"I would say that the difference to last year is huge," he concluded.

[speedmaster]

Reference: http://www.thef1times.com/news/display/07239

[anialonso]

Just Comparing:

Massa's time is 1sec faster than Alonso managed last year and 2.6sec faster than Massa's best time last year. Ferrari looking strong but the temperatures are quite low compared to the temperatures expected during the season..

But reserving my judgement till Q3..

[fratelliferrari]

Thanks for posting that video of Fernando riding his bike in the dessert! But it's a bit too far away to go to Iam afraid

[Massimo181]

Anyone seen any photos yet of Pedro on his first day? Bet it will be a shock for him to drive a Ferrari after a HRT!

[alex1s]

Good Luck to Pedro on his first Ferrari outing.

[diesel08]

Pedro is in the garage. I don't know wy.

[Super M]

Pedro is in the garage. I don't know wy.

Expresso break......

[anialonso]

Why is pedro not out..????
Not even an installation lap..
maybe they are busy bolting on some new parts or doing some modification..

[alex1s]

Relaaax its only testing...being in the garage doesn't mean anything.

[anialonso]

Relaaax its only testing...being in the garage doesn't mean anything.

true..
but i would love to see him on track..!!!

[jgdswaran]

Pedro is driving F138 only for simulator development

[medeni73]

and exactly thatswhy its very important to hear his words after the session is over...

[diesel08]

Pedro is on

[medeni73]

and red flag :(

[Rishu]

09:10 The fire extinguishers are out and spraying. No fire as such, but there was a dense cloud of smoke coming from the rear of the F138.

[Forzi]

The Ferrari stopped. Really odd there. 3 days of no problems and now this.

[medeni73]

our guys are experimenting too much...:)

[medeni73]

if its engine failure than we can kiss this session goodbye...

[anialonso]

James Allen on Checking Whether a Car is progressing or not

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2013/0...gressing-well/

[stefa]

if its engine failure than we can kiss this session goodbye...

Why?!

[medeni73]

there were fire out there, it doesnt look good...Mercedes couldnt carry on for smaller problems...but just wait and see, maybe its not that bad...