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

[Giallo 550]

Exactly.

Not sure how we could have done better than 1st on the timing sheet, TBH.

That's what I was thinking too. I have faith that any issues will be worked out. The time sheet is further proof that Felipe can be just as fast or faster than anyone when given a decent car. I certainly wouldn't count him out as a contender. I'm happy that we're in a much better position this season, as opposed to last, and we all remember how close we came at the end of 2012.

[medeni73]

Andrew Benson:

"At Ferrari, a senior engineer said they did not really understand where Massa's fastest time came from. They were 1.5 seconds off the pace, he said, and then suddenly they were 1.5 seconds quicker than they should have been.... It would mean the top four teams were all closely matched, and hard to separate, but possibly with McLaren slightly ahead (based on Button's first-day time on the dirty track), closely followed by the Ferrari, which is clearly much tidier aerodynamically than last year, then the Red Bull and Lotus.

The Mercedes would be a little further back, with Hamilton slightly faster than Rosberg despite an unfamiliar car and team.

Sounds plausible, doesn't it?

Of course, that's just an informed theory and without the fuel-load data it's impossible to be sure.

But it's backed up by engineers who said Vettel's 1:18.5 was not as forbidding as it looked, and that on longer runs the McLaren looked especially strong in terms of managing its tyre degradation, with the Ferrari pretty close behind. The Ferrari was fast, but the rear was tending to give up at the exit of corners; the McLaren also quick, but it was having the opposite problem - understeer. The Mercedes had understeer on entry and a snappy rear on exit - the signs of a car with a lack of grip. Which tallies with what Hamilton said. "

Whole text here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21390731

[Massimo]

[radosav]

Andrew Benson:

"At Ferrari, a senior engineer said they did not really understand where Massa's fastest time came from. They were 1.5 seconds off the pace, he said, and then suddenly they were 1.5 seconds quicker than they should have been.... It would mean the top four teams were all closely matched, and hard to separate, but possibly with McLaren slightly ahead (based on Button's first-day time on the dirty track), closely followed by the Ferrari, which is clearly much tidier aerodynamically than last year, then the Red Bull and Lotus.

The Mercedes would be a little further back, with Hamilton slightly faster than Rosberg despite an unfamiliar car and team.

Sounds plausible, doesn't it?

Of course, that's just an informed theory and without the fuel-load data it's impossible to be sure.

But it's backed up by engineers who said Vettel's 1:18.5 was not as forbidding as it looked, and that on longer runs the McLaren looked especially strong in terms of managing its tyre degradation, with the Ferrari pretty close behind. The Ferrari was fast, but the rear was tending to give up at the exit of corners; the McLaren also quick, but it was having the opposite problem - understeer. The Mercedes had understeer on entry and a snappy rear on exit - the signs of a car with a lack of grip. Which tallies with what Hamilton said. "

Whole text here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21390731

hmm!?!?!?

[Jas]

Do not like that bit in bold...if thats the case it means where inconsistent and our car only works in a very narrow window ( eg temp, tyre etc)

[Greig]

Andrew Benson, oh must be true then....

[SS454]

I think it is a fantastic start. The speed seems to be good, but really hard to say during the first test session where so many things are unknown like fuel levels, ballast, engine mapping, etc. I think the most encouraging part is how Massa says the car is huge improvement over the F2012 when it comes to drivability. A car that is easier to push and stay at the maximum is a great foundation to start with. The concerns if you could call them that, is the claimed cooling issues and tire wear. Cooling issues can force a team to change the body work significantly and that can have a pretty big impact on performance. Tire wear, I think that can be sorted by updates and setup.

[Rob]

Wouldnt really take to much what Benson says about Ferrari.

The team knows where that time came from 120%.

[fadyferrari]

Wouldnt really take to much what Benson says about Ferrari.

The team knows where that time came from 120%.

yeah...if the team didnt know where that time came from,they must have figured it out the second time massa dipped into the 1.17s...

[Massimo]

Sounds like correlation is good.
Positive noises from Ferrari this week

James Allen.

Two British journalists, both present in Jerez, two very different opinions, lets stay with James

[albert]

Andrew Benson:

"At Ferrari, a senior engineer said they did not really understand where Massa's fastest time came from. They were 1.5 seconds off the pace, he said, and then suddenly they were 1.5 seconds quicker than they should have been....

that sounds to me like the engineers are just playing games with annoying bbc journalists, and feeling them rubbish on purpose, probably because they are sick of their nosing around. what he said makes no sense and is stupid.

[fadyferrari]

Sounds like correlation is good.
Positive noises from Ferrari this week

James Allen.

Two British journalists, both present in Jerez, two very different opinions, lets stay with James

did Gary Anderson say anything about us today?

[OSS EL BOSS]

Well, Massa said he improved on the soft tyres more than he expected and Button said he was surprised by his laptime on the hard tyres too.
This year´s tyres seem to be unpredictable.

[matthewrees]

did Gary Anderson say anything about us today?

I couldnt agree more with the last few statements !
Its testing and its all smoke and mirrors as is every year ! Everyone always says that we'll know where we are when we get to Melbourne ? I disagree, we'll know where we are when we get to the end of the season, because the car thats pounding around Jerez wont be the same car that we have when we get to Melbourne or the same car we have in the last few rounds after any necessary upgrades.

I dont see that you can read much into the times at all, because what are the two words that constantly appears in testing reports ? Fuel loads..........

Just cant wait though for Nandos turn behind the wheel !

[scuderiafan]

that sounds to me like the engineers are just playing games with annoying bbc journalists, and feeling them rubbish on purpose, probably because they are sick of their nosing around. what he said makes no sense and is stupid.

Could be. I don't really understand when Felipe did an identical run to the one he got the time in that they didn't understand how to go quicker. I think maybe Benson means that the teams are having trouble predicting how the tyres are working best.

This is when Hamashima will be very useful again.

[sagi58]

I couldnt agree more with the last few statements !
Its testing and its all smoke and mirrors as is every year !

Too true!! BUT, we can be "cautiously optimistic", no?

[Tifoso]

That's what I was thinking too. I have faith that any issues will be worked out. The time sheet is further proof that Felipe can be just as fast or faster than anyone when given a decent car. I certainly wouldn't count him out as a contender. I'm happy that we're in a much better position
this season, as opposed to last, and we all remember how close we came at the end of 2012.

Excellent point!

[vae32]

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.

Hi again everyone, i'm hoping that massa would be wrong about mclearen being fast, because i said it last year about teams finding out or copying the use of front pull rod. If im correct both mecca cars will also be good on wet and cold weather races like our cars last year...i hope our team is not sharing information with others. At the begining of last year mecca cars were already fast, the problem they have was the heating of the tyres, mainly Button...I hope i'm wrong.

[Hornet]

This year Pirelli aim to bring a tire that will "turn on" faster, but also degrade more. I believe the reason was that by the end of last season, teams have been able to mastered the tires to the point of being able to do a 1 or 2 stop during race.

So far, it seems like Pirelli have achieved that. Faster tires, but they are falling off faster too.

[tifosi1993]

[SinanOzerS]

Autosports says Button's "incredible" lap is invalid...They're saying he's cutted the Senna chicane...

[blaney1977]

Any opinions where we stack up? Next test more of an indicator?

[scuderiafan]

The hard tyre looked faster than the medium in Jerez anyways.

[Smintlemon]

Hi guys.

I was right in my suspicion. Button did his Fast Lap on the First day with the Supersoft Tyres not the Hard one.
Heres The Article from Motorsport -Magazin, a German newspaper.

Speziell mit der Supersoft-Mischung setzte das Graining laut Button sofort ein. "Es ging nach einer Runde schon los. Diese Mischung verdient wahrlich die Bezeichnung Supersoft", sagt der McLaren-Pilot, der in Jerez auch die veränderten Medium- und Hard-Mischungen testete.

"Im Vergleich zum Vorjahr fühlen sie sich anders an. Der Verschleiß wird mit Sicherheit wieder ein Thema werden, aber Pirelli hat gute Arbeit geleistet, das Arbeitsfenster der Reifen zu vergrößern", so Button, der bezüglich der 2013-Reifen positiv herausstellt: "Eine Sache ist mir sofort aufgefallen. Du kannst mit diesen Reifen selbst in der ersten Runde voll attackieren. Das war im vergangenen Jahr nicht möglich."

[Massimo]

Somebody on a technical site found this, big air inlet under the nose of De La Rosa's F138, it wasn't there when Massa was testing.

[TheProdigalSon]

Just cant wait though for Nandos turn behind the wheel !

Yeah me too, bring on Barcelona.

[F1NAC]

Hi guys.

I was right in my suspicion. Button did his Fast Lap on the First day with the Supersoft Tyres not the Hard one.
Heres The Article from Motorsport -Magazin, a German newspaper.

Speziell mit der Supersoft-Mischung setzte das Graining laut Button sofort ein. "Es ging nach einer Runde schon los. Diese Mischung verdient wahrlich die Bezeichnung Supersoft", sagt der McLaren-Pilot, der in Jerez auch die veränderten Medium- und Hard-Mischungen testete.

"Im Vergleich zum Vorjahr fühlen sie sich anders an. Der Verschleiß wird mit Sicherheit wieder ein Thema werden, aber Pirelli hat gute Arbeit geleistet, das Arbeitsfenster der Reifen zu vergrößern", so Button, der bezüglich der 2013-Reifen positiv herausstellt: "Eine Sache ist mir sofort aufgefallen. Du kannst mit diesen Reifen selbst in der ersten Runde voll attackieren. Das war im vergangenen Jahr nicht möglich."

it's not true , i mean it cannot be true because pirelli didn't bring supersoft tyres in Jerez

Testing facts:

Each car will have a maximum of 35 sets of Pirelli’s new P Zero soft, medium and hard compounds available in Jerez, including the Cinturato intermediate and wet tyres if needed. The supersoft will not be seen in Jerez as its characteristics are not suited for the track.

[radosav]

it's not true , i mean it cannot be true because pirelli didn't bring supersoft tyres in Jerez

I've read on other web sites that Pirelli provided two sets of supersofts per team. Don't ask me for a link,

[mark p]

Somebody on a technical site found this, big air inlet under the nose of De La Rosa's F138, it wasn't there when Massa was testing.

driver cooling. no cooling vent on front like normal. day 1 massa complained of heat in the cockpit, the vent is very similar shape and position to where the driver cooling vent is. But you can never be sure.

[Smintlemon]

Believe me, its True !!!!

Heres the komplete Article:



Button: Neue Pirelli-Reifen werfen Fragen auf
von Mario Fritzsche
07. Februar 2013 - 15:23 Uhr
Jenson Button zeigt sich vom schnell einsetzenden Graining der diesjährigen Reifen überrascht - Gleichzeitig lobt der Brite das größer gewordene Arbeitsfenster
Jenson Button
Jenson Button blickt bei den neuen Pirelli-Mischungen noch nicht so ganz durch
Zoom
© xpbimages.com

(Motorsport-Total.com) - Das Formel-1-Jahr 2012 stand vor allem in der ersten Saisonhälfte ganz im Zeichen der Pirelli-Reifen. Sieben verschiedene Sieger bei den ersten sieben Rennen des Jahres waren nicht zuletzt auf das unvorhersehbare Verhalten der italienischen Gummis zurückzuführen. Auch in diesem Jahr werden die Pneus eine entscheidende Rolle im Kampf über Sieg oder Niederlage spielen. Darin sind sich die Piloten nach den ersten Testfahrten der 2013er-Mischungen einig.

"Der Reifen ist schneller, aber das Problem ist: für wie lange?", kommentierte McLaren-Pilot Jenson Button nach seinen ersten Runden auf den neuen Pirellis. "Der Verschleiß ist sehr hoch, aber das betrifft nicht wie üblich die Hinterreifen. Es gibt viel Graining an der Front. Das ist echt schwierig, in den Griff zu bekommen", meint der Brite.
ANZEIGE

Speziell mit der Supersoft-Mischung setzte das Graining laut Button sofort ein. "Es ging nach einer Runde schon los. Diese Mischung verdient wahrlich die Bezeichnung Supersoft", sagt der McLaren-Pilot, der in Jerez auch die veränderten Medium- und Hard-Mischungen testete.

"Im Vergleich zum Vorjahr fühlen sie sich anders an. Der Verschleiß wird mit Sicherheit wieder ein Thema werden, aber Pirelli hat gute Arbeit geleistet, das Arbeitsfenster der Reifen zu vergrößern", so Button, der bezüglich der 2013-Reifen positiv herausstellt: "Eine Sache ist mir sofort aufgefallen. Du kannst mit diesen Reifen selbst in der ersten Runde voll attackieren. Das war im vergangenen Jahr nicht möglich."