Ferrari, BMW and Toyota bring eight days of testing at Bahrain to an end today. The last few days have seen some of the teams hit by reliability problems.
But the other defining feature of this test has been how close the laptimes are between the trio. Will today see one of them suddenly pull a hot lap out of the bag?
Today’s testing line-up
Ferrari – Felipe Massa
Toyota – Timo Glock
BMW – Nick Heidfeld
Here are the best times set by each of the teams over the last three days:
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | |
Ferrari | 1:32.804 (KR) | 1:32.102 (KR) | 1:32.917 (FM) |
Toyota | 1:33.064 (JT) | 1.32.230 (JT) | 1:32.492 (TG) |
BMW | 1:32.544 (CK) | 1.32.585 (NH) | 1:32.993 (NH) |
Sites with live laptime updates
http://f1today.nl/
http://www.sportlifepress.com/index.php?option=com_moderatedchat&chatid=8
If you find any more good sites for following testing lap times, please post details below.
If you’ve got images or video to share you can upload them to the F1 Fanatic drop.io.
Pictures from today’s test
2009 F1 testing
- 2009 F1 testing: February 18th (Update: pictures added)
- 2009 F1 testing: February 17th (Updated: pictures added)
- 2009 F1 testing: February 16th (Update: pictures added)
- 2009 F1 testing: February 11th (Update: pictures added)
- 2009 F1 testing: February 10th (Update: video and pictures added)
- 2009 F1 testing notes: January 24th
- 2009 F1 testing notes: January 23rd (Update: Pictures added)
- 2009 F1 testing notes: January 22nd (Update: new video and pictures added)
- 2009 F1 testing notes: January 21st (Update: video and pictures added)
- 2009 F1 testing notes: January 20th (pictures and video)
- 2009 F1 testing notes: January 19th (pictures)
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
19th February 2009, 13:39
Times so far – Heidfeld’s done BMW’s best time of the week so far, and not far off Raikkonen’s best from Tuesday:
1. Nick Heidfeld, BMW – 1:32.226
2. Timo Glock, Toyota – 1:32.774 +0.548
3. Felipe Massa, Ferrari – 1:32.865 +0.639
Ash
19th February 2009, 16:09
Ferrari have the pace, Raikkonen Setting the fastest time, with Massa second, im really starting to feel that this car and Raikkonen are in Perfect Sync ! :)
Paige
20th February 2009, 14:47
It makes a lot of sense that Raikkonen would take to the new regulations well. He has supreme car control, which bodes well for his ability to succeed with the dramatically reduced rear downforce. He is also one of the absolute best in history at pitch-perfect manipulation of transitions in braking, shifting, and steering inputs, which becomes so much more important with a general reduction in downforce. I can also see him being a master of KERS very early in its development.
Massa, on the other hand, is much harsher in transitions. This will be a problem with a car that should be finessed more, whereas the problem was masked more in a car with higher downforce.
Ash
19th February 2009, 16:11
1 Massa Ferrari F60 1:32.162
2 Heidfeld BMW Sauber F1.09 1:32.225 +0.063
3 T. Glock Toyota TF109 1:32.445 +0.283
RaV
19th February 2009, 16:25
Teams’ best times from Bahrain comparison:
1. 1:32.102 Ferrari F60 (Räikkönen on 17.02)
2. 1:32.225 BMW F1.09 (Heidfeld on 19.02)
3. 1:32.230 Toyota TF109 (Trulli on 17.02)
Bernification
19th February 2009, 16:42
It would seem that they are all very close, which bodes well for an exciting season:)
But how ugly is that Ferrari from head on pictures?
Most of cars look okay from the side, lets just hope they ‘play well with others’;)
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
19th February 2009, 18:34
Press release from BMW:
Weather conditions: Sunny all day, windy in the afternoon.
Air temperature: 19 – 24 °C, track temperature: 20 – 31 °C
Number of drivers participating: 3 from 3 teams
Fastest lap overall: Felipe Massa (Scuderia Ferrari) 1:32.162 min
Circuit length: 5.412 km
Nick Heidfeld
Chassis / engine: BMW Sauber F1.09-02 / BMW 86/9
Test kilometres today: 661 (122 laps)
Fastest lap: 1:32.225 min
Programme:
On the last day of this week’s test session Nick Heidfeld again worked on the set-up of the BMW Sauber F1.09. He concentrated on the suspension and aerodynamics. He also did a couple of practice starts and ended the day with long runs, pushing the total mileage for the eight days of testing up to 3,695 km. His work was interrupted twice due to mechanical problems. “Today the track conditions were the best they have been all week,” Heidfeld said. “We could already try a couple of improvements. The car reacts to changes as planned, so I’m confident we are working in the right direction.”
Willy Rampf, BMW Sauber Technical Coordinator, added: “Although we lost some time due to a sandstorm last week, the long test in Bahrain was very productive. We could work with the cars in temperatures we would not have encountered in Europe at this time of the year, making it good preparation for the first races of the upcoming season. We worked mainly on the general set-up of the BMW Sauber F1.09, trying numerous solutions on the mechanical and aero side of the car as well as gaining experience with the three available tyre compounds. We also made good progress with KERS. Overall we reached our target of collecting as much data as possible about the car’s reactions to changes in the set-up.”
Macademianut
19th February 2009, 20:46
These test times are looking really nice. I am surprised that Macca has had runs only with last year’s wings; I hope they have something in the bag to test before we see them in Australia For now, Ferrari and BMW seem to be nicely positioned.
f1dv
21st February 2009, 3:24
During the four day, three teams alternately record the best time. And for that four days also, the time difference between the third new car is never more than a range of 0.5 seconds.