2009 F1 testing: March 2nd (update: pictures added)

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Testing continues today with eight F1 teams in action at Jerez.

Yesterday a spate of red flags and brief rain show hindered the teams’ testing efforts – will things go more smoothly today?

Today’s testing line-up

McLaren: Heikki Kovalainen
Ferrari: Felipe Massa
BMW: Robert Kubica
Renault: Nelson Piquet Jnr
Toyota: Timo Glock
Williams: Nico Rosberg
Red Bull: Sebastian Vettel
Force India: Giancarlo Fisichella

Pictures from today’s test

Live timing

For live lap times check out F1today.nl or Sportlifepress.

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.

Further updates will be posted in the comments and any images or video from today’s testing will be added here.

2009 F1 testing

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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37 comments on “2009 F1 testing: March 2nd (update: pictures added)”

  1. Glock out on track first for Toyota this morning. But there’s rain at Jerez today and more is expected during the course of the test. This satellite picture is quite zoomed out but there’s no missing the sizeable rain cloud heading for southern Spain:

    http://weather.weatherbug.co.uk/Spain/Jerez-weather/satellite/infrared-satellite.html?zcode=z6286&lang_id=en-gb

  2. Kubica first to do a time, but his 1’43.073 shows how wet the track is.

  3. Eddie Irvine
    2nd March 2009, 9:21

    http://www.msfree.gr/4926/2009-03-02/Live-dokimes-F1:-2-martiou another link for live times and some pictures

  4. …and we’ve got the first of the day’s red flags at just before 11am in Spain.

  5. The rain
    In Spain
    Falls mainly on
    F1 test days.

    1. I’m scribbling down ‘F1 poetry’ as an idea for a future article…

  6. radar for jerez. pretty bad luck as the entire peninsula is dry except for andalusia.

    http://www.meteo.pt/pt/otempo/radar/

    1. Thanks for that link – will be very useful over the next few days.

  7. I really find quite interesting that there has been quiet a lot rain in almost every test session in a season we have a huge test restriction. I wonder how small teams can cope with this. To me it seems in-season test ban could be lifted during the season.

  8. Midday at Jerez and Massa, Piquet and Vettel haven’t set a time yet.

  9. According to the link Tirante posted a lot of the teams are testing 2010 tyres today.

  10. Keith, they remark that those tyre-testings are a rumour at the press-room, maybe taking place because of the weather

    1. Thanks Tirante, my Spanish isn’t great (read: non-existent).

    2. I can see how they would want to test the wet tyres to see how they cope without warming blankets…

    3. @Adrian

      Would be interesting to see the pictures — 2010 tyre regulation + 2009/10 rear wings in the wet would be *tres* interessant.

  11. :-) … good enough! Anyway, …. ‘if you need further assistance, do not hesitate to contact me’ :-)

  12. With more testing going out of the window i think friday pratce could be more intresting!!!

  13. timo Glock 1.30:979 89 laps // Robert Kubica 1.31:327 70 laps // Nico Rosberg 1.31:451 113 laps // Giancarlo Fisichella 1.31:547 53 laps // Sebastian Vettel 1.32:220 102 laps // Heikki Kovalainen 1.33:371 91 laps // Nelson Piquet 1.33:476 66 laps

  14. These are the definite times for todays tests!

  15. Some thoughts on the times set so far (this 2 days)

    Vettel was very fast yesterday, in what seemed to be a proof that the new Newey design is indeed good (it seems to be the most inovative in my opinion), but today is looks like it faded a bit. Biggest problem seems to be reliability of the Renault engine. Engine fail in both sessions, doesn’t seem good.

    Speaking of Renault, Piquet can’t seem to move from last on the timesheets. But these 2 day’s, the times were very to the McLaren’s, we were also the down on the timesheets. Any sign that Renault and McLaren are following a similar test programme?

    And what to say about the time’s of Fisichella’s new VJM02? The pace seems to be up there with the rest of the pack, for a brand new car, this seems to be excelent, but like awlays in test sessions, we never know to what extent the various test programmes difer form each other…

  16. Has the ferraris exhaust/engine cover changed or is it just the angle of the picture? It looks more level than it did before.

  17. Press releases coming out – here’s BMW’s:

    Weather conditions: Heavy rain all day.
    Temperature: Air: 13 – 13 °C, Track: 13 – 15 °C
    Number of drivers participating: 7 from 7 teams. Fastest lap overall:

    Timo Glock (Toyota) 1:30.979 min

    Circuit length: 4.428 km

    Robert Kubica
    Chassis / engine: BMW Sauber F1.09-03 / BMW 86/9
    Test kilometres today: 310 (70 laps)

    Fastest lap: 1:31.327 min Programme: On a completely wet track, Robert Kubica today concentrated on set-up work. For the first time the team had the opportunity to collect data on the BMW Sauber F1.09 running in wet conditions. That included a water-activated false electrical alarm which caused Kubica to stop on the track once. For the rest of the day the car ran without any problems, giving driver and engineers the chance to gain more knowledge about the 2009 car on unchanged wet tyres. Kubica completed 70 laps and also carried out a few race start simulations. Kubica said: “Because of the reduced downforce, the F1.09’s behaviour in wet conditions is quite different to last year’s car. There’s less grip, which makes the car slide more.”

    What comes next: Tomorrow Robert Kubica will again be at the wheel of the F1.09; from Wednesday on Nick Heidfeld will take over testing duties.

    And Red Bull’s:

    Driver: Sebastian Vettel
    Car: RB5 – 02
    Laps: 102
    Best time: 1:32.220
    Circuit length: 4.423 km
    Fastest lap: T. Glock – 1:30.979

    The British-based F1 teams, including Red Bull Racing, must be thinking it’s time to return to “the good old days” and carry out winter testing at Silverstone. While England basked in unseasonably warm and sunny weather, Jerez circuit was hit by heavy and continuous rain.

    The original plan had been for the team to carry out development testing of RB5 in the morning, before tackling a race simulation in the afternoon. The wet track saw the morning programme replaced with a run through of pit lane procedures and pit stops, which proved very useful as this was the first time with the new car, that the pit crew due to be in action in Melbourne have worked through all the pit stop permutations together. In the afternoon, Sebastian successfully completed the race distance.

    Tomorrow, Mark Webber takes over behind the wheel, for the remaining three days of this five day session.

  18. I think they changed it after the presentation, but I think they changed already in January during the first testing.

    One note is that Ferrari decided to sit out today’s session, because they wanted to test the 2010 tyres, like McLaren and BMW did on Sunday, and since it was raining, there was no use.

    So regarding someone’s comment about teams testing tyres for 2010, it is only confirmed that McLaren and BMW did so yesterday, and Ferrari was going to do that today. No other team mentioned it was testing the 2010 tyres

  19. There’s a short video from the test here, not great quality but gives an idea how wet it was: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9Juj1NgZtU

  20. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyo81YKgPtU

    I was looking for videos of the jerez tests on youtube and found this Glock-ish crash by Felipe Massa

    1. first mistake by Raikkonen

  21. Some stunning photos there.
    Conclusions? The 2009 spec cars look awesome from above and err, well a bit silly from the front!

    1. I think the cars are very nice seing from behind, specially since there are some many differences on the way the teams designed the end of the sidepods and the rear section with the exhausts also.

      The RB5 with that rear-wing with no central pillar, and that very low rear section with the pull-rod suspension (instead of push-rod) and that unique exhausts positioning, looks pretty awesome!

  22. Kristian Eriksen
    2nd March 2009, 22:55

    Am i the only one noticing that Toyota have had very decent times on all the tests, and that they are the team with the least technical issues?

  23. chaostheory
    3rd March 2009, 0:09

    Yeah, definitely there’s something wrong with Toyota: they shouldn’t be that fast :P

  24. Youtube has some video of the test online. The clip is in Spanish, but there is some footage so it’s worth two minutes of your time to watch.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qenHrmzxg-0

  25. This video is part two of the Spanish broadcast.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi53b9CHZfM

    1. Thanks Steve!

  26. MacademiaNut
    3rd March 2009, 3:33

    So, finally we see Mclaren testing with the 2009 rear wing specs and rain spoils the fun. Looks like McLaren is still behind with Pedro De La Rosa driving (yesterday).

  27. Force India press release:

    Giancarlo Fisichella today continued the Force India Formula One Team’s first official test at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit. The Italian completed a total of 54 laps to add more mileage to the debutant VJM02 car, recording an encouraging 1:31.547 – the fourth quickest lap and just six tenths slower than the quickest time of the day.

    Despite the recurrent rain showers and red flags, Giancarlo was able to accumulate further crucial data and evaluate both the Bridgestone extreme wet and standard wet tyres. Unfortunately however the team’s running was interrupted by a fuel system problem mid-morning, but the VJM02 returned to the track for further laps at the end of the day.

    Adrian Sutil will take over driving duties tomorrow and will remain in the car for the final day of testing on Wednesday.

    Giancarlo Fisichella

    Considering the amount of laps we did today, it is quite encouraging again. It is a reasonable time, six tenths off the fastest, so I am quite pleased. Unfortunately we had a problem with the fuel pressure again and didn’t run enough. Then I was struggling a little bit to find the right set up with the full wet tyres but then at the end of the day the circuit was getting better and, as with several other people, we tried the standard wet and I felt much more comfortable with the balance. Hopefully tomorrow Adrian can do more laps and make sure we are fully ready for Barcelona.

    James Key, technical director

    Again, difficult weather and we missed some of the better conditions in the morning as we had a few technical issues. It was the same problem with the fuel system, but we found a solution from mid morning onwards that allowed us to do some more running. Other than this problem the car has been very good and we ran through a programme of systems checks and balance comparisons between the extreme and the standard wet tyres. We’re confident we’re on top of the issues now and can get on with the programme tomorrow, where we will look at some more set up options.

    Testing data

    Driver Giancarlo Fisichella

    Track Jerez de la Frontera, Spain

    Best lap time 1 min 31.547

    Laps completed 54

    KM’s completed 239km

    Air temperature High of 13C

    Track temperature High of 15C

    Weather Rain throughout the day

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