Cool down. We don’t know the fuel loads and we know nothing about the car configuration. It will start to mean something, if they continue that trend in remaining tests.
Although for me, as a Renault fan, it’s definitely a positive sign.
The track is probably a good half second to second quicker than day one, but better to be at the top than at the other end, irrespective of the fuel loads.
I dont know if they will be the one to watch this year. But I dont think they have gone horribly wrong with their exhaust system, we just gotta wait and see
Maybe, but there is no foundation behind that, did you see the state of the track on day 1, can soon tell by looking at the 10 lap+ stints, it was like a sand pit the track will have been faster today, the question is more by how much. Anyway they were still faster.
It means nothing at this stage. Teams do not care about times. none of them, repeat, none of them, will be trying to set fast laps at this stage. They have very rigid testing programs which they stick to. Until they are running qualifying simulations in the final test, we know very little about their relative speeds.
the Mercedes looks mad. I like it a lot, it’s shiny and all. Plus they removed that hideous black bit from last year’s car.
The Renault is really horrible! it’s a total mess. They say it’s the “John Player Special livery”… bah… come on. It’s just a horrid remake, with some random sponsors.
I think it’s a nice looking car let down a hideous livery. I loved last years, and the old mild seven one, but they can’t help but use terrible liveries every other time it gets changed.
Has anyone else noticed the lack of t-cam on the HRT? what are they trying to achieve with that? Im also predicting Mercedes doing something funny with their intake again this year, look how far back their t-cam is? Am i right that the t-cam has to be connected to the roll structure? hmm…
no all car must have the camera in that location (it doesn’t affect the aerodynamics up there anyway) HRT simply haven’t attached it for this test. there’s no need.
Thanks for the error reports, it seems that twitter is failing to return any search results, after a couple of refreshes of the page the feed started working again (tested in chrome and firefox).
I will have a look into it, but it is most likely a hiccup with the twitter api (might be temporarily overloaded), please reply if you get it working or not, thanks.
I suppose they want to have thorough knowledge of the tyres to set off their disadvantage of not having much experience with the new car. And they might be testing some new bits on the old car, ironing out operations/communication with the driver and working towards finding the best setup.
If I remember correctly didn’t Lotus have a problem with their power steering last year? In the first session Fauzy didn’t have any power steering for his first day.
What’s a shame is the HRT actually has gorgeous shape; with a proper livery (i.e. anything but primer gray), it would look stunning. Further, it’s unfortunate that Dallara couldn’t be paid in full/on time throguhout the desgin process, who knows how good the car could have been.
Kubica and Alonso both set their quickest times on a five lap run, the first lap (I think). But who had more fuel and were either of them trying that hard. It’s a Micky mouse circuit, we’ll start to get an idea only in the last two tests IMO.
Yes, the Lotus livery is pretty cool. I just hope they have a good enough car to catch STR, FI, Williams, and Sauber this year, as I think three of those teams will take a step back this year.
Having a closer look at the times for all 3 days I think Mclaren look in pretty good shape assuming they’ve done an accurate job of recreating 2011 downforce.
On day one, Gary put in a time of 1:14.2. If we assume that the track imprved by at least half a second over the 3 days, and that Jenson and paticularly Lewis could put in a lap at least half a second to a second faster on the same fuel loads, then they look pretty good.
However, this is the first test and we can’t read anything from the times ;)
I like McLaren for the constructors championship this year and possibly for a driver championship as well. I’m thinking McLaren and Red Bull to be close, with Mercedes and Ferrari nipping behind. I’m hoping Mercedes outperforms Ferrari, but it may be a long shot.
For get the headline times look at 10+ lap runs, you still can’t tell a lot.
The order looks like RBR (the only team to get into 1:13’s in a run of 12 – 13 laps, Ferrari, Renault, both in the 1:14s then Merc some way behind at the moment,
but far to early to say, most don’t even have the front wing yet and Merc have something not shown yet.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
3rd February 2011, 12:08
Blank cars look very weird.
Fixy (@)
3rd February 2011, 15:42
Karthikeyan is using that carbon-fiber helmet to add a splash of colours.
Dougie (@f1droid)
3rd February 2011, 12:17
Sorry, but that Renault is just the ugliest car so far this season, even makes the HRT look nice (barely though).
THE Lotus on the other hand looks simply stunning, my favourite so far.
Karma? Who knows.
Kest (@kest)
3rd February 2011, 12:48
Conversely I think it’s one of the best looking cars, although I can’t work out why.
MaroonJack (@maroonjack)
3rd February 2011, 15:09
Some people call it karma, some people call it bias ;)
But seriously, I don’t like these fat gold lines and red endplates on Renault either. But as far as the shape of the car, it’s very nice.
Green Lotus would be looking really great if they managed to incorporate their sponsors better.
However in my opinion the ugliest livery award goes to Sauber, and the ugliest car must be Mercedes.
godol
3rd February 2011, 15:19
Who cares about the livery?
1:13.144 means something.
MaroonJack (@maroonjack)
3rd February 2011, 15:24
Cool down. We don’t know the fuel loads and we know nothing about the car configuration. It will start to mean something, if they continue that trend in remaining tests.
Although for me, as a Renault fan, it’s definitely a positive sign.
BBT
3rd February 2011, 15:30
The track is probably a good half second to second quicker than day one, but better to be at the top than at the other end, irrespective of the fuel loads.
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd February 2011, 15:30
Not really. For all we know he might have 50kg less fuel on board.
Kest (@kest)
3rd February 2011, 16:28
Regardless they were 0.75 quicker than any other 2011 car. I reckon Renault Lotus Whatever will be one to watch this year.
Todfod (@todfod)
3rd February 2011, 16:46
I dont know if they will be the one to watch this year. But I dont think they have gone horribly wrong with their exhaust system, we just gotta wait and see
BBT
3rd February 2011, 20:22
Maybe, but there is no foundation behind that, did you see the state of the track on day 1, can soon tell by looking at the 10 lap+ stints, it was like a sand pit the track will have been faster today, the question is more by how much. Anyway they were still faster.
Henry
3rd February 2011, 16:40
It means nothing at this stage. Teams do not care about times. none of them, repeat, none of them, will be trying to set fast laps at this stage. They have very rigid testing programs which they stick to. Until they are running qualifying simulations in the final test, we know very little about their relative speeds.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
3rd February 2011, 23:26
the Mercedes looks mad. I like it a lot, it’s shiny and all. Plus they removed that hideous black bit from last year’s car.
The Renault is really horrible! it’s a total mess. They say it’s the “John Player Special livery”… bah… come on. It’s just a horrid remake, with some random sponsors.
The Lotus livery. THAT’S a good remake!.
Daniel
4th February 2011, 11:36
“They all look pretty on the podium.” – Martin Brundle.
BliNnk
3rd February 2011, 16:27
Disagree. I think the Renault looks classy. Kubica’s helmet also works very well with it
matt90 (@matt90)
3rd February 2011, 19:13
I think it’s a nice looking car let down a hideous livery. I loved last years, and the old mild seven one, but they can’t help but use terrible liveries every other time it gets changed.
zzkiper (@zzkiper)
3rd February 2011, 22:13
Agree, the Lotus is really sexy!
Sy
3rd February 2011, 22:52
Sorry, but that Team Lotus is just the ugliest car so far this season, even makes the HRT look nice (barely though).
THE Renault on the other hand looks simply stunning, my favourite so far.
Karma? Who knows.
Lanky!
3rd February 2011, 12:27
Has anyone else noticed the lack of t-cam on the HRT? what are they trying to achieve with that?
Im also predicting Mercedes doing something funny with their intake again this year, look how far back their t-cam is? Am i right that the t-cam has to be connected to the roll structure? hmm…
Skett
3rd February 2011, 12:46
My guess is that it has to be attached to the highest point and thats it
Kest (@kest)
3rd February 2011, 13:01
The ruling is pretty vague as to where the camera, or camera housing sits in that area, and only states that their must be a camera in that area.
Just as with front wing cameras moving around from car to car, this is probably an area that is can move as long as it’s on that area of the car.
sato113 (@sato113)
3rd February 2011, 14:40
no all car must have the camera in that location (it doesn’t affect the aerodynamics up there anyway) HRT simply haven’t attached it for this test. there’s no need.
Kest (@kest)
3rd February 2011, 15:49
Actually any appendage on the car affects the aerodynamics. Hence why all teams must use one so no team gets an advantage.
Fixy (@)
3rd February 2011, 16:14
For sure, it looks bad on the MGP.
Ben Curly (@ben-curly)
3rd February 2011, 13:43
Twitter App is dead, at least for me. It was working an hour ago, now it says “loading messages… fail#”. Firefox 3.6.13, Windows XP Sp3.
Kest (@kest)
3rd February 2011, 13:52
Fails for me also. Using chrome.
Invoke
3rd February 2011, 13:59
Thanks for the error reports, it seems that twitter is failing to return any search results, after a couple of refreshes of the page the feed started working again (tested in chrome and firefox).
I will have a look into it, but it is most likely a hiccup with the twitter api (might be temporarily overloaded), please reply if you get it working or not, thanks.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
3rd February 2011, 14:09
Thanks for letting me know, will look into it.
MaroonJack (@maroonjack)
3rd February 2011, 14:53
It’s similar on my end. Can’t get it to work. I switched to JA’s tweets feed, for the time being.
Jose
3rd February 2011, 14:12
Why is HRT running, I mean apart from Narain Karthikeyan getting his money worth’s of laps.
Craig Woollard (@craig-o)
3rd February 2011, 14:43
To get an idea of how the Pirelli tyres work perhaps? And for general testing to help develop the driver?
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd February 2011, 15:29
I suppose they want to have thorough knowledge of the tyres to set off their disadvantage of not having much experience with the new car.
And they might be testing some new bits on the old car, ironing out operations/communication with the driver and working towards finding the best setup.
Fixy (@)
3rd February 2011, 16:15
Too optimistic :D
silencer
3rd February 2011, 14:20
It looks like boeing is testing their new stealth fighter
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd February 2011, 15:29
You saw the HRT?
Glorstensen (@glorstensen)
3rd February 2011, 15:35
What happens to Trulli’s car?
Fixy (@)
3rd February 2011, 16:15
Where?
Nas-T
3rd February 2011, 20:38
a broken ball bearing in the power steering system. Trulli only did installation lap check the system. no quick lap.
Megawatt Herring
4th February 2011, 0:10
If I remember correctly didn’t Lotus have a problem with their power steering last year? In the first session Fauzy didn’t have any power steering for his first day.
Jim
3rd February 2011, 17:55
I think that the Merc is definitely the best looking, I absolutely love it’s nose.
Red Andy
3rd February 2011, 21:49
But the turquoise … the turquoise …
It looks like someone has drunk an inordinate amount of some weird cocktail and thrown up, and then someone else has driven the Merc through it.
Snobeck
3rd February 2011, 19:20
What’s a shame is the HRT actually has gorgeous shape; with a proper livery (i.e. anything but primer gray), it would look stunning. Further, it’s unfortunate that Dallara couldn’t be paid in full/on time throguhout the desgin process, who knows how good the car could have been.
US_Peter
3rd February 2011, 21:09
I expect their new car will probably look a bit different.
Mike
4th February 2011, 1:34
I don’t think the car would’ve been any better… Both ends of that venture didn’t live up to expectation.
I agree about how it looks though, Hopefully they come up with something else his year.
Perhaps a blue, we need a blue I think…
BBT
3rd February 2011, 20:44
Kubica and Alonso both set their quickest times on a five lap run, the first lap (I think). But who had more fuel and were either of them trying that hard.
It’s a Micky mouse circuit, we’ll start to get an idea only in the last two tests IMO.
US_Peter
3rd February 2011, 21:10
That certainly supports the theory that the Pirellis are going off very quickly if the only fast times are being set in short stints.
meszkov
3rd February 2011, 20:47
more Kubica pics please !!!
Meander
3rd February 2011, 21:29
I’m really starting to like the Lotus livery. Somehow the yellow diagonal at the back keeps reminding me of the ’92 (’91?) Minardi.
IMHO Schumacher just quit the ridiculousness and revert back to his (better looking) Benetton-era helmet. Am I the only one who thinks this?
The New Pope
3rd February 2011, 21:36
Yes, the Lotus livery is pretty cool. I just hope they have a good enough car to catch STR, FI, Williams, and Sauber this year, as I think three of those teams will take a step back this year.
jake
3rd February 2011, 21:38
Having a closer look at the times for all 3 days I think Mclaren look in pretty good shape assuming they’ve done an accurate job of recreating 2011 downforce.
On day one, Gary put in a time of 1:14.2. If we assume that the track imprved by at least half a second over the 3 days, and that Jenson and paticularly Lewis could put in a lap at least half a second to a second faster on the same fuel loads, then they look pretty good.
However, this is the first test and we can’t read anything from the times ;)
The New Pope
3rd February 2011, 21:59
I like McLaren for the constructors championship this year and possibly for a driver championship as well. I’m thinking McLaren and Red Bull to be close, with Mercedes and Ferrari nipping behind. I’m hoping Mercedes outperforms Ferrari, but it may be a long shot.
BBT
4th February 2011, 10:59
For get the headline times look at 10+ lap runs, you still can’t tell a lot.
The order looks like RBR (the only team to get into 1:13’s in a run of 12 – 13 laps,
Ferrari, Renault, both in the 1:14s
then Merc some way behind at the moment,
but far to early to say, most don’t even have the front wing yet and Merc have something not shown yet.
Adam Tate
4th February 2011, 5:59
What utterly amazes me is that McLaren has not won the Constructor’s Championship since 1998.
F1Fanatic96
4th February 2011, 7:46
Serious respect to trulli for driving an F1 car with no power steering! That must have been a killer, and scary!
David Smith
5th February 2011, 7:05
For all the readers of F1 Fanatic Did anyone else notice the bridgestone logo on schumachers crash helmet?
Whats that all about?