Michael Schumacher was fastest in the revised Mercedes in the fourth day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya.
With rain threatening to hit tomorrow’s test the team sent Nico Rosberg out in the afternoon and he went third fastest, half a second slower than Schumacher.
Williams and Force India also split the day’s running between their two race drivers.
Fernando Alonso was second fastest for Ferrari. He completed over two race distances’ worth of running during the course of the day, logging 141 laps.
Heikki Kovalainen did the same despite Lotus’s previous reliability problems.
However Jenson Button spent much of the day in the pits as McLaren changed an engine in his car.
There were few interruptions during the day’s running, although Kamui Kobayashi caused one stoppage in the afternoon when his Sauber came to a halt at turn three.
Sebastian Vettel brought the red flags out a few minutes before the session was due to end when his Red Bull stopped at the end of the pit lane.
Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and HRT will remain at the circuit for one further day of testing before the first race of the season.
| Driver | Car | Best time | Laps | Difference | |
| 1 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes W02 | 1’21.268 | 67 | |
| 2 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari 150?�?? Italia | 1’21.614 | 141 | 0.346 |
| 3 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes W02 | 1’21.788 | 22 | 0.520 |
| 4 | Nick Heidfeld | Renault R31 | 1’22.073 | 67 | 0.805 |
| 5 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth FW33 | 1’22.233 | 89 | 0.965 |
| 6 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari C30 | 1’22.315 | 98 | 1.047 |
| 7 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR6 | 1’22.675 | 72 | 1.407 |
| 8 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault RB7 | 1’22.933 | 64 | 1.665 |
| 9 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Renault T128 | 1’23.437 | 138 | 2.169 |
| 10 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes VJM04 | 1’23.653 | 42 | 2.385 |
| 11 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes VJM04 | 1’23.921 | 26 | 2.653 |
| 12 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Cosworth FW33 | 1’24.108 | 11 | 2.840 |
| 13 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes MP4-26 | 1’25.837 | 57 | 4.569 |
| 14 | Jerome d’Ambrosio | Virgin-Cosworth MVR-02 | 1’27.3752 | 46 | 6.107 |
2011 F1 testing
Image © Mercedes
Hacky (@hacky)
11th March 2011, 16:11
Are there any pictures of the Mercedes before (okay sure ) and after (today) the update where you can see the body changes
Steve
11th March 2011, 16:26
Would be very nice to see!
Kenny (@kenny)
11th March 2011, 18:22
Schumacher is. or was, the meister of many things, not least sandbagging. Mercedes are in the mix.
alexf1man
11th March 2011, 16:12
Personally I don’t think Merc will be in the top 2 but could challenge Renault and maybe McLaren (only if they can sort their unreliable car out).
2Ugandan Discussions
11th March 2011, 16:30
Lol!!! alexf1man, if HRT can sort out their problems, they would be in the top 2 too.
Craig
11th March 2011, 16:12
Return of the Mach.
BasCB (@bascb)
11th March 2011, 16:14
Mercedes ran 1 and 3, seems their updates are doing as predicted by Brawn. I got the impression Red Bull had some problems limiting their running in the morning.
Great that HRT have made it and brought the car out of the garage today. It will probalby do less than half the milage of the Ferraris all year, but still …
alexf1man
11th March 2011, 16:16
That’s exluding the likely number of times HRT will get lapped :-0
PJ
11th March 2011, 16:16
Ferrari have already done more than a season’s race distance in testing.
gabal (@gabal)
11th March 2011, 16:21
I thought Williams will also be running tomorrow.
luigismen
11th March 2011, 18:21
They will
Rugel
11th March 2011, 16:22
Michael is back!!
Last Pope Eye
11th March 2011, 19:17
wow, Schumi the greatest!!!
RIISE (@riise)
11th March 2011, 16:28
Come on Schumi, show the grid how to really race!!
Mike
11th March 2011, 21:15
I’ll admit a slight pang of giddiness when I read he was on top.
sw6569 (@sw6569)
11th March 2011, 16:44
How did Williams manage 85 laps in the morning and only 11 for Maldonado in the afternoon?
Wificats
11th March 2011, 20:46
I believe that Maldonado had an engine change in the afternoon, which seems to rather take away from the point of having both drivers running today to avoid the rain tomorrow.
K. Chandra Shekhar
11th March 2011, 16:50
Schumi topping the charts was music to ears. I’m a Schumi fan and was dismayed at his retirement in 2006 and always dreamt of him driving for Mclaren Mercedes one day, ’cause am Mercedes fan. Oh! my god my dream is coming true he is racing once again and that too for Mercedes and last but not least I will be seeing him live (not on tv) at the Indian GP. October is sooooooo long.
Icemangrins
11th March 2011, 17:08
dude, Schumi was back last year !!
Last Pope Eye
11th March 2011, 19:29
she thought it was Ralf.lol,
nakos
11th March 2011, 19:47
big lol
K. Chandra Shekhar
11th March 2011, 19:46
Wow, what a find!!! Ha Ha, sure he was back last year, but for me watching him live in India will be a first.
Bigbadderboom
11th March 2011, 16:50
Perhaps the extended wait will fall into the hands of Mercedes. Getting very nervous for McLaren now though, I’d have thought that if they were sand bagging (Which I doubt but others here have suggested), they would have shown some kind of competitive pace. I have a sinking feeling I’m going to be a British F1 fan with little to cheer on this year, this may be a year for the German Fans!!!
electrolite (@electrolite)
11th March 2011, 17:21
Another one :P
Lemon (@lemon)
11th March 2011, 17:56
You’re forgetting that Red Bull are British!!!!!!
David-A (@david-a)
11th March 2011, 17:58
I think Red Bull may be Austrian.
Lemon (@lemon)
11th March 2011, 18:03
Austrian owner, but that don’t mean nothing he doesn’t do any thing, it’s based in England and most of the people working for them are British.
Lemon (@lemon)
11th March 2011, 18:10
It’s just like if I bought FC Barcelona and then called them an english team, it just wouldn’t make sense.
David-A (@david-a)
11th March 2011, 18:20
Austrian owner, Austrian FIA license, Austrian constructor. So you’re right, it doesn’t “mean nothing”.
Lemon (@lemon)
11th March 2011, 18:28
Thats just my opinion, If I was a British engineer who had worked hard to make a championship winning car I would be very annoyed that Austria seem to be taking the winnings. When they hadn’t really done anything towards it, orther than some greedy, dirty rich owner!.
HxCas
11th March 2011, 22:05
Thats kind of like saying that an Australian soccer team should be considered african because the primary defense coach is from Ghana
Mike
12th March 2011, 4:03
Obviously though F1 is a bit different from other sports. I mean, the reason the teams build their cars in Britain is because that’s where the infrastructure, personnel and expertise exists.
Is Force India British as well?
Morgan C
12th March 2011, 7:34
“than some greedy, dirty rich owner!.”
Are you in energy drink business as well? ;)
nakos
11th March 2011, 19:48
In that case Merc are British too.
Cole (@cole)
11th March 2011, 20:10
and williams, and force india, renault….
ZF1 (@zf1)
11th March 2011, 23:21
Dont forget Team Lotus and Virgin are british too ;)
Sean Evans
12th March 2011, 10:46
Red bull are a austrian team.
Lemon (@lemon)
12th March 2011, 17:48
To be honest yes I’d say force india are indeed, after all they are just the Jordan team with a different name!
Srini (@)
11th March 2011, 16:56
What’s up with McLaren this year.. too many troubles in testing.
Button did 57 laps compared to Schumacher’s 67 and still managed only 13th spot? WTH?
just.daz (@nemo87)
11th March 2011, 16:57
..shark fin?
Srini (@)
11th March 2011, 16:59
Nice catch, probably testing on last year’s car?
just.daz (@nemo87)
11th March 2011, 17:00
thats why im so confused.. it has the infinity logos on it?
thats if it is last years car..?
eniQma
11th March 2011, 17:19
hmm number 1 car? confusing…
Calum
11th March 2011, 23:22
As long as that Sharkfin is NOT connected to the wing it’s legal – even a one mm gap is still legal.
Burnout
11th March 2011, 17:12
That can’t be right, unless they’re using it to compare with last year’s aero package. There’s no way for the rear wing to move given the configuration in that picture.
just.daz (@nemo87)
11th March 2011, 17:20
properly thrown me that has..?
ZF1
11th March 2011, 18:33
From the look of the monocoque it seems like its last years car with this years car number and sponsors. now the question is why did they bring last years car?
geo132 (@geo132)
11th March 2011, 18:46
Maybe for practicing pit stops?
ZF1
11th March 2011, 19:35
possibly!
just.daz (@nemo87)
13th March 2011, 17:18
but in tha picture you can see the red bull branded pole thingys that feed the wheel nut guns up and over the pit box..
just.daz (@nemo87)
11th March 2011, 19:54
but that still doesn’t make sense..? surely they would want to practice pit stops with the NEW car. also aren’t teams only allowed to bring one car to testing..?
fullthrottle
11th March 2011, 20:07
i’m intrigued with all this thing about the last year car. Hope someone knowledgeable give us some explanation.
Gusto
11th March 2011, 20:54
Perhaps there using last years car to measure tyre degradation? Last years car is a known qauntity regarding tyres, seeing how it degrades this years tyres might give them a small amount of data. Or perhaps it`s a piece of Photoshop shenanigans.
tomforpresident
11th March 2011, 20:54
lots of teams bring old cars for corporate reasons, people can have their picture taken and do pretend pitstops etc.
in one of yesterdays (i think) pictures there was an old honda painted up to look like this years mercedes for the same thing.
just.daz (@nemo87)
12th March 2011, 1:20
but its parked right infront of their garage mid-testing..? if it was just a demo/dummy car then why have it in the way..?
tomforpresident
12th March 2011, 11:06
it’s in front of A garage, there’s a lot of garages down in the pits.
just.daz (@nemo87)
13th March 2011, 17:19
but in tha picture you can see the red bull branded pole thingys that feed the wheel nut guns up and over the pit box..?
dim
11th March 2011, 17:01
It’s good to see Mercedes on top with the new updates, and thanks God i’m seeing (finally) a decent 2011 front wing, but today they did only short runs, so we have to see tommorow if they do some long runs, i’m hoping for no rain.
Burnout
11th March 2011, 17:14
Any idea how many laps Schumacher did in the stint with the fastest lap? For Mercedes’ sake I hope it wasn’t a qualifying simulation.
AlexT (@alext)
11th March 2011, 17:37
quali simuulation, 1 fast lap then pitted
Rainman (@rainman)
11th March 2011, 18:06
Nope he posted his 1.21.249 on a 7 lap run of his last stint…
Things really looking good for Schumi….:)
Last Pope Eye
11th March 2011, 19:36
Yes MSC is back. Alonso is right when he was asked who he feared most of all drivers line-up this year. Then he answered Schumi in the right car! So he knew what is the legend’s capability.
AlexT (@alext)
11th March 2011, 21:37
The 1.21.268 posted was done on a in and out lap as far as I know. But nevermind that, Schumi indeed looks good
Abhi Shah
11th March 2011, 17:21
@Keith
I haven’t seen much written about Virgin and d’Ambrosio. What’s going on there? They’ve been consistently slow. Is the Virgin really that bad? Or is d’Ambrosio not cutting the…custard? (sorry, couldn’t help myself). I hope the car is not a complete dud…Glock deserves a decent drive.
I would love to hear your thoughts.
Eggry (@eggry)
11th March 2011, 17:29
Nice. I wish Mercedes duo would challenge Redbull and Ferrari. I still have doubt about Mclaren’s performance. maybe they need more time.
judo chop
11th March 2011, 17:42
With a 1’22 from Hamilton the other day and now a 1’25 from Button I find it to believe McLaren are really concerned with showing their true hand with regard to pace. They’re not sandbagging but it seems like the lack of mileage has sidetracked them from chasing pace.
Cacarella
11th March 2011, 17:53
Or… maybe they have no pace.
Lemon (@lemon)
11th March 2011, 18:05
Yeh most likely haha
judo chop
11th March 2011, 18:06
Don’t be silly. If they had no pace Button would still put in a time close to Hamilton’s. Mercedes were considered to be way off the pace and now they have the fastest time. They had more speed than they’ve shown before and it’s probably the same with McLaren.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
11th March 2011, 18:40
Mercedes have put a big upgrade on the car, which is working as they expected, though. The noises coming from McLaren suggest that they haven’t really got any big ideas going forward.
There is nothing to be gained from McLaren not showing their hand. And as I pointed out in a forum thread, McLaren have been accused of sandbagging several times in previous years and have been found out to just be slow.
judo chop
11th March 2011, 20:36
Your being selective when it comes to reading the cause and importance of test times. How can McLaren be showing their hand if their best time today is 3 seconds off their previous best? Like I said they are not sandbagging but are being held back by reliability concerns which take precedent over achieving fast test times. I also doubt Schumacher’s improved time is all down to Mercedes’ upgrade.
Cacarella
11th March 2011, 22:33
@Judo chop,
You’re being selective in the definition of ‘showing their hand’.
A team that runs a long stint with times that are far off the pace of what other cars are doing on a similar stint can also be ‘showing their hand’.
I’m sure they have ‘pace’ I was just being sarcastic, it’s just that their pace may be comparable to Force India’s and not Red Bull’s
Rumen
11th March 2011, 22:38
As Jenson said: “Today was never about pace, as we weren’t running lower fuel loads, but there is pace in the car – it’s just been masked by reliability issues.”
So I guess we have to wait and see McLaren’s real pace in Melbourne.
But it does seem that the team has HUGE reliability problems.
Mateusz
11th March 2011, 18:06
Lotus Renault will be the dark horse!
and Heidfeld will score a win in 2011!
wdf2
11th March 2011, 18:22
That would be so nice.
judo chop
11th March 2011, 23:07
@cacarella
“You’re being selective in the definition of ‘showing their hand’”
Not really. “showing their hand” would be a low fuel qualifying run which we haven’t seen yet. My issue is that posters aren’t consistent in their assessment of test times. If McLaren are considered way off the pace based on test times then Mercedes should be considered the best. No “that’s a glory run” excuses. Do you tip Mercedes for P1 in Oz ahead of Red Bull and Ferrari?
Rainman (@rainman)
11th March 2011, 18:12
And Keith Schumi’s time havnt been updated….he posted a 1.21.249 on his last run of 7 laps….
SchumiVroooooom
11th March 2011, 19:13
I think that one was wiped because he cut a corner/chicane.
Rumen
11th March 2011, 22:33
No, it wasn’t!
According to formula1.com and attwilliams.com the best time for today is 1.21.249 and this is the one Michael did on his last run of seven laps.
wdf2
11th March 2011, 18:17
Hey Keith, two questions.
1) Have the top teams all run two chassis, even though only one at a time? Seems like you want both sorted out for Australia.
2) Big advantage if it’s raining tomorrow and they get some experience with wet tires. Would/could RBR, for example, make a last minute decision to stay and test on Saturday?
geo132 (@geo132)
11th March 2011, 18:50
Concerning second question: I doubt that is possible, I think its 4 days for each team. Or no?
ZF1
11th March 2011, 19:39
In regards to the firs question, Ferrari.com did mention that the first few test were done with one chassis and the barcelona tests were done on another. Even though other teams didnt advertise so, I’m assuming they would have done something similar!
Burnout
12th March 2011, 10:04
For the second question, each team is allotted 15 days of pre-season testing. If Red Bull haven’t used up all 15 days there’s nothing to legally prevent them from staying on for another day of testing.
Logistics will be another issue altogether, especially with regards to tyres and other consumables.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
11th March 2011, 20:30
They’ve been on top a fair bit during testing. I hope they keep it up.
McG (@mcg)
11th March 2011, 20:41
Mercedes are the team to beat!
Rumen
11th March 2011, 22:27
The main question is:
Has everyone shown their true potential?
I would be surprised if Mercedes can really match the Red Bull and the Ferrari in Melbourne, but that is something we will find out in Australia.
hamifan
11th March 2011, 20:47
i’m really starting to worry about mclaren. my only glimmer of hope is that red bull also missed the first test last year and had an unreliable car – but look how their car turned out!!
AlexT (@alext)
11th March 2011, 21:29
RB6 had a good base as it was a evolution of the GP winning RB5. McLaren starts from scratch with their revolutionary untested, unreliable design.
Cacarella
11th March 2011, 22:35
Why would you squash his only glimmer of hope?
;)
Morgan C
12th March 2011, 12:54
…:D
Sammy Dulledge
12th March 2011, 0:06
I like this a lot, This shows that Mercedes are improving, looking at the times over the test, they seem to be up there, meaning that even if Red Bull are sandbagging, Mercedes aren’t far off. By the end of the year Mercedes could have their first win, Schumacher only needs 9 more and that will be 100 wins, an incredible achievement for even a driver with his record. I really hope all the best for Michael, Nico and Ross.
schooner
12th March 2011, 0:10
I was never his biggest fan, but it sure appears that Schumi still has what it takes to hustle an F1 machine around the track. It would be great to see him and Rosberg mix it up at the pointy end this year. More to the point, I’m just hoping that RB doesn’t run away with the championship.
Pedal to the Vettel (@pedal-to-the-vettel)
12th March 2011, 1:06
People should be taking a closer look at Alonso’s times, over double the laps and 3 tenths off of what schumi did.
Mercedes is quicker but still behind Ferrari and Red Bull, since the other two teams looked like they didn’t have to proove anything by trying to beat it.
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
12th March 2011, 2:10
Not sure of the fuel load but last year best lap time in the race was a sub 1 min 20 sec, Mercedes are 1.2 sec off the pace if they are running low fuel. If it rains tomorrow it will advantage the teams who will test as we haven’t seen too much wet weather running.
SchumiVroooooom
12th March 2011, 6:31
Cars are supposed to be slower this year. Yes, they get KERS back but that missing double diffuser takes away alot. When they talked about Brawn and the double diffuser in 2009 and the advantage they gain from it, it was said to be about 2 seconds per lap. Also you got those not so great Pirelli´s now. F-duct gone too. So in all cars should be around 1 second slower this year in qualyfying mode. Probably even more during the race.
Burnout
12th March 2011, 10:07
Not to mention that the cars are 20 kg heavier this year.
It’s not possible to gauge how quick a car is this season just by comparing its laptimes with times set by last season’s cars.
rayan
12th March 2011, 6:36
i think we will have a real picture of cars performance in australia only……even the sauber,williams have topped the time sheets
wong chin kong
12th March 2011, 11:18
With so much testing before the first race, Schumacher should be much more familiar with the car and the car is now finely tuned, tailored for his driving style. I don’t expect to hear any excuses from him if he fails to outshine his team mate this year. If the car performs and he revert to his past championship driving standards, he should win a few races this year.
Robbie (@robbie)
13th March 2011, 17:04
Well if this one test day ‘proves’ that the Merc is improved, I look forward to seeing NR once again handle MS…last year he claimed that any changes to the car that might help MS would help him too, so to see MS get this time means to me that NR can do it too…difference being for MS, as opposed to his WDC years, he now has a genuine competitor on the team for a teammate, plus the Merc will still not be up there with the Red Bulls and Ferraris, so MS has an uphill climb with far fewer excuses than last year. That said, I’m sure any improvement on MS’s part vs. how it went for him last year will be considered progress as the 3-year comeback project continues.
And given how brutely MS behaved on a few occasions (eg. his moving of RB toward the pit wall at top speed last year) with a car he couldn’t really fight with, I’m not sure I want to see what kind of damage he can do out there with a car he can fight with a little.
I think what is more telling is Ferrari’s two race distances in one day…wicked reliability…then again, that was on that day…nothing to do with racing in anger…same with MS’s time…