Williams and Mercedes lead testing mileage as Lotus hit trouble

2012 F1 testing

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Williams have been the busiest team in testing so far, racking up over 3,750km with their FW34.

But Lotus, who covered the most distance in the first test at Jerez, did just seven laps at the Circuit de Catalunya before a problem with their E20 forced them to abandon the test.

Mercedes have also covered a large distance but have divided their efforts between their 2011 and 2012 cars so far.

They covered 3,398km with both their cars in public tests, plus a further 354km in a solo test with the W03 in Barcelona earlier this week, giving them a total mileage of 3,752km.

Testing mileages

TeamModelTotal lapsTotal distance (km)
WilliamsFW348253,756.16
McLarenMP4-277773,541.23
Force IndiaVJM057023,197.67
SauberC316913,149.19
Red BullRB86593,005.34
FerrariF20126192,820.16
Toro RossoSTR76112,772.47
CaterhamCT015982,702.42
MercedesW033991,857.35
LotusE204111,821.50
MarussiaMVR-023381,568.74
MercedesW023481,540.94
HRTF111108478.22

Figures exclude solo shakedown tests and private tests.

Circuit de Catalunta fastest laps

Here are the fastest times set by each driver at this week’s Circuit de Catalunya test:

DriverTeamTimeGap
1Kamui KobayashiSauber1’22.3120.000
2Pastor MaldonadoWilliams1’22.3910.079
3Nico HulkenbergForce India1’22.6080.296
4Sergio PerezSauber1’22.6480.336
5Sebastian VettelRed Bull1’22.8910.579
6Paul di RestaForce India1’23.1190.807
7Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’23.1800.868
8Jenson ButtonMcLaren1’23.2000.888
9Michael SchumacherMercedes1’23.3841.072
10Felipe MassaFerrari1’23.5631.251
11Lewis HamiltonMcLaren1’23.5901.278
12Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso1’23.6181.306
13Mark WebberRed Bull1’23.7741.462
14Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso1’23.7921.480
15Nico RosbergMercedes1’23.8431.531
16Bruno SennaWilliams1’25.7113.399
17Valtteri BottasWilliams1’25.7383.426
18Heikki KovalainenCaterham1’26.0353.723
19Timo GlockMarussia1’26.1733.861
20Vitaly PetrovCaterham1’26.4484.136
21Romain GrosjeanLotus1’26.8094.497
22Charles PicMarussia1’27.3435.031

2012 F1 season

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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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31 comments on “Williams and Mercedes lead testing mileage as Lotus hit trouble”

  1. Typo in title?

    1. @JP23 and @Hatebreeder :
      “Mercedes have also covered a large distance but have divided their efforts between their 2011 and 2012 cars so far.

      They covered 3,398km with both their cars in public tests, plus a further 354km in a solo test with the W03 in Barcelona earlier this week, giving them a total mileage of 3,752km.”

      1. With all the revelations coming to light about Mercedes have under the skin, they could have achieved a lot more than at first suspected with the 2011 car. http://paddocktalk.com/news/html/story-183675.html
        and how the new mapping clampdown could benefit Mercedes. I started a thread in the forum on the double diffuser and how it might work.

      2. only 11 kms more than the mclaren! :D
        Question: how does doing runs with a 2011 car benefit them? Don’t they already have all the data they need of the 2011 car?

        1. ignore the only 11 kms thing. I need a calculator.

        2. It’s not about the 2011 car, it’s about taking the 2011 data, and applying them to 2012.

          Mercedes hoped to build a conversion matrix that lets them translate what they already have to the new car and new tyres.

          And so the PR goes that by testing the W02 with 2012 tyres on one occasion, they could isolate changes in the tyres (2011 vs. Jerez Test 2012) and cars (W02 in Jerez vs. W03 in Barcelona), reducing uncertainty in that conversion.

          1. oh!
            so you mean, Old car with old tyres is compared to old car with new tyres, and the changes are recorded and then the new car with new tyres data is compared to make up like a comparison chart and try to make like a data set to apply on all other tracks?

          2. They could also test other parts becuse they are under the skin. With a solid base of information they can stick on parts and test the effect it has and how it works. If they are re-directing gasses through the maniifold for example and exiting them through the rear of the car, the parts can be tested to see what if any issues show up on a known platform. When Brawn initially introduced the blown diffused he made comment later that this area of development could have been better controlled by recommedtions made by the working group. Then he went on to win that yer but I always suspected he had another idea up his sleeve and I reckon that is what is on the new car. The device is no match for the exhust blown diffusers IMHO so there was no point in using it until they had other issues solved and the regs changed. Now we are about to see whether this is this seasons must have. I will be very surprised if we dont see a Mercedes win this season. A Mercedes 1-2 in Melbourne is worth a long shot bet and you would get decent odds.

  2. you mean williams and mclaren?

  3. No, he means Williams and Mercedes… the reason Mercedes are halfway down the table is that half their mileage was done using the W02 and the table reflects the testing done in the 2012 cars

    1. @Hatebreeder This is meant for you I think…

      1. yeah. thanks.

  4. Hmm, after all the comments about HAM and BUT, Button ends the test faster…

    Perhaps more relavently, is there any way you could see the drop off in time on a run of more than, say, 15 laps? Apparantly the McLaren is pretty damn close to the Red in that respect.

    1. It’s clear neither Mclaren was pushing too hard, therefore who was “faster” is rather meaningless, no?

  5. Some information from Pirelli on the tyres the top three drivers on each day used:

    Day 1
    1. Vettel 1’23.265 on Hard New
    2. Hülkenberg 1’23.440 on Medium New
    3. Hamilton 1’23.590 on Soft New

    Day 2
    1. Hülkenberg 1’22.608 on Supersoft New
    2. Perez 1’22.648 on Supersoft New
    3. Vettel 1’22.891 on Soft New

    Day 3
    1. Maldonado 1’22.391 on Supersoft New
    2. Schumacher 1’23.384 on Soft New
    3. Kobayashi 1’23.582 on Soft New

    Day 4
    1. Kobayashi 1’22.312 on Soft New
    2. Maldonado 1’22.561 on Supersoft New
    3. Di Resta 1’23.119 on Supersoft New

    1. I guess the most impressive time is Kobayashi’s fastest with Softs and Vettel on the Hard tyres. I guess that Kobayashi’s time was influenced by the amount of rubber on the track but nonetheless faster than Maldonado and Di Resta on the Super Softs.

      1. Button’s 23.200 today was also on hards. More rubbered in track than for Vettel though

        1. And the hottest day of testings. Even with this Button’s time was impressive.

          1. You can look at pretty much any of the cars and give reasons why they look promising… -.-

          2. Pretty much, @Mike

          3. none of these times were remotley impressive.

            the top cars could easily do sub 1.20

            are people that bored they have to start trying to compre lap times

            look past the times, look at lap time drop off…listen to drivers and team’s and GOOD commentators (those who have been part of teams(recently))

            that’s the ONLY way of gleening information from testing

  6. Well, after horrible reliability last year, I guess its a good sign to see how many laps Williams managed over the past couple of weeks.
    I wouldn’t read much into Maldonado being “fast” though, after all, didn’t Rubens set the fastest testing time last year?

    1. True, but last years car was apparently designed to run at a lower ride height than was legal, and were running it at this height when Barichello made the time.

      I’m doubting they will have made a cock up like that again. But I still wouldn’t take too much from any testing times.

  7. 777 > 348 + 399

  8. Never mind. I should learn to read the comments carefully before saying anything.

  9. Was wondering if anyone could please clear up some confusion for me, what engines do the teams use for testing? I doubt/haven’t heard that the engines for races are used/run in so how many can they get away with using?

    1. I don’t think there is a limit to the number of engines used during testing. Testing is not bound by the 8 engines per driver per year allocation for the race weekends.

      1. @Proesterchen Thanks for that. I was wondering a couple of weeks ago as well.

        I guess that counts on gearboxes as well?

        1. AFAIK yes.

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