The early indications from pre-season testing for 2013 are that we should be in for another close year – except for the two teams at the back.
Fastest times
After the first four days of running the eight quickest cars were covered by less than one second over a 4.4km lap of Jerez.
Of course these times should be treated with caution because we don’t know how much fuel was in the cars when they were set. After all, Ferrari had the second-quickest new car in the same test last year, which was clearly not the case once the season began.
However, making the assumption that each team will have used a range of fuel loads over the four days, they can give us a guide to how close the field is.
Fastest times by team
Most of the teams set their quickest times on the last day of the test when the track was at its cleanest and had the most rubber laid down. Mercedes and Ferrari achieved their best times on Thursday.
McLaren were a significant exception: Jenson Button’s time on Pirelli’s hard tyres on the first day of the test, when the track was still quite slippery, stood as their best of the test.
This indicates there is more pace in the MP4-28 than the headline time suggests. The significance of the time was not lost on his rivals: “Doing [that] on hard tyres on the first day on the dirty track and everything I still believe it was a quick lap time,” said Massa
Sebastian Vettel also turned the RB9’s quickest lap on hards. Pirelli have aimed for a 0.5 second difference in performance between each of their compounds this year, but the hard tyre was especially well-suited to the abrasive Jerez track.
| Team | Driver | Time | Gap | Tyre | |
| 1 | Ferrari | Felipe Massa | 1’17.879 | Soft | |
| 2 | Lotus | Kimi Raikkonen | 1’18.148 | 0.269 | Soft |
| 3 | Force India | Jules Bianchi | 1’18.175 | 0.296 | Soft |
| 4 | Red Bull | Sebastian Vettel | 1’18.565 | 0.686 | Hard |
| 5 | Sauber | Esteban Gutierrez | 1’18.669 | 0.790 | Soft |
| 6 | Toro Rosso | Jean-Eric Vergne | 1’18.760 | 0.881 | Soft |
| 7 | Mercedes | Nico Rosberg | 1’18.766 | 0.887 | Medium |
| 8 | McLaren | Jenson Button | 1’18.861 | 0.982 | Hard |
| 9 | Williams | Valtteri Bottas | 1’19.851 | 1.972 | Soft |
| 10 | Caterham | Charles Pic | 1’21.105 | 3.226 | Soft |
| 11 | Marussia | Luiz Razia | 1’21.226 | 3.347 | Soft |
Fastest times by driver
Jules Bianchi did his chances of landing the second Force India seat no harm by posting the quickest time by one of their drivers in the VJM06.
However F1’s two smallest teams are yet to show that they are able to bridge the gap to the other runners – they were over a second off the rest despite using the soft tyres.
| Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Tyre | |
| 1 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’17.879 | 0.000 | Soft |
| 2 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | 1’18.148 | 0.269 | Soft |
| 3 | Jules Bianchi | Force India | 1’18.175 | 0.296 | Soft |
| 4 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1’18.218 | 0.339 | Soft |
| 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 1’18.565 | 0.686 | Hard |
| 6 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 1’18.669 | 0.790 | Soft |
| 7 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 1’18.760 | 0.881 | Soft |
| 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’18.766 | 0.887 | Medium |
| 9 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1’18.861 | 0.982 | Hard |
| 10 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’18.905 | 1.026 | Medium |
| 11 | Sergio Perez | McLaren | 1’18.944 | 1.065 | Hard |
| 12 | Paul di Resta | Force India | 1’19.003 | 1.124 | Soft |
| 13 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 1’19.134 | 1.255 | Medium |
| 14 | James Rossiter | Force India | 1’19.303 | 1.424 | Soft |
| 15 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 1’19.338 | 1.459 | Medium |
| 16 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | 1’19.502 | 1.623 | Medium |
| 17 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1’19.851 | 1.972 | Soft |
| 18 | Pedro de la Rosa | Ferrari | 1’20.316 | 2.437 | Medium |
| 19 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | 1’20.693 | 2.814 | Soft |
| 20 | Charles Pic | Caterham | 1’21.105 | 3.226 | Soft |
| 21 | Luiz Razia | Marussia | 1’21.226 | 3.347 | Soft |
| 22 | Max Chilton | Marussia | 1’21.269 | 3.390 | Soft |
| 23 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham | 1’21.311 | 3.432 | Soft |
Distance covered
After four days pounding around Jerez the teams racked up over 3,500 laps and covering more than 15,000km. Here’s how that breaks down by driver and team.
Distance by car
Sauber are leading the mileage table at the moment and Red Bull had a busy first week with the RB9.
After completing just 29 laps on the first two days of the test Mercedes bounced back, covering over four Grand Prix distances in the remaining running which leaves them on a par with most of their rivals.
| Team | Model | Total laps | Total distance (km) |
| Sauber | C32 | 430 | 1,904.04 |
| Red Bull | RB9 | 372 | 1,647.22 |
| Force India | VJM06 | 357 | 1,580.80 |
| Williams | FW34 | 333 | 1,474.52 |
| Toro Rosso | STR8 | 330 | 1,461.24 |
| Mercedes | W04 | 322 | 1,425.82 |
| Caterham | CT03 | 318 | 1,408.10 |
| McLaren | MP4-28 | 299 | 1,323.97 |
| Ferrari | F138 | 278 | 1,230.98 |
| Lotus | E21 | 272 | 1,204.42 |
| Marussia | MR02 | 220 | 974.16 |
Distance by driver
Esteban Gutierrez had a grueling introduction to life as an F1 driver, racking up 252 laps in two days.
That’s more than Massa managed in three – though it was clear from the Ferrari driver’s words afterwards he had wanted to spend more time working on set-ups and less time doing aero runs.
| Driver | Total laps | Total distance (km) |
| Esteban Gutierrez | 252 | 1,115.856 |
| Paul di Resta | 240 | 1,062.720 |
| Felipe Massa | 227 | 1,005.156 |
| Sebastian Vettel | 198 | 876.744 |
| Sergio Perez | 179 | 792.612 |
| Nico Hulkenberg | 178 | 788.184 |
| Valtteri Bottas | 178 | 788.184 |
| Jean-Eric Vergne | 177 | 783.756 |
| Mark Webber | 174 | 770.472 |
| Charles Pic | 166 | 735.048 |
| Nico Rosberg | 162 | 717.336 |
| Lewis Hamilton | 160 | 708.480 |
| Pastor Maldonado | 155 | 686.340 |
| Daniel Ricciardo | 153 | 677.484 |
| Giedo van der Garde | 152 | 673.056 |
| Romain Grosjean | 149 | 659.772 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | 123 | 544.644 |
| Jenson Button | 120 | 531.360 |
| Luiz Razia | 113 | 500.364 |
| Max Chilton | 107 | 473.796 |
| James Rossiter | 61 | 270.108 |
| Jules Bianchi | 56 | 247.968 |
| Pedro de la Rosa | 51 | 225.828 |
NB. Does not take filming days such as Mercedes’ on Monday 4th February into account.
2013 F1 season
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JB (@)
9th February 2013, 13:57
It´s looking like another cracker of a season!!! Can´t wait!! Bring it on!!!
Master firelee (@master-firelee)
9th February 2013, 14:09
“except for the two teams at the back.”
These two teams are clearly sandbagging…..
davey (@djdaveyp87)
9th February 2013, 14:11
The “new” teams may be a further second adrift, but that is closer than they were last season. i think they are slowly pulling into the pack.
The problem for them is that they have to play catch-up season after season which means they have to develop at a faster rate than the teams ahead of them. That is a tough ask for a front running team, never mind a new team at the rear. That , in itself, I believe to be an accomplishment for them.
I hope the times are reflective in some way and that it is as close as it looks. It should make for an awesome season.
@HoHum (@hohum)
9th February 2013, 15:50
The two teams at the back also suffer from a lack of “prize-money”, in the days pre Bernie all teams used to get “starting money” because even small teams have costs.
Jubameister
10th February 2013, 11:47
Caterham do get prize money for their 10th place in the WCC last year (maybe 30-40 m£) , but Marussia get very little. F1 is a very hostile enviroment for new teams, especially for those outside the top 10, because financially they are pretty much left on their own. Personally i hate the stand Bernie seems to have taken, that ten is nice round number and having more teams is inconvenient. There should be 13 reasonably competitive and financially stable teams. The sport does generate enough money for all the teams, but the smaller ones arent getting their share.
@HoHum (@hohum)
11th February 2013, 15:41
True, and we know who does get their share.
petebaldwin (@)
9th February 2013, 16:06
If I was in charge of Marussia or Caterham (and if money/sponsors allowed which they probably wouldn’t), I’d have already stopped development of the 2013 car and would have thrown everything behind 2014. I’d have designed this car to be as close to 2014 as possible and would use the season as one big test.
They are going to be behind all season – it’s just a question of how much slower. If they put twice as much time into next year’s car as the rest of the teams, they might stand a chance of joining the midfield next year.
nidzovski (@nidzovski)
9th February 2013, 16:20
I’m not an expert but I think that if they dont work on 2013 car they would not qualify for any race in 2013.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
9th February 2013, 17:37
@petebaldwin – there’s more to it than that though: you obviously need money to develop regardless, which you gain from sponsors. Sponsors are only interested if they gain media exposure, otherwise they are losing money, which they get from TV coverage; more of this can be achieved through being more competitive. On the flip-side, if they do all but nothing for the 2013 season they will be lacking in place and perhaps even fail to qualify, which means sponsors lose interest only increasing the problem.
Really, Caterham need to score at least a point this year to justify their intentions in F1.
petebaldwin (@)
9th February 2013, 17:49
Well no I agree, it’s more of a “in theory” situation. Sadly, they need to do a lot of work just to stay in touch but they need to so what they can to put as much resource as possible behind the 2014 car.
As things stand, they are only just existing in F1 and they aren’t looking like joining the midfield any time soon. They need to do something because the current strategy isn’t working for the new teams. One has gone out of business and the other 2 are over a second slower than the next car in the field.
BBT (@bbt)
9th February 2013, 14:17
Too early to tell of course but look like: Mclaren, RBR, Lotus, Ferrari, Merc / Sauber to me given the tyre they set there headline times on and the long run pace.
MattB (@mattb)
9th February 2013, 14:22
Keith, could you put up an analysis of best times by tyre type? Then we possibly could see teams’ best times on hard tyres – might give a more accurate comparison with Red Bull & McLaren doing their top times on hards.
Cheers!
AmirAnuar (@amiranuar)
9th February 2013, 14:25
please do that keith
AmirAnuar (@amiranuar)
9th February 2013, 14:24
keith could you do fastest lap by tyre type…
OEL F1 (@oel-f1)
9th February 2013, 15:01
Interesting to see that despite their problems, Mercedes managed to do more laps than the likes of McLaren, Ferrari and Lotus.
Gill (@gill)
9th February 2013, 15:10
I think Ferrari are doing something different this year. In the previous years, they were the team with highest mileage but we know that F150 Italia and F2012 were not the class of the field. This year they are not going for marathon run but evaluating some other systems which they feel would benefit them. whether it is good or bad , time will tell but at least they changed something which is encouraging.
nidzovski (@nidzovski)
9th February 2013, 16:15
This is probably the last season for a long time with the gaps between the teams so close. With new engines and 2014 rules I expect that we will see very diferent situation on track.
Nomore
9th February 2013, 18:07
I agree
Suave (@suave)
9th February 2013, 17:39
In my opinion, Williams not having their 2013 challenger ready for the first test is going to be quite detrimental to the start of their season. I know that they tested certain 2013 components on their 2012 cars during this test, but the 2013 is a different car. Modern F1 cars are very integrated, and the efficiency of a certain part is dependent on the characteristic of other parts on the F1 car. Just because a 2013 component will work on their 2012 car does not mean that it will work as well on their 2013 car – and vice versa.
All of the other teams already have have 4 days of testing on their cars, they made big strides towards reliability and establishing some sort of base for their cars. Williams must really make the best of the two remaining tests. If they encounter reliability problems during the first few days of the next test which limit their running then they’ll be even further behind.
I just find it a bit odd that the two back marker teams can have their 2013 cars ready for the first test but Williams cannot.
nidzovski (@nidzovski)
9th February 2013, 19:51
Maybe Williams could do something exeptional with the new car. I know it’s too much but maybe they can do a “Brawn” this year. Never forget that after all won 5 of their 9 championships with Renault engines. Who knows?
xjr15jaaag (@xjr15jaaag)
9th February 2013, 21:19
But don’t forget that in 2010 Red Bull missed out either the first test or a few days of it…
Bill Gates
10th February 2013, 15:18
Its ******** what you write… Because the new car FW35 successfully completed the FIA crash-tests even in December 2012 !!! And a team decision not to complete the tests in Jerez fell even early…
The strategy of Williams may you feel strange, but it is planned from the beginning !!
So its not, everything is fine.
verstappen (@verstappen)
9th February 2013, 17:48
I think the ‘new teams’ and drivers have shown solid performance. Good to see that my fellow countryman is just a few tenths behind his teammate.
With Marussia looking to have closed the gap with Caterham, we could be in for some nice little fights at the back of the pack!
@:/”€!?!/%*# that we lost our free to air dutch broadcast!
Mallesh Magdum (@malleshmagdum)
10th February 2013, 7:41
IMO 2013 is just 2012 part-2!
MISHBEEP (@mishbeep)
11th February 2013, 7:53
Anyone notice how lewis was slower than Nico and Sergio was slower than Jenson? It would be nice to see a driver by driver stint vs lap time chart! If that makes sense at all…