Yes, so far it's just speculation. But I wonder what did Brawn do in the second half of 2009 then? Ross said they didn't develop the 2009 car so much because they were working hard on the 2010 car. Is this all that they could come up with with so much work? A diffuser that's almost identical to last year's? While everybody else - including much smaller teams - developed a new diffuser. Very strange.

We can only speculate,but assuming the information we have is correct,it's easy to see a pattern emerging during testing.

I don't think the softs are working on the W01. Rosberg said so after the first test,I believe,and while they may have worked on the understeer issue,I still think they have problems getting the tyres up to temperature. How much of this is due the cold weather,I don't know. The only option left in that case would be to attempt qualifying on the harder compound and do the first part of the race on the same tyre,which could be one reason why MS was doing those short ten lappers followed by heavy-fuel runs. With the harder compound,from what we've seen so far,the quickest laps are set some three-four laps into the stint. And Michael and Mark were on track together for a brief while yesterday,both presumably on meds and a longish run-the laptimes were remarkably similar,except that MS chose to pit as soon as the grip trailed off while the Red Bull continued for a few more laps. So it's a three bit test schedule for Merc: low fuel short sprint on the harder compound, heavy/full tank long runs on the same tyre, long runs on the other compound.

Ferrari and Red Bull,OTOH,seem to be working the softs quite well,as we saw yesterday. Certainly they'd qualify ahead if they choose to use softs,but Bahrain's going to be much warmer than Jerez...



Yup,his blog is a great source for information of this sort though I tend to ignore his musings on hierarchy and pre-season predictions.

It does seem like they've screwed up.

From what we've seen so far, the car is at best in the upper midfield bracket.
Sure, MS can take it higher than where it belongs and make it look better than what it is; but nevertheless, its fairly evident that this car in its current avatar is no front runner.

imho MS would have been better-off without giving out statements saying he's sure he'd be fighting for the WDC, etc. I was actually quite surprised when I saw that statement. Its quite uncharacteristic of him. Even when he had sureshot frontrunner cars, he was modest and measured in his comments to the media and didn't have the habit of making presumptuous and far fetched statements like this.

I agree, it's not characteristic of him at all, he usually plays down his chances than up.
Maybe it was Mercedes PR that made him say those things.

Yep, but the real pressure came from Mr.Zetsche

Yes, I am sure Michael is sweating right now. He is on 20 mil. euro year pay-check with all his sponsors, and this before merchandise sells started. I am sure he is very upset. What Mr. Zetsche said is for workers ears in Stuttgart.

Indeed.

As a MS fan, I actually hope that Merc will be slightly behind Mclaren, Ferrari and RBR in terms of pace. As much as I liked seeing MS in front, I also liked him when he was desperate to match the pace of Williams and Mclaren from 96-99.

Yes, if the car is not a front runner I hope at least we will see some Michael magic.

In the end he will drive what he have in hands. But I still hope he can make 2-3-4 -5 -10 wins. They are not in a hurry today also. But not bad time from Rozberg 1:20.150 .

Rosberg has beat Schumachers time from yesterday and looks quicker than him in genral so far today.

Lap times are generally quicker than yesterday. Kubica is at 1:19.1 already, two other drivers (inlcuding a Toro Rosso) are also in the 1:19s. I guess we will see 1:18s, maybe even 1:17s by the end of the day.

I will be happy if he beat all the times from yesterday , not only Schumi time. And if he not only look quicker, but is quicker than everybody today in general.

Test program is going well today. 62 laps so far. I think they found some good set-up yesterday and today morning and Rozberg is fully focused on his work now. I hope so.

i hope you realize it was a 3 lap stint ?

But Rosberg's performance on the longer stints is very impressive. I think Mercedes has problem only on the short stints, and it's easier to sort out. Ferrari and McLaren are defintely quick, and Sauber too. But Mercedes has a good potencial and they will show it as soon as they run with their new front wing and diffuser.

mercedes might be sandbagging/doing conservativ runs (150 kg's, like JB mentioned yesterday)/ballast work/etc... it's really just speculating

Nice shots from the top.
You can clearly see the exhaust pipes sticking out, which is not legal. So also expect an updated engine cover.
http://www.motorsport-magazin.com/images/5...ton/0234689.jpg
http://www.motorsport-magazin.com/images/5...ton/0234688.jpg

another nice shot here

Agree. I think circulating on the circuit in an average of 1:21s is massive. I think Mercedes will be fine for Bahrain. Sure they will improve a lot. And it's good that Nico proves that he is very quick. Everything depends on the car.

What you think about Kobayashi result? 28 laps in 1,19 in 4 stints(total 39 laps). Lap times are in Testing thread.

those 9-10 lap stints are really impressive, but there is still no benchmark from the top 4 teams
i think 1:17:x is not impossible...hope to see some glory laps from the top teams at the end of today

Has anyone revised forecast for team's ranking in Bahrain? Talk is evolving around Ferarri, McLaren, RBR, MGP, and also perhaps I would include Sauber and Renault.

Sauber is a dark horse, and Koba-san is not going away.

Renault might not have speed, but the engine could win on fuel/tires based strategy.

I am still in dark. Probably even Bahrain might not clarify what we will see in October.

it's just like lats years testing season...you can point out the bad cars, but it's close to impossible to tell who's the best (excluding BGP at the end)

2 * 1:20:0 for nico at the very end in a 2 lap stint ... way to slow for a PR lap...

If this was PR run it was disastrous , I think he just changed his tyres and continue driving with his fuel load from the last stint where he was in 1,24?

well, by the looks of the car (diffuser, FW), i think mercedes is still leading in sandbagging, but we don't know how much of an improvement the new parts will bring.

IMHO:
worst case scenario: we will see a season like 97, 98 (from MS's view)
best case scenario: mercedes will be in the top 2

In comparison with Kobayashi or some of the other drivers, Mercedes looking really slow. Not a good sign after all. If this was a low fuel run for Nico his two 20,0 laps not that good.

I could live with a 1997 or 1998, but, I rather fear a 2005....

good point, but the comments from the team/drivers are not that negative...i mean if they would have a dog of a car, it would make no sense to praise it

Also Ferrari didn't step in 1,19 through the test in Jerez.

if you look at alonso's stint yesterday, i'm sure they are capable of it

But they drove a 15 lap Stint yesterday with a best time of 1:20,1. Much better than Nicos 1:20,0 on a two lap stint on better track condition.

If i remembered correctly Nico has done a high time of 1:20.8 in a 8 or 10 stint, so I donnot think 1:20.0 is the car's limit. Besides, Nico just did several time aroud 1:24+ before the last two lap. So the final laps are not glory laps in my idea.

too much unknown factors to make conclusions

Rozberg stints today, Mercedes didn't make long stints in their test, I mean something like 30-35 laps.
10:04:16 0
10:05:02 1
10:07:05 2 1:48.108 -491.892
10:09:07 3 1:31.147 -16.961

11:04:15 6 1:20.698 -10.449
11:05:16 7 1:20.150 -0.548
11:06:02 8 1:21.354 +1.204

11:20:05 11 1:22.006 +0.652
11:21:10 12 1:21.901 -0.105
11:22:11 13 1:21.453 -0.448
11:23:58 14 1:22.038 +0.585

11:37:04 17 1:23.491 +1.453
11:39:07 18 1:23.617 +0.126
11:40:08 19 1:23.956 +0.339

11:53:56 22 1:22.775 -1.181
11:55:59 23 1:20.982 -1.793
11:57:00 24 1:22.900 +1.918
11:58:01 25 1:21.754 -1.146
12:00:13 26 1:21.650 -0.104
12:01:14 27 1:21.723 +0.073
12:02:16 28 1:21.652 -0.071
12:04:03 29 1:21.854 +0.202
12:05:04 30 1:21.993 +0.139
12:06:06 31 1:22.075 +0.082
12:08:09 32 1:22.632 +0.557

12:50:08 35 1:24.282 +1.650

13:06:15 38 1:22.462 -1.820
13:07:01 39 1:29.113 +6.651
13:09:03 40 1:20.856 -8.257
13:10:05 41 1:20.950 +0.094
13:11:06 42 1:21.470 +0.520
13:13:09 43 1:27.747 +6.277
13:14:10 44 1:21.810 -5.937
13:16:14 45 1:22.017 +0.207
13:17:00 46 1:26.235 +4.218
13:18:01 47 1:22.051 -4.184

13:50:05 50 1:21.230 -0.821
13:51:07 51 1:21.091 -0.139
13:52:08 52 1:28.991 +7.900
13:53:55 53 1:21.576 -7.415
13:54:57 54 1:21.811 +0.235
13:55:59 55 1:21.855 +0.044
13:58:02 56 1:21.977 +0.122
13:59:03 57 1:21.874 -0.103
14:01:15 58 1:21.894 +0.020
14:02:16 59 1:21.938 +0.044
14:03:02 60 1:31.035 +9.097
14:05:05 61 1:22.023 -9.012

14:25:11 64 1:20.775 -1.248
14:26:12 65 1:21.325 +0.550
14:26:58 66 1:21.607 +0.282
14:29:01 67 1:21.879 +0.272
14:30:02 68 1:22.023 +0.144
14:31:04 69 1:22.183 +0.160
14:33:06 70 1:22.358 +0.175
14:34:08 71 1:22.052 -0.306
14:36:11 72 1:21.683 -0.369
14:36:57 73 1:21.929 +0.246
14:37:58 74 1:21.660 -0.269
14:40:01 75 1:21.505 -0.155
14:41:03 76 1:21.553 +0.048
14:42:04 77 1:21.772 +0.219
14:44:07 78 1:22.582 +0.810

15:54:07 81 1:20.995 -1.587
15:55:09 82 1:21.061 +0.066
15:56:56 83 1:21.538 +0.477
15:57:58 84 1:29.263 +7.725
16:00:10 85 1:22.012 -7.251
16:01:11 86 1:21.884 -0.128
16:02:13 87 1:22.005 +0.121
16:04:16 88 1:32.500 +10.495
16:05:02 89 1:27.594 -4.906
16:07:05 90 1:21.838 -5.756
16:08:07 91 1:21.850 +0.012
16:09:08 92 1:21.712 -0.138
16:11:14 93 1:21.765 +0.053
16:12:01 94 1:21.794 +0.029
16:14:04 95 1:29.752 +7.958
16:15:07 96 1:21.707 -8.045
16:16:08 97 1:21.616 -0.091
16:18:12 98 1:24.874 +3.258

17:00:08 103 1:24.847 -0.027
17:01:10 104 1:24.867 +0.020
17:03:13 105 1:26.015 +1.148
17:04:14 106 1:25.056 -0.959
17:06:02 107 1:24.976 -0.080
17:07:03 108 1:24.763 -0.213
17:08:05 109 1:24.731 -0.032
17:10:09 110 1:24.600 -0.131
17:11:10 111 1:24.753 +0.153
17:13:13 112 1:25.541 +0.788
17:13:59 113 1:25.165 -0.376
17:15:02 114 1:24.880 -0.285

17:30:06 117 1:23.875 -1.005
17:32:09 118 1:23.971 +0.096
17:33:10 119 1:24.335 +0.364
17:34:12 120 1:24.319 -0.016
17:36:00 121 1:24.863 +0.544
17:37:01 122 1:24.688 -0.175
17:39:05 123 1:24.827 +0.139
17:40:06 124 1:24.845 +0.018
17:41:08 125 1:24.879 +0.034

17:57:10 128 1:20.063 -4.816
17:58:58 129 1:20.061 -0.002
18:00:08 130 1:20.061

These stints compared to Alonso's, Webber's and even Kobayashi's and Kubica's ones, are not quite encourageing.

actually rosberg did a 30+ stint today, not all of those stints you mention are sepperate (driving through the box for example w/o stopping)

too bad they didn't put timestamps for each lap

And which one is the 30+ lap stint?

Exactly, perhaps one of planning long stint was disturbed by reg flag.

There is a time for every lap, you can see that there is a lot of time between those stints.

just checked twitter and it was really just a 17 lap stint (mixed up with schumacher's stint from yesterday)

I think the vast majority of these laps were on the medium compound with the 1:24s on used tyres and a half-full tank. Same as the Ferrari.

I stand corrected, thought you copied those times from the greek live timing

Yes ,this is Bulgarain time CET+1.

Stop obsessing about the exhausts!

FYI, the exhausts can stick out and still be legal.

The rule stipulates that before any appatures are cut (for exhaust exits/suspension) the bodywork must be legal.

Therefore as long as the Merc's bodywork covered the exhausts - before being cut away to expose the tailpipe - then it is legal.

Simples.

Who can tell me the reason comparing the final three lap time(1:20) and previour time(1:24)? The duration was just 10 minutes but the time gap seems too huge.

perhaps in/outlaps which aren't shown

Lower fuel load? Better tyres?

No, I just checked the test live, in the duration Nico was in the pit. That makes me confused more.

I do not think they had better tyres after the whole test day. Besides, is the time enough for them to take out so much fuel around 10 minutes?