1160 replies to this topic

[onewingedangel]

Weather forecast at present looks to be mixed:
http://www.meteoblue..._GB/content/531
http://www.myweather...a...ay=0&eday=7

Timing
http://f1tests.info/2013.php?rev=on

Driver Line-up
Red Bull: Webber/Vettel/Webber/Vettel
Ferrari: Massa/Alonso/Massa/Alonso
McLaren: Perez/Button/Perez/Button
Lotus: Grosjean/Grosjean/Raikkonen/Raikkonen
Mercedes:Hamilton/Rosberg/Hamilton/Rosberg
Sauber: Gutierrez/Hulkenberg/Gutierrez/Hulkenberg
Force India:DiResta/?/?/?
Williams:Bottas/Bottas/Maldonado/Maldonado
Toro Rosso: Vergne/Ricciardo/Vergne/Ricciardo
Caterham:Pic/VanDerGarde/Pic/VanDerGarde
Marussia:Chilton/?/?/?

UK TV coverage:
Sky Sports F1 (HD) and Sky 3D live coverage 2pm - 4.30PM each day.
Replays on Sky Sports F1 (HD).
Sky Sports F1 (HD) highlights/Ted's Notebook from 9PM each night.
F1 Show live Friday 4.30PM in both HD and 3D.

Edited by onewingedangel, 28 February 2013 - 11:07.

[Vesuvius]

Weather forecast at present looks to be cold and wet - so testing of the new aero packages might be seen on the Thursday rather than waiting for the last day or two as running may be curtailed.

http://www.meteoblue..._GB/content/531

http://www.myweather...a...ay=0&eday=7

Driver Line-up

Red Bull:
Ferrari:
McLaren: Sergio/Jenson/Sergio/Jenson
Lotus:
Mercedes:
Sauber: Esteban/Nico/Esteban/Nico
Force India:
Williams:
Toro Rosso: Vergne/Ricciardo/Vergne/Ricciardo
Caterham:
Marussia:

Bad news about weather but maybe it won't rain, will have to wait and see as there is still several days still to go and they can actually predict accurately only couple of days before.

Lotus will have Grosjean,Grosjean,Kimi,Kimi

[onewingedangel]

Lotus will have Grosjean,Grosjean,Kimi,Kimi

Thanks.

[Rosberg]

This has been on my mind ever since Sky Sports announced the testing live, is the testing time schedule the same as 1st Barcelona Test or is it starting at 2pm?

[onewingedangel]

Testing times are as per the first test - Sky are just covering the last 2 hours of testing with the 30 minute overrun. Presumably they'll show pre-recorded footage from earlier in the day at the start of the show with live footage interspersed with features and interviews, with a recap in the last 30 minutes.

[Harry]

I wonder if they'll have commentary as well. I hope so. Looking forward to it either way, I'd like all testing to have live coverage in the future.

[jrg19]

Im guessing it will be like the practice sessions?

[BigCHrome]

Ferrari's lineup: dry days - Alonso; wet days - Massa.

[ChiltonsCats]

have so little on right now I will likely end up watching most of the first two days coverage live on Sky lol

[plumtree]

Red Bull: Mark/Mark/Sebastian/Sebastian
Ferrari: Felipe/Fernando/Felipe/Fernando, if they haven't changed the initial schedule.

[ConsiderAndGo]

Ferrari's lineup: dry days - Alonso; wet days - Massa.

Get a life

[HuddersfieldTerrier1986]

I wonder if they'll have commentary as well. I hope so. Looking forward to it either way, I'd like all testing to have live coverage in the future.

It'll be Simon Lazenby presenting with I can't remember who, with David Croft and guests in the commentary box.

[denthierry]

Ferrari's lineup: dry days - Alonso; wet days - Massa.

same sh.. for kimi @ lotus

[Rosberg]

It'll be interesting to see what Force India and Marussia line up is.

[Shiroo]

same sh.. for kimi @ lotus

Ok this is enough. What the f*** is wrong with people on this board and that love for SabotageKimi? Dude, Mercedes had problems with reliability and no one blames Wolff or Brawn for sabotaging Hamilton/Rosberg car, and here, whenever Kimi has problems, it is sabotage or non-equal treament. He got 2 days as well, and he had technical problems, sh** happens. So give me a break with such statements that "it is same sh**", because you would need to be a ****** to believe in some sabotage or non-equal treatment. They are spending milions of EURO, do you really think that they would sabotage someone just for sake of rising 2nd driver a bit higher and losing possible WDC or WCC position? Especially when your main driver is STAR in current F1 and business gold mine for owner (Lopez). And to be honest, Grosjean got wet, not Raikkonen (unless you want to prove that driving in wet is giving more than in dry, and Massa is nr 1 driver and Alonso nr 2 driver cause Massa recieved wet drive, and Alonso didn't).

Oh snap, how long people will search for "sh.." at Lotus. That's so horrible and really lame. People need to get over that it is testing, and reliability issues just happens cause that's what testing is about

Edited by Shiroo, 24 February 2013 - 21:33.

[Vesuvius]

TS reported it will most likely rain Thursday and Friday but Saturday will be dry and best day of test, sunday will be more cloudy and small chance of rain.

[chumma]

TS reported it will most likely rain Thursday and Friday but Saturday will be dry and best day of test, sunday will be more cloudy and small chance of rain.

How many test days over the last 3 or 4 years have been annoyingly wet? Answer? Too many.

[MadYarpen]

Ok this is enough. What the f*** is wrong with people on this board and that love for SabotageKimi? Dude, Mercedes had problems with reliability and no one blames Wolff or Brawn for sabotaging Hamilton/Rosberg car, and here, whenever Kimi has problems, it is sabotage or non-equal treament. He got 2 days as well, and he had technical problems, sh** happens. So give me a break with such statements that "it is same sh**", because you would need to be a ****** to believe in some sabotage or non-equal treatment. They are spending milions of EURO, do you really think that they would sabotage someone just for sake of rising 2nd driver a bit higher and losing possible WDC or WCC position? Especially when your main driver is STAR in current F1 and business gold mine for owner (Lopez). And to be honest, Grosjean got wet, not Raikkonen (unless you want to prove that driving in wet is giving more than in dry, and Massa is nr 1 driver and Alonso nr 2 driver cause Massa recieved wet drive, and Alonso didn't).

Oh snap, how long people will search for "sh.." at Lotus. That's so horrible and really lame. People need to get over that it is testing, and reliability issues just happens cause that's what testing is about

+1, my thoughts exactly. Some posts are rally pathetic. Get a life people.

[Francesc]

TS reported it will most likely rain Thursday and Friday but Saturday will be dry and best day of test, sunday will be more cloudy and small chance of rain.

According to out local meteo here in Catalonia it will rain only on Thursday.

[HopkinsonF1]

Expecting Red Bull to turn up with a B-spec car and find an extra second. The car they ran at the first couple of tests looked suspiciously ordinary (albeit quick).

[apoka]

It'll be interesting to see what Force India and Marussia line up is.

Two days before the test, they still haven't announced their drivers. I don't really think that will have a positive impact on either Bianchi or Sutil. The latest news seem to suggest that FI was quite happy with Sutil at the test and him apparently being quicker than Di Resta (Bianchi was hard to compare due to different conditions).

[EvanRainer]

It now looks like the first couple of days are the ones that have a chance of rain with the weekend being clear.

[Zava]

Williams: Bottas-Bottas-Maldonado-Maldonado
(source: sky twitter)

[onewingedangel]

Red Bull: Mark/Mark/Sebastian/Sebastian
Ferrari: Felipe/Fernando/Felipe/Fernando, if they haven't changed the initial schedule.

Williams: Bottas-Bottas-Maldonado-Maldonado
(source: sky twitter)

Thanks.

Edited by onewingedangel, 26 February 2013 - 11:19.

[boldhakka]

Expecting Red Bull to turn up with a B-spec car and find an extra second. The car they ran at the first couple of tests looked suspiciously ordinary (albeit quick).

I think most teams will add some serious bits and pieces this time around. Even more during free practice at Melbourne.

[MadYarpen]

i hope we will see Lotus testing DRD. can't believe they're so sure of it that they will just bolt it on in australia....

Edited by MadYarpen, 26 February 2013 - 15:54.

[plumtree]

It looks like Marc Priestley, a former McLaren mechanic, will do some commentary on SSF1 this week.
@f1elvis: If you're in the UK & lucky enough to have @SkySportsF1, V happy to say you'll find me discussing matters with @CroftyF1 this week in Spain. No idea yet of the scheduling I'm afraid.

Also this article was a good read.
@@f1elvis: As we head towards the crucial final test before Oz, here're some behind the scenes insights into what's going on. http://www.pitpass.c...Testing-testing

Edited by plumtree, 26 February 2013 - 16:54.

[bussunda]

Ok this is enough. What the f*** is wrong with people on this board and that love for SabotageKimi? Dude, Mercedes had problems with reliability and no one blames Wolff or Brawn for sabotaging Hamilton/Rosberg car, and here, whenever Kimi has problems, it is sabotage or non-equal treament. He got 2 days as well, and he had technical problems, sh** happens. So give me a break with such statements that "it is same sh**", because you would need to be a ****** to believe in some sabotage or non-equal treatment. They are spending milions of EURO, do you really think that they would sabotage someone just for sake of rising 2nd driver a bit higher and losing possible WDC or WCC position? Especially when your main driver is STAR in current F1 and business gold mine for owner (Lopez). And to be honest, Grosjean got wet, not Raikkonen (unless you want to prove that driving in wet is giving more than in dry, and Massa is nr 1 driver and Alonso nr 2 driver cause Massa recieved wet drive, and Alonso didn't).

Oh snap, how long people will search for "sh.." at Lotus. That's so horrible and really lame. People need to get over that it is testing, and reliability issues just happens cause that's what testing is about

Me thinks you, and a few others, should calm down a couple of notches.

[mclarennut]

I wonder as the testing is been shown live that one or two of the top teams will try for good times to show off what they can do for the TV cameras? or do you think they will still sandbag till Q3?

Edited by mclarennut, 26 February 2013 - 18:04.

[Seanspeed]

I wonder as the testing is been shown live that one or two of the top teams will try for good times to show off what they can do for the TV cameras? or do you think they will still sandbag?

They'll test.

Being the last test, they'll all likely do some one-lap performance runs and a race sim or two(or three if time and weather permits).

Edited by Seanspeed, 26 February 2013 - 18:05.

[Hairy]

I wonder as the testing is been shown live that one or two of the top teams will try for good times to show off what they can do for the TV cameras? or do you think they will still sandbag till Q3?

They'll need to know what their car is like on low fuel, and soft tyres. Whether that happens at the same time, no one knows. I do expect some teams to try and take some column inches, but none of the big boys. I think Q2 will tell us where Mercedes really are, and Q3 for the big boys, in Australia.

[Alx09]

Gary Anderson on all the teams before the testing:
http://www.bbc.co.uk...rmula1/21588405

[DutchQuicksilver]

Hard to believe that after sunday's last testday it's only two more weeks before Melbourne

[BigCHrome]

Gary Anderson on all the teams before the testing:
http://www.bbc.co.uk...rmula1/21588405

How can he always be so wrong?

[Shiroo]

How can he always be so wrong?

he is a guy that said RBR has 10% downforce than anyone else, yet he rated them as slower than Lotus, McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari.

[William Hunt]

I'm leaving to Barcelona, to watch the winter testing, tomorrow but unfortunately rain is predicted for Thursday and Friday (lots of rain that day).

[ApexMouse]

he is a guy that said RBR has 10% downforce than anyone else, yet he rated them as slower than Lotus, McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari.

He said it looked like RBR had 10% more downforce than anybody (which I tend to think he was using analogously, not definitively) in jerez. He then said they weren't doing that great in Barcelona.
This doesn't sound too ridiculous to me, jerez has barely a straight to its name and a lot of fairly medium radius corners, so the teams will run a very very high drag setup. Barca demands more efficiency due to the much longer straight. Perhaps the RB works better in the high drag 'dirty' part of its aero map relative to other cars. Not too much an outrageous statement to me.

I'm not trying to rubbish your opinion btw, I know we've been over this before . Just trying to provide reasoning for his remarks, his job at this stage is a pretty difficult one.

[DrivenF1]

I'm looking forward to this test as long as the rain can stay away. The last thing we need is 2-4 days of rain!

If anyone wants to catch up with last week's test, there's a detailed piece of analysis here: http://formulaoneana....blogspot.co.uk

The main conclusions are that:
- Mercedes posted four of the six fastest adjusted times
- Lotus look the class of the field so far
- Ferrari are suffering from severe degradation (may be related to the cold conditions) but look quick

[HoldenRT]

It'd be ironic if Ferrari has tyre wear problems this season.. because the last few seasons has seemed the opposite where they'd be weaker on Saturdays but really strong on Sundays.

[Markn93]

From Merc twitter, it's Ham/Ros/Ham/Ros.

Not sure Im happy they've swapped. Think Lewis will get stuck with bad weather again and perhaps not all the new parts, with new ones maybe introduced on the last day. Even if not he doesn't get feedback from Rosberg having already run them for a day.

[Ferrari2183]

How can he always be so wrong?

I don't know if he is right or wrong because I am not privy to teams data but how on earth do you know that he is wrong?

At least offer up some explanation as to why you think he is so wrong...

[SealTheDiffuser]

From Merc twitter, it's Ham/Ros/Ham/Ros.

Not sure Im happy they've swapped. Think Lewis will get stuck with bad weather again and perhaps not all the new parts, with new ones maybe introduced on the last day. Even if not he doesn't get feedback from Rosberg having already run them for a day.

friday will be the heavyist rain. so they prefer HAM. (mor/aft- thur: dry/rain; fri: rain/rain; sat dry/dry; sun dry/dry)

Edited by SealTheDiffuser, 27 February 2013 - 10:07.

[kedia990]

From Merc twitter, it's Ham/Ros/Ham/Ros.

Not sure Im happy they've swapped. Think Lewis will get stuck with bad weather again and perhaps not all the new parts, with new ones maybe introduced on the last day. Even if not he doesn't get feedback from Rosberg having already run them for a day.

I really doubt there's any kind of conspiracy going on, it's just a balanced schedule - 2 days per driver, too bad if someone gets stuck with bad weather, the team certainly doesn't want rain. Doubt we should be reading too much into it, I don't think the team favors any particular driver.

[BernieEc]

I really doubt there's any kind of conspiracy going on, it's just a balanced schedule - 2 days per driver, too bad if someone gets stuck with bad weather, the team certainly doesn't want rain. Doubt we should be reading too much into it, I don't think the team favors any particular driver.

[Treads]

I really doubt there's any kind of conspiracy going on, it's just a balanced schedule - 2 days per driver, too bad if someone gets stuck with bad weather, the team certainly doesn't want rain. Doubt we should be reading too much into it, I don't think the team favors any particular driver.

Indeed. Why would Merc want to sabotage their new driver before a wheel turns in anger? That would be madness.

[Markn93]

I really doubt there's any kind of conspiracy going on, it's just a balanced schedule - 2 days per driver, too bad if someone gets stuck with bad weather, the team certainly doesn't want rain. Doubt we should be reading too much into it, I don't think the team favors any particular driver.

Don't think there's any conspiracy, just thought them swapping played out of Lewis's hands. If what Sealthediffuser said is true though, it shows that it is certainly not the case.

[Anderis]

Mercedes schedule is as fair as it can be. Thursday and Friday have much more chance of rain than Saturday and Sunday. So each driver gets (in theory) one wet and one dry day. Someone has to be testing during the day which conditions are supposed to be the worst or the best.

You can see Williams went with Bottas-Bottas-Maldonado-Maldonado. If weather predictions are right, Bottas is screwed far more than any Mercedes driver could be.

[femi]

Now we know why the RB and Lotus are looking very good...

[Rosberg]

According to F1 Fanatic, Marussia have said Max Chilton will test tomorrow but no confirmation on if Luiz Razia will test. Poor Razia

[cooper]

Testing is testing.. All teams will test in the same conditions, weather changes and cant always be predicted.. Anyone can find a conspiracy theory in any situation it seems...

Bottom line is all teams will be able to gather similar data as they will all share the same conditions, we will finally see most of the upgrades to the cars, there could be some rain and some drivers may get a little less time than others but I don't think that it will stop anyone or any team being any less / more competitive come Australia!