F1 Valencia Testing

[Blonde Bassist]

Is anyone else following whats going on in Jerez?

I've been keeping up to date on twitter and it's quite interesting to see the new cars, and how the they match up. Not so concerned with JB going to Mclaren or MS back with Brawn in the re-titled Mercedes. I was very interested to see the new Sauber livery, with no sponsorship other than having Bridgestone markings on it. The Renault, also having less sponsorship after their debacle last season. I must say those two teams' cars look so much cleaner than the others, especially the Torro Rosso and Ferrari. The cars do seem to look nicer in general this year, and with a few more teams there is certainly a bit more variety. Was nice to see that Nico Rosberg's times were faster than Michael Schumacher's in the first two days, I think MS is out again today and going quick. Bit disappointed to see that Ferrari has topped the times, but with unknown fuel loads it's a bit deceptive. Good to see that the Sauber was second fastest on both days so far though.

I'm looking forward to next week's tests. Virgin Racing are bringing their car out, first of the new comers, and the Lotus launch is scheduled for Feb 12th.

Should be a really interesting season this year.

[Passinwind]

Originally Posted by Blonde Bassist

Is anyone else following whats going on in Jerez?

Yep. So far it looks like Sauber might pull a Brawn with a car that had extra development time due to a lemon the year before. But the stuff that's not at this first test is likely to be the most interesting IMO.

[tycobb73]

Like to. Doesn't speed have it? I don't have speed? Can I watch races on the internet?

[Blonde Bassist]

Races don't start till March, this is just the first round of testing.

There's loads of good photos at www.f1.com

[Atoz]

In contrast to the OP, I am thrilled that Ferrari has topped the timesheets this week, as I've been a Scuderia fan since the days of Gilles.

I am also very happy to see Schu back in an F1 car. I think he's got something left in the tank (pun intended), and in a competitive car could win more races. It's been a while since 4 WCs have been on the grid (could've been 5 had Kimi not gone rallying), so I look for this season to be an interesting one.

As an aside, I'm very much interested in seeing how the Virgin and USF1 (if the team doesn't fold) entries perform once they're finally rolled out, as they're the first F1 cars to be designed entirely using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) rather than using wind tunnel mock ups. I do computer-based modeling and simulation for a living, so that sort of stuff appeals to my geekier side.

[Blonde Bassist]

Originally Posted by Atoz

As an aside, I'm very much interested in seeing how the Virgin and USF1 (if the team doesn't fold) entries perform once they're finally rolled out, as they're the first F1 cars to be designed entirely using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) rather than using wind tunnel mock ups. I do computer-based modeling and simulation for a living, so that sort of stuff appeals to my geekier side.

The Launch for the Virgin Racing car was today. It certainly does look quite good, not quite so sure on some of the features, but when they get it on the track I guess it will prove it's self. I do think the idea of just using CFD could be the way forward, but also dismissing wind tunnel testing might be very detrimental. I can't see it helping them that much considering the amount of information gained from the wind tunnels. I'm sure it has cut the cost quite a bit, and if the programming is accurate enough I'm sure it will pay off. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Lotus car next week. All the new teams are running Cosworth engines, which is great, so they all have some racing pedigree behind them. I think they're running the same engine as Williams as well, which definitely have Cosworth engines (I assume there wouldn't be any differences between them, but I've not looked into it). It will be interesting to see how Bruno Senna gets on as well. Hopefully won't end up the same as Nelson Pequet Jr. Although, I would like to see him back in a car, I think he's much better than Renault gave him credit for, hopefully he'll get some testing with someone and be in a car again.

Fernando Alonso topped the times for today, making it a clean sweep for Ferrari at the first test. Very happy to see Sauber doing as well as they are.

[vene-nemesis]

I think that the adition of the new teams wont give any more variety at all, in the end the usual teams will cope the first positions as usual.

I am however looking foward on a very promising driver, Kamui Kobayashi, since i saw him literally drift a corner without losing control over his car on his first race on F1 and on a very wet track I knew he was going to be one of the top drivers.

I am also waiting for the RB5, Adrian Newey is a genius, period.

This season is looking good so far, very good drivers on the top cars, exep for Jenson Button... The grid is going to look awesome this year Alonso, Massa, Shumi, Rossberg, De la Rosa, Kobayashi, Vettel, Webber, Hamilton. Its a shame that Kubica wasnt hired by a better team... I wonder why did McLaren chose JB over him... british jingoism maybe?

[Number27]

you know... this reminds me of a fun discussion: is jenson button the least skilled F1 driver to ever win the championship? i say it's either him or keke rosberg.

[Blonde Bassist]

Originally Posted by Number27

you know... this reminds me of a fun discussion: is jenson button the least skilled F1 driver to ever win the championship? i say it's either him or keke rosberg.

I wasn't around when Keke was driving, infact I didn't even realise that Nico had a champion father until late on last season. The first championship I really remember is Damon Hill, and the first race I can really remember was the tragic race in 1994 that took Ratzenberger and Senna. I'd probably say JB is atleast as skilled as Jacque Villeneuve. Not sure whether he's able to get more than 2 championships, but he's for sure got the ability (and the car) to get a second. I've always thought he's got a lot of potential, just not had a good enough team behind him. It will definitely be this season that proves this i guess.

Kaboyashi is looking great though, he was keeping up fairly well with team mate Pedro de la Rosa in Valencia. He was driving like a mentalist at the end of last season.

[Number27]

Originally Posted by Blonde Bassist

I wasn't around when Keke was driving, infact I didn't even realise that Nico had a champion father until late on last season. The first championship I really remember is Damon Hill, and the first race I can really remember was the tragic race in 1994 that took Ratzenberger and Senna. I'd probably say JB is atleast as skilled as Jacque Villeneuve. Not sure whether he's able to get more than 2 championships, but he's for sure got the ability (and the car) to get a second. I've always thought he's got a lot of potential, just not had a good enough team behind him. It will definitely be this season that proves this i guess.

i wouldn't say he's as skilled as villeneuve, remember that villeneuve kept pace with damon hill in his first year in F1 (he's more like louis hamilton in that regard), and villeneuve remained by far the better half of his teammates even later in his career when he was racing for acme sport and mickey mouse racing. you can't really say the same for button... he was barely faster than an over the hill ruebens barichello(sp?).

keke rosberg won the championship in 1982, but he really only won by default because the fastest cars (the ferraris and renaults) were so unreliable. he only won one race that year and was then never really heard from again.

[Mazatleco17]

Villenueve was pretty skilled in CART an F1..... Until he moved to BAR then everything went downhill. (not that he lost his skills, the teams were total crap)