Car of the Testing Season

[oziengineer]

it's pretty difficult to judge, but the cars that impressed me the most this testing season where the FW26, BAR 006 and the RS24. They all seem to have genuine pace and hopefully will keep it when melbourne rolls around. BAR actually worry me, because the car is such an advancement over the 005 and I don't like them that much. Honourable mention goes to the F2004 when Rubens flogged the record at mugello by 2 seconds.

[BootsOntheSide]

The Williams looks to be the quickest over a single lap, the Renault the most consistant and reliable, and the BAR the biggest improvement. Ferrari are always hard to judge because they don't tend to test alongside other teams, but 2 seconds off their lap suggests an improvement in line with what the otehr teams have developed.

[Adam43]

I go along with those assessments. McLaren have seemed to have had the biggest mix of highs and lows.

[Gt_R]

I'd rank

First : WILLIAMS BMW (consistently superfast laps and reliable)
Second : RENAULT RS24 (very fast in race dist simulations with little problems)
Third : BAR 006 (very quick lap times on many days, a force to reckon?)



disappointments?

First : Minardi (late rollout, still far off pace)
Second : Jaguar (doesn't seem to get anything right yet)
Third : Ferrari (little test laps done, surprisingly off pace, behind schedule)

[steve_r]

1st Qualifying in the 1st race well tell us a lot more about the pace of the cars than the whole of winter testing...

[Adam43]

It certainly will, but I wonder how close to winter testing it is...

[Knowlesy]

Car of the testing season is the Renault R24. Nobody expected it to be as quick as it is.

[neilap]

I doubetd Renault last year. I did not make the same mistake again this year. They, more than anyone seem to know how to make oddball cars go fast.

BAR has been pretty fast but I am still hisitant to get my hopes up.

Williams was fast last year so its nothing new.

Ferrari... looked bad in comparison tests but quick alone. Either way its difficult to judge the improvement of the best.

Not Mac. they are looking pretty bad. Yes they broke a lap record but so has BAR. One lap does not mean too much.

Its a toss up to me between Renault and BAR. BAR because for the first time they seem to have reasonable pace and Renault because they made what was to be a step backwards a leap foreward.

In a couple of weeks we will see who was playing games and who was for real.

[Spudgun]

Originally posted by neilap
I doubetd Renault last year. I did not make the same mistake again this year. They, more than anyone seem to know how to make oddball cars go fast.

It was understandable if previous years were anything to go by. I was exactly the same.

I reckon that if the Renault wasn't down on power last year, it would have blown the opposition away. It was by far the best handling car.

It was a shame they couldn't get the power out the wide angle V10.

I'll be interested to see how they do with the more conventional 72 degree angle and what effects it will have handling-wise.

[twig]

I would agree with Gt_R's assessment, except for the Minardi and even Ferrari judging.

I think Minardi are, albeit - still slow, having better runs comparitively to last years car.

And Ferrari - Their car doesn't look impressively different, but the lap times do. Maybe it is the tyre improvement?

[deeks6]

Latest times at Valencia suggest that the Jaguar is not the total lemon that people were predicting...or is Webber just that good?

[Snrub]

BAR seemed to be purposely trying to show off hot lap times that would be somewhat valuable with the old qualifying rules. I find it highly unlikely that they're that good.

As for Minardi being a disappointment, didn't they have "their" car ready last Aug? I suppose they could have pushed harder and had it ready for July. :confused:

[freud]

Ferrari looks awesome... now that those bridgestones can hold on over 35 laps.. we'll see in melbourne. Basically its micehlin vs bridgestone now.

[Led ZeppF1]

One word: FW"The Walrus"26.

[Jordi]

The R24. One should think they would have problems using a new engine which was changing the concept of the car, but so far, it's going well.

As for BAR... the 001 led some testing sessions (and a practice session at Malaysia that year!) and we know how many points they got...