Young drivers test

[wnut]

Mercedes applies to FIA to participate in 3rd day of young drivers test!

http://www.pitpass.com/49492-Mercede...icipate-in-YDT

Is this just taking the P?

[jsTrecu]

Autosport has Silverstone test line-up as announced by teams so far:

Team	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3
Red Bull	Da Costa/Ricciardo	Da Costa/Webber	Sainz/Vettel
Ferrari	TBA	TBA	TBA
Lotus	Prost	Valsecchi	Raikkonen
Force India	Calado *	Sutil *	di Resta *
McLaren	Magnussen	Turvey	Paffett
Toro Rosso	Cecotto	Sainz/Ricciardo	Vergne/Kvyat
Sauber	Frijns	Frijns/Hulkenberg	Sato
Williams	Juncadella	Maldonado	Wolff
Marussia	Ellinas	Gonzalez	Gonzalez

* The driving schedule will be confirmed each morning

[wnut]

Originally Posted by jsTrecu

Autosport has Silverstone test line-up as announced by teams so far:

* The driving schedule will be confirmed each morning

Are they allowed to split the race car drivers across the test, say 2 x half days? 3 X a third of a day?

[Secret squirrel]

Susie wolff, what an utter joke, what exactly has she done in her racing career to earn oppertunitys like this, completely ridiculous.....at least we know who will be slowest this week time for her serious lack of talent to be found out!!!!!!!

[jsTrecu]

Originally Posted by wnut

Are they allowed to split the race car drivers across the test, say 2 x half days? 3 X a third of a day?

I don't know if there are any restrictions for that, but there is a rule that prevents race drivers to test with new parts on the car. So maybe that's why the days that are split in half are with a young driver and a race driver (except first day for RBR), to test the cars with and without the new parts on the same day.
Just guessing.

[Marbot]

I've no doubt that Merc were hoping for a wash-out. However, it seems that the whole country is having a bit of a mini-heatwave that, currently, no one can see an end to!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2635597

[jsTrecu]

28ºC is just perfect, I wish it was that low here too


Updated with Ferrari drivers, no Alonso :

Team	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3
Red Bull	Da Costa/Ricciardo	Da Costa/Webber	Sainz/Vettel
Ferrari	Rigon	Rigon	Massa/Rigon
Lotus	Prost	Valsecchi	Raikkonen
Force India	Calado *	Sutil *	di Resta *
McLaren	Magnussen	Turvey	Paffett
Toro Rosso	Cecotto	Sainz/Ricciardo	Vergne/Kvyat
Sauber	Frijns	Frijns/Hulkenberg	Sato
Williams	Juncadella	Maldonado	Wolff
Marussia	Ellinas	Gonzalez	Gonzalez
Caterham	TBA	TBA	TBA

* The driving schedule will be confirmed each morning

[Marbot]

Has the world gone mad?!

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/108819

No big deal, really.

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by Marbot

Has the world gone mad?!

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/108819

No big deal, really.

Not even close, I think it's good.....

[jsTrecu]

Ricciardo will drive for RBR tomorrow morning too. Assuming he is still scheduled to drive this afternoon, that means he'll have a full day of testing in the RB9.
Looks better and better for him to secure that drive next year.

[jungle_007]

Interested to know how the Pit Walk went if anyone went in today?
Thanks in advance!

[Flavio Galtieri]

I didn't do the pit walk but I must say Calado looked impressive.

[wnut]

http://www.pitpass.com/49528-YDT-Times-17-07

Magnussen seems to have done an impressive job.

I always look at how the cars performed to their normal GP grid positions.
Often unreliable, due to testing different bits and fuel loads, but a guess anyway.

[wnut]

Day 2

http://www.pitpass.com/49532-YDT-Times-18-07

Interesting that Ricciardo was faster in the STR than the RBR.
Sainz was pretty impressive!

Pity that Vettel couldn't drive the STR in one of the tests.

Question: If Ricciardo can drive the RBR in the tests with a lot more than 2 GPs experience why couldn't Vettel have driven an STR during the test?

[pauln]

He could have done - in exactly the same way that Ricciardo has.

The comparison is with Lotus and Raikonnen, I think. Lotus were going to run Kimi today (Friday) until they realised just how restricted what they would be allowed to do with him was - all tyre work, no changes allowed to any set-up whatsoever during the session. At which point they decided to give Nicolas Prost another run.

Given that, it's in STR's interest, as it is for all teams, to maximise the time testing set-up with young drivers. Equally it's not really in their interest to put anybody other than their own race drivers in the car for the tyre sessions, as they're the ones who will gain some experience of using them that they can use during the rest of the season.

[wnut]

Day 3

http://www.pitpass.com/49535-YDT-Times-19-07

and the usual on top

http://www.pitpass.com/49536-Vettel-...t-on-final-day

[321Go]

So Ricciardo, on new HARD tyres, is just .203sec slower than Vettel on new MEDIUM tyres AND on a better (more grip) track! Interesting.
Remember the cars weren't allowed to change set up, so both drivers had the same car set up for the test.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by 321Go

So Ricciardo, on new HARD tyres, is just .203sec slower than Vettel on new MEDIUM tyres AND on a better (more grip) track! Interesting.
Remember the cars weren't allowed to change set up, so both drivers had the same car set up for the test.

It was pretty impressive from Ricciardo!

[wnut]

Originally Posted by 321Go

So Ricciardo, on new HARD tyres, is just .203sec slower than Vettel on new MEDIUM tyres AND on a better (more grip) track! Interesting.
Remember the cars weren't allowed to change set up, so both drivers had the same car set up for the test.

Talking about no adjustments in the YDT, what do you make of this?

http://www.pitpass.com/49536-Vettel-...t-on-final-day

"As for the afternoon, we were again locked into Pirelli's programme and you can't make any adjustments to the car, so while it wasn't the best balance for Seb, he's an expert at driving round these issues and we got a lot done, 79 laps; over 460km. It's been a useful test and aside from some small problems, which you always get with a test car, we've had good reliability and good performance."

Followed by this from Lotus:

At Lotus, Nicolas Prost completed his second day of testing, finishing third fastest as he ran through a programme of setup work and aerodynamic assessments, in addition to evaluating a new exhaust.

"Today proved to be a good conclusion to a productive three days," added Alan Permane. "Nico continued the assessment programme he started on Wednesday and we made further positive steps forwards. We worked more on setup to get the car to Nico's liking, thereby enabling him to push harder through the day. We ran new aerodynamic parts designed to help extract the maximum performance from the tyres, and it was with these that Nico set his fastest lap time, which is certainly a positive sign. We also assessed a new exhaust in the afternoon which looks to be beneficial."

What the ...

??!!

[Armco Bender]

I'm still miffed Mercedes were excluded,probably would have been Hartleys last chance to show if he's got what it takes in the main game.

[karting]

Originally Posted by wnut

Talking about no adjustments in the YDT, what do you make of this?

http://www.pitpass.com/49536-Vettel-...t-on-final-day

"As for the afternoon, we were again locked into Pirelli's programme and you can't make any adjustments to the car, so while it wasn't the best balance for Seb, he's an expert at driving round these issues and we got a lot done, 79 laps; over 460km. It's been a useful test and aside from some small problems, which you always get with a test car, we've had good reliability and good performance."

Followed by this from Lotus:

At Lotus, Nicolas Prost completed his second day of testing, finishing third fastest as he ran through a programme of setup work and aerodynamic assessments, in addition to evaluating a new exhaust.

"Today proved to be a good conclusion to a productive three days," added Alan Permane. "Nico continued the assessment programme he started on Wednesday and we made further positive steps forwards. We worked more on setup to get the car to Nico's liking, thereby enabling him to push harder through the day. We ran new aerodynamic parts designed to help extract the maximum performance from the tyres, and it was with these that Nico set his fastest lap time, which is certainly a positive sign. We also assessed a new exhaust in the afternoon which looks to be beneficial."

What the ...

??!!

I beleive Full Time race driver's arn't allowed to change the setup, but the Young Drivers are allowed to change it as much as they want. It was one of the conditions

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by karting

I beleive Full Time race driver's arn't allowed to change the setup, but the Young Drivers are allowed to change it as much as they want. It was one of the conditions

That is correct. that is why Mark Webber and Kimi Raikonnen were withdrawn from the Silverstone test schedule by their teams. There was no benefit under the test rules for an experienced driver.

[Razzzor]

Originally Posted by Armco Bender

I'm still miffed Mercedes were excluded,probably would have been Hartleys last chance to show if he's got what it takes in the main game.

Well you know, it was the whole testgate controversy. I think it's fair they were excluded, they got off lightly.

Would Hartley of even been their tester though? He hasn't been in an F1 for a while now. I see he's racing elsewhere this weekend too. I think no matter what he did, his chances are well and truly gone for a F1 ride.

[Armco Bender]

Would Hartley of even been their tester though? He hasn't been in an F1 for a while now.

Yes he was in line for the drive,hes still the sim driver and he was driving a F1 Merc at Goodwood the other day.

So he must still be in the frame or he's the worlds most highly paid tea boy.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by karting

I beleive Full Time race driver's arn't allowed to change the setup, but the Young Drivers are allowed to change it as much as they want. It was one of the conditions

Okay, that makes sense, although it still opens a large can of worms.