OFF SEASON TESTING: Pt 1 & 2 Abu Dhabi Rookie and Pirelli Tests

[jab]

Ricciardo's time was good enough for 3rd on the grid, ahead of Webber. Track would've been faster as there would've been more rubber down but equally he says he wasn't in Q3 mode at the time, so it's impressive

[rocketracer]

full report and comments from f1.com:

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlin.../11/11547.html

I know it's only testing, but is it just me who is surprised by how slow the times seem? especially given that the track would be rubbered in...

Ricciardo (1m39.6) impressive with a margin over a second clear of the next best runner Stoneman (1m40.7). but it drops away, with most in the 42-43s...

Bianchi in a ferrari is slower than an HRT and only a 1m43.8? of course we dont know what sort of fuel loads etc they were running...

so judging by this, who looks ready for a berth on the f1 grid?

[N.A-D.R]

I think Ricciardo deserves a berth of an F1 seat. Hes proven in Junior catergories hes very quick and in Testing hes going very quick aswell. Buemi to me has done almost nothing this year, after 2 seasons thats not quite good enough...

[bella]

i don't think ricciardo deserves a f1 seat yet. has he been in a sub-par car or team yet? and who in the red bull setup would you sacrifice to bring him in?

[N.A-D.R]

I would swap Buemi for Ricciardo. To me Buemi hasn't done enough to remain in the seat.

[bella]

hasn't buemi been outpacing alguersuari, just in a less spectacular fashion?

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by bella

hasn't buemi been outpacing alguersuari, just in a less spectacular fashion?

Well Buemi's been spectacular alright, just not in a way that pleases team bosses!! Far too crash happy this year when he should've been making solid progress. (He and Maldonado could go for the most number of tubs binned in a season award next year!)

To be fair there's little between them, but it seemed to me that when Alguersuari is really on it he is a fair clear of Sebastien, otherwise they seem to be fairly close in qualy and races.

Of the two, Jaime has the greater longer term potential.

True though about Ricciardo, he can 'want' a drive all he likes but whilst he's with Red Bull we can fairly safely assume that won't be next season, unless Webber is forced out, Jaime get a year with Red BuLl and Ricciardo slots in at STR? Think that'll be unlikely. I see Dan in GP2 first.

Like the Lotus angle though.

[bella]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Well Buemi's been spectacular alright, just not in a way that pleases team bosses!! Far too crash happy this year when he should've been making solid progress.

in his defence, i'm not entirely sure there was much he could do once both his front wheels fell off spontaneously at the same time, for example

[strider]

In the words of Kenny Rogers: "Loose wheel, you picked a fine time to leave me, loose wheel!"

Never mind, it seemed funny when someone said it at the time.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by bella

in his defence, i'm not entirely sure there was much he could do once both his front wheels fell off spontaneously at the same time, for example

Yup but he had all four wheels attached in Korea prior to shunting into Glock and at most other times this season when he stacked it.

[Teretonga]

Ricciardo managed a time in the test that excelled Vettels pole time. While te track is faster (over a second by some estimates) that is very impressive in Mark Webbers Hungarian winning car (maybe Mark should havbe used it last weekend).

RBR doesn't need to employ Hulkenberg or any other out of work F1 driver (JV?). They are going to have enough problems keeping young Daniel effectively occupied over the next twelve months until Webber's contract runs out.

In contrast Bianchi in the Ferrari was 1.814 seconds slower.

[chunterer]

That's the car of the year and he's a definite coming man, so I would expect him to be bloody quick.

It's one thing doing in a test session, another thing altogether doing it weekend in weekend out over a season.

Would I give him a top line drive straight away though? That's a toughie. If RBR didn't let Vettel loose in their A-team to begin with then they're unlikely to allow it for Dan.

[blaffer]

The track seemed indeed quicker than last weekend, and a number of rookies drove significantly faster than the fastest race driver of their team during Qualifying on Saturday:

1. Jerome d'Ambrosio : 2"10 quicker than Petrov on Saturday
2. Davide Valsecchi : 2"07 quicker than Senna on Saturday
3. Sam Bird : 1"29 quicker than Schumacher on Saturday
Daniel Ricciardo : 1"29 quicker than Vettel on Saturday

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by chunterer

That's the car of the year and he's a definite coming man, so I would expect him to be bloody quick.

It's one thing doing in a test session, another thing altogether doing it weekend in weekend out over a season.

Would I give him a top line drive straight away though? That's a toughie. If RBR didn't let Vettel loose in their A-team to begin with then they're unlikely to allow it for Dan.

On the basis of this season it would come down to a test or series of tests between Algy and Ricciardo at the end of 2011 to see who would be quickest for the RBR seat.
I think Buemi is going to need to step up a bit on race performances although Algy isn't a great qualifier and qualifying is really really important now. If they threw a third driver in the mix (Hulkenberg?) it would be a really interesting comparison.

[Rgms320]

http://www.planetf1.com/news/18227/6...om-Bridgestone

Paffett, after 49 laps, said that the Pirelli tires are "not too different." It will be interesting to see what the drivers say after they've had enough time to compare tire degradation to the Bridgestones. That's assuming, of course, that they'll be able to do enough testing in only two days to gather the data for all of the Pirelli compounds.

[Bononi]

Drivers are happy with Pirelli : http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/88419

[E.B]

It seems that the new Pirelli tyres have met with approval from most (and particular approval from Massa and Schumacher who both seem to think they will suit their styles more than the Bridgestones).

As such Pirelli feel they are in the right place development wise, with the next stage being to look at all their data and team comments in their final optimising of the 2011 rubber.

Pirelli's tyre research and development director Maurizio Boiocchi said

"We are very happy about the performance, especially taking into account that on August 19 we turned a wheel for the first time at Mugello and three months later we ran with 12 teams.

"Everything that we did with the simulations and computer models was really helpful and based on that, and the work with the Toyota, we developed the solutions that we used during the test.

"We have some additional tuning to do on the compounds and rebalance the stiffness of the tyre front and rear to improve the characteristics even more, but these were two fantastic days. We would have signed for this when we first started this adventure!"

Of course this has all been carried out on adapted 2010 cars...... the next stage will be to see how the tyres perform on the new 2011 spec F1 cars, with a 640kg minimum weight, reduced downforce (no fancy double diffusers) no F-Ducts, and altered weight distribution.

The sad part of all this is that we have seen the last running of an F1 car this year, indeed the last time we will see F1 cars on track until the next tests in February 2011 which will no doubt be when we start to see the 2011 cars break cover.

Off Teason Testing Schedule

1-3 February 2011 Valencia p (Ricardo Tormo circuit)

10-13 February 2011 Jerez .

18-21 February 2011 Barcelona

3-6 March 2011 Bahrain Sakhir circuit.

This Bahrain test will be held the week prior to the 2011 GP season opener,scheduled for the Sakhir venue from 11th to13th March.

Ironic now with all the testing restrictions in place, this schedule for Bahrain actually breaks previous testing rules that no team was to test at a GP venue in the two weeks prior to the GP..... now they all are!