F1 lap record at Laguna Seca

[NaBUru38]

Luis Pérez Companc claims to have lapped at 1'05 at Laguna Seca with his Ferrari F2004. We may never know. But what a thrilling engine!

[Bononi]

What ? Who ? When ?

[Carsandmotorracing]

That noise never gets old

[gregtummer]

Sebastian Bourdais beat that in testing in Champ Car in 2008.

I think he beat the F1 time by .2 of a second.

Of course, he did use push to pass.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

Luis Pérez Companc claims to have lapped at 1'05 at Laguna Seca with his Ferrari F2004. We may never know. But what a thrilling engine!

I guess being the only F1 to have lapped the circuit helps to set the lap record.

[MGDavid]

Originally Posted by gregtummer

Sebastian Bourdais beat that in testing in Champ Car in 2008.
........

thought I read Bourdais' best time was 1:05.88

[Bononi]

Originally Posted by wnut

I guess being the only F1 to have lapped the circuit helps to set the lap record.

Here, here.

[MGDavid]

Originally Posted by wnut

I guess being the only F1 to have lapped the circuit helps to set the lap record.

it's a fact of life this side of the pond that there's always somebody ready to belittle an achievement.
I see it as a plus that all the other classes of race car have a benchmark to aim for and be compared with.

[Born Racer]

Originally Posted by wnut

I guess being the only F1 to have lapped the circuit helps to set the lap record.

What about Ricardo Zonta in the Toyota?

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

What about Ricardo Zonta in the Toyota?

^this 1'06.309

And there are lots of world championship cars there every year. A little older perhaps!

[gregtummer]

Originally Posted by MGDavid

thought I read Bourdais' best time was 1:05.88

I am fairy certain Bourdais beat whatever the F1 record was, because I remember Champ Car had a bounty for whoever could beat the time, and Bourdais did it on his last lap while there was a stalled car on the track and they were debating whether or not to throw a yellow flag.

But Bourdais held the record up until this year then. I see that the F2004 test took place this year. I thought the poster was implying that the test took place in 2004, thus I thought that was the old track record that Bourdais beat.

[Mr V]

Call me a sad if you will, but i sat there with a stopwatch and timed those laps posted and the best he managed was a 1.08 (roughly to the nearest second).

I'm sure that Michael Schumacher, driving that car in 2004, on Bridgeston tyres using Shell's racing fuel would have been a hell of a lot quicker, but if the fella is saying he set a 1.05 in that set of laps then he's a liar.

[TF110]

The Toyota was done on demonstration tires IIRC. They said they could achieve laps of 1 minute flat in qualifying trim (before fuel loads or full slicks).

[Bononi]

Originally Posted by TF110

The Toyota was done on demonstration tires IIRC. They said they could achieve laps of 1 minute flat in qualifying trim (before fuel loads or full slicks).

I have forgotten that Toyota had a team in F1.

[Born Racer]

I forgot it even whilst they had one.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by Mr V

Call me a sad if you will, but i sat there with a stopwatch and timed those laps posted and the best he managed was a 1.08 (roughly to the nearest second).

I'm sure that Michael Schumacher, driving that car in 2004, on Bridgeston tyres using Shell's racing fuel would have been a hell of a lot quicker, but if the fella is saying he set a 1.05 in that set of laps then he's a liar.

Thanks V, easy to PR and spin lap times when it is unlikely that anyone present is actually timing. Kind of like anglers and fish. Same smell too.

p.s. I too can't help myself timing laps that I see.

[Razzzor]

Toyota had a F1 team?

It's a shame they left actually, since my last 2 cars have been Toyota (Celica, Supra) so I'd naturally have to support them once they employ some race winning drivers instead of the likes of McNish, Trulli, Salo, Panis, Zonta... **** me. I never rated Ralf or Glock that highly either. Da Matta should have been given more experience though, he dominated Indycars.

[JeremySmith]

Alan McNish and Timo Glock are fine race drivers,Trulli can fly in a F1 car...

You make them sound very second rate, rather unfair....

[Razzzor]

Trulli was impressive in his early years when he first came on the scene, like that race he led in the Prost for ages in 97, but then when he got some more competitive drives ie alongside Alonso, he struggled to keep up.

I always think of him as a great qualifier, then holds everyone up during the race. He's a bit of a Coulthard/Barrichello/Patrese - fast but always the #2 driver. Look at the qualifying comparisons this year - Kovalainen has beaten Trulli in quali 10 times, at a 0.6s average. Pretty bad for the qualifying expert, and Kovi's proven he's no champion.

Maybe i'm wrong about Glock, I didn't really follow him pre-F1. He seems fast sometimes. Didn't really consistently beat Trulli when they were team mates. In fact those Toyota's were fast in 2009; I bet in Hamilton or Alonso's hands they would have won a race.

Anyway that's just my opinion on those 2 guys - I could be wrong! I thought Kovi, Liuzzi, Bourdais would have been much quicker than they turned out!

[JeremySmith]

I believe that Toyota were right on the cusp of a win when the quit..

[bjohnsonsmith]

According to the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca website, the official lap record is 1:07.722 and is still held by Helio Castroneves driving a Team Penske Reynard during qualifying for 2000 CART Honda Grand Prix of Monterey and which I went to.

Both the Zonta and Bourdais times are unofficial as they didn't take place during a race.

http://www.mazdaraceway.com/pace-car...-laguna-seca-0