Imola Testing... Ferrari vs. Williams vs. Mac

[shiny side up!]

Here are the times from today:

1 R.SCHUMACHER Williams 1m21.828s
2 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1m21.918s
3 BARRICHELLO Ferrari 1m22.575s
4 COULTHARD McLaren 1m23.221s
5 PANIS Toyota 1m24.558s
6 DA MATTA Toyota 1m27.004s

[Knowlesy]

Barrichello was in an F2003GA, it's worth noting.

[shiny side up!]

Yes, that's true. And judging by the pics on F1-Live, DC was really pushing hard... doesn't mean McLaren aren't sandbagging, I suppose, but at least we know he wasn't!!! There is a great picture of him locking up the right front, and another of him in opposite lock after hitting a curb a bit too hard. Good stuff.

[Glen]

It doesn't smack of great confidence on the part of Ferrari - still running comparisons with last year's car, which from the pictures is fully last year's car with three element rear and two element front wings. There is clearly something that they have yet to understand about the new car - makes the races all the more exciting to look forward to.

[Knowlesy]

I think they were just trying out tyre compounds though.....although you're quite right, why not test with the new car?

[neilap]

Are Toyota really that far off the pace. I mean even MS was saying they were going to be a threat!

Testing makes it seem that RS will be WDC this year. We "know" JPM will not get the full backing of the team so RS will finally be champ... I think.

[Glen]

Toyota have yet to get Imola right - I can't recall how they finished at that race last year, but I do remember news stories about how hard it is to get the car to hit all those braking areas and kerbs super hard but still be good round the rest of the circuit.

JPM will only lose out in the sense of not knowing about the technology being put into his car towards th end of the season - his engineers will still know the car, so I can't see tht being a problem. Williams won't let him under-perform anyy more than he will be inclined to take it easy. Ralf may well be on his way next year too anyway.

[esorniloc]

Its still only testing, they are probably ALL sandbagging!

[kdr]

i love the fact we think teams and drivers can sandbag to 600ths of a second.

[Kicking-back]

Weather actually rendered the times relatively meaningless.

Not many laps were run and the session ended after rain and snow got worse.

[avsfan733]

on pure numbers, last years ferrari is still faster then this years mclaren, and you can claim sandbagging i claim that they have lost there way and need to just toally re-evaluate where their program is

[Nina]

the only thing I find interesting about testing is the reliability testing - its often proved at the start of the season that testing times really bare no comparison to their performance when it comes to the crunch.

and this 'amazing' Ferrari that was supposed to wipe the floor with the competition last yr? well it was much much closer than what was 'suggested' by looking at testing.

Call me cynical

[enemy-ace]

Testing, testing, testing, blah blah blah! God am I sick of all this speculation. Melbourne can't come quick enough.

[Led ZeppF1]

Interesting, Ferrari running F2004 with a radical new wing during the test at Imola.

http://www.autosport.com/newsitem.asp?id=26095&s=5

[freud]

Originally posted by knowlesy
I think they were just trying out tyre compounds though.....although you're quite right, why not test with the new car?

After watching the Ferraris for past few years the modus operandi remains the same as usual... Barrichello is testing tyres and his car is probably not ready yet. He will get his at melbourne