Wednesday 17 February 2010

F1 Pre-Season Testing - Any Conclusions?

Well to be honest, after two sessions, err, no!
During pre-season testing last year it was easy to detect early on who the front running teams would be. This time around it's proving much harder.

The latest test session at Jerez has been badly affected by rain so the cars were not always able to run to their full potential.

Secondly, it has been difficult to know whether teams have been running their cars light or with heavy fuel loads. Following a rule change, this season there will be no refuelling during races so cars will start with full tanks and (in theory) gradually get faster lap by lap.

Some of the teams are currently short on sponsors so there is a school of thought that some may be tempted to run light during testing so that they appear towards the top of time sheets putting themselves in the spotlight.

One conclusion I have drawn is that some of the cars look absolutely appalling. Yes, I'm talking about you, Sauber and Renault!

Here are some pictures of the new cars and liveries taken at Jerez by Slitzferrari...
The terrible looking Sauber devoid of sponsor logos..... Put in some fast lap times but could be a glory run rather than real pace.

The even worse looking Renault. An ugly car with an equally bad livery. Kubica at the wheel.

At last something decent to look at! Good looking car and livery. Webber and Vettel are both said to be very happy with this car and hopefully it will be able to take the fight to Ferrari and McLaren.

Williams always turn out a decent looking car. It has been going OK in testing so far. I would love to see Williams mixing it with the front runners once again.
Virgin Racing's first F1 car. Nice looking livery but shame about the performance. So far it's several seconds off the pace. VR are running on a shoe string budget. A wing failure put them out of action on the first day of the test and they had to wait for replacement parts to be flown in.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Branson's commitment to F1 will be short lived.
The Force India car has been promising in testing so far and the progress which started to be made last year could continue into this season.
The return of the Silver Arrows! The new Mercedes with Rosberg at the wheel. He is already being outpaced by Schumacher.....
Massa back at the wheel of the Ferrari.

Jenson Button in the stylish looking McLaren. Hamilton set the overall fastest time at Jerez....

What do you think of the new cars and liveries? Why not leave a comment? They are always welcome!

3 comments:

ZXT said...

I agree that both Renault and Sauber are fugly looking cars. The Mclaren looks very nice and the Ferrari's too. Mercedes isn't bad either.

I can't wait for the season to start and maybe Hamilton will experience first hand how Schumi drives.

Glen said...

some of those cars do look very nice.

The prospect of seeing Hamilton (let's face it, sadly Button is not likely to keep up)take on Schumi is really exciting. Even if he is out of practice and off his peak, he will still be leagues ahead of most of the field and likely to be very worth watching.

Himmat Singh said...

Hey hi.

Since this is already the 23rd, I'd just like to talk abt the 3rd week of testing.

To my dismay, Lotus have been poor, though they have solid reliability! Hope they work some magic!

Well, McLaren seem to be the standard bearers. Looks like Red Bull is next up. But its still too early to say things...