ARE FERRARI FOXING?
- 20 May 2013
The big question now arising from the “Winter World Championship” is, are Ferrari foxing or has Michelin really got the jump on Bridgestone in the tyre stakes. Despite apparently going for some quick, low-fuel runs on what Bridgestone techs believed to be their softest and fastest tyres Michael Schumacher could manage no better than fifth outright in the latest two tests at Valencia and Jerez. More damning was that Rubens Barrichello could not even break into the top ten in either test. Only time, and Melbourne, will tell.
Ferrari’s biggest problem is that they are now the only major team on Bridgestone tyres and therefore the major Michelin runners, B.A.R., Renault, Williams and McLaren, have been able to do vastly more testing and evaluation and seem to have come up with a better product. Both Renault and McLaren, in particular, have been both reliable and quick, getting at least one car into the top four in both tests. At Valencia it was the two McLarens of Raikkonen and Wurz followed by the two Renaults of Alonso and Fisichella with Trulli in fifth and Michael Schumacher in sixth, a whopping 1.2 seconds off the pace. BAR have been occasionally very quick, Button topped the times at Jerez, but the Honda engine has had a tendency to go pop at the least opportune moment. Even Toyota and Sauber, who recently swapped from Bridgestone, have been occasionally getting a car in front of the Ferraris although their speed has been a bit erratic. The only major Michelin runner to not show any great speed with their new car, unfortunately for Australian fans, is Williams, who more often than not were in the bottom half of the top ten in these two tests.
Williams started the test at Valencia in good form but as everyone else lowered their times, the Williams duo’s pace remained static. Things got worse at Jerez with, apart from a low-fuel flier from Heidfeld netting second on day two, Webber and Heidfeld were propping the lower half of the top ten or worse. Then came the comments such as; “lots of work to be done before Melbourne” and “we will have some new parts for Melbourne which should make us quicker”. One hopes that the hard work and new bits pay off. Imagine a season in which Ferrari, McLaren, Williams, Renault and BAR are all constantly fighting for and scoring wins and Toyota is nipping at their heels. The stuff of dreams.
McLaren took one new and one old car to Valencia to do some comparisons. Wurz in the old car was fastest on the first two days but Raikkonen put in a blinder on day three to set the top spot of the test. They arrived at Jerez with three new cars for Montoya, Raikkonen and De la Rosa and although Raikkonen’s test was rather brief, he only ran on the fourth day, Montoya was delighted with the MP4/20. In a new aero tweak since Valencia, McLaren has added a large pair of wings off the airbox that can best be described as looking like Viking horns. Montoya called it his “Darth Vader” car.
Where McLaren are very quick over a short stint, Renault are very consistent and quick over a race distance. Alonso and Fisichella were third and forth overall at Valencia and second and forth overall at Jerez although both suffered from minor reliability woes at Jerez. BAR had mixed fortunes with Jenson Button topping the Jerez test but Sato had two huge crashes, one on the first day when a rear wing collapsed and another on day two whose cause still mystifies the team.
Toyota were able to put up times in both tests similar to that of the best Ferrari with Jarno Trulli finishing just in front of Michael at Valencia and just behind him at Jerez and even Sauber were able to put Felipe Massa at the top of the timesheets on day one at Jerez. Jacques Villeneuve, however, seems to be struggling in his comeback attempt and finished his test down in 21st place and over three seconds off the pace.
As Melbourne gets closer some of the teams are starting to show off their weird and wonderful aero tweaks with which they hope to claw back some of the lost downforce. Apart from the “horny/Darth Vader/Viking” McLaren, Sauber have showed off a bi-plane front wing which has a secondary pair of wings running from the top of the wing end-plate connecting to the bottom of the raised nose-cone. Ferrari have a small, two-plane wing connected to the bottom of the main front wing and protruding forward, making it a sort of tri-plane. More comments about the Red Baron and his Focker can only be a matter of time. Jordan, who ran both Tiego Monteiro and Narain Karthekian at Silverstone, have added large wings to the cockpit sides just in front of he top of the side-pods and Paul Stoddart has announced that the new Minardi, when it comes out sometime around the San Marino GP, “will look like nothing else on the grid”. Can’t wait.
VALENCIA FORMULA 1 TEST Feb 1-5
BEST TIMES
DRIVER CAR TIME 1 Kimi Raikkonen McLaren MP4/20 1'09.005 (3) 2 Alexander Wurz McLaren MP4/19C 1'09.201 (1,2) 3 Fernando Alonso Renault R25 1'09.992 4 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault R25 1'10.135 5 Jarno Trulli Toyota TF105 1'10.198 6 Michael Schumacher Ferrari F2004M 1'10.209(4) 7 Nick Heidfeld Williams FW27 1'10.336 8 Takuma Sato BAR 007 1'10.465 9 Mark Webber Williams FW27 1'10.538 10 Jenson Button BAR 007 1'10.559 11 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari F2004M 1'10.681 12 Ralf Schumacher Toyota TF105 1'10.777 13 Olivier Panis Toyota TF105 1'11.061 14 Anthony Davidson BAR 007 1'11.406 15 Pedro de la Rosa McLaren MP4/20 1'11.729 16 Ricardo Zonta Toyota TF105 1'11.841 17 Adam Carroll BAR 007 1'12.172 18 Enrique Bernoldi BAR 007 1'12.298 19 Marc Gene' Ferrari F2004B 1'12.744 20 Alan van der Merwe BAR 007 1'13.117 21 James Rossiter BAR 007 1'14.736
(-) best on day
JEREZ FORMULA 1 TEST Feb 8-12
BEST TIMES
DRIVER CAR TIME 1 Jenson Button BAR 007 1'15.680 (4) 2 Fernando Alonso Renault R25 1'15.732 (3) 3 Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren MP4/20 1'16.198(2) 4 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault R25 1'16.654 5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari F2004M 1'16.668 6 Jarno Trulli Toyota TF105 1'16.743 7 David Coulthard Red Bull RBR1 1'16.822 8 Felipe Massa Sauber C24 1'17.273 (1) 9 Kimi Raikkonen McLaren MP4/20 1'17.336 10 Nick Heidfeld Williams FW27 1'17.387 11 Mark Webber Williams FW27 1'17.421 12 Vitantonio Liuzzi Red Bull RBR1 1'17.439 13 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari F2004M 1'17.449 14 Christian Klien Red Bull RBR1 1'17.583 15 Ricardo Zonta Toyota TF105 1'17.719(5)16 Ralf Schumacher Toyota TF105 1'17.773 17 Pedro de la Rosa McLaren MP4/20 1'17.958 18 Takuma Sato BAR 007 1'18.150 19 Anthony Davidson BAR 006C 1'18.296 20 Enrique Bernoldi BAR 006C 1'18.585 21 Jacques Villeneuve Sauber C24 1'18.612 22 Luca Badoer Ferrari F2004B 1'18.687 23 Nelson Piquet Jr BAR 006C 1'20.835
(-) Best time on day
Sam Snape
16-02-05