Safety Car

On track action likely to be more limited in 2011
Posted on | March 4, 2011 | by | 177 Comments

When I was at the Barcelona test recently I had a few discussions with engineers about some of the ramifications of the behaviour of the new Pirelli tyres.

The Italian firm has said that its brief is to create more short-lived tyres, prompting more pit stops, but one of the interesting possible side effects of that is that drivers will spend less time on track during practice and qualifying, despite needing time to perfect adjustable wing and KERS usage.



Track time will be tight with limited tyre life (Darren Heath)

There is always a trade off in practice between saving tyres and getting enough set up time. Also with testing being so limited now, many teams use the Friday practice sessions to test new components or aerodynamic developments for future races. The trade off here with the short lived tyres will be interesting.

The real problem is that it’s very hard to evaluate a change. If you set a time with one set up and then change it, the lap time will drop because of the tyre performance so it’s tough to work out what the effect of the set up change was!

The rules say that the drivers have 11 sets of tyres. They have two sets of hard and one soft set for practice. They must give a set back of primes after first practice and a set of each back after second practice.

That leaves eight sets for Saturday and Sunday, of which a set of hards and a set of softs must be given back before qualifying.

With the performance we have seen so far in testing, where the tyre performance drops off by as much as six seconds over the life of the tyres and the hard tyre lasts around 20-22 laps, it’s likely that a car will not be able to do much meaningful running on Friday, compared with the Bridgestones, which were good for a race distance at some venues.

Drivers will have six sets of tyres for qualifying and the race. The drop off in performance after the first hot lap in qualifying means that there is no point in staying out for a second lap, as the next lap is at least a second slower. So drivers will attempt to do just one run in each of the three sessions. Of course anyone in trouble in Q1 or Q2, or who does not expect to make it through Q1, can throw extra sets at it, but the front runners will not be able to do that. Certainly Q3 will be all on the one lap.

“In qualifying, it takes at least three sets, but only if everything goes perfectly. Perhaps you have a yellow or red flag, or make a mistake. Then a set is done straight away, ” Sebastian Vettel said recently. “It’s not like you can recycle a tyre again and then get a second run. These days the pace drops by one second.”

It’s also going to be tight for front runners in Q1 as the gap in performance for used tyres compared to new ones, means that even a Red Bull or a Ferrari will be taking a chance trying to get through Q1 with a used set, as they did last year, in order to save tyres for a second run in Q3. So all roads point to Q3 being a single lap challenge for pole, as it was a few years ago.

The scope for mistakes is great. There should be enough excitement going on we may not need to turn the sprinklers on…

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Final F1 test Day 1: McLaren tries to flex, Red Bull still on top
Posted on | March 8, 2011 | by | 13 Comments

The final test session before the start of the new F1 season kicked off today in Barcelona with most, but not all of the teams running today. Ferrari and Mercedes did not run and we have yet to see the new HRT car on track. Saturday will be the final day of F1 testing until after the end of the season in November.

McLaren ran with a load sensing device on the nose of the car, with robust struts out to the outer parts of the front wing. This was a device to measure front wing flex and, given the thickness of the struts, may even have been able to cause additional flex to measure the aerodynamic effect and gain. It’s quite a public thing to do, McLaren were one of the teams critical of the loopholes last year which allowed Red Bull and to some extent Ferrari to get their front wings to flex. If you can do it legally, there is a significant lap time gain from it.

Button did a couple of laps in the hugh 1m 22s in a qualifying simulation, but this is still some way off the front runners’ pace. The qualified tone of Jenson Button’s comments after the session suggested that he’s not full of the joys of spring, as he contemplates the imminent start of the season and still plenty of catching up to do.

“The last couple of tests haven’t been perfect for us, and I think that’s partly due to us lacking set-up work,” he said. “But today I think we made some positive progress with MP4-26’s balance. I know there’s not much testing left – I only have one more day in the car – but, after today, I feel we can make further positive progress over the next few days. Given the limited amount of set-up work we’ve completed this winter, I feel we now have a good base upon which we can build.”

McLaren will do one more day tomorrow with Lewis Hamilton and then will have a day off the track, returning on Friday and Saturday.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber set the pace ahead of Button. The Australian did a 1m 22.544s lap, faster than Felipe Massa’s benchmark from the last test and set on a short qualifying simulation run. But neither Massa’s lap nor Webbers’ were set on minimal fuel. Engineers I’ve spoken to believe that both cars, certainly the Red Bull, are capable of a lap in the high 1m 21s. We may see that by the end of the week, hopefully. Ideally it would be good to establish the outright performance difference over a single lap between the two cars, certainly there doesn’t seem to be much between them in race trim.


Renault and Force India both split the day between two drivers; Renault had a new rear wing and a new floor to test. Nick Heidfeld had a cold and shared the driving with Vitaly Petrov while Force India gave test driver Nico Hulkenberg half a day in the 2011 car, his first run in it, with Paul Di Resta doing the afternoon shift.

Mercedes and Ferrari will be out tomorrow with significantly upgraded cars. Among the new things on the Ferrari, according to Gazzetta dello Sport, is a foot pedal operated rear wing adjuster, the team having tried buttons and levers. The car is believed now to have Red Bull style exhaust exits, which changes the sidepod profile slightly and it will have a new front wing, among the visible differences. So far Ferrari is the car which has covered the greatest distance in testing with 5,200km before this final test.

Lotus gave its Air Asia GP2 drivers Davide Valsecchi and Luis Razia a run out today, while Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi lost time in the morning with a failure on his car. Toro Rosso will again be worth keeping an eye on this week, as many feel they are one of the more competitive midfield cars.

Titular de una pagina muy famosa de nuestro pais: Mclaren presenta un morro revolucionario en Barcelona.... :-DD

(09-03-2011, 00:23)NachoBcn escribió: [ -> ]Titular de una pagina muy famosa de nuestro pais: Mclaren presenta un morro revolucionario en Barcelona.... :-DD

Sin palabras....

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F1 grid complete as Hispania confirm Tonio Liuzzi

The final piece in the driving jigsaw for the 2011 season fell into place today as Hispania announced Tonio Liuzzi as its second driver alongside Narain Karthikeyan. It’s good that the team has gone for someone with speed and experience, rather than opt for a pay driver as they were forced to do last season, with Sakon Yamamoto.


Liuzzi has raced for team principal Colin Kolles before and although his record in F1 is rather mixed, he undoubtedly has speed and an ability to get results. It’s just stringing results together consistently that he’s not managed to do in F1.

He has started 63 Grands Prix with three different teams; Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Force India, with whom he drove last season. Although he had a contract for 2011 he was eased out in favour of Paul di Resta.

His best result is a pair of sixth places, including last year in Korea, which was his strongest performance of the year. Ironically Kartikeyan has had a better result – a 4th place – but it was achieved in the notorious six car US Grand Prix of 2005 in Indianapolis.

“I have known Tonio for many years as he raced with me in lower categories,” said Kolles. “He is a very professional driver who will bring a lot of benefits to the Team. I am convinced about his skills to develop a car and his speed. He has shown this in the past having contributed to a large extend developing and moving a back grid car to the front.”

Hispania has yet to unveil its new car, that will happen on Friday lunchtime in Barcelona, meaning that the team has just a day and a half of testing at the most before shipping it to Melbourne for the first race. This is a little better than last year when the car ran for the first time during the opening weekend and one of the HRTs only ran for qualifying.

As i posted last year in Bahrain, there are many pitfalls to racing an untested car. One thing which will help them this year is the Williams gearbox and back end, which they have purchased and which is integrated with the Cosworth. This should boost performance and reliability. Another headache is the return of the 107% qualifying rule this year, which will mean that the HRT cars will have to be within around 5.8 seconds of the pole sitter to qualify.Here’s a reminder of the first steps the team will take.

Cooling is the first thing to check. A car which overheats will not get far. However the general rule in F1 is that a car which cools really well is a slow car. Designers want to shrink wrap the bodywork over the car to get the best aerodynamics, so in a really quick car, the bodywork is often no more than 5mm away from the radiators.

Water temperatures typically run to 140 degrees, which is possible because the system is pressurized, while oil temperatures of 115 degrees are acceptable. If the oil gets any hotter than that it loses its lubricating properties and causes damage.

After the cooling has been verified, the engineers will begin the difficult process of learning about the tyres. Compared to last year they have the advantage of having tested the Pirellis on their old car, so the engineers will have a sense of the dynamics. Nevertheless, it will take HRT several Grand Prix weekends to learn how to set the car up, to get the load evenly balanced across all four tyres and get the correct balance between aero and tyre temperatures.

There aren’t too many short cuts here and even very experienced teams can get it wrong. This is a problem Brawn engineered into their car in the second half of the 2009 season, for example.

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Final F1 test, Day 2 – Vettel gives them all something to think about


On the second day of the final F1 test at Barcelona Sebastian Vettel went for a time, setting the benchmark in the high 1m 21s, some way clear of his opposition. Up to this point Red Bull have played their cards pretty close to their chest in terms of outright pace. Now the others have something to aim for.


I said at the last Barcelona test that engineers had told me they felt the RBR car was capable of a high 1m 21 and today it happened. There is clearly a tenth or two more to come as the lap was the first on a five lap run.

Vettel set the time early in the day and then worked on the car on different fuel loads and set-ups. Vettel got back into the 1m 21s on other runs during the day.

Michael Schumacher always used to test this way – go out and set a flat out time at the start and then use that as a benchmark for lap times set on set fuel load, evaluating set up changes as you go. It’s a way of working he got into when he was at Benetton with Pat Symonds and Frank Dernie.

Ferrari was out with it’s updated car, the details of which I posted yesterday. They feature new ultra low exhausts. Felipe Massa was at the wheel, but did not feel tempted to see what his car might manage in similar configuration to Vettel’s. That may or may not come by the end of the week.

Toro Rosso did a race distance today and set the second fastest time with a lap in the low 1m 22s, half a second off Vettel and similar to Red Bull’s time from yesterday. The Toro Rosso certainly has some pace and has made significant improvement since last season.

McLaren had more reliability issues, another hydraulic problem and an exhaust failure among them. He did not manage a race distance run but did set the fourth fastest time in the high 1m 22s, similar to Button’s pace yesterday.

Afterwards Lewis Hamilton told reporters that McLaren has a lot of work to do ” ‘Do I believe I have a car to win the world championship at the moment? I don’t, no,’ ” he said.

“But that doesn’t mean it won’t become a world championship-winning car. In terms of how long we can go in terms of reliability and our true pace, that’s an unknown factor for us because in the time we have had we’ve not been able to maximise things.”

Today the team announced that Perdo de la Rosa, has rejoined them as test driver, a role he had for many years before returning briefly to a race seat with Sauber last year. De la Rosa is valued for his engineering ability by team principal Martin Whitmarsh in particular.

Mercedes ran their new exhaust package and new bodywork, the results from which were “in line with expectations” according to the team, “I think we have some impressive developments, “said Nico Rosberg, “Even though we couldn’t test or show the full performance today as not all of the elements are on the car and working together yet. We had glimpses that showed that the full package should be a big step.” Team principal Ross Brawn indicated last week that the car had been around a second a lap off the pace in the early tests.

Williams also had a poor day’s running after a KERS fault in the morning, which required extensive repairs. Meanwhile Paul di Resta simulated a race weekend for Force India, with qualifying laps in the morning session and a full race distance in the afternoon, punctuated with proper full speed pit stops. Di Resta is making his debut in Australia in two weeks.

Tonight the drivers are meeting with the FIA’s Charlie Whiting to talk through the adjustable rear wings, give him their learnings so far and discuss safety. There have been concerns voiced about the safety of the devices, especially on wet days, with Rubens Barrichello arguing over the winter that there could be a case for disabling the device when the track is wet, to avoid sudden changes of downforce level on a slippery track.

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Hoy fue el tercer día de la prueba en Barcelona; con sólo dos días más de ejecución antes de que comience la nueva temporada y la prohibición de prueba patadas en la presión creciente para que equipos encontrar configuraciones, incorporar nuevas versiones y obtener sus coches ordenadas.

Las temperaturas de la pista de más de 30 fueron recibidas por Pirelli y los equipos de hoy. Mientras tanto lluvia previsión para el sábado sirve de los equipos mucho, aunque será útil a Pirelli en aprender más sobre los neumáticos intermedios y húmedos.



Foto: Sauber

Sergio Perez establecer muy rápido tiempo de 1 m 21.761 en una simulación de calificación, el tiempo más rápido que hemos visto hasta ahora en Barcelona este invierno, un tono más rápido que Sebastian Vettel 1 m 21.865 ayer en una vuelta cinco ejecutar. Aunque no se sabe exactamente cuánto combustible cada coche llevaba, si no había combustible como lastre esto pone el Sauber alrededor de 3/10ths más lento que el Red Bull, aunque con el neumático súper suave, que es probablemente inferior al número real, pero estamos en los detalles. Muestra cómo algunos de los equipos de mediocampo han mejorado durante el invierno. Deberíamos ver una prueba más de en el cronómetro en los próximos dos días.

"Esta fue la primera vez para Sergio ir a través de todos los procedimientos desde el primer trimestre al tercer trimestre," dijo el director técnico de Sauber James Key. "Hizo una serie de vueltas, establecer un tiempo de 1:22.042 minutos en neumáticos blandos y 1:21.761 con el compuesto súper blando buena y controlada".

Irónicamente Pérez ha establecido una vuelta el martes en la 1m21s, pero fue alcanzado por cortar la chicana y tan fue eliminado por el calendario oficial! Hoy no hubo ningún error y es un tiempo rápido, incluso si es un combustible completo bajo calificación de simulación.

Hoy vio Ferrari nuevamente entallar hasta un alto kilometraje, 132 vueltas en total; Massa hizo 100 vueltas por 3 pm. Hasta ahora este invierno casi todos los días de pruebas ha dado lugar a más de 100 vueltas, con muy pocas excepciones. Estableció el segundo mejor tiempo del día con un 1 m 22.092 en un cuali ejecutar, pero es dudoso que la carga de combustible era comparable, a juzgar por la relativa ritmo nos ha visto desde el Sauber y Ferrari en las pruebas hasta la fecha.

Los tiempos en las tandas largas de Ferrari fueron comparables con el Red Bull Fue el último día de pruebas antes de que comience la temporada para Massa.

Mercedes, tiempo de Michael Schumacher de 1m22.892 fue establecer mientras estaba haciendo una serie de carreras cortas, pero hizo un par de diez carreras de vuelta con tiempos muy coherente, en el 1m26s y 1m27s, que habrá alentado a los ingenieros de Mercedes.

Vitaly Petrov volvió al volante de Renault. Tuvo un problema KERS en la mañana. Un problema similar había estropeado la ejecución de simulacro de carrera de Pérez en el Sauber. Es interesante que ha habido bastantes problemas de fiabilidad con KERS para equipos esta semana, como consiguen más uso.

Mientras tanto Toro Rosso afirman que han llevado a cabo más de 60 pit stops en los dos últimos días!

Para Lotus, Jarno Trulli condujo a sólo seis vueltas en la mañana, con un problema de caja de cambios y Heikki Kovalainen asumir en la tarde de fugas de agua y impulsarán mañana. Lotus no tiene una gran cantidad de actualizaciones para probar esta semana, hay un nuevo alerón delantero para mañana.

McLaren no se presentó hoy en día. Decidieron dividir sus cuatro días en las cinco de la prueba por tomar un día fuera de pista en el medio. Ayer, el coche estaba preocupado por hidráulico y problemas de escape.

Equipo principal Martin Whitmarsh dijo el sitio oficial de la F1, F1.com hoy que, a pesar de (y quizás también por) los problemas de confiabilidad, la decisión de comenzar a probar el nuevo coche tarde demostró acertada como los datos de tiro se reunieron en el viejo coche fue beneficiosos,
"Esa primera prueba resultó muy beneficiosa en facilitarnos datos de tiro ricos, que nosotros hemos estado analizando desde entonces", dijo. "Por lo que, si bien reconozco que la introducción de la MP4-26 se ha visto afectada por unos problemas de confiabilidad, aún mantenemos nuestra decisión de aplazar su introducción por una prueba."

McLaren programada el día fuera para permitir el tiempo de entrega para el kit de actualización final ser probado el viernes y el sábado. Cada hora en pista cuenta para McLaren en el momento.

Lo de perez, tiene merito. Apunta maneras el chiquito.

Prueba final de F1, día 4: Schumacher encuentra la vieja magia en Mercedes actualizado

El penúltimo día de F1 pruebas antes del inicio de la nueva temporada, vio un número de equipos, tratando de dar a los dos pilotos una ejecución en sus coches, con fuertes lluvias, previsto para mañana.

Michael Schumacher al volante del Mercedes actualizada había marcado el mejor tiempo de la prueba hasta ahora con 1m21.268s.

El equipo ha poner las nuevas piezas de actualización para el coche en etapas esta semana con escapes y diversas partes aerodinámicos, incluyendo un nuevo alerón delantero, se añade hasta hoy funcionó en la especificación final por primera vez. Los resultados se parecía bastante bueno, no sólo en términos de velocidad de titular, pero también en más carreras,

"Hemos desarrollado el coche paso a paso esta semana con artículos nuevos que llegan cada día, dijo Schumacher."Así nuestro enfoque ha sido hoy en la comprensión de cómo obtener el mejor desde el coche ahora que es bastante en su configuración final por primera vez. El coche ha comportado como esperábamos y ha sido un día muy productivo."

Red Bull terminó su programa de ensayos de invierno sin poner sus cartas sobre la mesa en términos de velocidad absoluta, no molestarse en hacer una simulación completa de calificación. Lo mismo es cierto de Ferrari. Tendremos que esperar hasta el sábado en Melbourne



Dispositivo de medición de McLaren (foto: McLaren)
McLaren tuvo otro día frustrante de Jenson Button, el campeón de 2009 tuvo que sentarse mientras que un motor se cambió y logró sólo 57 vueltas al día. El equipo una vez más estaba usando su dispositivo sensor de carga en el alerón delantero, para evaluar el alerón delantero flex. A diferencia de muchos de los conductores, no hizo un bajo combustible ejecutar hoy.

Ferrari hizo otro vueltas 140 hoy con Fernando Alonso, siendo la más rápida de 1m21.614.

Hispania dio a conocer su nuevo coche en los boxes de Barcelona, pero un problema con el suministro de piezas de la impidió salir. El equipo espera muévelo hacia abajo mañana en el último día de funcionamiento, pero anunció esta noche que no será capaz de como partes se celebran en las aduanas.

Equipo principal Colin Kolles señaló la experiencia de sus pilotosTonio Liuzzi y Narain Kartikeyan, así como la cooperación técnica con Williams para la caja de cambios, la hidráulica y la parte trasera como razones para creer que el equipo será un buen paso por delante de la última temporada. También prometió un programa de desarrollo en el coche, que no tenían el año pasado.

Aparte de tiempo para ordenar los fundamentos del coche como refrigeración, electrónica, etc., el equipo no ha tenido el tiempo de pista para aprender sobre los neumáticos Pirelli, cada vez que los otros equipos han salido que han logrado obtener los neumáticos para durar un poco más; Rubens Barrichello hizo dos carreras de 14 vueltas y 12 vueltas con sólo un segundo descenso, aunque fueran vueltas en la baja 1m30s. El coche más tarde requiere un motor de cambio significa que una vez más, el kilometraje del Pastor Maldonado fue restringido.

Mike Gascoyne twitteé que Lotus casi consiguió 20 vueltas de un juego de neumáticos duros hoy, un poco más que antes.



Foto: Equipo Lotus

Lotus hizo 138 vueltas hoy, con Heikki Kovalainen, ensayando un nuevo alerón delantero, la actualización principal en el coche esta semana. Ejecución de hoy les lleva a un total de 4083 general este invierno. No ha sido sin problemas para Lotus, pero las pruebas parecen estar cediendo razonablemente bien, "Que han acabado con una doble carrera es un gran esfuerzo del equipo que han trabajado muy duro," dijo Gascoyne."Está claro que en comparación con este tiempo el año pasado hemos hecho un gran paso adelante para que esto una gran forma de terminar y ahora nos podemos esperar la acción en Melbourne".

Lotus anunció esta tarde que los pilotos de aire Asia GP2 Luiz Razia y Davide Valsecchi será también pilotos para el equipo de reserva y tendrán la oportunidad de ejecutar en la práctica del viernes en grandes premios.

Lo es para las pruebas para la mayoría de los equipos, incluyendo la Red Bull, dejando sólo Mercedes McLaren, Ferrari, Williams y Hispania para ejecutar en la lluvia de la mañana.




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Vettel commits to Red Bull to 2014
Posted on | March 14, 2011 | by | 5 Comments

World champion Sebastian Vettel today committed himself to stay with the Red Bull team until the end of 2014 at least.

Vettel is just 23 years old now and will still be only 27 at the end of this contract extension, traditionally seen as the age when a driver enters the peak period of his career. Fernando Alonso is in that period now; he turns 30 this year and will be 33 when Vettel’s contract runs out. By that time Alonso will have been in F1 for 14 years.

The move will certainly put an end to stories about Vettel and Ferrari for a while, which will be a relief, but they are bound to come back when the contract moves close to its expiry date. He looks like a natural successor to Alonso; it’s hard to imagine them working together in the team – the cost would be a major issue too – so it’s really a question of whether Alonso is still cutting it at 33 and how much longer he wants to race for and what Red Bull’s plans are at that stage.

There is a great deal of loyalty on his side to Red Bull, but he will have been driving in F1 with them (and Toro Rosso) for eight years when this deal ends.

I don’t know the details of Vettel’s extension package and remuneration, but I imagine that he has moved from a small retainer plus large bonus deal to something more akin to what Alonso and Lewis Hamilton have where they earn in the region of €15 million a year, with retainer being the larger portion of the sum.

That said, Vettel’s prospects of getting results looks pretty rosy this year; the RB7 looks like the car to beat going into the first race next week.
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