The 2013 Pre-Season Test Thread

pi314159 · Post by **pi314159** » 24 Jan 2013, 17:09

I'll begin with the following news. Massa and de la Rosa are going to drive the new Ferrari at Jerez, Alonso will skip the test.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105262

Confirmed Lineups for the Jerez Tests:

Ferrari:
5th - 7th February: Felipe Massa
8th February: Pedro de la Rosa

McLaren:
5th and 7th February: Jenson Button
6th and 8th February: Sergio Perez

Lotus:
5th - 6th February: Romain Grosjean
7th - 8th February: Kimi Räikkönen

Sauber:
5th - 6th February: Nico Hülkenberg
7th - 8th February: Esteban Gutierrez

Ed24 · Post by **Ed24** » 24 Jan 2013, 18:58

Interesting that de la Rosa is getting a day, although it might be hard for him to give negative feedback considering anything he drives will be a massive improvement on the HRT! :lol:

Post by **mario** » 24 Jan 2013, 19:11

pi314159 wrote:I'll begin with the following news. Massa and de la Rosa are going to drive the new Ferrari at Jerez, Alonso will skip the test.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105262

I'm a little surprised about that - I was expecting Alonso to have been allocated one day of testing during the first test session, but evidently the team seem to think that they'll gain more from sending Alonso off on additional fitness training instead.
If I'm reading the schedule correctly, therefore, it means that Massa actually gets one more day of testing than Alonso (Alonso gets five days - three in the second test and two for the final test - whilst Massa has six days (three in Jerez, one at the second test and two for the third test) and De La Rosa gets one day in Jerez). Perhaps the team feel that Massa could benefit from racking up a bit more mileage in the pre-season tests to help bring him up to speed that little bit quicker in 2013?

Zetec · Post by **Zetec** » 24 Jan 2013, 19:38

I'm happy to see de la Rosa driving a Ferrari. And I think the idea is quite good: This way de la Rosa has the posibility to compare the new car with the simulator model he is gonna drive the whole season.

Divina_Galica · Post by **Divina_Galica** » 24 Jan 2013, 21:35

Ed24 wrote:Interesting that de la Rosa is getting a day, although it might be hard for him to give negative Bathplug considering anything he drives will be a massive improvement on the HRT!

"Too much grip at the front, oh, and too much grip at the rear".....

DG

IdeFan · Post by **IdeFan** » 24 Jan 2013, 21:51

Ed24 wrote:Interesting that de la Rosa is getting a day, although it might be hard for him to give negative Bathplug considering anything he drives will be a massive improvement on the HRT!

I'm glad he's getting a test, but I don't quite see the point, surely Ferrari would be better off giving Massa another day?

FullMetalJack · Post by **FullMetalJack** » 24 Jan 2013, 22:24

mario wrote:Perhaps the team feel that Massa could benefit from racking up a bit more mileage in the pre-season tests to help bring him up to speed that little bit quicker in 2013?

That could very well be true. Every bit of testing helps.

Ed24 · Post by **Ed24** » 25 Jan 2013, 16:48

IdeFan wrote:
Ed24 wrote:Interesting that de la Rosa is getting a day, although it might be hard for him to give negative Bathplug considering anything he drives will be a massive improvement on the HRT!

I'm glad he's getting a test, but I don't quite see the point, surely Ferrari would be better off giving Massa another day?

Well I think the first test is mainly systems checks and stuff like that, so I wouldn't think Massa would gain too much from having four days rather than three - instead, it could give Pedro a better foundation for his development work during the year.

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 25 Jan 2013, 18:59

The latest article from Autosport on Marussia states that the team are apparently still on course to make the Jerez test, but there's still no date on when the car launch will be, and no news on a second driver, or a schedule for the test itself.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105280

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 04 Feb 2013, 18:15

Not sure if anyone's seen this today, but the big news out of Force India is that both Jules Bianchi and James Rossiter will get seat time during the first test at Jerez.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105402

I doubt Rossiter is in the frame for the race seat, but I suspect this signals that the team are leaning towards Bianchi for the second car. I don't think they'd put him in there otherwise.

Post by **Ataxia** » 04 Feb 2013, 18:32

AndreaModa wrote:Not sure if anyone's seen this today, but the big news out of Force India is that both Jules Bianchi and James Rossiter will get seat time during the first test at Jerez.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105402

I doubt Rossiter is in the frame for the race seat, but I suspect this signals that the team are leaning towards Bianchi for the second car. I don't think they'd put him in there otherwise.

The only reason Rossiter is testing is because he's their simulator driver, and he's checking how close it is to the actual car.

Post by **mario** » 04 Feb 2013, 18:37

AndreaModa wrote:Not sure if anyone's seen this today, but the big news out of Force India is that both Jules Bianchi and James Rossiter will get seat time during the first test at Jerez.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105402

I doubt Rossiter is in the frame for the race seat, but I suspect this signals that the team are leaning towards Bianchi for the second car. I don't think they'd put him in there otherwise.

It is probably indicative that the team are leaning towards Bianchi (and, presumably, a longer term deal with Ferrari for technical assistance), although it is worth being slightly cautious about that as Force India did agree to give Bianchi a certain minimum amount of time testing the car in 2012 (they agreed to a certain number of Friday practise sessions, plus, I believe, a couple of days of testing - hence why Bianchi drove for a day in pre-season testing and once during the mid season test in 2012).
Then again, Bob Fernley is supposed to have said to Autosport " If we’d had an ideal world we’d have liked to run Jules [Bianchi] for two years as a third driver." when talking about Hulkenberg's departure for Sauber (which, it appears, they hadn't anticipated), suggesting that Bianchi may indeed be on his way into the second seat.

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 04 Feb 2013, 21:14

AndreaModa wrote:Not sure if anyone's seen this today, but the big news out of Force India is that both Jules Bianchi and James Rossiter will get seat time during the first test at Jerez.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105402

I doubt Rossiter is in the frame for the race seat, but I suspect this signals that the team are leaning towards Bianchi for the second car. I don't think they'd put him in there otherwise.

Seems likely, as Bianchi has been with the team for some time now. This means Rossiter will likely be named a test driver or something like that. Which is incredibly unbelievable, as he does not have much talent to be in F1 anyways.

pi314159 · Post by **pi314159** » 05 Feb 2013, 08:35

McLaren is having reliability problams again. Button has stopped his car in Turn 4.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 05 Feb 2013, 08:36

pi314159 wrote:McLaren is having reliability problams again. Button has stopped his car in Turn 4.

Man, at the rate they've been going since last year, we can turn this into some sort of drinking game :lol:

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 05 Feb 2013, 08:49

Just out of curiosity, what's everyone using to keep track of the test because I'm starting to get the feeling that Autosport may not exactly be on the ball this morning.

RonDenisDeletraz · Post by **RonDenisDeletraz** » 05 Feb 2013, 08:49

Äutosport wrote:Risky move as the course car dives down the outside of the low loader down the main straight. Its side by side for a while, until the course car cedes position just before the pair turn into the pitlane.

RonDenisDeletraz · Post by **RonDenisDeletraz** » 05 Feb 2013, 08:50

Wizzie wrote:Just out of curiosity, what's everyone using to keep track of the test because I'm starting to get the feeling that Autosport may not exactly be on the ball this morning.

Where exactly are you right now :lol:

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 05 Feb 2013, 08:52

eurobrun wrote:
Wizzie wrote:Just out of curiosity, what's everyone using to keep track of the test because I'm starting to get the feeling that Autosport may not exactly be on the ball this morning.

Where exactly are you right now

What I mean is morning Jerez time. Obviously, I'm still stuck in the hole that is Penrith but that's besides the point

RonDenisDeletraz · Post by **RonDenisDeletraz** » 05 Feb 2013, 08:57

Wizzie wrote:
eurobrun wrote:
Wizzie wrote:Just out of curiosity, what's everyone using to keep track of the test because I'm starting to get the feeling that Autosport may not exactly be on the ball this morning.

Where exactly are you right now

What I mean is morning Jerez time. Obviously, I'm still stuck in the hole that is Penrith but that's besides the point

My idea of Penrith is that some parts of it seem like they are straight out of Housos, is this accurate?

Or the NSW equivalent of Salisbury or Elizabeth

pi314159 · Post by **pi314159** » 05 Feb 2013, 08:59

Rosberg currently first, but the times are useless, as we're still three seconds away from last year's ones.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 05 Feb 2013, 09:02

eurobrun wrote:
Wizzie wrote:
eurobrun wrote:
Where exactly are you right now

What I mean is morning Jerez time. Obviously, I'm still stuck in the hole that is Penrith but that's besides the point

My idea of Penrith is that some parts of it seem like they are straight out of Housos, is this accurate?

Or the NSW equivalent of Salisbury or Elizabeth

Anywhere within a 5km radius of Mount Druitt (which isn't too far from here) is a no-go zone unless you absolutely HAVE to go there, and even then that's not advisable. That being said, driving home after Air League on most Friday nights turns into an exercise of not running over drunk people through the Penrith CBD.

Anyways, to stop all this nonsense about Western Sydney, the reference time for last year's 2012 test at Jerez is Romain Grosjean on a 1:18.419. Rosberg did do a mid-17 during that test but that was in the 2011 Merc, not the 2012 one.

pi314159 · Post by **pi314159** » 05 Feb 2013, 09:07

You can either use Autosport or this page to see the times: http://f1tests.info/2013.php

Grovey · Post by **Grovey** » 05 Feb 2013, 09:12

eurobrun wrote:Or the NSW equivalent of Salisbury or Elizabeth

There is nothing more relied on in the whole world than the Elizabeth Centrelink :lol:

How cone Webber isn't that much faster than that Dutch tosser

pi314159 · Post by **pi314159** » 05 Feb 2013, 09:16

Grovey wrote:How cone Webber isn't that much faster than that Dutch tosser

More fuel, most likely.

Grovey · Post by **Grovey** » 05 Feb 2013, 09:17

pi314159 wrote:
Grovey wrote:How cone Webber isn't that much faster than that Dutch tosser

More fuel, most likely.

That would make sense actually as I doubt the Red Bull will be that bad

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 05 Feb 2013, 09:18

Grovey wrote:How cone Webber isn't that much faster than that Dutch tosser

Presumably because Red Bull and Caterham are doing two different testing programs. Note that Webber has been pounding around on track pretty much since the red flag for Button's car failure

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 05 Feb 2013, 09:25

And now Rosberg's Merc has decided to catch fire. :lol:

pi314159 · Post by **pi314159** » 05 Feb 2013, 09:41

pi314159 · Post by **pi314159** » 05 Feb 2013, 10:18

Grosjean 3rd after his first timed lap. Meanwhile, Chilton has closed up to van der Garde with a 1:25.176.

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 05 Feb 2013, 10:41

Wizzie wrote:And now Rosberg's Merc has decided to catch fire.

Big congratulations to the whole Mercedes team for being the first to do this. Good job!

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 05 Feb 2013, 10:56

What's starting to worry me is that Marussia and Caterham seem even more hopelessly off the pace than they were last year. Although, I am starting to suspect that Mercedes may have been showboating ever so slightly before the car blew up and there may be some sandbagging from the two newish teams involved.

Faustus · Post by **Faustus** » 05 Feb 2013, 10:57

Wizzie wrote:What's starting to worry me is that Marussia and Caterham seem even more hopelessly off the pace than they were last year. Although, I am starting to suspect that Mercedes may have been showboating ever so slightly before the car blew up and there may be some sandbagging from the two newish teams involved.

Early days mate, give it time.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 05 Feb 2013, 10:58

Faustus wrote:
Wizzie wrote:What's starting to worry me is that Marussia and Caterham seem even more hopelessly off the pace than they were last year. Although, I am starting to suspect that Mercedes may have been showboating ever so slightly before the car blew up and there may be some sandbagging from the two newish teams involved.

Early days mate, give it time.

Yeah, I'll give you that.

In other news, whatever failed on that McLaren must have been pretty major considering we haven't seen them back on track in well over two hours now.

Svenko Wankerov · Post by **Svenko Wankerov** » 05 Feb 2013, 11:29

The Caterham-QPR partnership is already paying off, as Caterham has brought vuvuzelas into F1.

Boomstick · Post by **Boomstick** » 05 Feb 2013, 11:49

Pastor is doing a lot of reasonable laps in the old car......what stage are we in the Williams cycle at the moment? Or did it break due to last year?

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 05 Feb 2013, 12:06

Wow an AirAsia logo did make it onto the car! :lol:

Post by **mario** » 05 Feb 2013, 12:32

Wizzie wrote:
Faustus wrote:
Wizzie wrote:What's starting to worry me is that Marussia and Caterham seem even more hopelessly off the pace than they were last year. Although, I am starting to suspect that Mercedes may have been showboating ever so slightly before the car blew up and there may be some sandbagging from the two newish teams involved.

Early days mate, give it time.

Yeah, I'll give you that.

In other news, whatever failed on that McLaren must have been pretty major considering we haven't seen them back on track in well over two hours now.

The news from McLaren is that it was a major fuel pump failure on their car, going by the BBC's coverage of the test - it's a little worrying since they were supposed to have been working with Mercedes at the tail end of 2012 to solve that problem after Hamilton's fuel pump failure in Abu Dhabi, although it isn't clear if it is a repeat of the exact same problem.

As for Marussia and Caterham, Gary Anderson has been talking a look over them and has been giving a bit of brief analysis - although it is missing some development parts, it seems that he is fairly impressed by the build quality and the internal mechanical packaging of the MR02 and considers it to be a solid base line for that team to build upon. As for Caterham, though, he seems a little less impressed with the CT03, considering some parts of the aerodynamics to be strangely arranged (such as the location of some of the turning vanes at the rear, which are located behind the rear brake ducts and therefore out of the line of the exhaust wake) and somewhat unrefined.
Equally, to be fair to van der Garde and Chilton, it's going to be a steeper learning curve for them compared to the other drivers given that they are both rookies - neither of them would have tried out the 2013 spec tyres (whereas the other drivers would have had at least on chance to try some of the 2013 tyres thanks to Pirelli bringing some development tyres to the 2012 Brazilian GP for feedback in FP1), and overall there will be a lot of things for them to get used to (such as KERS).

Boomstick wrote:Pastor is doing a lot of reasonable laps in the old car......what stage are we in the Williams cycle at the moment? Or did it break due to last year?

Supposedly, it is a strategic decision by Williams to sacrifice the first test and use it as a tyre data acquisition exercise so they can refine the FW35 for a few more weeks before launching it in Barcelona. Added to that, it seems that some are not convinced that Jerez is the best track to launch a car either (there is a suggestion that is why Alonso was prepared to sacrifice his test time at Jerez in favour of improving his physical fitness), so that might have also influenced Williams's decision to postpone their launch.

CarlosFerreira · Post by **CarlosFerreira** » 05 Feb 2013, 14:56

Any word yet on what was it that Red Bull was trying to hide in the back of the RB9? They made such a fuss during the presentation you'd think they're trying to get everyone to look at the rear of the car intently and forget about the rest...

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 05 Feb 2013, 15:03

I too am a bit worried that both Caterham and Marussia look a bit slow... I know it is early days, but what we could gather from the last few seasons they have been on board the average gap between them and the pack in testing was real when the season started. Although 3 and 4 are better than 4 and 5, it is still not really good enough...