Formula 1 - 2011 Season

[Bludd]

Some rumors are saying that Red Bull has been driving so far pretty much only with full tanks, meaning they would be leaps and bounds faster than anyone else

Rumours are worthless. Maybe Virgin have been running with 200 Kg ballast also?

Why would you only test with full tanks? How does that help you set up the car wrt. quali? How can they run with full tanks in the long stints they have been doing? Remember Webber did 139 laps in one of the testing days. That is hard to do if he had to come in to the pits to top up all the time.

I call bullshit. RB7 is going to be quick, though.

 

[DarthShader]

Some rumors are saying that Red Bull has been driving so far pretty much only with full tanks, meaning they would be leaps and bounds faster than anyone else

They have done race simulations there. Unless they got back into the garage for each stop and tanked up, there's no way they could be tanked up all the time. The lap times show this too.

 

[Bludd]

Joe Saward is reporting that Red Bull Racing is set to use engines by Infiniti in 2011. This doesn't mean anything to the actual engine, though. It is a badging exercise which presumably financial implications for Red Bull.

Red Bull Racing - Infiniti. Hm, well it means that Nissan and Renault can count GP wins now.

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/red-bull-to-infiniti-and-beyond/

Infiniti will not rebadge the engines of Red Bull Racing, but it will sponsor the team.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89675

 

[Tahir2]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mo...-exchange-as-Dutch-investment-buys-stake.html

Dutch investment fund Cyrte has bought a five per cent stake in Williams Grand Prix Holdings PLC but shares have already fallen almost five per cent following the company’s listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

 

[Bludd]

I have this strange feeling this Williams flotation is going to end up being a big mistake.

 

[Bludd]

Joe Saward has a new blog post where he discusses (or shoots down) Bernie's "make it rain" suggestion.
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/is-formula-one-really-that-desperate/

He's spot on, too.

 

[Bludd]

Team	Testing laps 2011 after first day of second Barcelona test	
RBR		1099
McLaren		917*
Ferrari		1184****
Mercedes	969****
Renault		887
Williams	862****
Force India	932*
Sauber		1012
STR		900
Lotus		472**
HRT		445*,***,****
Virgin		864*
		
* Started testing with old car		
** Did not attend first test day		
***Did not attend second test		
****Did not attend 1st day 2nd Barcelona test

 

[Bludd]

Liuzzi has been confirmed as an HRT driver alongside Narain Karthikeyan.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Good for him. Now all he needs is HRT to actually come up with a car

 

[Bludd]

Good for him. Now all he needs is HRT to actually come up with a car

Friday, lunchtime.

They did no testing last year so they are infinitely better off this year.

Still, what Colin Kolles has been able to do is impressive and Geoff Willis is good too.

 

[Bludd]

Team	Testing laps 2011 after second day of second Barcelona test	
RBR		1211
McLaren		974*
Ferrari		1285****
Mercedes	1069****
Renault		1003
Williams	891****
Force India	1050*
Sauber		1119
STR		1020
Lotus		570**
HRT		445*,***,****
Virgin		928*
		
* Started testing with old car		
** Did not attend first test day		
***Did not attend second test, and second day of 2nd Barcelona test		
****Did not attend 1st day 2nd Barcelona test

 

[Bludd]

Team	Testing laps 2011 after third day of second Barcelona test	
RBR		1308
McLaren		974*,*****
Ferrari		1417****
Mercedes	1158****
Renault		1059
Williams	996****
Force India	1158*
Sauber		1214
STR		1127
Lotus		616**
HRT		445*,***,****
Virgin		1024*
		
* Started testing with old car		
** Did not attend first test day		
***Did not attend second test, and 2nd and 3rd day of 2nd Barcelona test		
****Did not attend 1st day 2nd Barcelona test		
*****Did not attend 3rd day 2nd Barcelona test

 

[Bludd]

Winter testing is over.

Team	Testing laps 2011 winter testing over	
RBR		1372******
McLaren		1064*,*****
Ferrari		1563****
Mercedes	1287****
Renault		1126******
Williams	1119****
Force India	1226*,******
Sauber		1312******
STR		1199******
Lotus		754**,******
HRT		445*,***,****,******
Virgin		1070*,******
		
* Started testing with old car		
** Did not attend first test day		
***Did not attend second test, and 2nd and 3rd day of 2nd Barcelona test		
****Did not attend 1st day 2nd Barcelona test		
*****Did not attend 3rd day 2nd Barcelona test		
******Did not attend 5th day of 2nd Barcelona test

Ferrari did 13.92% more laps than Red Bull. Keep in mind that over the tracks used in the tests, the laps are not uniform in length. Still, it shows roughly the reliability of all the teams, though it masks when each team introduced their 2011 car if they did not start testing with it.

Bring on Melbourne

 

[Kaotik]

Any word on how many laps HRT has done on the new car yet?

 

[Lightman]

Any word on how many laps HRT has done on the new car yet?

- 0 -

They will repeat last year by doing shake down of their car at the first race!
I guess it is a money saving move from their side ...

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

It's because they couldn't get all the parts ready in time. The company that was supposed to deliver the dampers failed. They moved all their equipment to Barcelona which they wouldn't have done if they didn't intend to test.

 

[Bludd]

The dampers were stuck in customs. It's not good for HRT, but they were at Barcelona ready to test.

 

[Mendel]

It almost doesn´t matter in the great scheme of things but I wonder if there will be a Japanese GP this year. It´s all the way in october so it may be too early to speculate.

 

[Kaotik]

It almost doesn´t matter in the great scheme of things but I wonder if there will be a Japanese GP this year. It´s all the way in october so it may be too early to speculate.

Regardless of what happens at Fukushima, Suzuka isn't exactly close and there shouldn't be anything preventing the race

 

[V3]

Aus GP weekend, I watched the practice sessions on TV, was really confused about the rules on the use of adjustable wing and flaps. Do the drivers need the permission of the race control to adjust them ?