Maldonado puts Lotus back on top in Barcelona

Pastor Maldonado topped the timesheets for the second time in three days as Lotus continued their encouraging pre-season testing form in Barcelona on Saturday.

The Venezuelan driver, quickest on the opening day of the test on Thursday, lapped the Catalan circuit in 1m 24.348s on supersoft tyres in the afternoon session to finish just under four tenths of a second clear of Toro Rosso rookie Max Verstappen.

Verstappen, who also used supersoft tyres to set his best time, albeit in the morning, was the day’s lap leader, completing an impressive 129 circuits - equivalent to nearly two Grand Prix distances.

World champion Lewis Hamilton was third fastest for Mercedes, just ahead of Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson who spent much of the morning consigned to the garage with gearbox issues. The Swede eventually racked up 53 laps; the Briton 101. 

Sebastian Vettel also cracked the 100-lap barrier for Ferrari after recovering from an embarrassing start to the day when he spun his SF15-T into the gravel on his out lap from the pits. The German ended with a best time of 1m 26.407s, which was marginally quicker than Daniil Kvyat’s best effort for Vettel’s former team, Red Bull.

Williams split their running between Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas, with the Brazilian recording 55 laps in the morning and the Finn 49 laps in the afternoon. Massa set the slightly quicker time of the two drivers, though Bottas spent much of his spell in the car doing pit stop practice.

Mercedes reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein split the two Williams cars on the timesheet; the young German lapping in 1m 27.333s as he continued his spell in Force India’s year-old VJM07.

Bringing up the rear was Jenson Button on what was another hugely frustrating day for McLaren. The Briton completed just 24 laps, many of them at reduced power, as the team continued to be afflicted by problems with the MGU-K element of their Honda power unit. 

Testing concludes at Barcelona on Sunday.


Unofficial Saturday testing times from Barcelona:
1. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 24.348s, 104 laps
2. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1m24.739s, 129 laps
3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m26.076s, 101 laps
4. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1m 26.340s, 53 laps
5. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1m 26.407s, 105 laps
6. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1m 26.589s, 111 laps
7. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 26.912s, 55 laps 
8. Pascal Wehrlein, Force India, 1m 27.333s, 81 laps
9. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1m 27.556s, 49 laps
10. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m 29.151s, 24 laps

(source: f1.com)

Ricciardo edges Raikkonen on day two in Spain

Daniel Ricciardo handed Red Bull a welcome boost by going fastest on this week's second day of pre-season testing in Barcelona.

It was incredibly tight at the top of Friday's timesheet, however, with less than a tenth of a second covering Ricciardo, Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and the Williams of Felipe Massa.

Ultimately the Australian's 1m 24.574s - set on Pirelli's yellow-marked soft tyre - proved enough, with Raikkonen finishing 0.01s and Massa 0.098s down the road.

Sergio Perez was fourth in the year-old Force India VJM07, fractionally ahead of Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton. The two-time world champion had not been expected to drive on day two, but took over for the afternoon session after Nico Rosberg's running was ended as a precaution so as to not aggravate a trapped nerve in his neck, which could have jeopardised his fitness for the final day on Sunday.

Hamilton set his best time on the white-marked medium tyres, but was still able to get within four-tenths of Ricciardo's overall benchmark.

Rosberg's morning left him sixth overall, also within a second of Ricciardo, while Fernando Alonso ended what was McLaren's most productive day so far in 2015 in seventh.

The Spaniard racked up 59 laps in total, even though the team are still waiting for a replacement seal on the MGU-K component of Honda's new power unit.

On his first test for Lotus, 2014 GP2 champion Jolyon Palmer wound up eighth fastest, as Sauber's Marcus Ericsson and Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz Junior rounded out the top 10.

Sainz Jr triggered the red flags shortly after midday when he went off and into the gravel at Turn 9, while Ericsson caused a separate stoppage when he came to a halt on the start-finish line half an hour from the finish.

Testing continues at Barcelona on Saturday.


Unofficial Friday testing times from Barcelona:
1. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 24.574s, 143 laps
2. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 24.584s, 90 laps
3. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 24.672s, 88 laps
4. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1m 24.702s, 121 laps
5. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m 24.923s, 89 laps
6. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 25.556s, 66 laps
7. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1m 25.961s, 59 laps
8. Jolyon Palmer, Lotus, 1m 26.280s, 77 laps
9. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1m 27.334s, 113 laps
10. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1m 28.945s, 100 laps

(source: f1.com)

Maldonado quickest for Lotus on first day of second test

Lotus’s Pastor Maldonado took advantage of a late soft tyre run to top an incident-filled first day of testing at Barcelona on Thursday.

The Venezuelan, who stopped twice with sensor issues in the morning, clocked a lap of 1m 25.011s in the E23 Hybrid with just under an hour of the session remaining to eclipse long-time pacesetter Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn ended up just 0.156s back on what was another encouraging day for Ferrari, with the 2007 world champion completing 70 trouble-free laps in the SF15-T.

Interestingly, both Maldonado and Raikkonen lapped faster than Lewis Hamilton’s 2014 pole position time at the same track for Mercedes.  

Daniel Ricciardo had a couple of minor offs on his way to third fastest for Red Bull, just ahead of Sergio Perez in the year old Force India VJM07. The Mexican hadn’t expected to be behind the wheel until Friday, but at the lunch break Pascal Wehrlein, who’d been driving for the Silverstone-based team, was recalled by parent squad Mercedes to replace an unwell Lewis Hamilton. The world champion managed just 11 laps in the morning before deciding to end his day early. 

Felipe Nasr gave more encouragement to Sauber by topping the morning timesheet, but in the afternoon the Brazilian rookie was involved in an unusual tangle with Williams’ Susie Wolff which left both drivers in the gravel and in need of repairs. Nasr eventually finished in fifth, Wolff in tenth. 

Max Verstappen led the lap count, completing 94 for Toro Rosso on his way to the sixth best time of the day, but McLaren’s Jenson Button had a considerably less productive time for McLaren. The Englishman recorded an encouraging lap of 1m 28.182s in the morning before being sidelined for the rest of the session by a faulty seal on the MGU-K part of his Honda power unit.

Wehrlein ended with near identical lap times for both Force India and Mercedes, with Hamilton in the unusual position of rounding out the timesheet. 

Testing continues at Barcelona on Friday.


Unofficial Thursday testing times from Barcelona:
1. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 25.011s, 69 laps
2. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 25.167s, 74 laps
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 25.547s, 59 laps
4. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1m 26.636s, 34 laps
5. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1m 27.307s, 79 laps
6. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1m 27.900s, 94 laps
7. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m 28.182s, 21 laps
8. Pascal Wehrlein, Force India, 1m 28.329s, 32 laps
9. Pascal Wehrlein, Mercedes, 1m 28.489s, 48 laps
10. Susie Wolff, Williams, 1m 28.906s, 86 laps
11. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m 30.429s, 11 laps

Testing topics: the key questions heading to Barcelona

After an intriguing opening session at Jerez which saw a host of new cars take to the track for the first time, this week sees the teams decamp to a different part of Spain for the second pre-season test of the year. Ahead of four more days of running, we investigate several key questions that should be answered as the action ramps up in Barcelona… 

1. Can we believe Ferrari’s pace?
A few months, as the old adage goes, can be a lifetime in Formula One racing. But even so, Ferrari’s turnaround from a winter of discontent to shining at Jerez came as something of a surprise.

Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel set the fastest two times and topped three of the four days of running in the opening Spanish session, with the duo also offering glowing early appraisals of the new SF15-T.

So is the Prancing Horse galloping once more? As positive as Jerez was, a truer test will arrive this week at Barcelona - where the track and climate are more representative, and where Ferrari’s rivals will begin to ramp up their own preparations. These four days at the Catalan circuit could offer crucial clues as to just how high Ferrari can set their sights in 2015.

2. Will Mercedes and Williams show their hand?
While neither team troubled the top of the timesheets at Jerez, there were ominous signs that Mercedes and Williams - the two form teams at the tail-end of last year - are once again in good shape.

The Silver Arrows in particular looked impressive in the opening test. Concerned with mileage rather than performance, the team racked up an imposing 516 laps over four days - more than 100 better than any of their rivals managed. With that tally under their belt, many expect the team to start exploring outright pace in the second test - in much the same manner as they did in 2014, when they sprang to the top of the timesheets to finish an emphatic 1.6s clear of the opposition. Will they put down another marker in Barcelona - or have the rest of the field managed to make inroads into Mercedes’ advantage?

Williams occupy a similar position. Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas were seventh and eighth on the aggregate timesheet at Jerez as Williams kept a low profile. The car looked nimble out on track however, and the drivers remarked on the ‘step forward’ the FW37 represents. Barcelona will go some way to revealing just how big that step is…

3. Crunch time for McLaren and Honda?
While Jerez was far from disastrous for McLaren and Honda, the first public outing of the MP4-30 was frequently interrupted and ultimately limited to just 79 laps.

Even so, McLaren said they had still been able to meet their prime objectives, while Honda said further upgrades would be made before the second test. But where such issues could be tolerated at Jerez, Barcelona will be far more of an acid test. With just eight days of running before the season opener in Australia, there is a very clear sense that McLaren and Honda must get some serious mileage under their belt if they are to hit the ground running in Melbourne. 

4. Are Red Bull playing catch up again?
It wasn’t quite déjà vu for Red Bull in Jerez, but there were definite shades of 2014 as a sequence of Renault power unit issues set back the team’s progress - a situation not helped when Daniil Kvyat had to spend almost the entirety of the second day running without a front wing after an early driver error.

Both parties can overcome the slow start - indeed they fought back remarkably, and from a situation far more severe, last year. But Jerez did add a degree of pressure for the remaining two tests at Barcelona. Encounter more problems, and both Red Bull and Renault could be playing catch up once more.

For their part, Renault have said the issues they encountered have been understood and fixed. But make no mistake: a lack of unhindered running in Barcelona will be a clear setback for a team looking to regain their championship crown.

5. Will Sauber continue to impress?
After a dismal 2014 campaign that yielded not a single point, Sauber caught the eye at the first test in Jerez with some headline grabbing times. However, heading to Barcelona the jury’s still out on the relative merits of the new C34, not least because the Swiss team set their best times on soft tyres when many others (excluding Ferrari) stuck to harder rubber. 

There seems no doubt that Sauber have benefitted from a much-need step forward by Ferrari on the power unit front, and the new car certainly looks considerably more consistent than the C33, which looked wildly unpredictable at times. But is there more to come from the package? We should get that answer at Barcelona where the C34’s aerodynamics - a relative weak point on the C33 -will be given a much sterner test than in Jerez. 

6. How much will Force India benefit by running their ’14 car?
Ever since Force India’s glamorous team launch in Mexico City in January, fans have been clamouring for a glimpse of the freshly-liveried VJM08, but the new car has yet to see the light of day – and it won’t be running in Barcelona. 

Instead, the Silverstone-based squad have opted to attend the second Spanish session with last year’s car, with the hope that the new machine will finally be ready to run over the final four day test. Given Force India cited the fact that "learning opportunities would have been limited" as a reason not to run the VJM07 in Jerez, it will be interesting to see what programme they follow in Catalunya, especially as Mercedes’ inexperienced (but highly-regarded) reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein will be handling driving duties on two of the four days.

The young German is slated to drive in both of this year’s in-season tests for Vijay Mallya’s squad, so running the old car at Barcelona is extremely beneficial from that point of view, but otherwise you expect the team will concentrate primarily on tyre evaluation work. Such activity is always useful, though hardly ideal when every other team is racking up crucial development laps in their new machines. 

7. Will we get our first glimpse of how much faster F1 racing will be in 2015?
The sweeping rule changes of 2014 mean that the current technology in Formula One racing is still relatively new, and that has led to gains being made across the board ahead of the forthcoming campaign. Teams have refined their bodywork and aerodynamics, while the efficiency and output of power units has come on leaps and bounds. The upshot? Lap times are likely to be a whole lot faster this year.

That was already proved at Jerez, where Kimi Raikkonen’s test-topping 1m 20.841s was in the region of 2.5 seconds quicker than last year’s corresponding benchmark. But Barcelona, as a far more representative circuit, will offer a far more accurate glimpse into just how much laptime has been gained over the winter. The last time F1 visited the Catalan circuit in pre-season was 2013, when Nico Rosberg set an outright best of 1m 20.130s. Based on what we saw at Jerez, that may not be totally out of reach…

(source: f1.com)

Force India to run Mercedes' Wehrlein at Barcelona test

Mercedes' reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein will drive for Force India on two days of the forthcoming four-day pre-season test at Barcelona.

The deal is part of an increased association between Wehrlein and Force India, with the 20-year-old also slated to drive for the team in both of this year's in-season tests.

"I am very happy that Sahara Force India has offered me the opportunity to drive their car for two days at the official test in Barcelona and that Mercedes-Benz has supported me to make this happen," Wehrlein said. 

"As a young driver, any time you can spend in the car is extremely important and you can learn a lot. I know the simulator already, but I don´t have much experience on the track. 

"My first goal in Spain will be to do a great job together with the team, to learn as much as possible and to give good feedback to the engineers."

Force India will be using their 2014 car at the four-day Spanish session after experiencing delays with their new machine, the VJM08. Wehrlein, who made his Formula One test debut with Mercedes at the end of 2014, will drive the VJM07 on Thursday and Saturday, while the team's regular drivers, Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg, will be behind the wheel on Friday and Sunday respectively.

"I have already driven the world champion Mercedes-Benz F1 W05 Hybrid," said Wehrlein, "and the comparison with Sahara Force India will be very exciting for me: the way the team works, how they improve the car and handle problems - all this will help me to gain experience and to reach the next level in my development. 

"Everybody knows that lap times only play a secondary role when you're testing. But, of course, I want to be as competitive as possible. Sahara Force India delivered a very strong performance in the last season and I hope I will be able to make a small contribution to push the team forward and be ready for the opening race in Melbourne."

Vijay Mallya, Force India's team principal and managing director, commented: “I’m pleased to give Pascal a chance to work with us in Barcelona. He’s an exciting young talent who has already proved he has what it takes to be successful at the highest level in motorsport. 

"As a reserve driver for Mercedes-Benz, he’s clearly destined for a career in Formula One and I’m sure the test will be a positive experience on both sides. Being able to call upon Pascal for testing duties is also a clear demonstration of our strong working relationship with our engine partner, Mercedes-Benz, and I thank them for their collaboration.”

Toto Wolff, head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, added: "This is a great opportunity for Pascal to develop his Formula One knowledge with our friends at Force India and shows the good working relationship within the Mercedes-Benz family. 

"Pascal impressed us with his approach to the Abu Dhabi test last year and I am sure his feedback will be useful to Force India also. It is also a valuable opportunity for him to work with another team and gain more experience. 

"This is an important year for Pascal with his primary programme in the DTM, and also these tests to build his F1 experience. We will be following his progress on both sides with great interest."

(source: f1.com)

Renault predict "significant performance step" before Australia

Renault are on course to make substantial gains with their 2015 Formula One power unit before the season-opening race in Australia, according to chief technical officer Rob White.

The French manufacturer made sweeping changes to their power unit over the winter in a push to reduce a 2014 performance deficit to Mercedes.

And while reliability issues hampered Red Bull and Toro Rosso's running in this year's first pre-season test at Jerez, Renault are confident that big strides will be made before the first race in Melbourne on March 15.

"First and foremost we need to run reliably, be quick and closer to front," White told Renault's F1 website.

"Our honest expectation is that we will make a decent improvement but it is difficult to quantify the gain relative to our competitors who will also progress. 

"What we can say is that we are on course to make a significant performance step and resolve the principal reliability weaknesses by the time we get to the first race."

White added that Renault had opted to use most of their engine development tokens prior to the 2015 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix in order to deliver big performance gains - but said deciding future upgrades is a "juggling act".

"We have used the majority of the tokens for the first race and our use of tokens during the course of the season will be relatively modest," White explained.

"It then becomes a matter of strategy about when you introduce the remaining tokens; whether to introduce at the start of the season when the technology is relatively immature but could give greater relative performance, or later in the season when the part has had more testing miles but the impact on performance will be potentially less. 

"Clearly the juggling act we need to perform is which areas of the power unit are the most worthwhile to attack for performance reasons. We have therefore prioritised token spend to make as much headway as possible with performance."

(source: f1.com)

A little rambling before the second tests

Just reminding you all that the second pre-season test venue starts on Thursday in Barcelona.
Force India is supposed to bring their new car there and they might even change their livery a little bit.

It is very interesting to see if Ferrari will continue dominating the lap times or will another team rise up to challenge them. It is obvious that Mercedes is still the best team but you never know what will happen this season.

I hope this season will bring us more consistency than last year. In our F1-4-LIFE PREDICTORS LEAGUE for instance everybody were always betting for the two Mercs in 2014. I hope it will not be the case this year.

In 2012 we hade so many different winners that it was one of the best seasons in several years. Let's hope we will have something like that in 2015.

If we talk more about the tests this year then I am pretty sure that Ferrari and Mercedes will be at the top and then comes Williams, Red Bull and the rest.

The biggest surprise might be Lotus. They have changed to Mercedes engines for this season and they have finally realized several mistakes they did with the car last year. I wish them well.

So remember to check on the results and other stuff on the 19th of February from our Facebook page and this blog.