What Valencia Tells Us

[Dare]

The first race is going to be interesting



.
     One small test for F1, one giant leap for our understanding of what 2011 might pan out like. Well, maybe not a giant leap, but we got some indication of where the teams were headed...

The super-soft Pirelli tyres don't last very long. It seems they need a tremendous amount of care to stop them from graining too quickly. But it seems however carefully you treat them, the drop-off in performance is pretty spectacular. This only goes to emphasise the sheer conservatism we've had to put up with from Bridgestone. It could make for some interesting grid choices, because in 2010 teams could run the softer tyres for long enough to gain an advantage over the harder compound users and then pit and come out in front of them. This may not be the case any more and we could see a lot of different strategies emerging. Last year, all the top teams tended to go the same way.

If Pirellis do put the teams in this quandary and it improves the racing then it's another nail in the coffin of the Mosley legacy. Max never liked the idea of competing tyre manufacturers and moved against Michelin in 2003.

Ferrari are quick out of the box
Even if they're not that careful taking it out of the box when Felipe Massa drives it.

Red Bull had some re-assuring teething troubles. Mark Webber didn't get as much time behind the wheel as Sebastian Vettel in Valencia because of a master cylinder problem. The conspiracy theories start here...

Renault have gone radical Sweeping exhausts out by the sidepods seems like a radical idea, and it may be that McLaren have also gone down that route but wanted to keep their innovation hidden. (When their car was launched in berlin on Friday it had dummy exhaust pipes aborad) Could the design be the Renault team's answer to the Brawn double diffuser, or the McLaren F-duct?

Lotus look like they may spoil qualifying for Toro Rosso a few times this year. Once they got the power steering fixed on Friday they made good use of the extra day at their disposal and set times within two and a half seconds of Robert Kubica's

Williams are pretty good at making KERS workHaving gone a different route to effect KERS technology in 2009, they have opted for a battery system like Mercedes in 2011. Their first test of the system went off faultlessly in Valencia and presumably their ability and experience with energy recovery systems is one of the reasons they feel confident to float the company on the stock market.

Michael Schumacher is still a wise old owl
The Schumster is well aware that with a very large fuel load, Red Bull can convert their new RB7 to HRT pace - should they want to. So there's no need for Mercedes to be worried quite yet.

"Obviously there is a big fuel tank and if you go from zero to maximum, you talk about four or five seconds of difference purely in the fuel load," said Schumi in Valencia. "I don't know what the others are doing. I know what we are doing, and we focus only on ourselves." Many will probably recall how fast Williams and Sauber were in testing last year.

Robert Kubica may not be as quick as he lookedAs if to emphasise this, the man with the quickest time at the test, Robert Kubica, seemed fairly downbeat about his performance: "It's impossible to compare the feeling to last year's car but the feeling can depend a lot on how things will look when everybody is in the same condition and everybody is running on the same time."
Hardly a euphoric celebration of those radical exhausts making it to No.1 on the timesheets.

Jenson Button likes Italian rubber.Jenson knows he has to put in better qualifying performances this year and he thinks that the Pirelli tyre will help him achieve that. "It has a stable rear when you enter high-speed corners, you have a stable rear when you brake for low-speed corners, and that is something that I really do need with the car."
Sod's law being what it is, it'll probably all change on the MP4-26 next week...

[John S]

The only things I can say about the first test are

1, Renault with it's front exhausts stood up to an awful lot of laps, so I don't forsee as many issues as some others about the this new innovation. However I don't read anything into Kubica topping the times, after all we don't know who was really trying out there.

2, I think Lotus still has a way to go if they only got to about 2.5 secs off Renault's fastest lap, STR put in a time about a sec ahead of that so still work to do for the Hingham crew, but it's looking better than last year's gap.

3, We haven't seen the big boys running in anger, either because they don't want to or because they were in last year's car, so lets hope Jerez gives us a bit more to go on.

[Williamsfan]

I'm still not sure you can really say anything until after the third race to be honest    Until then there are so many variables, teams change their cars from now constantly until the season actually begins.  Also in testing it is so hard to judge what a team is setting out to achieve in any given session.  Still, fun anyway!

[Scott]

I'm still not sure you can really say anything until after the third race to be honest    Until then there are so many variables, teams change their cars from now constantly until the season actually begins.  Also in testing it is so hard to judge what a team is setting out to achieve in any given session.  Still, fun anyway!

I agree WF - however it was interesting to see Vettel and Alonso putting down fast laps after each other (the teams probably told both of them to behave and go with the program). 

Qualifying of the first race is always a highlight for me - aside from those that make major mistakes, it is often a tale of how things will go the first few races.

[Andy B]

I quite agree Scott there are too many variables for anything to be drawn from anything prior to the first race.
But then as has been said what is seen now may bear not resemblance to what appears at the first few races.

[Dare]

Reminds me of when Honda had that beautiful
black test car only to show up with the ugliest
F1 car of all time.

[Williamsfan]

Testing liveries are often great.  Honda's black ones were good, as are William's dark blue liveries.  I liked it when McLaren tested in Orange as well, their cars looked good (but then I do really love their current livery anyway)