TESTING 2014

[Monty]

1) Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1:34.263

2) Jenson Button (McLaren) 1:34.976

3) Felipe Massa (Williams) 1:37.066

4) Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) 1:37.180

5) Sergio Perez (Force India) 1:37.367

6) Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) 1:37.476

7) Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) 1:38.974

Pastor Maldonado (Lotus) 1:39.642

9) Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) 1:40.781

10) Marcus Ericsson (Caterham) 1:42.130

11) Max Chilton (Marussia) 1:46.672
These results would seem to suggest Mercedes power is the only way to go but the Renaults have been running reliably and they are currently mapped to give approx. 150bhp less than Mercedes & Ferrari so they could still spring some surprises.

[lkjohnson1950]

Kobe says Renault engine problems are handicapping the team:

http://www.racer.com/index.php/indycar/51-f1/101327-kobayashi-renault-can-t-compete#!Rosberg_Bahrain_testing

[J.Clark]

Renault says their problems are behind them.  We shall see.  In a way, I hope so, even if it means Red Bull will be better.

I don't think we can conclude anything about power units just yet.  Perhaps we will see more teams truly seeing what they can get from the cars next week in the second Bahrain test.  Right now they are most likely more concerned with understanding the car and the limits regarding endurance, fuel consumption rates, how to best utilize the power units' ERS and so on.  Hamilton as much as said in an interview that they are trying to break the car.

Ferrari too have been running well, completing a lot of laps and setting some respectable times in the process.  Only a fool would write them off in testing.

I think the time sheets from tomorrow may have more of an indication too, as I recon several teams may attempt some hot laps to see what they have learned over past week, coupled with the results from Jerez.

[J.Clark]

Day 4 of session 2 time sheet:
1. Rosberg   Mercedes   1min 33.283secs 89 laps
2. Button   McLaren   1min 34.957secs 66 laps
3. Raikkonen   Ferrari   1min 36.718secs 81 laps
4. Nasr   Williams   1min 37.569secs 87 laps
5. Maldonado   Lotus    1min 38.707secs 59 laps
6. Perez   Force India   1min 39.258secs 19 laps
7. Ricciardo   Red Bull 1min 39.837secs 15 laps
8. Vergne   STR    1min 40.472secs 19 laps
9. Kobyashi   Sauber   1min 43.027secs 17 laps
10. Ericsson   Caterham   1min 45.094secs 4 laps
11. Sutil   Sauber   No time 7 laps
12. Bianchi Marussiai    No time 5 laps

Mercedes and Ferrari powered cars continue to put in more laps in general.  Next week will be critical for a few of those who should be at the pointy end of the spear, such as Red Bull.  Learning curve, or not, Vettel and Ricciardo can't be too awfully happy with the track time they are getting and the seeming relative lack of pace.

Williams seems to be hanging near the top - good.

Hopefully, next week we will see what the cars truly have in the way of performance on a comparative basis.

[J.Clark]

I do not wish to interject politics, for lack of a better word, into all of this, but I find it somewhat interesting that several years ago, when Michael Schumacher and Ferrari were on top and Michael crashed during pre-season testing.  The Ferrari/Michael haters were all over it with negative and inflammatory comments.  I am glad they are not part of this forum, for the record.

Yesterday, Kimi crashed in Bahrain.  I haven't seen any comments from Ferrari over the cause yet.  This video doesn't show us the beginning of it, but the car is truly a wreck.

[J.Clark]

Results of time/laps by team and laps by power plant:
This week’s unofficial aggregate test times from Bahrain
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 33.283s, 174 laps
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m 34.263s, 141 laps
3. Kevin Magnussen, McLaren, 1m 34.910s, 127 laps
4. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m 34.957s, 169 laps
5. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1m 36.445s, 137 laps
6. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 1m 36.516s, 161 laps
7. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 36.718s, 126 laps
8. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 37.066s, 65 laps
9. Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber, 1m 37.180s, 151 laps
10. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1m 37.328s, 171 laps
11. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1m 37.367s, 76 laps
12. Felipe Nasr, Williams, 1m 37.569s, 87 laps
13. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 38.707s, 85 laps
14. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1m 38.974s, 57 laps
15. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 39.837s, 43 laps
16. Kamui Kobayashi, Caterham, 1m 39.855s, 83 laps
17. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 1m 40.224s, 73 laps
18. Adrian Sutil, Sauber, 1m 40.443s, 89 laps
19. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso, 1m 40.472s, 77 laps
20. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1m 41.670s, 26 laps
21. Marcus Ericsson, Caterham, 1m 42.130s, 102 laps
22. Max Chilton, Marussia, 1m 42.511s, 21 laps
23. Robin Frijns, Caterham, 1m 42.534s, 68 laps
24. Jules Bianchi, Marussia, no time, 8 laps

Total laps run - by team (power unit, where different):
1. Williams (Mercedes), 323
2. Mercedes, 315
3. McLaren (Mercedes), 296
4. Ferrari, 287
5. Caterham (Renault), 253
6. Sauber (Ferrari), 240
7. Force India (Mercedes), 213
8. Toro Rosso (Renault), 134
9. Red Bull (Renault), 116
10. Lotus (Renault), 111
11. Marussia (Ferrari), 29

Total laps run - by power unit:
1. Mercedes, 1147 (4 teams)
2. Renault, 614 (4 teams)
3. Ferrari, 556 (3 teams)

Mercedes powered cars should, by the above results, have an advantage going into the first part of the season due to the shear number of laps run.  They are nearly double that of both Renault and Ferrari, which, factory teams aside, seemed to struggle in this area.

I don't think we can take too much away from it based upon the time sheets though.  I find it very difficult to believe that Nico, Lewis and Jense were in cars that are actually 2 seconds faster than everyone else.  Next week will likely be more telling as teams begin in earnest with race preparations and attempting to extract maximum performance from the cars.  I could be wrong, but I believe most of the set up variations will be put to the track in the up-coming final test session.  I may be mistaken, but I think the rev limits will be up to 15k rpm as well for this test.  They may have been at 15k this past week, but I don't remember seeing anything on that.

I don't like the sound, but I am ready to go racing anyway.

[Ian]

We do have Michael haters on here J.Clark, but they are also F1 fans and none of them are happy with what happened to Michael recently.

[Scott]

We do have Michael haters on here J.Clark, but they are also F1 fans and none of them are happy with what happened to Michael recently.

Plus we all love Kimi...that wreck sounded pretty nasty, and the car was a mess, but glad Kimi is alright.

[cosworth151]

I've read that Kimi says the shunt was his fault. Good to hear that he's alright and good on him for explaining. I'm glad it wasn't a failure in the car.

[John S]

For those of us who have been missing F1 action here's a brief vid look at most cars on day 4 at first Bahrain test. Also includes a brief explanation at the end from kimi about his shunt.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNcZQpSmizs&feature=youtu.be

[Irisado]

Red Bull won't be happy with that performance that's for certain.  I'm sure that they will be quicker in Melbourne, but they don't look to be challenging for the very front end of the grid at the moment.

The small teams, as always, seem to have been hit hardest by the rule change.  Marussia have hardly completed any laps at all, and Kobayashi is on the record with his concerns for Caterham.

[J.Clark]

Here we go - final four days of testing before race 1.
Time sheet:
1. Perez Force India   1min 35.290secs 105 laps
2. Bottas Williams   1min 36.184secs 128 laps
3. Raikkonen Ferrari    1min 36.432secs 54 laps
4. Rosberg Mercedes   1min 36.624secs 89 laps
5. Sutil Sauber   1min 37.700secs 89 laps
6. Magnussen McLaren   1min 37.825secs 109 laps
7. Ricciardo Red Bull   1min 37.908secs 39 laps
8. Chilton Marussia   1min 38.610secs 44 laps
9. Kvyat STR   1min 39.242secs 55 laps
10. Maldonado Lotut   1min 40.599secs 31 laps
11. Kobyashi Caterham 1min 42.285secs 19 laps

Mercedes still looks to be on top of everything with laps run and times as well.
Force-India and Williams look fairly impressive.   They look as good as Red Bull look poor and struggling.  Ferrari looks to be pretty strong too.  Of course, there are still three days of this final test session remaining, and while  much could change in those days, it is encouraging for the mid-field teams like Williams to have spent the morning practicing pit stops and doing race simulation in the afternoon session.

[cosworth151]

Something occurred to me while watching the video of testing. The easiest way to tell the Red Bulls from the Torro Rossos is that the Torros have Red Bull in large letters on the side pods. The Red Bulls don't have Red Bull on them.

[vintly]

Surprise surprise:

BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer Andrew Benson:

"Renault has issued a statement regarding the request for an extension of the engine homologation deadline that is being discussed at the F1 strategy group this morning. It says: 'Renault is providing the reference Power Unit and appropriate supplementary material to the FIA, as per today's homologation deadline.

"There is a background request from some teams for alternative proposals (as will be discussed by the strategy group today) that regard some parts and components. However, the basic requirements of the homologation deadline will be delivered today as mandated by the FIA.' Renault declined to provide details of the proposals, or which parts they applied to."

[J.Clark]

Exactly how will it impact the Renault powered teams, if the FIA accepts/declines the request?  I think that is an interesting discussion to have and I am not sure I fully understand the implications at this point.  Also interesting is that this request is coming so late in the development of the cars for the 2014 season.

Here are the morning times for day 2: Times at 1300 local time: Perez (1:35.570 / 33 laps), Alonso (1:35.634 / 45), Button (1:36.901 / 20), Bianchi (1:38.198 / 33), Hamilton (1:39.041 / 61), Massa (1:39.323 / 43), Vergne (1:39.756 / 30), Gutierrez (1:40.428 / 41), Ricciardo (1:40.867 / 15), Maldonado (1:41.762 / 24), Ericsson (1:42.516 / 22).