The three days of testing at Mugello ended yesterday evening with the fastest time of the test going to Romain Grosjean, who lapped his Lotus in 1m21.035s. This was two-tenths of a second faster than the best time achieved by Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull, which clocked a 1m21.363s. All the teams were trying updated versions of their cars, but the biggest of the upgrades seems to have been the Ferrari, which ran a new rear end on the final day of the test, although efforts to assess this were hampered when Fernando Alonso went off and damaged the car. The new bodywork at the rear featured relocated exhaust outlets, which are now in the centre of the car. This was accompanied by a reworking of the airflow around the rear, with a much tighter “coke bottle” shape. Alonso ended the test with the third fastest time, a 1m21.363s, ahead of Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber, which recorded a 1m21.603s and Daniel Ricciardo’s Toro Rosso, with was a thousandth of a second slower.
Mark Webber was sixth overall in his Red Bull, but he was nearly a second off Grosjean’s pace. Sergio Perez was next with a 1m22.229s, ahead of Felipe Massa’s Ferrari, which clocked 1m22.257s. The top 10 was completed by Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India (1m22.325s) and Jean-Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso (1m22.422s). The different conditions on the different days meant that the times were something of a jumble with Pastor Maldonado 11th for Williams (1m22.497s), ahead of Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes (1m22.579s) and Oliver Turvey’s McLaren (1m22.662s).
Paul di Resta was 14th in his Force India with a 1m23.002s, ahead of Heikki Kovalainen’s Caterham (1m23.169s) and Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes (1m23.404s). The top 20 was completed by the Marussias of Timo Glock (1m23.466s) and Charles Pic (1m23.982s), Jerome D’Ambrosio’s Lotus (1m24.048s) and Vitaly Petrov’s Caterham (1m24.312s).
A total of 25 drivers took part in the test with Gary Paffett (McLaren), setting a 1m24.480s; Bruno Senna (Williams), a 1m24.842s. Jules Bianchi (Force India) was next with a 1m25.475s, ahead of Rodolfo Gonzalez (Caterham), who set a 1m27.197s and Valtteri Bottas (Williams), who rounded off the list with a 1m29.179s.
So did the Mclaren team just use Gary for their test? Was this to give their reserve driver more ‘real world’ practice and allow the two main drivers longer to rest before the European campaign begins? Won’t the two main drivers be at a disadvantage having done less running than the others or does the experimental nature of the development running and the track layout reduce the benefit to the drivers anyway?
Perhaps its easier to test things that maybe aren’t going to work very well without upsetting the race drivers. Plus Gary and Oliver Turvey must have been doing most of the simulator work on the latest parts so it would make sense to have some continuity. Gary is definitely one of the better test drivers too, most of the other teams haven’t got anyone that they can really rely on.
I think Jerome d’Ambrosio is pretty decent as well.
Not sure what Mike’s first question is as, of course, Turvey was there as well. To the second part I think it is “You pays your money, you takes your choice”. Webber said it was important for race drivers to get all the track time they can and McLaren’s view is that the test drivers can contribute more in simulator testing if they have some real track time. I also suspect McLaren weren’t trying to break the lap record. Obviously, a lot of development was going on.
What? No track-time for Susie Wolff at Williams?
One might almost come away with the impression that Williams are making staff appointments for the look of the thing.
I thought Bottas was supposed to be awesome? I know it’s only a test and so on, but 2 secs off the next slowest car?
I think you need to look at the weather. His performances in FP1 this year have been very good