Young Drivers Test: Abu Dhabi - 15th to 17th Nov 2011

[Byronrhys]

Here we go, the next action on track.

Conformed for the test:

Red Bull-Renault Jean-Eric Vergne
McLaren-Mercedes Garry Paffett
McLaren-Mercedes Oliver Turvey
Scuderia Ferrari Jules Bianchi
Mercedes GP Sam Bird
Lotus Renault GP Romain Grosjean
Lotus Renault GP Kevin Korjus
Lotus Renault GP Robert Wickens (Prize for winning the 2011 Championship of FR3.5)
Williams-Cowsorth Valtteri Bottas
Williams-Cowsorth Mirko Bortolotti (Prize for winning the F2 2011 Championship)
Force India-Mercedes Max Chilton
Force India-Mercedes Johnny Cecotto Jr
Sauber-Ferarri Esteban Gutierrez
Sauber-Ferarri Fabio Leimer
STR-Ferarri Stefano Coletti
STR-Ferarri Kevin Ceccon
Team Lotus-Renault Alexander Rossi
Team Lotus-Renault Luiz Razia
Hispania-Cosworth Dani Clos
Marussia Virgin-Cosworth Robert Wickens
Marussia Virgin-Cosworth Adrian Quaife-Hobbs
Marussia Virgin-Cosworth Charles Pic

Is Grosjean really confirmed? I thought he didn't fit the criteria.

[raymondu999]

I hear MGP would be doing a back to back with different exhaust positions to get appropriate data for recalibration of their designs for next year

[FW17]

Will they be using the same cars as the Sunday's GP race or will it be some older car?
If same as the current cars why only one car being used when entire team is going to be at the circuit till Thursday?

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

@ray

Recalibration? So they think they may have got it wrong?

Or calibration? Which is understandable...

[raymondu999]

@JET what I heard was basically they wanted to assess how it would change aero balance etc

[Richard]

I heard Ted Kravtiz mention the Merc exhaust. They are running a 2012 configuration on the current car.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Ahh, ok.

So similar to their DRS test this time last year.
Wonder what we're going to see.

Lots of rumours circulating about the wording of regs not being "tight" enough.

[Richard]

Why should they be "tight"? The rules are the same for all teams. The only people complaining about them not being tight enough are those who haven't use them to the best advantage.

I also disagree a quest for tight rules, the perfect tight rule book is a spec series.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

...... I wonder how much faith mercedes have in Sam Bird's feedback. As this is an area teams will be looking to eek out whatever advantage they can.

[Richard]

I thought you were referring to the rules for what can happen in a young driver test.

My point is that once any rule is written then all teams are free to make of it what they will. Some will find advantage, others won't.

Discussion of the exhaust rules belongs in another place

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

As you've read the post and it's off topic somewhat, I'll delete the bits not appropriate.

Will Pirelli be brining 2012 tyres to this test? Adds an extra dimension to what the teams can gather if this is the case.

[cbbcisace]

On HRT official twitter page Dani Clos is only driving on Tuesday "for sure"

[ESPImperium]

The teams will have spent most of today building up their test chassis, or in the case of a couple of teams, pulling the test tub from the third pit lane at Yas to the F1 pit as those are the chassis that have active suspension on them.

Id recon that the chassis will read something like this:

Red Bull RB7-02
McLaren MP4/26A-01
Ferrari 150 Italia-287
Mercedes GP MGP W02-01
Lotus Renault GP R31-02 (This car is the T car as well as they only have 3 tubs remaining after Petrov and Heidfeld wrote of 3 of the 6)
Williams FW33-01
Force India VJM/03-01 (This is the chassis Hulkenberg has used for straightline tests, and has active suspension installed)
Sauber C30-04
Toro Rosso STR6-04
Team Lotus T128-01
Hispania F111-01 (Only one apperance to date at Barcelona for the cars presentation)
Marussia Virgin MVR/02-04 (This is their new T car, and as of yet unused)

Id recon that most cars will run in 2011 spec for Tuesday, then convert for Wednesday and Thursday to 2012 spec. Get the drivers bned on day 1 then switch and then they can get an advance on their engine maps and aero work for 2012 as this is where the majority of time can be regained, some teams will loose as much as 1.3 to 1.7 seconds a lap, most teams will loose arround a second a lap Mike Gascogyne said in the December copy or Racecar Engineering. He said Team Lotus/Caterham will loose not too much time, but will gain a second to the teams ahead of them.

The Pirellis will make a difference as well, as the gap inbetween the tires is on average 0.8 to 1.5 seconds a lap, and this will come down to 0.45 to 0.85 of a lap. We know that the current medium will be the new hard for 2012 and the new medium will not be too far off the current soft tyre in terms of pace, maybes .2 away from the current medium. The new soft will be arround 0.3 faster than current and the new super soft will be arround 0.15 slower, meaning the gap from super soft to soft will be arround 0.45 a second arround a normalised 5km track seemingly. Pirelli are wantint to make teams that go with 3 stops have a better pace advantage meaning they can run faster and still be ahead at most tracks, but the 2 stoppers have headace as well. They have also thought that at some tracks teams can then go Prime/Prime/Option and fly up the order in the final stint as well like what Senna did at Monza.

Personally im looking forward to seeing the new Pirelli tyre profiles the most with the 2012 exhausts.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Interesting figures there ESPI.

It will be interesting to see the drop off rate of these tyres because that's the problem at the moment.will there be any sites doing a timings board with the spec tyre info during this test?

Once we have this info it will provide a good springboard for what to expect on terms of strategies for 2012.

[raymondu999]

JET, IIRC Williams provided live sector by sector timing last year on their website. And did so in preseason too