2012 Testing - Barcelona 2: 1 - 4 March

[SchumiSutil]

Grosjean has done 3 pitstop already.
Laptimes continues to be consistant. It's much better than Ferrari. The concerns over the F2012 seems to be confirmed : the car have not a good balance and the tyre wear is quite high.
I think Lotus could be as good as they were last year at the begining of the season. And should be much better over the year.
I'm just hoping Mercedes can keep up otherwise they should be more concerning by keeping the 4th place than being in top 3...

[Steven]

Word here in Spain is that McLaren is enduring a major setback on its car. It seems that today's lack of laps is due to their tunneled exhaust. It seems now that the parts of the floor are desintegrating, especially parts around the rear wheel.

Even more so, looking at the tyres, I've seen the rears of the McLaren are quite badly damaged in comparison to all tyres that I have seen yesterday.

[FrukostScones]

Am I right in thinking the lotus has currently done 44 laps (and still going) on one set of tyres - started in the low 30s, now in the low 27s?

I might be getting a bit confused, but thats incredible?

three sets of soft and now 1 hard set

Really? Ah, well they arnt that fast then.

The F1tests site showed it as one logn stint with no stops

a racelike pit stop will not show up as pit stop on the f1tests site

[bosanac1]

very impressive run by Grosjean

started lap 89 with hard tyres
1:26.9
now its lap 107
doing 1:27.7
average mid 1:27

Lotus might have really good car



AMUS just confirmed

lotus run
soft/soft/soft/hard

[lebesset]

Grosjean has done 3 pitstop already.
Laptimes continues to be consistant. It's much better than Ferrari. The concerns over the F2012 seems to be confirmed : the car have not a good balance and the tyre wear is quite high.
I think Lotus could be as good as they were last year at the begining of the season. And should be much better over the year.
I'm just hoping Mercedes can keep up otherwise they should be more concerning by keeping the 4th place than being in top 3...

as you say , mercedes may struggle to keep 4th place !!!

red bull
mclaren
lotus
mercedes
ferrari

doesn't look impossible from what we have seen so far

[Ferraripilot]

The Lotus just isn't that fast to challenge up there. There is a large gap between Ferrari/Lotus and Mercedes/Mclaren and then of course another gap to RB.

[Afterburner]

From the race simulation they're doing it looks F2012 it's a title challenger, for third place...

[lebesset]

The Lotus just isn't that fast to challenge up there. There is a large gap between Ferrari/Lotus and Mercedes/Mclaren and then of course another gap to RB.

well , they were at the beginning of last season until they went the wrong way on their blowing system

nothing to say they won't do better this year as it looks easier for them to get it right under the new regs

AND they have a promising new driver called james hunt or something

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

The Lotus does not have the initial pace of the Ferrari.

Ferrari appear to have stronger pace than Lotus, but their tyre degradation is worse.
In a race situation Ferrari would probably be a few seconds up the road by the time degradation will have hit them.

I'd rather be in Ferrari's position if that is the case, as sorting degredation is easier than finding pace.

[FrukostScones]

The Lotus does not have the initial pace of the Ferrari.

Ferrari appear to have stronger pace than Lotus, but their tyre degradation is worse.
In a race situation Ferrari would probably be a few seconds up the road by the time degradation will have hit them.

I'd rather be in Ferrari's position if that is the case, as sorting degredation is easier than finding pace.

well, it is a 3 stop versus 4 stop
im still trying to figure out who is quicker

[beelsebob]

Word here in Spain is that McLaren is enduring a major setback on its car. It seems that today's lack of laps is due to their tunneled exhaust. It seems now that the parts of the floor are desintegrating, especially parts around the rear wheel.

Even more so, looking at the tyres, I've seen the rears of the McLaren are quite badly damaged in comparison to all tyres that I have seen yesterday.

I'd be surprised if that was the issue tbh – otherwise, how would they have run reliably for 4 days continuously last week?

[f1316]

The Lotus does not have the initial pace of the Ferrari.

Ferrari appear to have stronger pace than Lotus, but their tyre degradation is worse.
In a race situation Ferrari would probably be a few seconds up the road by the time degradation will have hit them.

I'd rather be in Ferrari's position if that is the case, as sorting degredation is easier than finding pace.

well, it is a 3 stop versus 4 stop
im still trying to figure out who is quicker

Grosjeans's 61st lap was a 1:29.999 (108), Alonso's is a 1:26.732 (116), so that's a pretty positive sign on the Ferrari side.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

On Alonso's 3rd stint it appears hes a handy 2 seconds a lap up on Grosjean.

[prince]

I did a quick math on the laptimes of lotus and then compared to what Nico did on the 4th day of last test. These are race sim comparison.

Code: Select all

128991
128820
128683
128605
128453
129999
127789
127954
127525
127906
127605
127638
128003
127772
127671
127458
127825
127994
127645
127641
127422
128508
127831
127635
126958
129572
129463
128939
128586
128527
128739
128509
128233
128153
128223
130663
130340
130699
130925
129752
129672
129441
129309
129690
129530
129585
129369
129336
131932
130890
130812
130935
130835
131319
130258
130381
130033
130107
130421

Total 59 laps and average time is 1.29.042. Now compare this to Nico's average time of 1.28.127. (http://abulafiaf1.files.wordpress.com/2 ... ptimes.png)

No doubt lotus has shown consistency over a long stint. If the car is slow and consistent, it cannot beat a fast and little inconsistent car.

So, those who think Lotus can beat Merc, now think once again. There are so many variable parameters here and this comparison could also be NOT a good indicator of the pecking order.

I have removed the "." from ex:"1.30.421" as it helped me to average it on excel sheet.

[f1316]

Grosjeans's 61st lap was a 1:29.999 (108), Alonso's is a 1:26.732 (116), so that's a pretty positive sign on the Ferrari side.

Sorry, wrong about that...that was Alonso's 55th lap!