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| F1 Jerez tests – Day 2 round-up |
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| Wednesday, 08 February 2012 18:00 | |||
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So the robot club might not be the best way to describe those drivers who logged more than 100 laps in a single day - the metronome club, maybe? - but it sort of does the trick. We all know that times in testing don't mean much. You can make a slow car look fast or a fast car look slow should you want to. Even knowing the length of the runs isn't enough - you need to know the top secret details of each team's testing programme to be able to analyse anything. But the one thing you can't disguise is reliability. Either a car can clock up a bajillion miles in a day or it can't. And no team is going to intentionally run the bare minimum of laps - winter testing is far too valuable these days, and the hungry brains back in the factory need to be fed with non-stop data. While there were no car failures on track today - the morning's red flag was caused by gravel on the circuit - there was a definite divide between those cars that clocked up 100 laps (or near as dammit) and those who stopped around 60. Kovalainen logged a mind-blowing - and neck-busting - 139 laps of Jerez today, followed by Schumacher on 132. Next up was Raikkonen on 117 laps, while Ricciardo did a clean century. Webber and Maldonado were hot on their heels with 97 laps each, while Massa brought up the rear of the top pack on 95. Force India should be added to the reliability club, as while Bianchi managed only 46 laps to di Resta's 69, simple maths will tell you that the car complete 115 in total. The least impressive cars of the day were the HRT (64 laps) and the Sauber (68 laps), while Button managed a decent but not amazing 85 laps in the McLaren. So why all this focus on the number of laps, not the times? Because they're important. Take Caterham, for example. Not only did the team log the most laps, but they did so on their first day running KERS. Can you imagine that happening last season? Every time Red Bull switched on their KERS unit in Valencia, the car stopped.
Toro Rosso are another team causing moments of anxiety. It only took a few laps of watching the cars trackside before it was obvious that Daniel Ricciardo is going to be trouble this year, providing the car lets him. He was the only man out there to match the cornering lines preferred by Button and Webber, and he drove the STR7 like it was on rails. Ricciardo's speed might be being doctored to impress the CEPSA bigwigs hanging around the paddock (I said might, I don't know), but that precision is all his. The car fell apart yesterday, but logged 100 solid laps today. If the speed is real, they could be a more significant threat this season than previously considered. If. Everything this week is if. The main headline of the day should be Michael Schumacher's position at the top of the timesheets, but there's not much point in looking at last year's cars. There is a point in looking at Schumacher's driving, however. The man in the red helmet this morning was a very different beast to the driver we saw in 2010 and 2011. Rather than sitting back and letting corners happen to him, he was attacking them aggressively and driving with the precision we've not seen since his comeback. Speaking to the media after the day's running, Schumacher said that the current generation of Pirellis was much better suited to his driving style than last year's rubber. Day 2 times (unofficial) 1. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) 1.18.561s [132 laps] Worth Checking - F1 News - Kate Walkers F1 blog
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| Last Updated on Wednesday, 08 February 2012 20:02 |
