Wizzie wrote:BlindCaveSalamander wrote:Wizzie wrote:Christ, where did that lap from Massa come from?
Well, I guess we can toss McLaren and Lotus' times from the last couple days completely out the window; still no idea in the slightest what the pecking order is.
Indeed. We now also know the softs are falling away faster than the Hindenberg here at Jerez.
In other news, I believe Gaston Mazzacane has just been added to the Autosport shortlist
That isn't too surprising, though - Pirelli have said that the tyre wear at Jerez is likely to be unrepresentative because the track has an unusually abrasive surface, which is why most of the teams seem more interested in sorting out the handling characteristics of the cars and seeing how they respond to set up changes rather than outright performance.
As for the question of pecking order, well, that still seems to be a somewhat confusing picture. The suggestion from the BBC, based on the longer runs from the first two days of the test, put Grosjean and Massa roughly even in terms of performance, with Button then slotting in behind those two ahead of Ricciardo, Hulkenberg and Webber in that order.
Now, the indication so far is that Red Bull have been relatively conservative so far in terms of performance, plus it seems that they are having some set up issues with the car. Anderson over at the BBC commented that the RB9 seems to have a rather sensitive front end, with Webber sometimes struggling to get the nose turned in if he is even marginally off line, with Massa seemingly also suffering from the same problem (and, overall, whilst the F138 seemed to have better pace than the F2012, it still seems to have retained some of its slight instability in terms of its handling).
In both instances, though, that could be at least partially explained if the cars running moderately high fuel loads, and we know that Webber has done a few longish runs in the past few days, so that is likely to be the case.
By comparison, Grosjean's car appeared to be more neutrally balanced and compliant, whereas Ricciardo's performance suggested that Toro Rosso are, like last year, still suffering from rear instability. In their cases, though, it appears that the headline times were set with somewhat lighter fuel loads than their rivals (especially in the case of Toro Rosso), so again the picture may be more flattering than is actually the case.
Given that, I'd tentatively suggest that the more likely running order is probably going to see McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari in their usual tight group (where exactly each team will sit is hard to tell), with Lotus close behind them but perhaps slightly less competitive than the current times suggest. After that, it'll probably be the pairing of Force India and Sauber - they both seem moderately competitive at the moment - with Toro Rosso perhaps closer to them in terms of performance than they were in 2012, but likely to be further back on the grid than the laptimes currently suggest.
Elsewhere, Mercedes can't really be judged due to their lack of running over the first two days - although Rosberg has racked up enough laps (getting on for 90 laps at the moment and counting) to perhaps start drawing some first impressions. Of course, Williams can't be judged due to the absence of their car - although it looks like they are trying out the new nose for the FW35, along with one or two other bits, on the FW34 test hack they're using - whilst Caterham still seem to be a little off the pace judging by their longer runs (Marussia's disrupted test program makes it hard to judge their performance - and they still seem to be having some teething troubles today, this time with their electrical systems - but Chilton's times are beginning to improve and the team are preparing for some much longer runs later today, so maybe things aren't quite so bad after all).
), it is good practice for either visiting a new circuit, or training yourself mentally through practice.
) as the testpilot ?
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