Welcome Graham and do agree with your assessment of KR ...

 

Hey Graham, cozy up to Wayne and he's your buddy, but don't disagree with him!

 

Ahhh... larry it was only a bet , sorry you lost ,again. don't take it dat personal

 

Again??? I don't remember losing anything to you the first time.

 

Yeah !!! ..............

 

Unofficial Saturday times from Jerez:
1. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 1:19.583, 113 Laps
2. Adrian Sutil, Force India, 1:20.180, 84 Laps
3. Rubens Barrichello, Williams, 1:20.341, 90 Laps
4. Robert Kubica, Renault, 1:20.358, 86 Laps
5. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes GP, 1:20.613, 84 Laps
6. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 1:21.203, 90 Laps
7. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 1:21.486, 160 Laps
8. Pedro de la Rosa, BMW Sauber, 1:22.134, 105 Laps
9. Lucas di Grassi, Virgin, 1:22.912, 63 Laps
10. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso, 1:24.072, 98 Laps

 

I read somewhere that McLaren finally went to a wet set up yesterday for testing and as you can see, were well clear of the field. Typically, McLaren is one of those teams that sandbag during pre-season testing.

I feel sorry for A. Wayne now that Michael is putting in a serious amount of laps and neither his neck or lap times are suffering. I wonder what the spinmeister will think of next

 

I agree that Kimi won't be back, he's enjoying WRC atmosphere way too much but if we judge it by looking at his performance when he wasn't in the title hunt, did you not watch F1 last year?

His performance in the dog of a car that last year's Ferrari was, the one that completely made Fisichella look like a total joke with absolutely no chance for a title he was not short of amazing.
Or do you think a podium in almost every race after the mid point of the season, win at Spa and 2nd most points scored (just a point or two behind Barichello) is not good performance?

 

Finn, type B drivers, no matter how successful, will always appear as unmotivated in such a type A sport.

 

Yep, I agree.

 

I think Kimi did as best he could in that POS Ferrari last year. When you compare Kimi's results to that of Luca Badoer who had been a test driver for 10 years and then Fisi coming off a 2nd place in the Force India at Spa, you can see what a handful it was to drive.

That said, Massa was consistently better than Kimi before his injury in Hungary which makes you consider how good Massa has become. Hopefully he'll compete toe to toe with Alonso if not better.

As an aside, Massa has stated publicly how easy the F10 Ferrari is to drive compared to last year. Perhaps the longer wheelbase to accomadate the larger fuel tank is the key.

 

Longer wheel base = larger polar moment = less twitchy. It may be a litte slower in the fast transitions, but should be faster in regular corners, especially the big sweepers. Of course, there, aero plays as much of a factor, but anything to make the car more driveable will make it easier to keep on the limit.

 

I sure hope so, I was starting to get worried a bit there. As long as the car doesn't suck like last year, Lewis will make something happen, however I'd be disappointed if McLaren couldn't build a proper car that they've been building since midway through last season.

I think Wayne will eat crow on Schumacher. However if Alonso wins WDC (which is entirely possible) we'll never hear the end of it.

 

I agree that Kimi did the best he could last year. Kimi has phenomenal car control, but I think he manipulates the car into and in the middle of the corner more than Felipe, who I believe is more of a reaction-based driver. The 2007 had a really long wheel base and Kimi was able to best Felipe. The f2008 was a shorter wheelbase and was easy on tires. Kimi couldn't get heat in them and as such was smoked by Felipe. That POS they drove last year was much more of a Felipe car IMO. That being said, Kimi won't be back.

Luca said that the testing ban really hurt him and I can actually see his argument. Having only driven in the simulator and then being throw into race conditions would be tough for anyone. I think Fisi was the more embarrassing performance.

 

Interesting how brawn alternate there drivers , the only team doing so ,,,,,



By Pablo Elizalde Tuesday, February 16th 2010, 10:36 GMT

Formula 1 teams will kick off the third test of the 2010 pre-season at the Jerez circuit on Wednesday.

The test will see a total of 11 teams taking to the Spanish track, with Lotus joining its rivals to make its public debut with the T127 car unveiled last week.

Below is the provisional line-up for the Jerez test.

Team ........ Feb 17 .......... Feb 18 ...........Feb 19........ Feb 20

Sauber :... de la Rosa .... de la Rosa .... Kobayashi ... Kobayashi

Ferrari : .... Massa .... .. Massa ..... Alonso ..... Alonso

Force India : ..... di Resta/Liuzzi .... Liuzzi ..... Sutil ...... Sutil

Lotus : ...... Fauzy ..... Kovalainen ..... Kovalainen ..... Trulli

McLaren: ..... Hamilton ..... Hamilton .... Button ..... Button

Mercedes GP: ...... Schumacher ...... Rosberg .....Schumacher .... Rosberg

Red Bull : .... Vettel ..... Vettel ..... Webber ..... Webber

Renault : ..... Petrov ..... Petrov ..... Kubica ..... Kubica

Toro Rosso: ..... Buemi ...... Buemi ......Alguersuari ..... Alguersuari

Virgin : ..... di Grassi ...... di Grassi/Glock ..... Glock ..... TBA

Williams :..... Barrichello ..... Barrichello ..... Hulkenberg .... Hulkenberg