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tld wrote:

Ed wrote:Now Raikkonen splits them, 0.3 behind Alonso!

Super Aguri are having a better day. So far Ide has completed 35 laps. His best time is over 8 seconds off the fastest time. Still progress over the 8 laps or so Sato did yesterday!

Sh*t man. If they're an average of 8 - 10 seconds off the pace, then by my calculations, that means they'll be getting lapped every 8 laps or so!

And in a 60-lap race, that means they'll finish about 7 - 8 laps down! Well, that should easily answer the poll about who's going to finish last...

Mobile chicanes, especially with Sato aboard can make or beak a season for genuine contenders

What an incredibly exciting day you've all had
I've been at work and missed all the fun However I've checked out all the individual time sheets and am now ready to pronounce
"That if Renault loose the world cahmpionship this year not only will I eat my hat but I will eat every article of clothing I own, the softer parts of my house and probably all of my electrical equipment!"

The consistency and speed of that car is just staggering, I suspect Fernando is driving with one hand on the wheel

Lord you have been having a good day I'm overcome with emoticons

These guys are all being rather violent Ed have you got anyone a tad more reflective ?

Julian Mayo wrote:

Ed wrote:Now Montoya is 0.23 behind Alonso.

Best time at Barcelona in a 2006 spec car is a 1:15.928 by Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber F1.06.

Webber has completed 37 laps but his best time is over 2 seconds off the pace. Rosberg has yet to set a time having completed just 2 laps!

The Williams team will be trying new bits, content that they already have the pace,......meantime Fisi is sitting just behind Alonso, on 3 fourths throttle and chuckling to himself.

Not for long his ahead and his times are just as consistent and quick Lets hope for all our sakes they intend to battle it out this year

Julian Mayo wrote:

Ed wrote:Raikkonen now fastest 0.14 ahead of Alonso with Button in 3rd.

More red flags with Ide, Trulli and Albers stopping on the track!

Renault and McLaren have done over 100 laps each so far.

Red Bull just 6 laps (3 laps each car!)

Serious question.
With the Qualification regs for this season, if the Aguri cars are ridiculously slow will they still qualify? And become dangerous mobile chicanes ? And quite possibly/probably have a serious effect on the championship ? Please, someone Geez I hate what Max is doing to F1.

They might be sandbagging, they don't what any more restriction on the V10 before they leap onto pole for the first race that is unless of course Mclaren and Ferrari don't turn up at Bahrain with restricted V10's

Times tumbled in the last hour in Barcelona. Three drivers bettered the best time set by Heidfeld last week.

In the final minute of the session, Kimi Raikkonen set a 1:15.223 which is the fastest time set so far in a 2006 spec car.

For comparison, the best time in 2005 was a 1:13.552.

Lap by lap times in pdf provided by the Catalunya circuit

Full report and times to follow

Julian Mayo wrote:Serious question.
With the Qualification regs for this season, if the Aguri cars are ridiculously slow will they still qualify? And become dangerous mobile chicanes ? And quite possibly/probably have a serious effect on the championship ? Please, someone Geez I hate what Max is doing to F1.

As it stands, there is no 110% qualifying rule and that is unlikely to change.

Super Aguri are planning to run their own chassis from the 4th race.
Even with the old chassis, they are still conducting initial tests and Ide hasn't driven in F1 before so their times will improve.

tld wrote: What's happening to the Toyotas???
Both cars stopping, and both off the pace. Have they already got a finished car and are trying new things? Or have they got a bit of a cold shock from the times the lead-runners are doing and are in panic mode trying to tweak everything to get their cars to go faster?



Incidentally, are there any Toyota fans in here?

Most teams had car problems today with the exception of McLaren!

Their times improved towards the end of the session but they don't appear in the top league yet.

Details on some of the stoppages at Barcelona overnight:

2 Renaults - Software glitches
Trulli - Puncture
Coulthard - Engine
Klien - Gearbox
Rosberg - Gearbox
Ide - Electronics/Gearbox


At Imola, Toro Rosso were joined by BMW Sauber. Under mainly wet conditions, Toro Rosso driver Vitantonio Liuzzi set the fastest time ahead of Jacques Villeneuve and Robert Kubica.

Weather conditions are expected to improve.

Full report and times from both the Barcelona and Imola tests are now available here.

Lap by lap times in pdf (only for Barcelona)

Kapel wrote: First tld decide,if u consider Massa a Formula Nippon driver(no offence to anyone) or a Formula 1 driver??With 2 years in F1 racing & 1 yr in testing,i surely think he's an F1 driver. N an F1 driver usually should adjust to new car quiet quickly.He's anyway driving a regulated V10 in F2004,which is the platform for 248.Not identical but quiet similar.(Also cos F2005 was crap & tyre changing is back)

A bit of twisted logic here. He's a good driver, should adjust quickly, don't worry about him. I bet you'd never say the same if Barrichello was testing the old car and Button testing the new one.

Kapel wrote:He has tested the new car a few times,(JayVee will give u the figures,So sweet ,she's keeping the count.Thanks JayVee) yes not as many times as Michael.Which i would also say its a little unfair.

I stopped counting and that ratio was like 1 to 4!!

But thank you, you finally said it. A little unfair. So we agree it isn't fair.
From a Ferrari and Schumacher fan that is a lot

Redhead wrote:I suppose in the off season its inevitable that people have go nothing better to do than sit in front of their computers and Massa debate.

I think Schumi should be admired for the amount of testing he does, his commitment to his team is unsurpassed by any other driver on the grid, and somehow this is turned into a minus.

And don?t forget the F2004 was a very, very successful car. Ferrari probably have very good reasons for running it back to back with the 248, which doesn?t seem to be standing out in testing, but if I remember rightly, neither did the F2004.

Very logical Redhead
But I haven't seen Massa doing any less testing for Ferrari but in the wrong car. He is the one that should be admired for his patience.

But Michael admired for what ? For being selfish ensuring he gets used to the new car but Massa not

It is good to try and think in a fair way guys.

Ed wrote:

Julian Mayo wrote:Serious question.
With the Qualification regs for this season, if the Aguri cars are ridiculously slow will they still qualify? And become dangerous mobile chicanes ? And quite possibly/probably have a serious effect on the championship ? Please, someone Geez I hate what Max is doing to F1.

As it stands, there is no 110% qualifying rule and that is unlikely to change.

Super Aguri are planning to run their own chassis from the 4th race.
Even with the old chassis, they are still conducting initial tests and Ide hasn't driven in F1 before so their times will improve.

Even so I don't think it's looking good for Ide san. I don't know how many of the F1 circuits he's driven, but going on what he said about his debut he's gonna have to do some intensive training before he's even fit enough to do race distances, Bahrain's gonna be a massive test for him even if he is familliar with the circuit. I know they got the Japanese dream team thing going on but it just seems crazy to put a rookie in that car.

Snowy wrote:

Julian Mayo wrote:

Ed wrote:Raikkonen now fastest 0.14 ahead of Alonso with Button in 3rd.

More red flags with Ide, Trulli and Albers stopping on the track!

Renault and McLaren have done over 100 laps each so far.

Red Bull just 6 laps (3 laps each car!)

Serious question.
With the Qualification regs for this season, if the Aguri cars are ridiculously slow will they still qualify? And become dangerous mobile chicanes ? And quite possibly/probably have a serious effect on the championship ? Please, someone Geez I hate what Max is doing to F1.

They might be sandbagging, they don't what any more restriction on the V10 before they leap onto pole for the first race that is unless of course Mclaren and Ferrari don't turn up at Bahrain with restricted V10's

Also maybe Ed (or anyone else) could clear this up for me. My understanding of the equivilancy formula (allowing restricted V10s to run) was that this it is a special dispensation made only for Minardi on account of their "struggling minow"/cash strapped poorer than thou situation, and that the other teams had to run V8s. I think Kolles (Midland) was making some noise on this subject owing to the fact that STR are not the poorer than thou team that Minardi were (and obviously in direct competition with Midland). Despite all this Ferrari appear to be developing a restricted V10 car.

McLaren reliable

Perhaps Alonso The Cute will have some competition afterall

Stop it! That's too noisy

But wasn't Alonso just cruising

Ahem Julian Cough Julian

Williams still haven't sorted their gearbox problems

JayVee wrote:McLaren reliable

Perhaps Alonso The Cute will have some competition afterall

Stop it! That's too noisy

But wasn't Alonso just cruising

Ahem Julian Cough Julian

Williams still haven't sorted their gearbox problems

that was the "seamed" gearbox. They are going to use the "seamless" for thr races

Julian Mayo wrote:

JayVee wrote:McLaren reliable

Perhaps Alonso The Cute will have some competition afterall

Stop it! That's too noisy

But wasn't Alonso just cruising

Ahem Julian Cough Julian

Williams still haven't sorted their gearbox problems

that was the "seamed" gearbox. They are going to use the "seamless" for thr races

The problem I am finding is whether to take JM seriously or not from post to post . . . interesting that this is the same problem I have with Williams. Top of the timesheets one day, non-existent the next . . . such torture should be banned.