With the Bahrain Grand Prix just over a month away, Formula 1 teams have continued to prepare for this season’s opener on March 14th by testing their cars at the Valencia circuit, Spain.
Fearsome Ferrari
On the final day of testing it was home favourite Fernando Alonso who drew the most attention as his Ferrari set a best lap time of one minute 11.470 seconds, 0.3 seconds quicker than his team mate Felipe Massa. The speed of Alonso and Massa will be of alarm to Hamilton and Button, who were over a second behind the two Ferraris.
Felipe Massa, who was written off by some pundits after his life threatening head injuries last season, climbed out of his Ferrari very satisfied after testing. He told technicians he was pleased with the set-up of the car and the tire’s grip. “When you have more grip you also have much more fun driving. I ran some 100 laps but I could have gone for 200,” Massa said.
Happy Hamilton
After McLaren’s poor start last season, Lewis Hamilton has claimed that the car is going to be far more competitive than last year. It remains to be seen whether it will triumph over the impressive Ferraris though. Hamilton made the point that: “Obviously the Ferrari seems very quick. But we don't know what fuel loads everyone else was on.” Hamilton will surely hope Ferrari were running very light. New McLaren boy, Jenson Button was timed behind Alonso and Schumacher on the third and final day of testing. Button will expect McClaren’s MP4-25 to be as reliable as his Brawn was at the start of last season, when he won six out of the first seven races.
Button’s former Brawn team-mate, Rubens Barrichello, now at Williams was on the Spanish coast too during the three days of testing. Barrichello was two seconds off the pace of Felipe Massa on day two, but the veteran remained optimistic. “You can’t predict anything from the times today; and probably won’t be able to for the remainder of the tests because of the fuel loads people will run with.”, Always passionate about racing, Barrichello added that he’d had good day: “I enjoyed it, it was like a first day at school!”
Renault renaissance
Many had thought Renault would disappear from the Formula 1 arena after ‘Crashgate’ had tarnished their reputation in 2009. The team has however recovered with Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov signed up for the 2010 season. Kubica was satisfied with the test run, but admitted it had been a new experience for him. He said: “It’s quite different to what I have been used to, so it was important to get a good feel for how the car behaves.” Kubica added: “We did one very long run, which went pretty well, and there have been no problems, which is a good sign for our reliability.”
BMW Sauber were the third quickest team during the past three days of tests, with young Japanese driver, Kamui Kobayashi leading the way for the German team. The 23 year old paid homage to the mechanics: “The car felt good. I enjoyed driving a lot and also working with the team. It was a difficult winter for everyone but they seem to have done a good job; I want to thank them for that.”
Schumacher rolls back the years
The big story in the lead up to the 2010 season has been the return of seven-time World Champion, Michael Schumacher. Reunited with Ross Brawn at Mercedes GP, Schumacher rolled back the years at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo by coming just behind the two Ferraris. Encouraging still though, Schumacher pipped both McClarens during the test run. The former Ferrari man admitted he was pleased by saying: “When I came into F1, I was shocked in the first lap and I was extremely excited at the second and further lap. It’s exactly the same today.”
However, it wasn’t Schumacher’s car that was receiving the bulk of attention during the test run, but the colour of his helmet. The red helmet, some have commented, relates back to his affection for Ferrari. Schumacher explained: “Because it’s me, that’s my sign. At a time, there was a completely different reason why I chose this colour. Nothing to do with Ferrari.”
Whatever the colour of Schumacher’s helmet there is no doubt the former World Champion will be competitive this season after an impressive run in Spain. It’s difficult to gauge whether the McLarens were driving on more fuel than the Ferraris, hence the reason behind why Alonso and Massa were perhaps quicker. Nonetheless when seven-time World Champion, Schumacher admits the Ferraris were quick, it’s time to take notice.