2009 F1 testing: March 4th (Update: pictures added)

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Lewis Hamilton will drive the 2009 McLaren - but with which wing?

Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen join in the testing action at Jerez today. McLaren have been using their 2008-spec rear wing again recently, prompting speculation over whether they are having problems with their MP4-24.

Timo Glock has been fastest for Toyota over the past two days. Will Jarno Trulli keep the team on top as he steps into the cockpit of the TF109?

Today’s testing line-up

Ferrari: Kimi Raikkonen
BMW: Nick Heidfeld
Renault: Fernando Alonso
Toyota: Timo Glock
Williams: Kazuki Nakajima
Red Bull: Mark Webber
Force India: Adrian Sutil
McLaren: Lewis Hamilton

Pictures from today’s test

The Williams pictures above were issued today but not all of them are necessarily from today’s test.

Live timing

For live lap times check out F1today.nl, Sportlifepress, MSFree or TheF1 (various languages).

If you find any more good sites for following testing lap times, please post details below. If you’ve got images or video to share you can upload them to the F1 Fanatic drop.io.

Further updates will be posted in the comments and any images or video from today’s testing will be added here.

2009 F1 testing

Images (C) Ferrari spa, Toyota F1 World, Williams/LAT, BMW ag, Force India F1 Team

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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56 comments on “2009 F1 testing: March 4th (Update: pictures added)”

  1. so far the 2008 wing…

    cars must take advantage of dry track now, rain is expected lunch time.

  2. think that they have problems with the car. Time is running out for them.

  3. I doubt its a problem; may be they are working on a new diffuser ( williams or toyota like ) and are modifying the rear wing too suit the new one.

    In the interim time; it makes sense to record data using a rear wing whose characteristics are known thoroughly; so that the effectiveness of the rest of the chassis is known accurately.

  4. At least the teams are getting to test in all kinds of conditions. Full wet, drizzle, drying, and dry. Can only be a good thing really.

    I see they’re using the chicane towards the end of the lap. Do they always use that for testing at Jerez? I don’t remember them using it back in the late 90’s when the track was a race venue, I thought it was there for the motorbikes, as that penultimate corner is very quick.

    I’d love to se Jerez back on the calendar, anything would be better than repeared trips to Dullsville, Barcelona.

  5. The Jerez chicane was in GP2 (the 1996 game by Goeff Crammond) :)

  6. Jerez chicane is there to slow the corner where Donnelly had the horrible, almost deadly, crash with the Lotus.
    It has always been there since that time. It was there when Schumacher and Villeneuve fought for the title in 1997.
    MotoGP doesn’t use it.

  7. AM I missing something? All the images I’ve seen of this week’s testing have shown the McLaren complete with 09 spec rear wing…

    1. MacademiaNut
      4th March 2009, 13:16

      yes, but they have been saying they were testing the 2010 spec tyres. The had the 2009 rear wing Pedro and Heikki, but with Lewis today they have gone back to 2008 rear wing.

    2. Ah. Is Lewis testing for the remainder of the week? It coud be that they are looking to get a baseline setup using the known quantity of the 08 rear wing before swapping to the new 09 wing later on…

      Or they could be struggling and maybe Lewis and Jenson will be in closely matched cars and we can see them battling closley all year…

  8. Jonesracing82
    4th March 2009, 10:17

    in ’90 Donnelly’s accident was before the chicane, in fact, the chicane was built because of his accident

  9. http://www.msfree.gr homepage showing what I must be Hamilton with a failing/failed engine, and only 7 laps complete

  10. Unless it’s Mclaren’s usual oil-to-the-brim

  11. any news on STR new car, wasnt it meant to be unveiled today?

  12. Supposedly there’s a shakedown at Adria, Italy and they’ll now launch on Monday 9th at Catalunya

  13. Flames seen from McLaren according to F1 Today and needing an engine swap.

  14. Force India isn’t as fast as it was earlier in testing :(

  15. McLaren seem to be having allot of issues during this weeks testing… With the limited testing this is surely a big concern.

  16. Ive just read that McLaren are running the 09 spec wing with the flow-vis paint to try understanding the new dynamics but apparently they are running slow and i doubt with the limited testing they have given the full package that they are sandbagging.

  17. There have been 2 rear wing variants – this weeks pictures show a design with a distinct curve at the front and sides, the previous was entirely flat like all the other teams. Lewis in particular has been testing a lot this winter with 2008 spec rear wings…

  18. From a news I read elsewhere, it seems that the testing using 2010 tyres done will not be very worthy, as FIA asked Bridgeston to make the 2010 rear tyres wider, due to, and I quote:
    “(…)the reintroduction of slicks this year at the same time as radical changes to the aerodynamic regulations – as well as the introduction of KERS – the dimensions of the 2009-specification tyres are producing more than expected levels of rear wear.”

  19. Another point of interest is that Renault hs been testing 2 different front-wings (and nose) in Alonso’s R29.
    I’ve seen pictures of yesterday with him using the 2 front-wings.

    The new one seen, is not so flat in the main profile, the endplates are much smaller (the curve present in the previous design has moved from the endplates to the main profile of the wing) and the backward extensions of the central pillars (said to act like turning vanes) are now missing, create a more clean nose, although still very wide.

    F1today.nl is reporting that Alonso has used the 2 front-wings again today, during the morning session, but there are no comments telling if this wing provides better lap-times than the old one

  20. Right now Hamilton is driving with 08 rearwing

  21. Why the hell does McLaren insist on continuing to test with the 08 spec rear wing?

  22. Lewis to Autosport:

    — “This is my first day with Ferrari being at the same track, so for me it looks very similar to every other year – 2007 and 2008,” said Hamilton.

    — “Everyone’s times are looking good, some consistently, some not. But I haven’t done many laps today so I can’t say.”

    He doesn’t believe that any team can claim to be the title favourite at present.

    — “We’re just testing, who knows?” Hamilton said. “We’ll find out when we get to the first race.”

    — “But the car was good this morning. I didn’t get many laps, but I’m looking forward to getting back out.”

    He looks very blasé… They are sandbagging, I´m sure…

    1. I don’t know about sandbagging, but I think they’ve had to turn the engine revs down a fair bit to compensate for the early deaths that KERS keeps inducing in the engines.

    2. Yer the all seem to confident, they go on about how great the car is but the times dont show this

  23. Alonso on top, the only car below 1:20! :-) :-)

  24. Here are the results from todays testing session

    Fernando Alonso Renault 00:01’19”945
    Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 00:01’20”250
    Nick Heidfeld BMW-Sauber 00:01’20”520
    Jarno Trulli Toyota 00:01’20”540
    Mark Webber Red Bull 00:01’20”894
    Kazuki Nakajima Williams 00:01’20”948
    Lewis Hamilton McLaren 00:01’21”302
    Adrian Sutil Force India 00:01’21”411

  25. McLaren must be sand bagging otherwise there is something very worrying about those times.

  26. McLaren must be sandbagging otherwise there is something very pleasing about those times :D

  27. I always think that anything drivers say regarding testing performance can usually be taken with a large pinch of salt.

    It is normally all along the same lines as the test went well, we tried some new parts etc, the only time I take any notice is if the driver says the car is rubbish.

  28. “I don’t know about sandbagging, but I think they’ve had to turn the engine revs down a fair bit to compensate for the early deaths that KERS keeps inducing in the engines.”

    This is very interesting Phil, please could you explain a little more !
    thanks cheers

  29. Well, Heikki seems confident so far:

    Q.: Is still too early to say where you stand relative to the competition?

    HK: I think so. If you look today, again it is very close in lap times. Everybody is doing their test programmes, so all we can say is that it’s going to be close so we need to find every single tenth that it’s possible to find to be near the front. But I have every confidence in the team that we’re on the right track and we have quite a lot of updates still coming for the car.

    We are just really focusing on other things at the moment other than the field’s performance – things like KERS, for example, we tried to run that and it’s running pretty well, we can run at the maximum performance. Today we didn’t have any reliability issues. I think until everybody has the latest techniques it’s very difficult to say where we’re going to be.

    About KERS, he said:

    LINK:
    http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73541

  30. This was what Heidfelt has said:

    http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2009/3/8982.html

    “The main problem throughout the day was the wind,” explained the Italian. “It was gusting and making it hard to make the comparisons we were looking for. We still put in a lot of laps and we put in our best lap later than most teams in the day. So we can be optimistic about that but overall today was hard work.”

    …so that means today many teams have put out their best laps????

    1. I mean to give their best shot with the car…

  31. Press releases:

    Red Bull

    Driver: Mark Webber
    Car: RB5 – 02
    Laps: 107
    Best time: 1:20.894
    Circuit length: 4.423 km
    Fastest lap: F. Alonso – 1:19.945

    The weather seems determined to have its say at this test in southern Spain and while there was only a small amount of drizzle today, the winds picked up to such an extent that it affected the cars out on track.

    Despite this, Mark Webber completed a good number of laps with RB5 running reliably throughout. On the agenda, a general pre-Melbourne development programme, with lots of items ticked off the job sheet come the end of the day.

    Mark continues driving tomorrow when, on the final day of this five day test, the team will evaluate some Bridgestone tyres aimed at the 2010 season.

    BMW

    Nick Heidfeld
    Chassis / engine: BMW Sauber F1.09-03 / BMW 86/9
    Test kilometres today: 439 (99 laps)
    Fastest lap: 1:20.520 min

    Programme:

    Today’s work for Nick Heidfeld started with the mechanical set-up of the BMW Sauber F1.09. He also did a so-called ‘run-out of fuel run’ which resulted in him stopping out on the track. This standard procedure allows the engineers to compare telemetry readings with the car’s actual fuel level. After the lunch break Heidfeld’s main focus switched to tyres and brakes. He also did a couple of race start simulations completing a total of 99 laps.

    “The strong wind affected today’s work a little bit”, Heidfeld said. “Nevertheless I was able to work with various tyre compounds and try a lot of different solutions for the car’s set-up. That gives me a good base to work on tomorrow.”

    Williams

    Kazuki Nakajima joined the AT&T Williams team in Jerez, southern Spain, today for day four of this week’s five day test. Overcast conditions dominated the weather today, and were met by some fairly strong winds this afternoon.

    Despite the less than ideal conditions, Kazuki enjoyed a productive first day out on track. Taking over where Nico left off, Nakajima continued preparing the car for Australia, working through set-up options and mechanical and aero component checks.

    Kazuki set a time of 1:21.948 and registered 83 laps of the Spanish track, a total of 367kms.

    Sam Michael, Technical Director, Williams F1:
    “We spent all day working on set-up, combined with aero and mechanical part testing. In addition, we also carried out some starts testing. Overall, it was a productive day during which we gathered a lot of data. Kazuki was driving today and will finish the week off for us tomorrow.”

    Renault

    Fernando Alonso, R29-03, 130 laps, 576 km, fastest lap 1:19.945

    The ING Renault F1 Team wrapped up its final day of testing at the Jerez circuit today as Fernando Alonso completed 130 laps and set the fastest time of the day to round off a productive week for the team.

    Again the team made the most of the dry conditions to add mileage to the car and evaluate various new developments. Fernando also completed set-up work, although the windy conditions in the afternoon made for tricky track conditions.

    The team now travels to Barcelona for the test next week where both Nelson Piquet and Fernando Alonso will be on driving duty.

    Fernando Alonso: “I’m very happy with the result from this test as we had two trouble-free days, a very consistent car and the work we have done has been very useful. It was really windy today, especially from mid-morning onwards, which made it difficult to understand some of the set-up changes, but all the teams were in the same position and we were still able to learn some important things about the car. I would like to thank the team for all their hard work this week as I know they have worked very hard to make sure we could do everything we needed to.”

    Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: “We had a good day and it was a really positive way to end the test. It’s been a tough week for the mechanics who have had to work really hard, just as the guys back at the factory have done to get everything out here for this test. We’ve shown excellent reliability, got good miles on the car and done some good set-up work, which has set us up nicely for our test next week in Barcelona.”

    Also see their blog post here with more pictures: http://my.ing-renaultf1.com/en/blog/948-Jerez-Testing-Day-4-04-03-2009.html

    1. You’ve got Red Bull’s fastest lap attributed to Fernando Alonso

    2. McLaren release:

      Lewis returned to the cockpit to continue the development and set-up programme that had been successfully started at the previous Jerez test. A delay to fit new parts to the rear suspension caused Lewis to miss out on most of the morning’s running – when the track was at its fastest – but he resumed after lunch.

      The presence of a blustery wind and a sudden shower prompted a brief spin in the afternoon but Lewis stayed on-track and later declared himself pleased with the team’s progress. WITH FOCUS NOW SHIFTING TOWARDS MP4-24’S MECHANICAL SET-UP, THE CAR PROVED ONE OF THE FASTEST OVER A LONG RUN and has given the team plenty of useful information as it works to prepare for the first race of the season later this month.

    3. Bloo – that’s Red Bull’s press release (I didn’t write it) and it refers to the fastest time of the day, which was set by Alonso.

    4. Beckem:
      “Lewis returned to the cockpit to continue the development and set-up programme that had been successfully started at the previous Jerez test. A delay to fit new parts to the rear suspension caused Lewis to miss out on most of the morning’s running – when the track was at its fastest – but he resumed after lunch.”
      Succesful?????
      “Delay to fit new parts”???? ahhhh, yes, the 2009 rear wing?????
      C’mon…open your eyes…

  32. I was there!!! More tomorrow guys sorry!! pics and that..

  33. Don’t you think that it is a little bit risky to sandbag during all the tests only to apply full power in the first GP?

  34. One thing’s certain. McLaren are keeping very quiet regarding all these different usages of rear-wings. One friend told me that they are using the 2008 wing so that they can focus on the mechanical grip, because they know everything there is to know about the 2008 wing, so they can know for sure the imapct of mechanical changes.
    But for me something is odd here. Having just a handfull of laps with the 2009 complete aero-package, and with slow times when they do, hoe can they be sure that when they reach the first race, they have a good rear-wing? The less time they test it, the less they know about it, so something’s odd here…

  35. Beckem:
    “Lewis returned to the cockpit to continue the development and set-up programme that had been successfully started at the previous Jerez test. A delay to fit new parts to the rear suspension caused Lewis to miss out on most of the morning’s running – when the track was at its fastest – but he resumed after lunch.”
    Succesful?????
    “Delay to fit new parts”???? ahhhh, yes, the 2009 rear wing?????
    C’mon…open your eyes…

    1. upsss…sorry, duplicated :-(

    2. Hey, hey… easy, mate! I´m not trying to convince none, but let some aware that a team which shaped the 2009 aero regulations concepts on his QG, with their own resources, wouldn’t do a poor job in a rear wing.

      Those guys made a car be 0.25 tenths faster between Brazil and China. I´m convinced that they will fight for the win at Melbourne.

      Anyway, anybody knows how McLaren, or any other team, proceed with their development program?

  36. Well this is all very fun deciding what mclaren are doing!

  37. Force India press release:

    Adrian Sutil brought the Force India Formula One Team’s debut VJM02 test to a close today in Jerez, Spain. Adrian completed 79 laps over the course of the day to bring the car’s total mileage to date to just over 1,000km.

    Clear conditions prevailed over Jerez and, despite gusty wind conditions in the afternoon, the team was able to run through the majority of its scheduled programme, which included set-up evaluations, tyre comparisons and a number of test items. Adrian’s best time was a 1:21.411. The team will now continue its pre-season testing preparations at the Circuit de Catalunya on the outskirts of Barcelona during a four day test from 9 – 12 March. Giancarlo Fisichella will be on duty on the first two days, with Adrian taking over for the final two.

    Adrian Sutil:

    This morning we had some good running with a lot of laps. We improved the balance of the car from yesterday and I was much happier. Right now we are just checking how the car reacts to different set-up changes. In the afternoon we then did quite a lot of tests with the tyres. We tried the soft, supersoft and medium compounds. On the long runs they behaved quite differently and the biggest problem was with the graining. It happens very quickly, then gets worse and the grip never comes back. We are talking big differences in lap times – I have never had such a big graining issue, but I can see nearly everyone is struggling with a similar problem. On the whole I am pleased with today though, we got a lot of very good information and can take this forward to Barcelona.

    James Key, technical director

    We had a good end to the test today. Fortunately it stayed dry again so we were able to get a lot more information. We tried some different tyre compounds today, saw how they behaved and tried some set-up changes where we spotted some encouraging trends. Thanks to all the team for working so hard over the past few weeks to get the car together and have such a productive test. It has set us up well for the final test next week in Barcelona, where we hope to continue our strong

  38. The official explanation:

    “A delay to fit new parts to the rear suspension caused Lewis to miss out on most of the morning’s running – when the track was at its fastest – but he resumed after lunch.”

    The Mclaren people fitting new parts to the rear suspension by means of a fire extinguisher (Weird, isn`t it?):

    http://www.lasextanoticias.com/galerias/reproductor/400333/401147

  39. no McLaren pics?

    1. Afraid not :-(

  40. You know what, a part of me hopes they are struggling, because I’d love to see how Lewis copes in a less than race-winning car – he might have chance to prove some of his detractors wrong – and also I’d love to see how McLaren claw their way back to the front…

  41. There is something very misterious surrounding McLaren now. Hamilton’s car yesterday caught fire and returned to the pits where the mecanics used the fire extinguisher, but the team oficcially denied the car caught fire, and they say the time Hamilton was waiting for the car (repairs in journalists opinion) was for putting new suspension parts!

    One thing for sure, they may win the first race, and go on to dominate the championship, but this situation will always be strange to say the least!

  42. Hi there,

    Great info, great site – I’m hoocked – the best Formula One information source online!

    Just one question – there no McLaren pics from any test day in Jerez ?

    Thx and again, congrats on a great source of info to us all… Formula One… Fanatics… That’s right! :)

  43. I apologise for posting something so irelevant but seriously look how much Nick Heidfeld looks like Josh Pyke, the australian musician: http://www.mysecretplaylist.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/josh-pyke.jpg
    http://g8.undercoverhd.com/imgsresized/article/081116JoshPyke-6515_1.jpg

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