F1 Fanatic

Only one team is doing any testing today – Virgin Racing, who are shaking down their striking new VR-01 at Silverstone. Pictures are expected later on today.

There’s some murmurs of discontent about the FOTA F1 Fans Survey and suggestions we should create a better one of our own. What do you think?

Read on for today’s F1 Fanatic round-up:

Links

Q & A with Jenson Button (Autosport)

“We have done a lot of work today and it has been really useful. In a way it would have been nice to get some more testing done, set-up work, but this test was always to get used to the environment inside the cockpit, get used to working with the team and to run through all the checks that you always do at the first test. So it has been very useful, this morning was tough though. We have had to change a lot within the car, but I fit well now which is good. I feel comfortable and have a good height in the car and that is always important for your confidence.”

Four kilometres of traffic jam for Alonso (Ferrari)

“30,000 fans came to see Fernando on the track, creating a traffic jam at the exit of the Valencia-Madrid highway. This is quite unusual for a Formula 1 test, but it shows how much Fernando is adored in Spain and the great expectations the fans have regarding his arrival in Ferrari.” Apparently a fair few were chanting for Jaime Alguersuari as well, and Pedro de la Rosa was there too. But we all know who the main event is when F1 goes to Spain.

Comment of the day

This one from Salty was a popular choice – and I agree with everyword:

What a great entree for the 2010 season. Knew there was going to be a lot of interest, what with the return of Schumacher, the new teams and Alonso moving to Ferrari, but can anyone really believe there were 36,400 fans at Valencia for todays test! Incredible.

Many F1 sites have been seriously brake tested over these last three days. We don’t yet know the cause of the Virgin virtual launch failing to take place, but once it became apparent it wasn’t going to happen, Autosport’s website collapsed under the weight of traffic.

And Twitter? How awesome was Twitter these last 3 days. Brilliant. Twitter really grew up this week.

The cars? Who can say. Certainly Ferrari don’t appear to have too many problems right now, contrary to the whispers coming from the Italian press last week. Good to have them back. Surprised about Sauber’s relative performance, but then there is quite a lot of empty advertising space on the car, so perhaps fuel loads have been overly flattering. McLaren and Mercedes seem to be fairly evenly matched, but again, not even the teams know yet. Oh, and love the Renault paint job.

Notable for their lack of assistance in all this? FOM and the FiA, naturally. Would it really have been so difficult for them to provide a free fixed stream looking down pit straight? Or even just turn on the Live Timing for us? Gee, thanks for nothing guys!

Site updates

I’ve just done a quick final update of yesterday’s testing review adding several more pictures including, by popular demand, some of Jenson Button driving the McLaren for the first time.

Check them and out – and read the round-up of the last three days’ testing – here: F1 testing review: Valencia (Pictures)

Happy birthday!

No F1 Fanatic birthdays today. If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

F1 hasn’t held many races in the month of February – only three world championship events, as far as I can see. On this day in 1979 the teams assembled at Interlagos for the second round of the 1979 season.

Jacques Laffite for Ligier repeated his trick from the first race of winning from pole position and setting fastest lap – and this time he led every lap as well. Surprisingly, after this dominant start to the season, he only managed four more points finishes from the remaining 13 races, leaving him fourth overall at the end of the year.