2010 F1 testing live: 12th February

Posted on

| Written by

Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton during today's test

It’s all change at the third day of F1 testing in Jerez with Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and several other drivers making their first appearance at the track this year.

Join us to follow the test as it happens below.

Testing times and laps

Best times from today’s test

DriverCarBest timeLapsDifference
Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari STR579.919760
Pedro de la RosaBMW Sauber-Ferrari C2980.736480.817
Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes VJM0381.428481.509
Felipe MassaFerrari F1081.603721.684
Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault RB681.783591.864
Vitaly PetrovRenault R3082682.081
Nico RosbergMercedes W0182.82532.901
Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth FW3283.2171203.298
Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes MP4-2583.985684.066
Lucas di GrassiVirgin-Cosworth VR-0197.107817.188

Laps complete so far (all 2010 test days)

DriverTotal lapsTotal distance (km)
Fernando Alonso3441469.511
Sebastien Buemi3301408.365
Nico Hulkenberg3111323.81
Rubens Barrichello2971240.245
Felipe Massa2981223.946
Robert Kubica2911209.024
Nico Rosberg2681119.87
Kamui Kobayashi2541084.104
Michael Schumacher2461037.682
Jenson Button233997.038
Pedro de la Rosa202829.314
Lewis Hamilton176733.644
Jaime Alguersuari173725.013
Vitaly Petrov170721.035
Vitantonio Liuzzi151668.628
Mark Webber149659.772
Gary Paffett86344.43
Sebastian Vettel59261.252
Adrian Sutil48212.544
Timo Glock1670.848
Lucas di Grassi835.424
ModelTotal lapsTotal distance (km)
F106422693.457
FW326082564.055
W015142157.552
STR55032133.378
MP4-254952075.112
R304611930.059
C294561913.418
RB6208921.024
VJM03199881.172
VR-0124106.272
EngineTotal lapsTotal distance (km)
Ferrari16016740.253
Mercedes12085113.836
Renault6692851.083
Cosworth6322670.327

Testing notes

The teams were blessed with a full day of dry running yesterday, but will they get any more? I’ve arrived at a dry circuit this morning but there is a lot of cloud and the weather forecast this morning said rain would arrive around 10am – much as it did on Wednesday.

Kamui Kobayashi ended yesterday as the fastest driver after a late flier, and Sebastien Buemi was quickest for much of yesterday’s session.

But it was Fernando Alonso who caught the attention with a very long stint, well over 40 laps in duration, in which time he still lapped with two seconds of the fastest car on the track.

Today almost every team will change drivers with Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa along those taking over.

Today’s testing line-up

McLaren MP4-25Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes W01Nico Rosberg
Red Bull RB6Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari F10Felipe Massa
Williams FW32Rubens Barrichello
BMW Sauber C29 – Pedro de la Rosa
Renault R30 – Vitaly Petrov
Force India VJM03Adrian Sutil
Toro Rosso STR5Jaime Alguersuari
Virgin VR-01Lucas di Grassi

The track: Circuito de Jerez

The teams are testing at the Circuito de Jerez, formerly the home of the Spanish (1986-1990) and European Grands Prix (1994 and 1997):


View Larger Map

Eight of this year’s pre-season test days will take place at this circuit. The teams last tested here during the young driver training days in December. On that occasion Daniel Ricciardo set the fastest time for Red Bull with a 1’17.418.

Tweets from the test

Here’s the ten latest Tweets from people at the track, including me:

If you would like to suggest a Twitter feed to add to the list, please suggest one in the comments. The list only updates when this page is refreshed.

Live timing

Williams are showing live timing from the track on their website.

2010 F1 testing

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

83 comments on “2010 F1 testing live: 12th February”

  1. Any news on Lotus’ launch? It’s supposed to be today isn’t it?

      1. what time will it be at?

        1. This evening, after 5pm according to this.

  2. Ah good, lewis’ turn today!

  3. Go go go go Lewis! Blow ‘em away!

    1. now it appears :)some problem keith? Same thing happened a couple of days back.

  4. Speaking of alternate comments, is there any reason behind why every second comment has their poster’s name in blue then every other in blue? I only noticed the pattern last night! :)

  5. HounslowBusGarage
    12th February 2010, 8:44

    Any ideas what the track and air temps are?

    1. HounslowBusGarage
      12th February 2010, 8:47

      Seems we have this strange order of comments back again. My question about temperatures was osted at 8.44 but appeared above Calum’s post at 8.01 am.
      This is posted as a reply to my 8.44 post; let’s see where it slots in.

      1. It is 11 degrees (Celsius).

  6. shame about the rain in spain….

    1. on the plain?

      1. Actually it’s quite hilly here.

  7. Alonso’s fastest lap of yesterday was done on one of the final laps of a 50+ lap stint. Jenson says that Jerez circuit is abrasive on tyres. I think, its fair to judge that Ferrari is kind to its tyres, and is pretty fast :). I am so happy :D :D

    1. Ferrari build their cars like that, particulaly since 05.

      Anyways, it seems Ferrari will have the advantage with this top 10 tyre rule, they’ll be able to make softs work better than harder tyre workers in qualifiying and off the grid.

  8. Here comes the rain again.
    It will be a though day, and Virgin will waste an opportunity.

  9. “Read the new rules story here: FIA to keep fuel weights secret in 2010
    @autosportlive 10 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · RT”

    I dont understand this….why would they need to show fuel load after qual anyways…they ALL have to have a full tank for the race LOL

    And they are crippling the top 10 cars with crappy tyres…after there 1lap dash after sitting in the pit bay untill last moment to save those tyres…

    But seriously, they will be doing low fule runs in q3 so why the fuss that no published weights…?!?!?!?

    1. maybe the teams want to keep their fuel economy a secret.. lol

    2. Some cars will need less fuel due to greater engine efficiency, and also maybe teams could try to start a little on the light side to pull away and ensure track position then ease off last few laps, or gamble on a safety car when a given lap uses far less fuel…

      1. Fuel weights were never published before refuelling was re-introduced in 1994, so why publish them now?

        1. Fuel weights were only published as recently as 2008 if I’m correct.

  10. Raining in Jerez at the moment.

  11. Ham first one out in the wet and goes back to the pits.

  12. Rain has ceased. Sun pops out rather timidly. Should dry soon, hopefully.

  13. Rosberg first out.

  14. Well I think I’m going to hit the hay.. not much going on so hopefully it’ll dry up and they can get some laps in and I can have something to read in the am.. :)

  15. Go SAUBER ! ^^

  16. The fuel thing will make it tempting for teams that know they would normally be well out of the points to run fuel loads that won’t get them to the flag. Showboating for sponsors and fans and praying for race stopping rain. Something else for “the show” – puke

  17. I’ve been stood down at the turn ten hairpin watching the cars braking into it this morning, while it was still dry. Petrov was having trouble getting the Renault to slow down, he ran very wide at least once and had a big lock-up on another occasion (which I caught on camera, will have a picture up soon).

    The other thing about the Renault was that, just like yesterday, it was the only car with glowing brake discs.

    Hamilton appears to be running another aero gizmo on the McLaren, his times were quite slow this morning – Felipe Massa gradually caught and passed him in the Ferrari.

    1. Where is this new gizmo, from your pictures I thought it might be in the sidepod.

      1. Yep that’s it.

        1. Maybe this is just me being an optimistic fan but…
          The slow lap times might be related to that aero device. It’s designed to measure the airflow through a specific area but also the distribution of the airflow.
          This will change at different speeds, so it’s very possible that he had to cruise at specific speeds to allow the readings to stabilise.
          Something to the tune of, “Ok Lewis, go to 80mph now …. …. now 90 mph” and even going around corners at constant speed too.

          Either that or it’s another dog :(

    2. “The other thing about the Renault was that, just like yesterday, it was the only car with glowing brake discs.”

      Lots of fuel.

      1. yep, looks like lots of fuel

    3. In one of the pictures you toook of Rubens you can see the Williams’ brake discs glowing.

  18. Keith, a comment you made about Massa catching and passing Hamilton this morning made me wonder… how much to the drivers act as though they are racing during tests? If a car is stuck behind a slower car, is the car in front expected to let him by, or do they really have to fight their way past?

    Obviously, I know it’s only testing, and the teams wouldn’t want their drivers to risk trasshing their cars for no reason. But F1 drivers are competitive creatures. I remember Q3 at the 2006 French GP, Schumacher and Alonso seemed to be ‘racing’ each other for the fun of it in the otherwise pointless fuel burn period

    1. Some of them were letting other cars go past by getting out of the throttle coming off a slower corner.

      De la Rosa went past Barrichello in front of me while I was there and Barrichello gave nothing away, he stayed with de la Rosa on the outside and the two came out of the corner side-by-side. De la Rosa got ahead though – about three cars passed Barrichello.

      They don’t defend their positions but you sense there’s no love lost. Massa have Hamilton a bit of a squeeze when he went past the McLaren.

  19. gah I don’t like this rain. I really want to see a fume run soft tyre lap from Lewis, or a race simulation, they seem to be going about this testing lark slightly differently.

    Does anyone have well lit pictures of the RB6 diffuser, or the VJM03’s?

    Anyway, all this rain shows why Bahrain is such a decent spot for testing, lets face it in the limited time available, everyone wants dry running, it’s better, hope Barca isn’t wet as well.

    What I really want to see is a picture of one of these cars going down one of the long straights on full wets, it’ll be good to see the trails the cars produce this year.

    1. Does anyone have well lit pictures of the RB6 diffuser, or the VJM03’s?

      Have a look here: https://www.racefans.net/2010/02/12/f1-testing-pictures-12th-february/img_2724/

      1. thanks Keith, that is a marevellous photo by the way. The best I’ve seen of the RB6

        1. Scribe do you remember what happened to Ferrari last year when they tried to beat the rain… the got sand storms.. :) lol

  20. The lap record (race conditions) is by h-h frentzen: a 1:23:135

    1. 1:21.072 was the fastest qualifying time that year.
      It was also the time for 2nd and 3rd on the grid! I remember it well, Murray Walker nearly exploded…

      1. Ricardo got 1.17 with a fully developed RB5 last yeaar, as Keith says at the top.

        If they can go that fast tommorow their in the money.

        1. Ricciardo…
          Sorry but Imagine spelling Hameltonnes name wrong!?!?! LOL :)

    2. what year was that Calum?

  21. I see Ferrari using the conical golden wheel nuts… any advantages using ’em???

    1. I think the shape is so they can get the wheel guns on them faster in the pit stops! No idea why they are gold.

      1. yeah, that is an advantage :)

    2. I think it adds to the wheel’s inertia.

      1. I’ve always wondered actually why they don’t put ballast in things like wheel nuts?

        It would have a neutral effect on the cars handling as it wouldn’t roll with the car.

        But it would help with weight distribution!

        1. Prehaps because you would have to have colse to equal amounts of balast on left an right wheels?

          Prehaps they do but probably connected to the fairing or break section in some way, I think moving ballast would have all sorts of diffcult to predict variables through corneres, you’d never set it up right.

          Ballast on the wheels is possibly there but hidden, an you could only have it in a still position to help with back front balance.

          1. I severely doubt they put any ballast on any of these parts. You always want the minimum unsprung weight as possible for the suspension to perform better.

          2. @ Bertie, yeah mooving Ballast just doesn;t make sense like that.

            You could have equal Ballast at opposite points of a circle to cancell out any difference though.

            Probably improve inertia like Fluid said as well.

            Unlikeley though.

        2. Believe it or not, the wheel is a free body as far as the car is concerned, any additional weight will put more strain on the suspension.

      2. It will definately add to inertia since mass and inertia are essentially equivalent, well if you not close to the speed of light.

        1. Which, alas, F1 cars haven’t reached yet. But we’ll get there, yes we will.

          Incidentally do you think the opposite sides of the wheel idea works at all? Just curious.

          1. You’re not Improving inertia, you’re Increasing it – which is a bad thing.

          2. Well i am sure it would be good as far for just the view point of ballast. However, since moving the ballast to parts of that car that are unsprung (wheels, brakes, etc) would be very undesirable as it would cause the the suspension to be less responsive. For example, people have tried moving brake discs to the centre of the car so that they dont add to that wieght. However, that failed because of the ridiculous torsion forces that the axel is put under.

          3. Awesome, this is why i’m not an engineer.

  22. http://www.autosport.com/gallery/photo.php/id/13245424

    cute pic here… anyone has a high resolution of this?

    1. I believe SUTTON should have what you are looking for.

  23. Lucas di Grassi just made it out in the Virgin for the first time, he did a seven lap run with the new front wing. The team hadn’t quite got all of the stickers on it. Here’s some pictures: F1 testing pictures: 12th February

  24. I aprreciate it is still early doors, but virgin are looking like they might even struggle to qualify.

    1. That’s what happens when you let 13 teams to compete in f1.

      1. I wonder if Lotus or others fair better. Ironically, I bet stefan GP would be able to qualify considering it is just the toyota.

        1. Car doesn’t look to tough now does it. An the problem with that front wing won’t go away untill it is developed. Still if the FIA pass it, it can’t be that bad.

          Still Stefan could probably qualify but the car will be average at best, development has been slowed right down and Toyota never produced a winner yet.

    2. There’s no 107% rule so I think they’ll be OK!

      1. Oh really did realise that had been dropped. Lucky for them… well probably for them.

    3. Yeah but have they not been unlucky with the weather too, i mean they have run in the wet/damp both times?

      Their times are WAY off the pace though even in the wet.

      1. well, in the wet the cars are going slower, so theres probably less strain on downforce providing elements.

        So if the wing falls off in the wet, you know it’s in dire need of something different.

    4. I spoke to Di Grassi this evening and he’s not taking much notice of performance yet, he just wants more mileage.

  25. The rain got much heavier in the final hour of the test. Hamilton’s just been out and crawled round the track very slowly, throwing up huge plumes of spray and backing off on the straight.

    Force India say they’ll send Sutil out for an installation lap after fixing his electrical problem if they can, but we’ll see.

  26. Ah, I wish we went to Jerez instead of Barcelona for the race. All it needs is decent transport links and a wider track.

  27. I actually just started a blog on the testing, and this post made me realise how rubbish it was in comparison, great work as ever.

    (Without plugging it…if anyone fancies giving me some constructive feedback that;d be great, please check it here : http://bleacherreport.com/articles/343916-testing-times-virgin-racing-gives-us-a-taste-of-the-new-boys)

  28. Keith, two questions for you:

    (1) How do you rate Jerez as a test track ? From its outline, it seems that it offers a mix of high- and low-speed corners w/out any real long straights. I understand that it is a far better barometer than Valencia, but do you think there are elements of a car’s design that don;t really get tested on this track ?

    (2) James Allen reports today that Michelin is in talks w/ the FIA about a return to F1 in 2011 as the sole supplier. Who do you think has the superior tyre technology and also reliability, Michelin or Bridgestone ?

    Thanks in advance – looking forward to Bahrein !

    1. Well, from a media point of view Jerez is great because the centre is is in the middle of the track and you can see various points of the circuit from it. The facilities have recently been updated and are very good.

      For the teams I think the track is more reflective of the slower courses they’ll visit during the season – the likes of the Hungaroring for example. But they wouldn’t be spending more than half of their days here if it wasn’t useful for them in terms of the data they get from the track, the dependability of the weather (today’s rain notwithstanding) and the ease with which they can ship parts in from their bases (as Virgin did today for example).

      Can’t add much to the Michelin story other than to say it’s not so much a question of tyre technology as who has the infrastructure to supply dozens of sets of tyre to 13 teams for 19 races on all corners of the globe. Bridgestone can, and there are many who think they’ll be persuaded to stay if costs can be brought down – it’s no coincidence tyre allocations are being cut for this year. Michelin presumably could because they supplied most of the grid only four years ago.

  29. I’m finishing up at the circuit for today, here’s my write-ups from two interviews this evening including a one-to-one with Lucas di Grassi who was very interesting to talk to (not that Hamilton wasn’t, of course!):

    Hamilton eager for more dry running
    Di Grassi: Too early to judge performance

  30. i dont see mclaren being good this year :( im voteing for virgin to be the best rookie team. Torro rosso look good! cosworth power ftw

Comments are closed.