2010 F1 testing live: 28th February

February 28, 2010 at 8:07 am by Keith Collantine

Lewis Hamilton will drive the McLaren for the last time before Bahrain

It’s deadline day for the F1 teams – today is their last chance to test their cars before they head out to Bahrain for the first race of 2010, just two weeks from now.

We’re expecting to see a few low-fuel runs which should give us an idea who’s got the best ultimate pace.

I’m at the track to follow testing as it happens – join us below to see how the crucial final day unfolds.

Times from today’s test

Driver	Car	Best time	Laps	Difference
Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes MP4-25	80.472	134	0
Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault RB6	80.496	61	0.024
Felipe Massa	Ferrari F10	80.539	114	0.067
Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes VJM03	80.667	100	0.195
Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault RB6	80.667	76	0.195
Michael Schumacher	Mercedes W01	80.745	123	0.273
Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth FW32	80.87	84	0.398
Kamui Kobayashi	BMW Sauber-Ferrari C29	80.911	67	0.439
Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR5	82.135	88	1.663
Robert Kubica	Renault R30	83.175	107	2.703
Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth T127	85.251	64	4.779
Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth VR-01	86.16	49	5.688

Testing notes

Several teams used the brief period of dry running yesterday to do some race distance simulations which gave us some useful insight into how quick they are.

The weather looks set to remain dry throughout today’s test so we should see some more representative runs throughout the day.

Today’s testing line-up

McLaren MP4-25 – Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes W01 – Michael Schumacher
Red Bull RB6 – Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber
Ferrari F10 – Felipe Massa
Williams FW32 – Rubens Barrichello
BMW Sauber C29 – Kamui Kobayashi
Renault R30 – Robert Kubica
Force India VJM03 – Adrian Sutil
Toro Rosso STR5 – Sebastien Buemi
Virgin VR-01 – Lucas di Grassi
Lotus T127 – Heikki Kovalainen

The track: Circuit de Catalunya

The final test of 2010 is being held at the Circuit de Catalunya, where the teams will return later this year for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Rubens Barrichello set the fastest time during last year’s Spanish Grand Prix race weekend with a 1’19.954 in Q2. The fastest lap of the race itself was also set by Barrichello, a 1’22.762,

For further comparison, Valentino Rossi lapped the track in a 2008-specification Ferrari on GP2 slick tyres in a time of 1’21.900 earlier this year.

Live Tweets and times

Check out MSFree.gr for live times from the track during the test.

Here’s the latest Tweets from people at the track (plus me):

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

2010 F1 testing

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91 comments on 2010 F1 testing live: 28th February

Scribe said on 28th February 2010, 16:04

Redflagged in the dying seconds!
Ah well. Autosport doesn’t think anyone was going for something special. Hamilton finishes fastest.

or maybe not Redflagged. Whatever.

Well then here we come the season. Factoring in Ferrari and McLarens upgrades it looks closer than it ever has. Lets hope it a blinder! Overtaking, daring strategy and racing racing racing.

Calum said on 28th February 2010, 16:09

Hooray!!
Mclaren finally do a good bit of running, 134 laps.
Surprising to see Lotus above Renault, good to see Hammy at the top, and disappointing to see Virgin at the bottom for the second day in a row but testing only gives an indication of things to come. The 13th and 14th of March are much more important in terms of times.

- patrick(uk) said on 28th February 2010, 16:38
  
  oh yes yes…i think formula 1 this season is just going to be too good…with all the new rules max mousely gone and …and a host of rookie drivers,rookie teams etc…great…my worry for Virgin is that they did not take the designing and car building seriously…all that blah blah about CAD design without hard ware wind tunnel testing was a disaster..the virgin car will take a whole year to become of age in my view… any way enjoy the ups and downs…Mclaren will carry our flag very high…
  
  - Nick Someone said on 28th February 2010, 16:55
    
    Virgins current problems aren’t with CFD, they are with the hydraulics and the general reliability of the car. I think you’ll have to judge the whole CFD thing over a period of time.
    
    - Salty said on 28th February 2010, 17:56
      
      I think any team that relies soley on CFD is brave, but surely not using a combination of both CFD and tunnel testing is folly. I realise the idea of CFD was to keep down costs, but when the tech is as finely honed as F1′s, you have to make that investment to achieve a decent result. Ferrari and McLaren’s consistancy is testament to that – the chassis, engines or rubber may have let down the teams on occaision, but their aero has been second to none.
      
      - PATRICK(UK) said on 28th February 2010, 18:38
        
        to get maximun benefit of design charateristic MCAREN HAVE UTILISED ALL SORTS OF GIZMOS as we have seen on the testing tracks this season.NO other team besides the feraris have employed so much hardware in design and development…..as we saw last season from bad car to a race winner towards the end for Hamilton.
        NOW THAT they have race winning cars from the start one wonders how far they will go…MAYBE Its time the engine freeze development is lifted…
      - Calum said on 28th February 2010, 19:48
        
        I don’t think the CFD decision was for bravery it was because it was all fianceses allowed!! They should have went on Brawn GP’s website last year because they were renting out the old Honda windtunnel!
BBT said on 28th February 2010, 17:23

All four days times….

http://www.ergouk.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/F1 Times Final Test.xls

- PATRICK(UK) said on 28th February 2010, 18:27
  
  this link to lap times is not loading up?
  
  - BBT said on 28th February 2010, 20:07
    
    If click doesn’t work try pasting it… seems the address cut off after F1
    
    http://www.ergouk.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/F1 Times Final Test.xls
    
    - CC said on 1st March 2010, 15:38
      
      Full link for Barca laptimes is:
      http://www.ergouk.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/F1%20Times%20Final%20Test.xls
      
      at BBT,
      MSFree missed out some of Lewis’s Laptimes on his second run, luckily rfs has the missing laptimes above.
      
      RFS, from which website did you manage to find Lewis’s Barcelona laptimes.
      
nomeg said on 28th February 2010, 19:31

A bit of engine noise & Kova’s crash…was it Friday ? Maybe you have seen it already, if yes, sorry !

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcb9ve_f1-jerez-winter-test-2-18-2010-lotu_auto

Patrickl said on 28th February 2010, 23:39

“Rubens Barrichello set the fastest time during last year’s Spanish Grand Prix race weekend with a 1′19.954 in Q2. The fastest lap of the race itself was also set by Barrichello, a 1′22.762,”

The fastest time set during pre season testing here in 2009 was a 1:18.926 set by Barrichello (12th of march 2009)

Amazingly the cars are still at least a second and a half slower than they were then. The second fastest time back then was 0.8s slower though. Still, with al this blah blah from the teams about their cars being faster than last years cars. They aren’t really are they?

Alonso set a 1:20.664 in march 2009. His “this is the best car I’ve ever driven” Ferrari is indeed faster, but only by a few hundreths.

- David said on 1st March 2010, 9:00
  
  The teams always talk of values when comparing this car to their previous. The aero values are far greater than last year, but the cars are missing a big chunk of front grip from the tyres so they’re naturally going to be slower, regardless of having better balance.
  
Playstation 4 said on 26th October 2010, 2:09

Good article, thanks for sharing this!

F1 Fanatic