McLaren retain straight-line speed advantage (Practice one interactive data)

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Although Mercedes were fastest in the first practice session the practice times indicate the W01 is not the fastest car around Valencia this weekend.

McLaren have the fastest car through the speed traps but it’s not clear yet how much time Ferrari have found with their exhaust upgrade.

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Tick/untick drivers’ names to show their laps, click and drag to zoom

Even at this early stage in the weekend it’s clear the teams’ cars are a lot quicker around Valencia than they were in 2009. The fastest time in the first session by Nico Rosberg was 1.3 seconds faster than the best time seen in FP1 last year.

That was despite a track that was clearly dusty. While the track cleaned up and became quicker, the drivers’ tyres (they tend to only use a single set of primes in FP1) became increasingly worn.

That meant times improved slowly, the improving condition of the track being offset by the deteriorating medium compound tyres. As a result most drivers set their best time within their first dozen laps.

So although Rosberg set the fastest time of the session he did it 20 minutes later than the McLarens, in which time the track will have become faster by several tenths of a second. Remember also that we saw Lewis Hamilton abort a lap on which he was set to improve after catching a Lotus in the final sector.

Interestingly, we know from the radio broadcasts that on Rosberg’s two laps when he set his best time he only activated his F-duct for the second. As the graph above shows that second lap was 2.3 seconds faster. However Rosberg was 7.5kph slower than Hamilton through the speed trap.

As usual the McLarens showed great straight-line speed. Jenson Button was fastest, cutting the beam at 315.2kph and Lewis Hamilton managed 314kph. But the next fastest driver, Sebastien Buemi, was 2.5kph slower.

There seems to have been no major leap forward from the Red Bulls as they test the new version of their F-duct. Sebastian Vettel hit 306.7kph which was 15th fastest, though more or less on a par with Robert Kubica’s similarly-engined car.

As expected the RB6s look stronger in the final sector with its high-speed turns than anywhere else on the track. Kubica narrowly pipped Vettel to fastest time there by one thousandth of a second.

The Red Bulls appear to be losing time on the rest of the lap. But we are accustomed to seeing them run heavier fuel loads at this stage in the weekend and we’ll get a clearer picture of their performance after second practice.

It’s too early to draw firm conclusions about how strong Ferrari, Renault and Mercedes are with their exhaust upgrades.

Ten drivers in this session were driving on the Valencia street circuit for the first time in a Formula 1 car and it interesting to compare their different approaches on their first flying laps. While some built up their speed slowly, others were fast from their first lap. Here’s what they set on their first laps:

DriverLap timeSession time
Michael Schumacher1’42.36946 minutes
Kamui Kobayashi1’44.47633
Pedro de la Rosa1’45.47347
Vitantonio Liuzzi1’46.03248
Lucas di Grassi1’49.56918
Vitaly Petrov1’50.47948
Christian Klien1’51.58327
Bruno Senna1’52.60630
Nico Hulkenberg1’53.36647
Paul di Resta1’58.30646

Full first practice times

CarDriverCarBest lapGapLapAt timeLaps
14Nico RosbergMercedes1’41.175127716
22Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’41.3390.16485619
31Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’41.3830.20895521
411Robert KubicaRenault1’41.7150.540137220
57Felipe MassaFerrari1’42.1821.00795521
65Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’42.2161.041126424
76Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’42.2751.100116017
83Michael SchumacherMercedes1’42.3121.137117418
98Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’42.4211.24695422
109Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’42.4631.28895521
1110Nico HulkenbergWilliams-Cosworth1’42.7071.53295223
1212Vitaly PetrovRenault1’42.9621.787126017
1316Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’43.3102.135116023
1415Vitantonio LiuzziForce India-Mercedes1’43.3802.205125919
1522Pedro de la RosaSauber-Ferrari1’43.3972.22285421
1614Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’43.4372.26295418
1723Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’43.7292.55494621
1817Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’44.1833.008126121
1919Heikki KovalainenLotus-Cosworth1’44.4913.316105620
2024Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’45.6534.47873523
2121Bruno SennaHRT-Cosworth1’47.1235.948125717
2218Jarno TrulliLotus-Cosworth1’47.2856.11085018
2320Christian KlienHRT-Cosworth1’47.3436.16873513
2425Lucas di GrassiVirgin-Cosworth1’47.3566.18162224

2010 European Grand Prix

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    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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    13 comments on “McLaren retain straight-line speed advantage (Practice one interactive data)”

    1. it’s not clear yet how much Ferrari time Ferrari have found

      little typo in the first paragraph there Keith.

      1. Awesome typo though.

        Forget other time measurements, let us use Ferrari Time! I wonder if it fits with general relativity? :D

      2. Corrected, thanks.

        1. Keith, could you maybe increase the color difference between teammates on your chart. On my screen Alonso and Massa look almost exactly the same and I have to switch between the two to actually compare them. If that’s possible, I will be eternally grateful ;)

    2. What they said on 5 live f1 it sounded as if ferrari are slightly doubtful of it’s effectiveness

      1. Yeah I heard that too. I don’t think it’s that unusual or a cause for concern just yet, It may well take time to get the upgrade(s) working to full effectiveness because perhaps of how intricate the exhaust details are and because new parts can take time as Ferrari spectacularly showed with the f-duct.

        This may not be a track where it’ll gain that much time anyway.

      2. I think it’ll be just like the F-Duct. No one is going to get anywhere near the performance that the Redbulls have got from the device because it’s not intergrated into the car, an the car wasn’t born with the system in mind.

        For instance Redbull is getting multiple benefits from the system, the most startling, an probably worth a good few tenths a lap is the controlling of air flow around the rear tyres, remember the big sweeps the teams used to have? I think Redbull is effectivley using the exhaust fumes to do that job, ingenious, an probably impossible to put onto the car now, as Alonso said, this isn’t the F10b it’s just a good step, Ferrari’s system just feeds the diffuser.

        Ferrari’s system is most likley be simular to what McLaren an Williams put on their car in Silverstone, merley an extention of body work rather than the beatiful fall away on the Redbulls, meaning they likley won’t get other rear end advantages enjoyed by Redbull further enhancing Redbulls advantage.

        Put it this way, Redbull might be getting well over a second from the way they’ve designed the rear end, McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault might get half, an it’ll be harder for them to find further gains.

    3. maestrointhesky
      25th June 2010, 12:53

      This may even lose them overall time as they build up down force along the straights!

      1. Here McLaren’s fully intergrated RW80/F-Duct whatever might be a great advantage, without the drag picked up from the rear wing the extra downfroce that harms the Redbull in a straight line won’t be such an issue.

        1. Maybe that is why Red Bull are doing so well here now, with f-duct, looking at the FP2 timing?

    4. Looking at when VMM set their times and the margin, they are looking very strong vis a vis RBR and SFM.

      Rosberg is really burnishing his star this year. This guy is putting away the doubts he earned after his inconsistency at Williams. Why is someone like Heidfeld or Klien not in that second car?

    5. I’m surprised that Schumi didn’t make up very much time over the course of the session…

    6. Wow, Schumacher got within a second of the fastest time on his first lap of the circuit?

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