Fastest lap not a glory run – Schumacher

2011 F1 testing

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Michael Schumacher, Mercedes, Jerez, 2011

Michael Schumacher said he set the quickest time at Jerez today using super-soft tyres.

Speaking to reporters at the track he said: “Today we have tried the very soft tyres. Obviously that has made us maybe a little bit quicker than some teams who have not tried those tyres.

“Saying this, we were not the only one on those tyres. They are available to everybody and some others used them.”

He said the team had been “focussing on long runs” today and denied they had done shorter stints to produce quicker lap times after Nico Rosberg ended yesterday session ninth.

He said: “If I’m correct in my quickest lap I did a ten-lap run. Is that short for you?”

He added: “I think yesterday he didn’t have a good day, the car wasn’t running properly. I’m sure if he’d run the car on the last day he’d be more happy.”

Schumacher described today’s test as “satisfying”, saying: “We had good reliability, we did about 115 or something laps. It’s important for us to do the mileage and get the car reliable, and the rest will come with time.”

He said he’s “happy” with KERS on car: “It keeps you busy! You have a lot of choice in the car. But I like that.”

Asked about Robert Kubica’s crash last weekend, Schumacher said: “It’s very sad for us.

“That is one of those stories that may happen life. It’s fate. What’s important is that he comes back in good shape.”

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    63 comments on “Fastest lap not a glory run – Schumacher”

    1. Maicòl, if it was lap 1 of the 10, yes, it’s short for me.

      1. During a race if tyres will last 10 laps there will be many pits!

        1. Cool! Nothing like Canada 2010…correct me if I’m wrong, but tires could be the main factor to improve the show.

          1. Lap times:

            20.3, 21.3, 22.0, 22.6, 22.9, 23.8, 24.2, 24.2, 24.1, 24.6

      2. It shows a bit what the super sofst are up to. One fast lap, then they keep stable for about 10 laps. But if the car was having fuel for about 10 laps of running, it was not a glory run.

        1. Not to mention that if they set their qualifying time in Q3 on these tires they’ll have already lost quite a bit… I think we could see some very early pit stops at some races this year.

        2. Stable for 10 laps? Schumacher went 4 seconds a lap slower at the end of that short stint. Het went about half a second slower every lap. The degradation was insane.

          On both of his runs!

          I’m assuming Massa used the supersofts too and indeed he did seem to keep them stable after the inital drop off. With a whole list of laps in the 1:22.

          1. So the tyres are more qualifying tyres than softs. I love this idea.

            I mean, Imagine the top ten all having to pit after 8 laps or so, and then Kamui taking the lead having been on the hards… This could get interesting.

            1. Megawatt Herring
              12th February 2011, 3:41

              It would be nice to see some different strategis being used by the teams in the top ten. Looking forward to some of them using the hard tyre for quali. It only happened a couple of times last year if I remember correctly.

    2. THE MAGICIAN IS BACK!!

      MICHAEL is dancing again.Now where are his critics?

      1. Bit early blowing your own trmupet isn’t it?

        1. I play piano not a trumpet.What is your instrument? LOL

          1. Wow! Am happy to see him back! I dance Samba!!

          2. Sorry, last time I checked playing “twinkle, twinkle little star” on a keyboard didn’t really count playing the “piano”

            Schumacher won’t beat Rosberg since he creamed him last year, so don’t get your hopes up Dianna.

            1. playing “twinkle, twinkle little star” on a keyboard didn’t really count playing the “piano”

              Damn…

            2. Fatal flaw in your argument. The past is but a suggestion, he is free to return to greatness. And I shall hope that happens.

            3. Go Michael!!! You are the greatest!! Nobody like you!

      2. Bit early blowing your own trumpet isn’t it?

      3. Waiting for the first race…

      4. I think the second session of testing is a bit too early to be saying he is back to the very top.

        After all there are too many variables to be sure this wasn’t an attempt to top the sheets.

        After qualifying in Bahrain, that is when we will know!

        1. But you must admit, he looks less out of place than at the same time a year ago.

        2. After qualifying in Bahrain, that is when we will know!

          Four weeks and a little under 15 hours until Bahrain Q1 starts!!!

          1. But we’re not counting or anything right? ;D

      5. I think it is way too soon to say he is back to his best, in capital letters.

        1. No, but it is a good sign that the Merc and Shumacher are gaining and not losing on last years form. But, really, it means nothing…

      6. Rosberg set the fastest time in the first Jerez test last season. Look how much good that did them.

        1. It certainly made him lead the driver’s championship for a short while! :P

    3. Mercedes are either more competitive this year, and hiding it by saying they are not, so other teams do not get suspicious. Or they are not as competitive like last year and setting fastest lap times with low fuel to try and look good. We’ll have to wait until Bahrain to find out the true story.

      1. Or both, or neither, or the hokey kokey.

        THIS TIMINGS MEAN NOTHING PLIZ.

        1. Scribes right, we cant read into anything. BUT i found this interesting on Joe Sawards blody, on Massa’s time yesterday, which we can apply to today…

          “As a (very) rough guide last year’s best at Jerez was a 1m19.2, set by Mark Webber in the Red Bull, so we should be expecting to see a best time in this year’s test in the region of 1m20.9s, which suggests that Massa was trying quite hard.”

          But since we dont know what Webber was running last year (full, 10/10ths etc) its a very rough guide indeed to judge. But still makes you think.

          1. i meant Joe Saward’s Blog* lol.

            1. I thought it meant you found something interesting on Joe Saward’s body. ;)

          2. Looking at the fastest lap times is useless. Especially since you don’t know about fuel loads, KERS usage, adjustable rear wing usage etc etc.

            Guessing what a good time for a 2011 car would be is probably even more ridiculous. Who knows how much they clawed back on aerodynamics, or how much a boost KERS and the rear wing give?

            What does seem significant though is the tyre degradation.

            Schumacher and Massa were about equally fast in the first lap of their stint. Shockingly though, at the end of those stints, Massa was 2 seconds a lap faster!

            If Mercedes/Schumacher can’t get that tyre degradation under control, they will quickly get passed.

          3. I find this hilarious! If you cannot trust test times in the present, why would you be willing to rely on them at some point in the future?

    4. No doubt in my mind this was purley as a result of a lot of talk about the car being a bit ‘meh’. A display to reassure the sponsors and fans. Time will tell if it was a glory run or not.

      1. Interesting thought, sure was swift.

        1. SJM exactly,
          no coincidence that after the comments the day before MSC put this lap in. In my mind that is as fast as they can go, not so with the others who have more to come. Although Merc have more to come once they fit their upgrade. I think it will only be after the next test (3rd) a picture starts to appear.

    5. Nobody knows if they have the fastest car, it depends on how fast everyone ELSE is. But I do have confidence in Shumi and Brawn.

    6. hahahahahahaha! good one ;)

    7. He said: “If I’m correct in my quickest lap I did a ten-lap run. Is that short for you?”

      He managed to fit a 10 lap run into a lap, gracious me that is not short!

      Serious now, is he trying to lie to himself?

      he was not the only one to set his fastest time on supersofts? Please…

      1. Massa did his best on an 8-lap stint.

    8. You can never know with testing times, but it is sure nice to see grandfather back on the top of the sheets!
      Yeah babay!

      1. OldKaiser >Amen to that.

        GO SCHUMI GO>>>>>>>>>>

    9. I think it would be a bold statement to say any of these one-off times were indicative of a fast/slow car. That aside, how fun is this Pirelli tyre going to be! In laps and out laps especially are going to be crucial if you look at how laptimes appear to drop off by SECONDS within laps! It’s going to be incredible!

      1. I, and many others, would agree with you there. :)

        1. Ya was wanting two manufactures to get a tyre war going cause was tired of bridgestone’s overly cautious approach but looks like we don’t need that now. Even though doesn’t mean a whole pile at this stage nice to see the ole boy back at the top again. Would be cool for him do really good this year as so many people have wrote him off.

    10. I know it may be just practice, and the times mean nothing, but this does prove that Michael still has the skill, to set a time faster than anyone elses, I can be pretty certain that he wasn’t the only one who may have gone for a fast time, Schumi showed great spurts of genius in a car that wasn’t up to scratch (Korea, Spain etc.) and as long as he gets the car underneath him, then times like that should be following in the future, he can be an octochamp!

      1. I like my nick, so I keep it… But man, Octochamp sure was tempting!

    11. Glad about the old man. He’s got one more day, hope he will keep the hammer down. Honestly, I really like the new ‘human face’ (don’t know what’s the correct english expression) MSC.

    12. Read at Autosport.com right now, that Webber was driving behind Schumi in a longer run today and had to back off several times to get enough space between them.

      Puts the fasterst lap set in perspective I suppose. Seems the Red Bull kept its strong points with medium speed corners and braking into the corners.

    13. I’m sick of hearing people say “the times mean nothing.” Yes, the times are not a very good indicator of performance at this point of the season, but they do mean “something.” If a team can’t manage a lap within say half a second of the quickest lap on any given day then they are not going to be quick at the first race for example.

      And really, all we have to go on is lap times and number of laps. If that really meant absolutely nothing you, wouldn’t be here reading about it now would you?

    14. Having read the Button report and looked at the timings for mid-length and long runs. I actually don’t see anything that would get me excited about Schumi’s fastest lap.

      If Jensen is right about the tyre performance then Jensen would possibly have gone faster if he had had a clear run on the super softs.

      And from the timings, comparing Schumi’s and Alguersuari’s 10 lap runs where they both did their fastest laps, Micheal’s times had a 4 sec spread and Jamie’s only a 2 second spread. So there could be a problem there because Schumi is taking too much out of the tyres at the beginning of the run. Something he has done several times in the past.

      So my conclusion is, never believe headlines or soundbites. Until you have checked the facts.

      1. You can’t really compare Schumacher’s and Alguersuari’s lap times and conclude that Schumacher is taking too much out of the tires. Alguersuari didn’t even try super-softs.

    15. Seems like Schumacher & Mercedes are getting in shape & if they want to succeed this season they need to carry the momentum.It’s a positive start but it’s until Bahrain we will know how good that is.

      1. Yes indeed they are in the right direction! They made the car according to Michael’s driving style. Not the last year’s car where built for Jenson! Alonso was right with his view of MSC. Still a man he consider as a serious opponent once given a right car. Can’t wait seeing the 1st race in Bahrain!!

    16. keep denying the fact that the ferrari hasbeen 1st in 2 of the test sessions,2nd in 2 and 5 in another one(massa oil leak problem) so if that doesn’t mean anything then you aredelusional. by the way massa has the fastest median laps in all of is runs.

    17. It would be nice to see him in the mix of things during the season. It will make for interesting racing. Lots of teams going for podiums, should be exciting.

    18. If You count laps under 1:23, from yesterday, friday, then You get:
      Massa 33, Schumi 7, Button 10, Alguersuari 34, Webber 16, Sutil 7, Perez 14, Glock 1, Petrov 1, Maldano 3 and to that Button and Alguersuari only did about 65 laps against Massa, Schumi and Webbers approximately 100 laps, but lap times increased for those 3 still driving beyond 75 laps. But it hints that Ferrari, Mercedes and RBR already are doing long-run tests.
      Nothing indicated that the Renault with Petrov at the wheel, is scary this year, whereas Massa clearly is fast and stable, just as Alguersuari with the Torro Rosso is a bit impressive…

      But this image can be turned upside down again this evening, of course.

      1. makes more sense to look at laps under 1:22 imo

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