Same driver, different car leads at Magny-Cours

2012 F1 testing

Posted on

| Written by

Jules Bianchi remained the quickest driver on day two of the Young Drivers’ Test at Magny-Cours.

Bianchi set a best time of 1’16.467 for Force India today, over a second and a half quicker than his best effort yesterday for Ferrari. He will be back in the F2012 tomorrow.

Davide Rigon took his place at Ferrari for the day and completed a mammoth 163 laps. He covered more than 700km, well in excess of two Grand Prix distances.

“I’ve already been to Magny-Cours twice in other categories, but driving a Formula 1 car here was incredible,” said Rigon. “At the start I was very excited, but after ten laps I was able to concentrate completely on the day’s busy programme.”

Michael Schumacher paid a visit to Mercedes where Sam Bird completed his second day of running in the W03.

Bird continued to test the team’s new upgrades while running on the soft tyre compound. The team will switch to the hard tomorrow when Brendon Hartley will drive for the final day of the test.

Pos.DriverTeamCarTimeGapLaps
1Jules BianchiForce IndiaVJM051’16.467117
2Sam BirdMercedesW031’17.4821.015125
3Davide RigonFerrariF20121’17.9251.458163

Image © Sahara Force India F1 Team

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.

15 comments on “Same driver, different car leads at Magny-Cours”

  1. Out of curiosity, does anyone know whether Bianchi’s consistent pace was better or worse in the Ferrari than the Force India?

    Shame that yesterday’s problems hindered quite possibly the best comparison between two cars yet, removing the element of driver skill (as there was only one driver for both cars), somewhat, as a factor.

  2. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    12th September 2012, 19:14

    I guess that a race and a practice have different requirements of driver’s energy or endurance. But the number of laps they can bring impresses me and shows GPs could be easily even longer, not shorter as Luca di Mon… proposes. O course longer GPs could sound a boring idea for some, but I think, if one day DrS is banned, more laps could show faster speeds on final laps and probably a wfew more retirements due to engine or gearbox problems. if F1 is now a little more like a lottery sometimes, adding more laps could bring more spicy races

    1. I think they could have an “endurace round”, maybe at Monza, make it 603km.

      1. But that would mean bringing back refuelling – just for one race. And the race would be too long for live TV, so Bernie would veto it.

    2. @omarr-pepper F1 cars aren’t built for endurance racing and you would find that cars would eventually just come to a grinding hault owing to a technical problem, that would then be a lottery :P

  3. How many drivers have the luxury of driving 2 F1 cars of the same season, it may have happened many times on the past but lately i don’t think so, that said i would love to hear what Bianchi has to say about both cars both engines both everything, how different can they be?

    1. I’m sure autosport have got a bag of cash waiting for his write-up of that back-to-back test.

      1. @splittimes I’m sure Ferrari and Force India have some humongous non-disclosure agreements!

  4. Bianchi’s best time today was 1:16.467

    The last pole position set at the track, by Kimi Räikkönen in 2008, was 1:16.449.

    Different cars, but remarkably similar times, don’t you think?

    1. Show’s how well engineers get around efforts by the FIA to slow the cars down.

    2. Yes, it must be interesting to understand where one car looses or gains to another.

  5. This might be a stupid question, but I must have missed out on this story somewhere – exactly why is Jules Bianchi testing for Ferrari AND Force India?

    1. Because he’s a Force India test driver yet still on the Ferrari junior academy program (alike Perez).

      1. Testing two different F1 cars in two days – tough job, but someone’s gotta do it I suppose!

  6. That’s a crazy amount of laps between all 3 of them. Any ideas on their longest stint?

Comments are closed.