Alonso keeps Ferrari on top as Pirelli test ends

2011 F1 testing

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Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, Abu Dhabi, 2010

Ferrari stayed fastest at Abu Dhabi as Fernando Alonso took over from Felipe Massa.

Alonso ended the final official test day of 2010 with a quickest time of 1’40.529.

The championship runner-up did over 100 laps in his Ferrari as he tried the Pirellis for the first time. He hit the top of the times sheets in the morning of the session and remained there throughout.

Michael Schumacher was second fastest, lapping just a tenth of a second slower than Alonso a few minutes before the session ended as he got re-acquainted with Pirelli tyres for the first time since 1991.

The Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel was third fastest as the new world champion did both days running for the team. He said:

There is still a lot to do, but I think the tyres are already better than expected. Since February we haven’t really had time to do any in-depth testing on track, so these two days have given us a chance to reflect on things we have tried during the season.
Sebastian Vettel

Pastor Maldonado caused one red flag in his HRT and ended the session a couple of tenths faster than Timo Glock at the bottom of the times.

The next F1 test session is on February 1st 2011 at the Circuit de Valencia Ricardo Tormo, Spain. For more test session dates see the F1 Fanatic Google Calendar.

DriverTeamBest lap
1Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’40.529s
2Michael SchumacherMercedes1’40.685s
3Sebastian VettelRed Bull1’40.825s
4Rubens BarrichelloWilliams1’41.294s
5Robert KubicaRenault1’41.614s
6Gary PaffettMcLaren1’41.622s
7Oliver TurveyMcLaren1’41.740s
8Paul di RestaForce India1’41.869s
9Kamui KobayashiSauber1’42.110s
10Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso1’42.145s
11Vitantonio LiuzziForce India1’42.416s
12Sergio PerezSauber1’42.777s
13Jarno TrulliLotus1’44.521s
14Pastor MaldonadoHRT1’44.768s
15Timo GlockVirgin1’44.783s

Combined lap times

Compare the best times of drivers who were present at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the Pirelli tyre test. Where no drivers did both those events for the same team, the times from the young drivers’ test are included.

The only driver to lap fastest at the Pirelli test than he did during the Abu Dhabi race weekend was Felipe Massa.

DriverRace weekendRookies testPirelli Fri.Pirelli Sat.
Sebastian Vettel1’39.3941’40.51’40.825
Lewis Hamilton1’39.425
Gary Paffett1’39.761’40.8741’41.622
Fernando Alonso1’39.7921’40.529
Jenson Button1’39.823
Nico Rosberg1’40.061’41.778
Felipe Massa1’40.2021’40.17
Ruibens Barrichello1’40.2031’41.4251’41.294
Michael Schumacher1’40.4521’40.685
Sergio Perez1’40.5431’42.777
Oliver Turvey1’40.7251’41.74
Robert Kubica1’40.781’41.0321’41.614
Kamui Kobayashi1’40.7831’40.951’42.11
Adrian Sutil1’40.9141’42.859
Vitantonio Liuzzi1’41.4621’42.416
Paul di Resta1’42.7361’41.6151’41.869
Jaime Alguersuari1’41.7381’42.019
Sebastien Buemi1’41.8241’42.145
Jarno Trulli1’43.5161’44.521
Heikki Kovalainen1’43.7121’44.686
Pastor Maldonado*1’43.751’45.7281’44.768
Timo Glock1’44.0951’44.1241’44.783
Bruno Senna1’45.085
Christian Klien1’45.296

2011 F1 testing

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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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    59 comments on “Alonso keeps Ferrari on top as Pirelli test ends”

    1. The championship runner-up did over 100 laps in his Ferrara

      Ferrari?

      1. Nah it’s just an Abe Simpson moment

        “I’ll be deep in the cold, cold ground before I follow Ferrara”

        1. Haha! Fixed it, thanks guys,

          1. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1’40.901

            Paul di Resta was the fastest driver on VJM03 with Bridgestone. this is his lap time from day two of the rookie test

    2. de resta half a sec faster then liuzzi dat should get him the job..nice to see michael & merc bck on form.

      1. So a change of tyre turned the Mercedes from a car one driver could put on the podium while the other struggled, into a car the latter may be able to put on the podium while the first now struggles.

        Nice challenge for the team at home to design a car both are competitive in.

      2. I think he had less fuel, just to give confidence.

        1. wat ever the case might be they have found somthin dats works today! hopefully they have an awesome car fr nxt yr!! =]

        2. Or maybe these tires suit his desire to chuck the nose of the car into corners and then hope the back end sticks… something the bridgestones struggled with this season.

          Honestly I don’t think we can take much of anything from these times, what we see in Feb will be the new cars and different tires to these.

          The only thing is that all the drivers will be starting from scratch to understand their Pirellis and it might take a few races for some drivers to adapt to them, the same way some drivers struggled when the Michelin teams had to change to Bridgestone.

    3. Hey Keith, any plans to attend a test session (or more than one) next year?

      1. This season’s only been finished an hour, I’ll have a nap first and let you know later!

        1. The track action may be over but off track isn’t.There are still a lot to happen between now & then.I wonder for how long you will be able to sleep.

        2. Ahaha yes true.. I simply can’t wait for next year. Time seems to fly so fast, next season will be here in no time.

          Can you confirm Schumacher’s story? Cutting a chicane which gave him that time..

          1. Yeah as far I know he is dropped to P7.

    4. Does anyone else think Alonso’s helmet looks boring compared to the one he used this year?

      1. This isn’t a permanent design, Massa used the same one yesterday.

        It seems they are just testing a new model of Schuberth helmets.

        1. Glad to know that. Can’t imagine Alonso or Massa wearing those Ferrari uniform lids.

    5. Very interesting in different in opinion between the two Mercedes drivers as Nico think that the performance won’t change too much in the current tyre on the other hand Michael seems to be happy about it.

      Nice work on combine lap time not too many website featured that.

    6. Schumacher wow, he really didn’t like Bridgestone’s tyres huh. If that Mercedes is up there next season we may well be looking at an 8 time world champion.

      1. Schumacher has as much of a chance of being a 8 time WDC as I have of getting an F1 seat.

        1. Difference is that he is still trying and you are not.

    7. Oh, he changed helmet color.

      1. No, he was testing (probably) the Schuberth SF1, with a red livery that Massa used yesterday too.

      2. Thanks. I wondered why Massa used red helmet lol.

    8. people_are_people
      20th November 2010, 15:32

      How come most drivers are slower than yesterday? Did the track conditions change, or were they just running a different program? And I read elsewhere that Alonso was driving the F60, instead of F10. Is this true?

      1. In the photo he was driving the F10, rather than the F60.

        1. people_are_people
          21st November 2010, 8:40

          Yeah, all the photos I’ve seen so far were the F10 as well. But he could’ve switched cars during the session so, was wondering if anybody had heard anything about it. Thanks anyway.

    9. I am still confused as to why mclaren are not using button or Hamilton. surely the 2 drivers have missed a trick there?

      1. Yeah that seems a bit daft to me considering McLaren is usually a smart outfit. Then again, they do make these tactical gaffes from time to time.
        Hope both drivers can assimilate quickly next year

        1. I am still struggling to understand this, the only thing that I can come up with is that they want to keep both Jenson and Lewis at arms length initially to allow them to develope a more neutral car.

      2. It is known that the current tires are going to change between now and the pre-season tests, so maybe they thought its useless to put their main drivers up to this task?

    10. Massa is the only one with a better time respect the race weekend. It’s seems he did’t give 100% during the last races… or he’s trying to show the team he can beat Alonso..

    11. Apparently Schumi cut the chicane on his best lap so he’s now p7.

      1. Yeah, true. Read on autosport.

        The Mercedez must be really slow. The Ferrari can do 2 extra corners and still be faster than the Merc.

        But its good to know that Massa is the only driver who has done better on Pirellis than on Bridgestones

    12. May i ask you in which 1991 occasion Schumacher drove with the Pirelly tyres?
      Jordan? Benetton? Both? Some kind of test?

      1. For sure Benetton, I don’t remember if Jordan used Pirelli too.

    13. Benetton used Pirelli tyres in 1991

    14. Vettel is champion but still has the number 5 on his RB6, it is nonsense to suggest he is not allowed to have number 1 on the car because at Goodwood all the old models had the new numbers. I’m guessing RBR didn’t put the #1 on the car because the didn’t take one to Abu Dhabi to Jinx the result! Either that or they are a more professional outfit than HRT and don’t want to just slap some matte paint on the car to lever up the #5!

      1. Technically I think these tests still count as part of the 2010 season so I don’t think he could have the number 1 on yet. Massa yesterday ran with the number 7 but he should have number 6 next season I think.

    15. What’s with the Ferrari guys (Alonso and Massa) running all red helmets. Is this some kind of tribute to the team after all the bad press they’ve been receiving?

      1. Just testing a new helmet produced by Schuberth

      2. it has meshed grill beside visor lock. I think it’s for cooling drivers in high temperature situation(like Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Malaysia, Bahrain)

    16. Very happy to see shumi in 2nd place

      1. I would love to see him in the battle for the WDC!

    17. What can we expect in the 2011 season?
      Are there any significant rule changes?
      I thing refueling should be brought back. It is kinda boring to know that anyone is using max fuel loads.
      Also the cars are not as pretty as they used to be. They are slimmer and longer but are not as futuristic looking, with various wings. The best looking car in my opinion are the 2000, 2001, 2007 Ferrari, 1998 McLaren, also I like last years “short” McLaren.
      Can we make a discussion on what were the best looking F1 cars in history?
      And in what direction is the F1 headed, regarding the loos and performance?

      1. What can we expect in the 2011 season?

        See: F1 2011 Season

        Are there any significant rule changes?

        See: 2011 F1 rules

        1. Thank you, I’am quite new to the forum. Heard about it on the BBC, so I thought this is the place to be when it comes to F1.

          Greetings from Montenegro!

    18. Look at Massa. The only driver to improve his time on Pirelli’s over Bridgestone and by a way too. Alonso will be on the phone to Pirelli already.

    19. “Ok so, Felipe is faster than you, can you confirm you understood that message?”

      1. I think you are the only person who thinks this is still funny :)

      2. I find it funny. :P

    20. Hi Keith,

      A Bulgarian F1 fans site claims that Michael Schumacher lapped 1.40.685 using shortcut on the truck and qualify him and Niko 10th and 11th in the overall standings with his previous personal best time 1:41.757.

      10. Michael Schumacher-Mercedes W01 – 1:41.757
      11. Niko Rosberg-Mercedes W01 – 1:41.778

      Is there any way to verify that info although that timing is unofficial?

      1. I’m looking into it, thanks.

    21. people_are_people
      22nd November 2010, 13:34

      Aren’t we going to get the full lap times data from Saturday…?

        1. people_are_people
          22nd November 2010, 14:11

          Sorry, I missed that. Will be waiting patiently.

    Comments are closed.