2011 F1 testing day 9: Barcelona

2011 F1 testing

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Narian Karthikeyan, HRT, Barcelona, 2011

Vitantonio Liuzzi will drive for HRT for the first time in Barcelona today.

But the Saturday crowd at the Circuit de Catalunya is likely to be more interested in Fernando Alonso.

You can find a full list of who’s driving and more information on today’s test below.

Drivers

The following drivers will be participating in today’s test:

TeamCarFriday 18th
Red BullRB7Sebastian Vettel
McLarenMP4-26Jenson Button
FerrariF150th ItaliaFernando Alonso
MercedesW02Nico Rosberg
RenaultR31Nick Heidfeld
WilliamsFW33Rubens Barrichello
Force IndiaVJM04Paul di Resta
SauberC30Kamui Kobayashi
Toro RossoSTR6Jaime Alguersuari
LotusT128Heikki Kovalainen/Ricardo Teixeira
HRTF110Vitantonio Liuzzi
VirginMVR-02Timo Glock

Update: Ricardo Teixeira to drive for Lotus this afternoon.

Best times so far at this test

TeamDriverTimeGap
1Red BullSebastian Vettel1’24.374
2FerrariFernando Alonso1’25.4851.111
3Toro RossoJaime Alguersuari1’25.6381.264
4SauberKamui Kobayashi1’25.6411.267
5McLarenJenson Button1’26.3651.991
6Force IndiaPaul di Resta1’26.5752.201
7WilliamsRubens Barrichello1’26.9122.538
8MercedesMichael Schumacher1’27.5123.138
9LotusHeikki Kovalainen1’30.0655.691
10VirginJerome d’Ambrosio1’30.9506.576
11RenaultVitaly Petrov1’35.17410.800

2010 best times

These are the best times for each team from last year’s pre-season test at the Circuit de Catalunya:

DriverCarBest time
Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes MP4-251’20.472
Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault RB61’20.496
Felipe MassaFerrari F101’20.539
Nico HulkenbergWilliams-Cosworth FW321’20.614
Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes VJM031’20.667
Nico RosbergMercedes W011’20.686
Kamui KobayashiBMW Sauber-Ferrari C291’20.911
Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari STR51’21.413
Vitaly PetrovRenault R301’22.523
Jarno TrulliLotus-Cosworth T1271’25.059
Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth VR-011’25.942

Circuit

Today’s test is at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain:

Direction: Clockwise
Length: 4.655km
Fastest lap (all-time): 1’18.483 (Fernando Alonso, Renault, 2008)

Following the test live

Williams are providing live times from the test on their website here:

If you find any other good sources for live times, please post them in the comments.

You can follow live updates from F1 Fanatic and others at the Circuit de Catalunya using the Live F1 Twitter app (no Twitter account needed):

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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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    39 comments on “2011 F1 testing day 9: Barcelona”

    1. I will be glad if Nico Rosberg manages to get more mileage atleast this time. By the way, Vettel clocked the fastest lap though he managed only 30+ laps…. whats up with that?

      1. Rosberg managed that today, over 130 laps!

    2. car and driver the f1.com (despite its name an Spanish site) does a live coverage of the tests.

    3. Are Torro Rosso just pulling a Sauber and running no fuel in these tests, or are they the dark horse of 2011 that’ll be nipping at the heals of the big teams? I know it’s just testing and nothing should be gleaned from any of the numbers, but they’ve been nowhere near the slowest in any of the tests so far.

    4. Come on HRT! Be good this year!! COME ON!

      1. If they do, I bet it’s Liuzzi’s merit :P

        1. If they do, I bet it’s Liuzzi’s merit

          Is that so Fixy?
          *rips off Fixy’s helmet*
          HAHA! You can’t fool me JOE SAWARD!

          1. I see what you’re doing there lol

    5. Please fix the driver’s name on image caption. Correct: Narain Karthikeyan

    6. According to Autosport, Ricardo Teixeira will also be driving the Lotus this afternoon:

      http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89562

      1. I find that a little fishy. Teixeria is a knwn pay driver, and is considered to be of fairly low quality. Meanwhile, Tony Fernandes is asking for $60 million dollars from Proton to settle the Lotus-Lotus naming dispute.

        Could Team Lotus be in some kind of financial trouble?

        1. Oh, come on, that $60 million is enough to cover losing the FOM money thanks to begin 10th, and sponsors being around due to the Lotus name. Even Group Lotus admits it, while still claiming it is outrageous someone would want to cover all the costs. They are just claiming that Fernandes should only get what it cost him to get the Team Lotus name, and give the name to him, that is what the difference in money is about. Personally, that means they are treating him as an intermediary in getting the name, as they have failed to acquire it for 10 years. He should be rewarded at least a big commission on it, frankly, for solving that problem for them!
          But that bit doesn’t say much about the finances of the team.

          But Teixeria is indeed a pay driver, and it is possible that the whole Lotus vs. Lotus thing is affecting the teams ability to attract sponsors.

      2. He’ll be driving tomorrow.

    7. McLaren have not been out yet????

      1. 7 untimed laps

        1. Yeh, it’s not looking good!

          1. Still not out, anyone know what the problem is?

    8. Vettel 1:23.4

    9. Vettel now over a second quicker than yesterday

    10. What’s wrong with Mclaren?
      They are big enough team to be running out of spares all the time.
      I hope they are purposely doing less running and are hiding some innovation which they don’t want others to see during the tests and therefore less time to copy.

      1. Sorry to be stupid, where are you getting this info from?

        1. i mean the times, not the hope that Mclaren are hiding an innovation!

        2. http://www.msfree.gr/includes/livelaps.php?name=Button

          Change the name= to the surname of the driver testing.

      2. Back out on track now, not sure why no running for half a day.

        1. An hydraulics issue.

          1. Thanks……..

    11. RBR doing short runs.

    12. and Alonso up to 43 laps completed. The Ferrari look kind on its tyres again this year.

      1. Only hearing good things about Ferrari and Red Bull at present.

        1. At least Williams, Merc and Mclaren are now in the 1:24’s… but how close is this compared with their ultimate pace?, not close I hope.

          1. Vettel just did a run on full tanks (race simulation) that had his times going from the 1.29’s into the 1.32’s. He then pitted after 15 laps. He then did similar times and pitted after a further 15 laps. He was on a 60 lap race simulation. Make of that info what you will.

            Also bear in mind that last seasons Spanish pole position time was under 1.20!

            1. Rosberg is doing similar times on his race simulation.

            2. and similar times to Buttons although his seem to be 12 – 15 lap stints.

    13. I know it’s only testing, blablabla, but if you weren’t interested in speculation you wouldn’t be here. :)

      Anybody else starting to get the hunch Red Bull’s lead at the start of this season might be even bigger than last year?

      They started using the pull-rod suspension in 2009. They were the only team without a double decker diffuser who could keep up the the Brawn. None of the other teams caught up with either the Red Bull or the three double decker diffuser teams until everybody started integrating it. I was always surprised so few other teams opted for a similar suspension, this year in particular.

      Just looking at the back of the RB7 seems to generate downforce.

      1. Well a bit of a relief that RBR are only *wide eyes* doing 1:30s on full tanks. Vettel now seems to be down to 1:28’s though, I take it that is after a stop for fresh rubber.

        1. Yes, Vettel has pitted again, and remember that he and Rosberg started out on full tanks (Vettel at about 2.30 local time with a few minutes break for a red flag). So we know what sort of fuel level they were on for each of their stops.

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