McLaren reserve de la Rosa to do Pirelli test

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McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa is to conduct a tyre test for Pirelli in Istanbul.

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Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

De la Rosa set for final Pirelli run (Autosport)

“Although de la Rosa has recently signed a reserve driver deal with McLaren, Pirelli has made no secret of the fact that it wanted the Spaniard to run one last time at a private test because he has the most knowledge of its preparations.”

Sebastien Buemi on Twitter

“I feel sorry for the Sauber guys but Perez did an awesome race!”

Via the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app

Sauber technical director James Key (Grand Prix)

“When we gave him soft tyres on lap 22 we weren’t expecting it either! About lap 45 was when we decided we’d give it a go. We monitored it very closely, we were speaking to Pirelli and they were advising us about our wear on the first set of tyres and they said it looked pretty good. We felt that if the lap times continued as they were and didn’t drop off as we’d seen before, then we’d just leave him out. That didn’t really happen until about a couple of laps before the end, when he probably backed off a little bit anyway, to be fair. It was a bit of an eye opener and I think we’ll go to Kuala Lumpur with a slightly different view on the tyres.”

Tony Fernandes on Twitter

“Guys, I would love to be able to beat Renault. But it ain’t going to happen any time soon. But this ain’t about one season. My strategy always takes time. It’s not about this season. It’s about getting it right so its forever. Just like Air Asia.”

Via the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app

Sauber – Explanation of the rear wing infringement (Scarbs F1)

Sauber have three versions of the flap available and two were brought to Melbourne. It seems the version raced was not fully checked at the factory and therefore the error was not picked up, whereas the other (un-raced) specification flap was checked and deemed legal. Not every car and every component gets fully checked by the FIA scrutineers. The cars will go through different tests at different points in the weekend. It seems the Sauber flap in question was not tested until after the race.”

Meet Lewis Hamilton, The Car (Empire)

“We’ve got some new Cars 2 characters to share with you, and a little turntable video too. But they’re not just any old new Cars 2 characters, no sir. One’s Lewis Hamilton. No… really.”

Lewis Hamilton to take 13,000-mile detour to watch brother Nicolas make race debut ahead of Malaysian GP (Daily Telegraph)

Nicolas Hamilton will be racing in a Renault Clio Cup event at Brands Hatch. I’#m going there to watch that and see the first races of the British Touring Car Championship – let me know in the comments if you’re heading there too.

Follow F1 news as it breaks using the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app.

Comment of the day

Andy C sticks up for HRT:

The more people hate HRT, the more I find myself defending them.

I would personally love it, if in Malaysia they come out fighting and are faster than Virgin.

Virgin had a complete winters prep, and HRT came within 1.7 seconds of them in what was effectively a shakedown.

In Vitantonio Liuzzi, they have someone who is clearly an able F1 driver.

All of this nonsense about HRT being a joke, and having cocked up their winter prep is just ill-informed.

They’ve had a massive team of designers working on the redesign of the new car, under Geoff Willis, who has proven he knows his way around F1.

It would have been easier to just turn out with last years car, but they’ve tried to do things to improve, and all of the armchair experts are slating them. And under Colin Kolles they have a stubborn guy who tends to get things done.
Andy C

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Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Blake!

On this day in F1

It all kicked off between the Williams drivers at Jacarepagua in Brazil 30 years ago today.

Reigning champion Alan Jones was left fuming after team mate Carlos Reutemann ignored instructions from the team to let Jones win.

More on that race in this article from last year:

And a video of the start of the race:

Image © Pirelli

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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70 comments on “McLaren reserve de la Rosa to do Pirelli test”

  1. They should get Lewis for testing and let DLR race

    1. why?

      that decision would be the wrong one in pretty much every way for McLaren

    2. I’m a bit perplexed that no teams are making a stink over DLR doing more testing now that the season’s begun and he’s back with McLaren. They should let every team send a representative attend the test and view all the data if they’re going to give McLaren that insight.

      1. Because they are not Ferrari, that’s why

      2. I am pretty sure all the data will be equally distributed to all teams by Pirelli.

      3. Pirreli have already come out to say he is testing tyres for next season. The tyres tested are not often raced. They are just used as a basis to design newer tyres.

        1. This I think is the key point. If Pirelli are concerned about turn 8, they will surley change their tyres on the basis of this test. All the teams will get the data, but might McLaren not get De La Rosa veiw?

          Regardless sounds like sucha miniscule advantage it’s barley worth a mention. If McLaren 1-2’s it there’ll bne wry comments and thats all.

    3. You are clinically insane. :)

  2. I think Sauber should go to Malaysia expecting to do at least 2 stops if the weather is dry. Sepang is a completely different track that wears the right tyres significantly. It will be a different challenge for Pirelli.

    1. It’s pretty much a given that a one-stop won’t work in Malaysia. The loads placed on tyres are much higher than in Albert Park, particularly across the top of the circuit with those wonderful flowing curves. Not to mention the fact that ambient temperature and humidity will be much higher than in Mebourne.

      1. Although I’m guessing that the increased temperature will mean that the teams won’t have as much trouble getting heat into the tires as they did in Australia,

        1. Prisoner Monkeys
          29th March 2011, 2:39

          Actually, it might be at the opposite end of the spectrum. Next to the Bridgestones, the Pirellis are known to have a comparatively narrower temperature band for optimal tyre performance. While they have to be above 20 degrees Celsius in order for the team to extract the best performance from them, you can bet there will be an upper limit to that temperature band as well. It’s not entirely inconceivable that the tyres – especially the softer compound – will exceed that upper limit in the Malaysian heat, and the teams have not experienced that in winter testing because Spain has very consistent year-round temperatures.

          And while the heat and humidity take their toll on the drivers, the circuit is equally taxing. Turns 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 12 all exert incredible lateral g-forces because of the high speeds, while 13 requires simultaneous braking and a change of direction, and turns 1, 2, 9 and 14 all demand heavy braking. Given that the Sepang surface is notorious for degrading and only being given an upgrade when Bernie threatens to drop them, there are places around the circuit that are a real patchwork of tarmac types, with old and new surfaces mixed in together. It also gets a lot more use than Albert Park, so I think Sepang could be a real challenge for the teams to balance out the tyres.

          Especially since the tyres were shipped out to all the early events well before the beginning of the season, so the composition might be slightly different to the final product Pirelli signed off on. They did, after all, say that the tyres will subtly change in their exact makeup over the course of a season.

          1. Yeah, I suppose that’s all possible. We’ll find out soon enough.

      2. But it will quite probably be a mute point with the race being perfectly timed to run during the periods of monsoon rain anyway.

        I fully expect they will have to use wets or intermediates at one point in the race.

        As a side point, I understand that that blocks the usage of the DRS, so we might not know what it is capable of even after 2 races.

        1. I hadn’t thought about rain and the implications for DRS. It’ll be interesting to see what happens. There aren’t any limitations on KERS in the wet though are there?

  3. Small mistake Keith.

    Both poll links are exactly the same

    1. I saw that as well Keith.

      Wasn’t it supposed to link to the best driver and the rate the race polls instead of just the first of them?

      1. It was – have fixed it now.

  4. Haha the Lewis Hamiilton car even that the gap in the front teeth!

    Is the car meant to be a MP4-12c though? looks like a lotus/mclaren

    1. Hadn’t noticed the gap in his “grill.” That’s pretty funny.

    2. LOL, I hadn’t noticed that either.

      It looks like its the McLaren, altough the greenish main color hints a bit of a Lotus, especially with the renault style gold/yellow stripes.
      Made to look “european sports car but not Ferrari or Porsche” then?

      1. Seems its supposed to be black. A McLaren MP4-12C with a Renault JPS livery then? Makes the greenish shine an even better quip at Lotus not being certain of itself.
        But what does Ron think of that colour sceme?

        1. I bet Ron saw the ‘work in progress’ on the 3d model software at Pixar, and smiled to himself when he saw the grey livery colour as the animated the car – but his face would have changed quite a bit when the ‘child freindly colourful’ livery was unveiled!

      2. It looks like its the McLaren, altough the greenish main color hints a bit of a Lotus, especially with the renault style gold/yellow stripes.

        I saw the gap, also the lips on the car are nigh on identical to Hamilton’s Real lips.

        I think the Yellow strip is for his helmet design, you know, the bright yellow one.

  5. I have to say I was much more excited about David Hobbscap than Lewis Hamilton the car. Very classy, and Hobbs sounded excited about it when they made the announcement on SPEED right after the race on Sunday.

  6. Regarding the COTD, I agree completely. I’m not a fan of Kolles, but the vitriol that’s spewing out all over the web for HRT is really disgusting. If you really think about what they’ve achieved with the resources available to them, they’ve done as well as anyone could hope to. I hope they’re able to get some good running in free practice at Sepang, with their new front wing, and are able to make the grid. I think they’ve got a shot at beating Virgin again this year if they can survive the season.

    1. I agree with you on both of your above comments Peter. Well said!

    2. After they started communicating a bit, going on Facebook and Twitter and having Narain tweet as well, they might claim a spot as the garagista guerrilas hard working to make an appearance but nice to see what they do.

      Great work for them not giving up and actually trying to get a better package out of the tub with minimal means.

  7. AAaargh of all the comments to link about HRT…

    All of this nonsense about HRT being a joke, and having cocked up their winter prep is just ill-informed.

    They’ve had a massive team of designers working on the redesign of the new car, under Geoff Willis, who has proven he knows his way around F1.

    A massive team of designers? That’s nice. They must be funding this team from all the masses of sponsorship they have, because I haven’t heard any tales of them hiring acres of staff, and they didn’t have a design team last year – in fact they spent months not paying the people who did design the car. And their other design consultants, Toyota, pulled support because… they didn’t get paid. Hmmmm. They don’t actually have any manufacturing facilities to speak of, though, do they? Just as well that didn’t affect their ability to get the car ready for the first race. Oh wait, it was two weeks late for the first race, and even then it wasn’t complete, and it was falling to bits on the track. Just like the previous year.

    It would have been easier to just turn out with last years car, but they’ve tried to do things to improve, and all of the armchair experts are slating them. And under Colin Kolles they have a stubborn guy who tends to get things done.

    They did turn up with last year’s car!

    It’s last year’s monocoque, engine, hydraulics, suspension, nosecone, airbox and roll hoop. The rear wing has been modified to fit a DRS system that can only be activated if a mechanic is holding on to the bit that’s not in the photo. They never had a double diffuser last year so there’s nothing to modify there.

    There is a massive difference between being “against small teams” and being against HRT because they have proved administratively, technically and financially incompetent and not fit for the top echelons of the sport.

    And Colin Kolles?

    The guy that switches pay drivers around, giving out a press release that says “Sakon has food poisoning.” – when Sakon is walking around the paddock and hasn’t been told he’s not driving?

    Sums it all up really.

    1. Michael Griffin
      29th March 2011, 2:37

      Epic comment!

      COTD

    2. There is a massive difference between being “against small teams” and being against HRT

      Couldn’t agree more.

    3. Sir Tate, you hit the nail on the head right there.

    4. At least they get our emotions up and the discussions going!

      Sure HRT did not make a completely new car. They are on a very tight budget so they just looked at where they can find most for minimal cost.

      Brought in the Williams rear end of last year. That will be a major improvement in drivability and reliability. And they redid the sidepods (without changing the crash structure underneath, for obvious reasons).

      The nose and front wing should have been new as well, but they did not get crash testing, so HRT used the old ones for their shakedown qualli runs.

      Had they had no ambitions at all, they could have just shown up with last years car and done a new nose and a bit of aero. The fact they went for the Williams package shows there is some ambition.

      The cars were built by subcontractors and the team working on them is more or less Kolles own people in Germany. It even seems he is for now funding that at least partly himself, counting on getting it back in the future when he manages to keep the team running long enough to actually find solid backing to take it further.

      The driver roulette last year was a sad spectacle, made more hilarious by the excuses given. But it did do the job of seeing the team through the season and with a bit left to work on the car (even though it got started very late).

    5. A massive team of designers?

      It’s called a “hyperbole”.

      There is a massive difference between being “against small teams” and being against HRT because they have proved administratively, technically and financially incompetent and not fit for the top echelons of the sport.

      And what makes a team “fit for the top echelons” of the sport? If it’s down to performance then Virgin and Lotus are not fit either. Is it down to actually racing? Well, that’s what HRT did for the last twelve months before 107 % came to play. Is it appearance? If yes, HRT would only need a top-notch PR officer and nobody would complain, or what? So, no, there is no difference being against HRT and being against small team.

      The guy that switches pay drivers around, giving out a press release that says “Sakon has food poisoning.” – when Sakon is walking around the paddock and hasn’t been told he’s not driving?

      Oh, please, as if HRT would be the only one lying in their press releases. I can count a considerable number of lies in Formula 1 – if you’re holding that against HRT, Formula 1 is the wrong sport for you.

    6. You spanked the COTD with this new COTD.

  8. Last time in Cars they had a cameo from Schumacher with a Ferrari F430, nice to see they are now having Hamilton.
    Will he be a Mclaren Mp 4-12C?

    http://yfrog.com/hsyvyzvj

  9. Some people using Google Chrome have reported problems with pages loading slowly. At the moment I’m not able to replicate the problem which makes fixing it very difficult.

    I have a similar problem using Safari (Version 5.0.4) on a MacBook Pro 13′ using Mac OS X (Version 10.6.7)

    When using Firefox, the pages load very fast and without problems but on Safari the page remains loading only showing the menu and header (without ads) on the screen, it takes me 2 or 3 tries before the pages load properly (and in any case not as fast as with Firefox)

    1. Yeah, it’s with both Chrome and Safari on OSX, and seemingly every browser for iOS that I’ve tested so far.

      1. They all share the same webkit engine so makes sense they’re all experiencing it. I have the same issue, but it seems to go away if I install an ad-blocker.

        1. Hmm I’m on the same setup and I’m not seeing the issues at the moment. I have seen them before though in chrome on osx.

        2. Please do not use ad blockers. I appreciate the ad problem is annoying but we are trying to fix it. It is only apparent for some people using certain browsers, which makes fixing it difficult.

          If you use ad blockers it means I lose revenue and without that I can’t run the site.

          1. Agreed, had just installed it to see if ads were the issue.

          2. Oh yes, Keith, we don’t want another HRT. Find your money, we don’t want you to give up.

    2. Yeah. in my iPad, sometimes it seems like almost impossible to load pages. IE9 has little issues. I think Firefox4 is most stable browser to read F1F.

      1. Yeah, Firefox does seem the most stable. I wish there were an iPad version allowed in the app store. I’m running Atomic Web now, with it set to show itself as Firefox 3. Seems marginally better than what I was experiencing with Safari.

  10. Who was the best driver of the Australian Grand Prix weekend?
    Who was the best driver of the Australian Grand Prix weekend?

  11. I bet James Key won’t be the only one going into Kuala Lumpar with a different view of the tyres after Perezs race.

  12. Sush Meerkat
    29th March 2011, 8:13

    Some people using Google Chrome have reported problems with pages loading slowly. At the moment I’m not able to replicate the problem which makes fixing it very difficult.

    When will you people learn to use Opera, for Opera is king.

    Here check this out;
    http://www.dotnetperls.com/chrome-memory

    the Browser with the biggest memory footprint/memory leakage is Chrome, its small and fast with only one webpage open, but multi tab and it goes south.

    The smallest is Firefox, but thats somewhat misleading because Firefox is a feature creep when it comes to plug ins and toolbars, basically people use Firefox to have ten different toolbars to personalise the experience for them.

    Keith, are you running Chrome with just one or two tabs open for diagnostic purposes? that could be why you can’t replicate the issue, memory leaks on Chrome happens when you’ve got multi tabs open.

    1. It’s not a memor issue, other pages load fine. It’s something to do with the ads.

    2. Just tried it with a dozen tabs open in Chrome including some rather heavy pages (racing drivers’ websites, mostly…) and again F1 Fanatic loaded finger-snappingly fast.

      1. Just tried it with a dozen tabs open in Chrome including some rather heavy pages (racing drivers’ websites, mostly…) and again F1 Fanatic loaded finger-snappingly fast.

        Well I’m stumped!, I have an issue with Chrome and F1fanatics but its only when I’ve been using Chrome with several opened and then closed tabs.

    3. dump ya cache.

  13. Keith, usually problems with browsers are sometimes specific to an operating system. Most of the time it may be just that. Sometimes it is a problem from the settings. Anyone complaining while using an “eyephone”, should remember that phone does’t support flash.

    1. Anyone complaining while using an “eyephone”, should remember that phone does’t support flash.

      I call mine an “ehPhone”, because I find it so underwhelming compared to how other iPhone owners bang on about it.

      The iPad doesn’t support flash either guys, so all you iPad users THAT IS THE PROBLEM!

      1. Nope. Other sites with flash load fine on iOS devices and simply leave holes where Flash is on the page. I don’t. Think F1F is a very flash heavy site. I’ve tried the Skyfire iPad browser as well, which does support some Flash, and the problem is the same. Also if it were flash related, I wouldn’t have the same problem running Chrome and Safari on my Mac. As others have said above, Firefox on Mac loads the page fine every time. I really wish there were an iOS browser based on Firefox.

  14. Lewis Hamilton is gonna be in Cars 2? Cool!

    By the way, Cars 1 was the last film that brought a tear to my eye, every time I see it, that bit where King crashes just sets me off. :D

    Any other F1 drivers confirmed for the movie? Schumacher was in 1 and there so far there is a new car shaped like a Formula 1 car already revealed.

    1. I’ve enjoyed so many of Pixar’s films that “Cars” was a crushing disappointment when I finally saw it. Unfunny, and the main character was incredibly irritating. I gave up halfway through.

      1. I felt pretty much the same, the only scene that I liked was the one with Schumacher. That one is seriously funny.

  15. Happy birthday to Blake, make it a memorable one!

    1. McLarenFanJamm
      29th March 2011, 10:19

      seconded. have a good one Blake

  16. Before I installed AdBlockPlus on Chrome F1F would loop on itself trying to load the ads over and over.

    1. I realise there is a problem affecting some users at the moment and it appears to be advertising related. But I must ask you please not to block the ads.

      Without them, I cannot earn revenue and without that I cannot run the website. It is no exaggeration to say that people blocking ads could lead directly to the site being closed. It’s that simple.

  17. McLarenFanJamm
    29th March 2011, 10:18

    Anyone else heard that the FIA are going to increase the DRS zone from 600 to 700 meters at the Malaysia GP?

    Given that it was over 860 meters in Australia this seems like a bit of a backward step. Granted, the pit straight it preceeded by a hairpin unlike the fast turn 16 at Albert Park, but if the car in front still has a full KERS then the DRS is going to end up basically useless, isn’t it?

    Also, Malaysia is always scheduled during monsoon time. And as we saw in Australia, if anybody is running on inters/wets, the DRS is disabled.

    So far, it’s all looking about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

    1. So far, it’s all looking about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

      Really? There were a few passes in the DRS zone – off the top of my head Alonso managed one and Button did two.

      Some passes were made with DRS that weren’t shown in the live broadcast and there were some passes in the race that may have involved DRS that weren’t shown at all.

      I noticed the BBC drew attention one attempt Button made at the start which didn’t work. But we don’t want it to become so easy that it works every time, do we?

      1. McLarenFanJamm
        29th March 2011, 10:39

        No, of course not. But off the top of my head I can only remember one pass made within the DRS zone. (however, that could be down to sleep deprivation)

        It would be interesting to see a comparison between number of overtakes at Australia this year and last year to see if DRS has actually made a difference.

        1. can’t remember if it was Alonso or Buttons but one was new tyres against old so I don’t think you can really count that. As was pointed out it was the last corner that made it slightly ineffective.
          The Mclaren for example were slow through the last few corners so it didn’t work as well for them.
          If people were allowed to use it one the back straight in would of been much more effective.

          1. There were a few overtakes at turn three that were aided by closing the gap to the leading car on the main straight by using DRS, setting up through turns 1 and 2. So I think there will continue to be some unexpected effects of DRS that will probably continue all year as each race is on a circuit that’s new to DRS. It’ll certainly be a few more races before the FIA gets settled into a groove with DRS and their understanding of its function.

  18. I have experienced the same problem with Chrome…
    Looking at it, its most probably caused by delay in loading some of the advertisements..

  19. Has anyone watched this programme (UK only) about safety in F1 during the 60s and 70s… quite astonishing really.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00z8v18/Grand_Prix_The_Killer_Years/

  20. “Lewis Hamilton in Cars 2”

    Not sure how I feel about this… 8|

Comments are closed.