Jerez Day 4: Lewis Top as Jamie Goes from Hero to Zero

McLaren caught the headlines on day 4 but this was down to the weather, what impressed me more was that Virgin racing finally seem to be up and running.

For any Hamilton fans it was good to see the 2008 champion set the fastest lap today; this means that the McLaren definitely has some pace. However, he didn't spend all day there so the time was probably a late glory run - simply stopping anyone else from having the Jerez headlines.

Adrian Sutil was the person on top for most of the day, backing up the assertion that this year's VJM 03 is a good improvement on its predecessor.

Yet again Barrichello put in lots of laps in the Williams and yet again the team seem to be there or there abouts on pace. It will be interesting to see just how well they do.

Kubica gave Renault a few more smiles by putting himself fourth today. Surely his time was helped by both Ferrari and Mercedes having minor problems.

Indeed it was Schumacher in the Mercedes who was next up. He has declared himself happy with the running today but it is clear that the team doesn't have the performance advantage it enjoyed at the start of 2009.

Vettel and Massa followed which is interesting because I expect both the Red Bull and Ferrari to be in the title race next year (not 6th and 7th). The only thing that I can offer is that Ferrari took it slightly easier and Red Bull are going through the initiall motions that most teams went through last week.

De la Rosa was next up - the only time that the Sauber hasn't been in contention for a top lap time. It seems that today wasn't about glory runs but putting laps on the board. the whole team will hope that this isn't their genuine position.

So, to the final two. Having been near to the top all week, one would have thought that the Toro Rosso would easily have been above the Virgin team. However, today was somewhat of a breakthrough; the VR-01 set the 9th fastest time and completed 63 laps. This is revolutionary from a team that had ran 20 laps at most before this.

Despite doing 98 laps, Alguersuari was at the bottom of the time sheets. I can only assume that he ran heavily today but even so, it doesn't look good being beaten by the new team.

My driver of the day? Di Grassi. Simply to give the new team some credit after the struggles of the last few days.

1. L. Hamilton  McLaren MP4-25  1:19.583  113 laps

2. A. Sutil  Force India VJM-03  1:20.180  84 laps
3. R. Barrichello  Williams FW32  1:20.341  90 laps
4. R. Kubica  Renault R30  1:20.358  85 laps
5. M. Schumacher  Mercedes GP W01  1:20.613  84 laps
6. S. Vettel  Red Bull Racing RB6  1:21.203  90 laps
7. F. Massa  Ferrari F10  1:21.485  160 laps
8. P. de la Rosa  Sauber C29  1:22.134  105 laps
9. L. Di Grassi  Virgin Racing VR-01  1:22.912  63 laps
10. J. Alguersuari  Toro Rosso STR5  1:24.072  98 laps

Lotus Prove Max and Bernie Right.

I was completely thrown yesterday when Lotus didn't launch their new car until late afternoon; I was expecting a nice early morning launch so that I could pass judgement at lunch. Instead, the Lotus launch was bigger than that of Red Bull, Renault and Williams - not what you would expect from the new boys.

This has been an incredible journey for Lotus; they were the last of the new teams to be confirmed and in the 5 months since they have put together probably the best technical staff of those teams. Mike Gascoyne comes with experience from Renault and Toyota and knows how to make a team tick - he will ensure that the team doesn't make any rash decisions and he was integral in bringing Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen to the team (both winners still with something to prove).

The car itself does have some similarities with the Toyota of last year; in particularly around the front nose/wing area. However, if looks are a judgement of how well this car is going to go then it maybe seems to lack the aggression and ambition of the VR-01 (the car from Virgin who Lotus expects to be racing closely through most of the year).

The T127 looks a bit boxy in the sidepod area; in fact it looks a bit boxy full stop. There are none of the sleek, sexy, computer generated lines of the Virgin car but on the plus side - a lot of experience has gone into the car. Proper, old school engineering - keep it simple; make logical decisions. This can be seen from the front wing; it is developed where the Virgin's really isn't. I can see this car being easier to develop than a lot of the other newbies and I also see it working better than most; I expect none of the teething troubles the Virgin is having in its first test days.

This team, more than any of the other new teams is the embodiment of Bernie's (and Max's) master plan. A plan that they obviously put into action when Honda pulled out over a year ago. It was a simple idea; make F1 accessible to other teams (even if it means that 2010 could be somewhat a three tier championship) so that in the future, when the world is in the boom of the cycle again, there is still F1 on TV rather than the ghost of a championship that had died in between booms. 

I see this car being a steady challenger; taking opportunities and maybe making good progress over the course of the year - Trulli and Kovalainen will help with this. In the Virgin Vs Lotus battle? The looks went to Virgin but I just think that Lotus have the more functional car.

***

In yesterday's 3rd testing day from Jerez there was very little running. Rain caused havoc and most of the teams chose not to run too much. Jamie Alguersuari ended the day on top of the time-sheets but the competitive times were set within the first hour (hence a lot of people had only done installation laps).   

My driver of the day was Rubens Barrichello for having the sheer determination to complete over 100 trecherous laps.

1. J. Alguersuari  Toro Rosso STR5  1:19.919  76 laps

2. P. de la Rosa  Sauber C29   1:20.736  58 laps
3. A. Sutil  Force India VJM-03  1:21.428  48 laps

4. F. Massa  Ferrari F10 1:21.603  72 laps

5. S. Vettel  Red Bull Racing RB6  1:21.783  59 laps

6. V. Petrov  Renault R30  1:22.000  68 laps

7. N. Rosberg  Mercedes GP W01  1:22.820  53 laps

8. R. Barrichello  Williams FW32  1:23.217  120 laps

9. L. Hamilton  McLaren MP4-25  1:23.985  68 laps

10. L. Di Grassi  Virgin Racing VR-01  1:37.107  8 laps

Fun in the Sun

With rain yesterday and more bad weather expected tomorrow and Saturday, today may have been the only dry running for the teams in Jerez. They made the most of it.

Toro Rosso's Sebastian Buemi topped the timesheets for most of the day - going for an early light run. This was probably so that the team could check the balance in the car before continuing to run heavier loads for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, his longer runs weren't quite as speedy. Despite that, that early lap was still good enough for second and made Buemi my driver of the day.

It was the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi which ended the day on top; his last minute effort just pipping the Toro Rosso. This was surprising as the Japanese driver spent most of the day languishing at the bottom of the order. This implies that the Sauber is awesome on light fuel but struggles with heavier loads. They could be a force in qualifying that causes a problem for people in the race.

Jenson Button had another awkward start to the day; spending lots of time in the morning still working on his position within the car. However, there were promising signs in the afternoon as he set the 3rd quickest laptime in the McLaren. The only downside was in the closing stages when he stopped out on track bringing the session to an end.

Just behind the McLaren was Nico Hulkenberg in the Williams. Today he seemed to concentrate on medium to short stints, but he was fast. The Williams is really dialled into this track and was the fastest through the speed trap - maybe the Cosworth engine will be a bit of an unexpected gem of the coming season. The only thing stopping Nico from claiming the performance of the day was the rookie mistake which saw him make an excursion to the gravel trap.

Liuzzi's Force India was next up but only due to a late flyer. There is still plenty to work on with the VJM03.

Schumacher and Alonso ran very similar programmes; long runs. The Ferrari seemed more consistent and competitive over the day but the Mercedes set a late lap to overtake the Spaniard.

Kubica was drafted in by Renault today so that the team-leader could make the most of the dry track to guide the development of the R30. From the look of his time progress needs to be made.

Webber ran well at first but then probably ran the heaviest of all; the Red Bull team needed to go through their heaviest set-up runs which were completed by most of the teams in Valencia last week.

Last up was Timo Glock. The new Virgin team again struggled for pace before a front wing failure forced an end to their day.


1. Kamui Kobayashi  Sauber C29  1:19.950   103 laps 
2. Sebastien Buemi  Toro Rosso STR5  1:20.026   121 laps
3. Jenson Button  McLaren MP4-25  1:20.618   83 laps 
4. Nico Hulkenberg  Williams FW32  1:20.629   67 laps 
5. Tonio Liuzzi  Force India VJM03  1:20.754   80 laps
6. Michael Schumacher  Mercedes W01  1:21.083   124 laps
7. Fernando Alonso  Ferrari F10  1:21.424   129 laps 
8. Robert Kubica  Renault R30  1:22.003   103 laps
9. Mark Webber  Red Bull RB6  1:22.043   99 laps 
10. Timo Glock  Virgin VR-01  1:29.964   11 laps

The Rain in Spain...

Second test of the year in Jerez? Check. Three new cars to join the party? Check. Plenty of Spanish sun to give us an indication of who's quick? Hmmm, maybe tomorrow...

For the record, it was Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes who set the day's fastest time but he was one of the few drivers to set a competitive time before the rain came after 45mins.

Thereafter, the view was mixed. Some teams (Williams in particular) decided to use the rain to evaluate their set up for wet conditions - doing many long stints to evaluate how the tyres would cope in a race situation. They were quick in this set-up too. Renault went the other way; not wanting to waste time evaluating their car in conditions that make the times irrespective. Maybe the team didn't want (rookie) Petrov to be making fundamental performance decisions when the car isn't behaving normally.

The 'big' teams went more aggressive; using the fact that overall pace would be masked by the weather to assess a multitude of things from the wear on the tyres to ultimate performance. For example, there were many times when Button did a reasonably long stint starting in the 1:32s and ending in the mid 1:30s (as the fuel was burnt). Alonso ran a similar programme, his best wet time seeming to be around the 1:30.5 mark too. He did say that "the car went very well on the wet track though and it's easy to drive. The feeling is good, just like on the dry" all of which implies that the Ferrari and McLaren are still fairly close with the Ferrari just edging it. Oddly the McLaren ran with a strange device attached in front of the sidepod, whatever it was analysing the team don't seem too worried but are they just playing the problems down?

Mercedes also ran mid length stints, Rosberg claiming that he felt "much better" in the car compared with last week. They seemed just a short step behind Ferrari and McLaren in their stints.

The new Red Bull hit the track and suffered a few teething problems which limited their running. They were still in the initial set-up phase of testing when an oil problem lost them over 4 hours of running! The running they did was pretty good though.

However, nothing compared to the new Virgin team who managed only a handful of installation laps after spending most of the day making last minute additions to their VR-01 machine.

Today's driver of the day? Nico Hulkenberg for having the determination to make the most, even in the poor weather. 118 laps!! He was rewarded by being the fastest man in the wet too; putting his Williams ahead of the big guns in these conditions.

Unofficial Wet Times

1. Hulkenberg  Williams 1:28.606

2. Alonso  Ferrari 1:28.7
3. Button  McLaren 1:30

4. Webber  Red Bull 1:30

5. Kobayashi  Sauber 1:31

6. Rosberg  Mercedes GP 1:32

7. Liuzzi  Force India 1:32

8. Buemi  Toro Rosso 1:33

9. Petrov  Renault 1:34

10. Glock  Virgin Racing 1:38

Unofficial Dry Times

1. N. Rosberg  Mercedes GP W01  1:20.927 57 laps

2. S. Buemi  Toro Rosso STR5  1:21.031  84 laps

3. N. Hülkenberg  Williams FW32  1:22.243  118 laps

4. F. Alonso  Ferrari F10  1:22.895  88 laps

5. K. Kobayashi  Sauber C29  1:23.287  55 laps

6. J. Button  McLaren MP4-25  1:24.947  68 laps

7. V. Liuzzi  Force India VJM-03  1:24.968  71 laps

8. V. Petrov  Renault R30  1:25.440  27 laps

9. M. Webber  Red Bull Racing RB6  1:26.502  50 laps

10. T. Glock  Virgin Racing VR-01  1:38.734  5 laps

Feeling Bullish!

Last year was a breakthrough for the Red Bull team; from the embarrassment of having their own junior team (Toro Rosso) beat them in 2008, to runners-up in the championship in '09. Not only this, they were runners-up despite not having a fully utilised double diffuser (their design had been compromised due to their unique pull-rod suspension system). So, surely a team that finished the year as the clear best (winning the final 3 races at a canter) would be the favourite going into this year - especially with design guru Adrian Newey having time to design the car around the diffuser. Maybe, but with the Chinese zodiac moving from Ox to Tiger, will fortune favour the Bull quite so much? Mercedes money and McLaren and Ferrari resurgence indicate it won't be easy to pick up where they left off.

It's funny, all of the teams have been taking obvious inspiration from the Red Bull RB5 from last year - stealing aspects like the nose 'humps' or shark-fin engine cover, but the RB6 (revealed in Jerez today) looks like what you would expect to get if you bred the newest Ferrari and McLaren together.

The high, flat nose is very reminiscent of the McLaren - as is the level of development and complexity in the front wing design. The shark-fin too is very McLaren-esque; attaching to the rear wing. However, the sidepod area is like the Ferrari; sleek and smooth as if the team has gone for the same long and narrow solution to accommodating the larger fuel tank.

This car certainly looks like it should be quick out of the box; it seems an extremely satisfactory compromise between simple and beautiful (Ferrari) and ultra advanced (McLaren). There are just a few caveats though. The first thing is that the team was forced to stick with the Renault engine (potentially underpowered) rather than changing to Mercedes (proven) because McLaren wouldn't let Mercedes supply any more competitors - Red Bull were the unlucky party caught in the middle of the divorce arguments between the two companies. Secondly, and more importantly - if the previous car didn't have an optimised diffuser then it is possible that this car has a less sophisticated version as it has to make up for the development time that teams (especially Mercedes) has had. Finally, the push-rod suspension system was part of what made the previous car so quick; sacrificing that for a diffuser could alter the performance in unforeseen ways.

Looks are generally a good way to determine how well a car is going to do - there has never been an ugly champion nor a beautiful loser. This car is most certainly a beautiful evolution and so I would expect the team to finish in the top 3 come the season's end.

A couple of years ago, if you had said Red Bull for the championship - people would have replied with the old "pigs might fly"  - but it really might happen. After all, Red Bull gives you wings....

(Sorry, that was terrible).

Children of the Revolution.

Force India are perfectly in tune with the times; they are an independent (ish) team thriving where manufacturers fall. Last year was something of a breakthrough for the perennial backmarkers with pole and a podium in Spa followed up by continual strong running to the end of the season. The question is whether the VJM-03 has the pace to continue that momentum or whether the team are doomed to fall into old habits.

There hasn't been quite so much optimism from the team from Silverstone since about 2002 (when they finished 6th in the constructors championship under the guise of Jordan), the years that have followed have offered precious little to be happy about - they have not finished any higher than 9th in all of those years. However, 2009 seemed to be a bit of a turning point. The fact is that Force India made the decision at the end of '08 to terminate their engine supply contract with Ferrari and switch to Mercedes power. The reason for this wasn't to gain horsepower or reliability (although the Merc. V8 has defined itself as the class leader in the last few years) but rather because it came with a technical partnership with McLaren. Not in the copycat Toro Rosso/Red Bull way, but more as a way for the team to grow and develop. Force India simply pay McLaren for some gearboxes, engines (although I guess these now come directly from Mercedes) and some engineers to help maximise their effect in the orange, white and green cars - plus to bring some 'top team' experience to the company. All of this means that the cars have a good solid base with lots of pieces already tested and ready to go. This leaves the team able to concentrate on one thing - the chassis design. Obviously, it proved dividends last year when Fisichella made it within a whisker of winning the Belgium grand prix - a race that he would have won had the Ferrari not had KERS.

So to 2010 and it is no surprise to hear that the VJM-03 is an evolution on its savvy predecessor. In fact, there seem to be only two obvious differences; the higher nose and the shark-fin engine cover. There are no Red Bull 'humps' in the nose nor aggressive front wing like the McLaren. The sidepods aren't as small and don't fall away as quickly and as tightly as I would have expected and the car isn't as long either. However, Mark Smith (the design director) offers an explanation for this:

"There is a compromise now [that the fuel tank has to be bigger]: either make the car much longer or wider, or, as we have done, a combination of both. This of course has influenced the mechanical design solutions and also the aerodynamics, specifically with respects to the diffuser and bodywork."

You get the feeling that Force India have decided to play it safe, at least in part; using a design that they know and understand and making little but definite gains on this rather than taking one risky step. This would explain the rationale behind increasing both the width and length because this minimises the overall change in either direction and therefore minimise the need to change the aerodynamics in response to the rule changes.

Last year's car was definitely a revolution but it benefited from being a very low drag car - making it quick where the level of downforce generated didn't matter too much. The downside to this is that the level of aerodynamic efficiency in the car wasn't really good enough to make the most of any flashes of speed that were shown. In order to succeed, this car must have an improved performance in this area so that it is more competitive around any circuit. I just don't know whether the car as it is here will have made those gains. It will be better than last year's but if other teams have taken a more revolutionary route (and succeeded) then the VJM03 could find itself playing catch-up.

The trouble with success is the expectation that it brings; from fans and investors alike. If this team fails to deliver more podiums this year (or a consistent run of points finishes) then (owner) Vijay Mallya could find himself forced out by his backers. This would be a cruel irony as his dream is to see his team lead in the inaugural Indian GP in 2011. Simply, the target should be 7th place in the constructors (beating the 4 new teams, Toro Rosso plus one of Renault, Williams and Sauber), anything better would be brilliant, 8th would be acceptable but 9th or lower would have to be considered a failure.

It's time to find out whether the glory days of Jordan can be lived again...

Testing 2010 Part 1: Valencia 1-3 Feb

After three frantic days at the Ricardo Tormo circuit (pictured) it's time to take stock and find out who was actually quick and who flattered to deceive.

This year, above many others it is hard to read the lap times in testing. The reason for this is the change to no refuelling throughout races which means that where cars in 2009 would generally carry about 60Kg at most (half a tank - good for 25ish laps), this year they must carry about three times as much. All of this means that if a car is testing with a full tank and another is testing with an empty tank, the difference in lap time could be as much as 5 seconds!

However, lets take a look at the times and assess how each team has done.

The first thing to say is that the Ferrari seems to be the car to beat. They were quickly to the top of the pile and were rarely headed. In fact, Alonso's best effort came on the fourth lap of a 12 lap run (i.e. when the car wasn't at its lightest) and apparently it came whilst Fernando was still getting comfortable in the car. This is ominous. Moreover, both Alonso and Massa ran some fairly long stints (16 laps or so) which were done to mimic the level of fuel for 2009 and they both got progressively faster in these stints; starting in the 1:13 region and ending in the 1:11. This implies consistency in car behaviour too. The only question mark that remains is with very large amounts of fuel and the efficiency of the engine but the team seem to be waiting for the Jerez tests in the next couple of weeks to assess this.

McLaren may not have grabbed the headlines but the overall impression is optimism; they were the second best team here. Aware that this circuit isn't full of high speed corners (which was the previous car's weakness), they decided to make the most of going through the motions and observing car behaviour with high fuel levels. Whilst Button had a difficult time getting himself settled (he is quite a bit taller than Lewis so positioning the seat in the same place as they did for Hamilton was always going to leave Jenson too high in the cockpit), Lewis set some competitive times. In fact, considering that Lewis had about 15 laps of fuel on board (he was part way through a 25 lap stint) when he set the time above there is reason to be optimistic.

Mercedes were behind the other two 'big teams' at this test; even Ross Brawn admitted that they had a few problems which needed sorting before Jerez. This could imply that they were running a similar programme to Ferrari but not seeing the similar results - they certainly weren't running as much fuel as McLaren. There is no reason for the team to be too worried; the car seemed to be competitive when it did have a little more fuel on board but it seemed unable to set the timing boards alight with an emptier tank.

Sauber starred and gave the sponsorless outfit reason to cheer; setting the second best time on all three days. These laps were set with a fuel load lower than the Ferrari and much lower than the McLaren but the times imply potential.

Renault will be encouraged by their heavy fuel runs - all sources say that they were very consistent and competitive too, but they will be less pleased with the low fuel laps. Kubica's 6th placed lap (above) was apparently set with low fuel and it didn't get close to the Ferrari (or Sauber for that matter).

Williams too will have a mixed view of the last week. On one hand, their new car (and more importantly Cosworth engine) ran without glitch, they completed lots of laps and many of those were with heavy fuel. However, they never threatened the top of the timesheets which will be a little disappointing for the team that promised to 'radically improve' this year.

Finally, Toro Rosso showed us that their car isn't too far behind either - Jamie Alguersuari's fast time (all be it light fuel) on Wednesday made a nice contrast to the gearbox problem at the start of the week.

Make no mistake, Ferrari has laid down a good marker but Valencia is a notoriously easy track (on both the driver and car). Jerez will start to make things clearer; the cars with the best aerodynamic solutions to generate downforce around the fast corners will perform well there. It all kicks off again next Wednesday.

Red Wash!

A crowd of over 30,000 people travelled to today’s final day of testing in Valencia hoping to witness their hero Fernando Alonso start his Ferrari career with a bang. He didn’t disappoint.

It was another clear and dry day in the Spanish city and most of the runners managed to get many laps on the board.

At Williams in particular, the aim of the day was to continue the evaluation of the new Cosworth engine – with new boy Nico Hulkenberg lapping over 100 times to test the reliability of the power pack. Whilst the engine has proved trouble free so far, the results are less encouraging as he set the slowest time of the day. It is quite possible that Williams were running with limited revs in order to test other parts and give their new driver time behind the wheel but surely they will have to test at the limit eventually.

In fact, it was a battle between the GP2 chargers of 2009 for 6th and 7th with Renault’s Vitaly Petrov finishing just ahead of the Williams. Renault has been very much so-so so far and seems to have spent most of their time running a similar pace to the Williams. Maybe this is a fight for the season.

There was a surprise next up – Jenson Button was making his debut for McLaren but had a ‘difficult day.’ After a quick photo shoot outside the garage with the number 1 car, Button preceded to spend most of the morning in the pits rather than on track. He complained that he wasn’t comfortable with his position inside the cockpit; citing that he was sat too high and therefore restricted. This obviously limited the running that the team could do and they spent the afternoon making up for lost time; going through the motions rather than going for top spot on the timesheets.

Toro Rosso’s week has got progressively better and finishing 4th today will be a big boost for both the team and Jamie Alguersauri. For the team, it hints at a car that can be competitive and a car that they have improved this week. For Jamie, it will be a good boost of confidence – especially as it was set around a packed Spanish circuit (it wasn’t just Alonso the crowd was cheering for; chants of Jamie, Jamie could be heard too).

So, to the top three and in third was car number 3 – Michael Schumacher. Michael seems to be getting into the German routine at Mercedes; he left the circuit early having done all that was needed today. Very efficient; no room for glory runs, just the necessary data.

Second place was Pedro de la Rosa in the new Sauber; this made it a hat-trick of seconds on the first week of testing and his best lap time was set very early on. I think that the car must be a better performer than looker but I still think that the times seen in the last three days are reflective of a need of sponsorship rather than overall pace.

In first was Alonso. The start of his Ferrari career couldn’t have gone much better; he reached the top of the time sheets early on and stayed there all day, setting the week’s fastest time in the process. Whist some of this must have been showboating for the Spanish crowd, Ferrari must have tested with heavier fuel loads at some point – this car is fast.

1. Fernando Alonso  Ferrari 1:11.470  127 Laps

2. Pedro De La Rosa  BMW Sauber 1:12.094  80

3. Michael Schumacher  Mercedes GP 1:12.438  82

4. Jaime Alguersuari  Toro Rosso 1:12.576  97

5. Jenson Button  Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 1:12.951  82

6. Vitaly Petrov  Renault 1:13.097  75

7. Nico Hulkenberg  Williams 1:13.669  126

The star of the day – Fernando Alonso; who else could have lived up to expectations so emphatically? Just imagine how big the crowd is going to be for the races in Barcelona and Valencia if the Ferrari proves to be a winner.

Virgin Make History with VR-01

Despite glitches with the website, Virgin Racing's online launch went ahead this morning giving us the first look at their pioneering new car.

I, like most people, was doubtful when it was announced that one of the new entries for 2010 would be Manor Racing. The small team, based in Sheffield, was short on funds and planned to design their car entirely without the use of a wind tunnel - instead using cheaper but less effective CFD (computational fluid dynamics). However, then Richard Branson (bitten by the F1 bug after sponsoring Brawn last year) came on board; bringing him with him lots of contacts (if not his own money).

Since then things have moved fast; from the signing of Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi as drivers to the team launch in December. Today, the constructor became the first of the new teams to release their new car.

The car looks good - it certainly isn't ugly but it is maybe a little conservative. If this is true I can understand though; there is no point taking too many risks with your first car - a success for this team will be finishing ahead of fellow new boys Campos, USF1 and Lotus. I would say that is kind of resembles the Ferrari; pointy and efficient (with the now standard 'Red Bull humps' on the nose). The team colours are also good if a little similar to the Midland of a couple years ago.

Of course, it is hard to tell how the car will go; as good as theoretical models are there is no substitute for subjecting the aerodynamic parts to airflow and watching how they respond. The team themselves must be extremely anxious ahead of the shakedown at Silverstone tomorrow and testing in Jerez next week.

I am starting to like this team; they have character. Richard Branson has a certain joie de vivre which seems to have been caught by everyone involved. Indeed, the novel way of doing things in this team seems to follow Branson's philosophy for life. I'm not against the other teams necessarily but I'm not sure that they will add anything to the grid (with the exception of Lotus - even if it is Malaysian in this incarnation) the same cannot be said of Virgin. This team has the fun family aspect that was present at Brawn last year and I find that I can't help but wish them well.

P.s. The team is giving you the chance to name Timo and Lucas's cars. Go to www.virginracing.com/cars/name-the-car/ for more details and you could win yourself some prizes too.

Long Runs the Order of the Day...

Day two of testing saw Felipe Massa pick up from where he left off yesterday. He set the day’s fastest time and was the only driver to lap the Valencian circuit in under 72 seconds.

The Ferrari looked quick and consistent and sent out another early sign that it will be there or thereabouts this year. The only cautionary thing I would add to this is that his time was set in the morning and no one really tried to beat it this afternoon – the majority of the teams focussed on long, heavy fuel runs.

Indeed, this may go some way to explaining why the Sauber again finished as the second best car in the field (Kobayashi also set his best time in the morning). Their form is really surprising me and I would like to know how their long runs were comparing to the others to get a clearer indication as to whether this pace is genuine or just sponsor hunting.

Lewis Hamilton was next up – taking the number 2 car for its first spin. He improved massively upon Paffett’s time of yesterday and seemed happy with the package as a whole. Apparently the performance is replicating what the wind tunnel data was saying which is reason to be positive – even if the luminous paint did leave an unconvincing note and memories of last year.

Kubica spent most of the day down the timesheets – concentrating on long runs – but make a late show to pip Rosberg for 4th. I hope that this isn’t the limit of the Renault’s pace because it wasn’t close enough to the Ferrari if that is the case. More worryingly, he caused the session to end a few minutes early when he stopped on the start/finish straight.

Rosberg seemed to complete a pretty comprehensive day, nothing spectacular but in the mix.

Barrichello was very high on fuel apparently, all day, and so was nowhere near the front – for Williams’s sake I hope this is true and not just an excuse for poor performance.

Finally, the Toro Rosso, cured of its gearbox problem that blighted yesterday ran solidly but obviously not anywhere near the top.

1 Felipe Massa  Ferrari F10 1:11.722  124 laps
2 Kamui Kobayashi  Sauber C29 1:12.056  96 laps
3 Lewis Hamilton  McLaren MP4-25 1:12.256  108 laps
4 Robert Kubica  Renault R30 1:12.426  119 laps

5 Nico Rosberg  Mercedes MGPW01 1:12:899  119 laps

6 Rubens Barrichello  Williams FW32 1:13.377  102 laps
7 Sebastien Buemi  Toro Rosso STR5 1:13.823  107 laps

A fairly unspectacular day really, with the focus more on doing the distance than out and out speed. Tomorrow will see world champions Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso join the party as well as a full day in the car for Schumi.

For now though, the headline is all Massa’s and he is the driver of the day for the second day running.

Talking Di Resta and Rule Changes

Testing continues around the Valencian Ricardo Tormo circuit today and I'll report on all the action later but in the mean-time some things have been decided off of the track.

Paul Di Resta (cousin to Indycar champion Dario Franchitti) has been signed by Force India as their test and reserve driver for the 2010 season. The Scot has been impressive in the DTM for the last few years; in particularly in 2007 when he took some wins driving a year old car and was similarly good when he took part in F1's 'baby' test in December. This isn't unexpected news but it is good news nonetheless and hopefully it will lead to a race drive for the Indian team either this year (if one of the drivers - Adrian Sutil / Vitantonio Liuzzi - doesn't perform well enough), or in 2011 if there is a space available.

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The other piece of news is that two rule changes have been today agreed by the FIA and the F1 teams.

The first is a tweak of the new scoring system suggested in November. Rather than the 25-20-15... points system agreed then, the final solution is to have the scoring as follows: 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1. The idea of this is to encourage drivers to push for the win rather than settle for second (to a milder extent it also pushes them to race for the podium rather than settle for 4th). I think that this alteration is silly; If a driver can win, he will. Normally, if he can win but doesn't push it then the driver in front is his team mate and he's not allowed to overtake him - changing the scores won't change this. Furthermore, the differences between the points were reduced for 2003 because the situation was that the championships weren't going the distance. Whilst I concede that the driver who wins the most throughout the year probably deserves the championship, I also want the race to be close and to go to a decider - this doesn't help that cause.

The other rule change is a little more interesting - the top 10 qualifiers (i.e. those who make it to Q3 on the Saturday) will have to start the race on the same tyres they finish qualifying on. This adds a nice technical scenario to qualifying because teams could either opt to start at the front having qualified with the soft tyre but aware that when the car is full with fuel, the soft tyre will wear quickly and therefore the first pitstop will have to be early. Alternatively, teams could try and get the best performance possible out of the hard tyre in qualifying, knowing that it will last longer and therefore be in better shape after 10 laps in the race. This will add an interesting dynamic to the grid and the best thing is that it is driver specific too - for example, aggressive Lewis might not cope as well with soft tyres and heavy fuel as smooth Jenson.

I am a little disappointed that the new rules don't include bonus points of pole position and the fastest lap though.

What Happened on the First Day of F1 2010...

7 teams hit to the track today (missing were all of the new teams plus Red Bull and Force India) and the times were confusing to say the least.

I always follow a mantra that the quickest looking car is normally the quickest car so let's have a look at the 7 cars on the same piece of tarmac to see which looks the best (see left).

In my opinion, the best looking cars to be launched so far are the McLaren, Ferrari and Renault. The Williams seems to lack aggression, the Toro Rosso isn't a big enough step forward and the Sauber is disappointing. Looks wise, although I don't mind it, the Mercedes is also a bit of a brute too.

However, taking a look at the times there are one or two surprises:

1. Massa Ferrari 1:12.574  102 laps

2. de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari 1:12.784  74 laps

3. M.Schumacher Mercedes GP 1:12.947  40 laps

4. Rosberg Mercedes GP 1:13.543  39 laps

5. Paffett McLaren-Mercedes 1:13.846  86 laps

6. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:14.449  75 laps

7. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:14.762  18 laps

8. Kubica Renault 1:15.000  69 laps

The first thing to say is that nothing can really be read into these times - different teams will be running different fuel loads to achieve different data for different aerodynamic/mechanical parts. However, I am led to believe that the majority of the testing will be done with a half full tank of fuel (that's 80Kg of fuel) as this is neither the extreme of heavy car nor worn out tyres (like the end of the race when the car is light) and thus this is where races will be won or lost.

So, assuming that everyone had the same fuel then this was very pleasing for Ferrari (especially if rumours are true that they don't think that this car is fast enough and have rushed a 'B-spec' into development) and even better for Sauber (who I expected to be propping up the table). Mercedes and McLaren were competitive and Williams were where I thought. Toro Rosso can be encouraged by the time considering that they only completed 18 laps but it is worrying that they had something preventing them running more than that. Kubica's time was poor; and I thought the Renault would be good.

Now let's take a closer look.

Massa's time was still good and must be representative - I was monitoring the timesheets most of the day and he always seemed to be at the top so that bodes well. Having said that, he did run 20 laps more than anyone else and therefore had more chances to set a good lap time (plus was probably running quite light by the end).

If the Sauber is really good enough for 2nd out of the box then BMW might just start kicking themselves for pulling out. The sceptic inside me says that today was all about exploiting a close field and doing glory runs to attract sponsors. If it means survival for Sauber then I don't blame them but take their times with a pinch of salt.

Mercedes 3 and 4 is about right - this brute is quick. Don't read anything into Schumi ahead of Rosberg; Nico had the morning session when the track wouldn't have been as good (less 'rubbered-in' and cooler).

McLaren were 1 second off the pace but remember that it was Paffett driving which suggests that they were just running through protocols and checking that all the systems were working. This means doing laps on heavy loads, light loads and medium loads as well as testing the electronics etc. in preparation for Lewis and Jenson over the next couple of days. Paffett is not as quick as the other two anyway and if he wasn't allowed to set the car up for him - just made to run through procedures then you wouldn't expect him to top the table.

Williams will think that the Sauber was running light and therefore be encouraged by their time; particularly if set with a heavy fuel load.

As I have said, Toro Rosso encouraged too.

Renault though - I hope they were doing heavy runs or the team I declared a dark horse could just be a plain mule.

Performance of the day came from Massa but the main story is that it's all pretty close so far.

3 For the Price of 1 at Valencia Today!

As Testing was about to get underway around the Spanish circuit Mercedes, STR and Williams showed us their 2010 challengers.

Firstly, Mercedes. With all the glitz and glamour of last week in Stuttgart, this was very low-key for the German marque but with a day's testing ahead there was little time for more than a simple photo shoot.

The car itself is obviously similar tot year's with just a few changes. The sidepods and attached sideplates in particular show obvious echoes to last year's Brawn. As most of the teams seem to be doing, Mercedes has gone with a shark fin over the engine cover. Theirs is more refined though; not flamboyant like the McLaren or overbearing like the Sauber but purposeful, efficient - very German. The biggest difference is apparent with the nose; where the Brawn's was low and 'Hoover - like' this has obvious bearings with the Red Bull; higher with humps halfway along.

Overall, this Mercedes looks good; not as good as the Brawn looked, and I certainly don't expect it to have the performance advantage that the Brawn did but good nonetheless. In its favour however, is that this car should have the most advanced diffuser of the whole field and now the shell is designed to fit the Mercedes engine which should also help to optimise performance.

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The STR5 is the first Toro Rosso not to be inherited from the parent Red Bull team and so it represents the first time this constructor is fully independent. Mind you, they had a pretty good car as a base (last year's Toro Rosso was the same as the Red Bull so ended the year as the best chassis in F1).

I don't think that the designers have done much out of the ordinary with this car; there is a shark fin, humps on the nose and an aggressive look to the overall package. All of this sounds good, but considering they were features present on the STR4, nothing groundbreaking has come out of the Italian minnows design office this year.

What worries me about Toro Rosso is that they used to be Minardi (perennial strugglers in F1) and they haven't run their own programme since then. However, with a base from Red Bull and an engine from Ferrari there is no reason why this team shouldn't be in the midfield mix at least.

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Finally to Williams, champions of old who are looking to return to the sharp end. This car is supposed to represent a big move forward from last year. However, they didn't have an official launch and decided just to reveal the car when they hit the track. As yet there aren't many photos to make an impression from but I have to say that I'm not convinced.

If the nose is anything to go by, this could prove to be one of the most individual and distinctive designs on the grid. It almost seems like the front wing is an inconvenient hassle rather than a necessary aerodynamic device. Having said that, it doesn't look bad and could prove to be an effective solution.

Maybe function is the philosophy with this car; a place for everything and everything in its place - a no nonsense chassis, simple (if not yet proven) Cosworth engine and experienced driver (in the form of Barrichello) - very functional.