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.