Patronise F1

The fight for the 2012 Formula One championship begins this coming week, with nine teams putting their brand new cars through their early paces over at the Jerez circuit in Spain. Patronise F1 takes a look at the four days of fun to come.

On Tuesday, a mere 72 days after the sun went down on the 2011 Formula One season at Interlagos, the sun will rise on the new 2012 season. Sort of. Although the start of the racing is still well over a month away, the official pre-season testing programme will get underway at the Jerez track, giving F1 fans the world over the chance to deal with their withdrawal symptoms from the winter break by kicking off another merry pre-season stint of comparing testing times, guesstimating on precisely how badly your favoured driver's season will be, and feasting your eyes on the scant video footage of 2012's machinery on track for the first time.

The hectic flurry of car launches prior to the first four-day test of the pre-season will ensure that nine of F1's twelve teams will have their new cars at the test, including all three of 2011's race-winning outfits. And while clearly there will be little conclusive details forthcoming from this initial test session regarding the ultimate pecking order for the forthcoming season, the Jerez test represents a chance to speculate our collective backsides off over something slightly more tangible than rating each team's new livery, or crying over the looks of 2012's platypus-nosed machines.

Most eyes will be on the new Red Bull RB8, the latest Neweymobile that the team are hoping is good enough to keep them head and shoulders above their rivals, and particularly the car's early performance against McLaren's new MP4-27 and Ferrari's hideous F2012. For the third and fourth days of the test, the three men considered most likely to be fighting for the title by the bookies - Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso - will be going head-to-head in their new charges, in what will be a chance to secure some early momentum or an opportunity for some sandbagging, depending on what each team wants from their winter programme.

But while the early tentative punches and counterpunches in the title fight will draw plenty of attention, the Lotus team's garage will probably garner the most attention, as Kimi Raikkonen returns to official F1 duties for the first time since taking a mighty 12th place in the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for Ferrari. The Finn's team will also be hoping that the FIA's last-minute ban on their fancy new reactive ride height system doesn't compromise their performance too much, as they seek to close the gap on the big three and justify the alarmingly aggressive decision to bring Kimi back to the sport.

They will at least get an early chance to advertise themselves as the best of the rest for 2012, with Mercedes waiting until the Barcelona test to roll out their new car. The German squad won't be sitting twiddling their thumbs this week though, with Mercedes bringing a modified W02 to the track in order to gather data on the new 2012-spec Pirelli tyres. They will be joined in the tardy ranks by backmarkers HRT, who will also bring their old car to Jerez, while Marussia will skip the test completely due to delays with their own new machine.

As for the other teams, with new cars to test out, this opening shinding will be just as crucial for their own chances. While the possibility of the likes of Force India, Sauber, Williams or Toro Rosso rising up from the midfield mire to any significant extent might be overly optimistic given the relative parity of technical rules from 2011 to 2012, they will still be expecting some early gains in the attritional middle order scrap. It will also see the rekindled Williams-Renault partnership hit the track for the first time, making anyone over the age of 25 somewhat misty eyed.

The newly-named Caterham squad will also be worth keeping an eye on, metaphorically if not literally given the looks of their new car. After failing to significantly close the gap to the midfield pack in 2011, they will be hoping to be right in amongst the midfield times with their new KERS-boosted CR01, and this first test will give them the first indication as to whether or not they have succeeded in that seemingly straightforward goal.

So the Jerez test promises to give us plenty to talk about, from the front to the back of the grid. And even if everything we think we're about to learn may well prove to be nonsense by the time we get to the first race, then at least it will beat doing nothing. Rejoyce, because F1 is back (sort of)!

The Track

Circuito de Jerez
Location: Jerez de la Frontera, Spain
Length: 4.428 km
Turns: 13
Lap Record: 1:23.135 (Heinz-Harald Frentzen, 1997)

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2011 Jerez Testing Results

Day 1 - Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1:20.709 - Report
Day 2 - Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) 1:20.352 - Report
Day 3 - Nick Heidfeld (Renault)) 1:20.361 - Report
Day 4 - Rubens Barrichello (Williams) 1:19.832 - Report

Weather Forecast

Tuesday: Sunny, Max Temp: 17°C
Wednesday: Sunny, Max Temp: 9°C
Thursday: Sunny, Max Temp: 10°C
Friday: Sunny, Max Temp: 13°C

Runners and Riders

Most teams are opting for a straightforward approach to the first test of the year, dividing the four-day Jerez session into two blocks of two days for their drivers. Mark Webber is set to give the new Red Bull its debut, while Jenson Button will put the McLaren through its early paces and Felipe Massa will get first dibs on the Ferrari.

Elsewhere, the returning Raikkonen is set to get the first two days in the new E20 following on from his refresher course in driving an F1 car in a 2010-spec Renault last month, while Mercedes and their 2011 car do not plan to run on the fourth and final day, and HRT will skip two days after giving Pedro de la Rosa some time in the car. 

* - Indicates 2011 car.
† - Indicates reserve driver.

On Patronise F1

For 2012, Patronise F1 will be offering what we believe will be the shoddiest and least-informative coverage of pre-season testing anywhere on the internet, to keep our several readers as baffled as possible by the goings-on from Jerez.

Later on during the pre-season schedule, we'll be hoping to bring back our almost-renowned testing liveblogs for a few random days of the calendar, but here in Jerez the updates will be slightly more minimal. Yes, even more minimal than that.

Still, The Ear will be posting live updates as each day unfolds, pretending he has a clue what is going on based on updates from elsewhere, hard-to-read live timing screens and Tw*tter. Plus we'll have full write-ups on each day at the end of the action. It'll be great. Honest.