Maybe the testing ban isn't such a bad thing...
More testing times, more efforts to try and make sense of testing times. It remains an almost-impossible aim to precisely work out the pecking order might be when the 13 (or 12 (or 11)) teams take to the track in Bahrain in a little under four weeks time. Depending on who you read or speak to, any number of teams are "looking strong" for the new season.
While the 'big four' of Ferrari/Mercedes/McLaren/Red Bull seem to still be the ones to beat, even trying to nail down which of those is best placed is pretty impossible. Ferrari were ahead after the first test in Valencia, but in Jerez, Mercedes and in particular McLaren came into their own. Lewis Hamilton displayed some terrifyingly consistent pace on a 30+ lap stint on the Saturday of the test, and topped it off by setting the fastest lap of the whole week in the dying moments on a qualifying simulation.
Red Bull look, right now, to be a little off the pace. But then, they are a test behind everyone after missing Valencia, and you would expect them to show something approaching their real hand in the remaining two tests. Ferrari, for all their post-Valencia cautious optimism, continue to play down their potential, while Michael Schumacher seems to have seen enough development in the week between the first and second tests to upgrade his hopes for the W01 from "a race winning car, but not at the start of the season" through to "a title contender" in recent press-talking pieces.
And then there are the others. Though they've been almost invisible in testing so far, some are saying that the Williams package looks much stronger this year, with the Cosworth engine impressing though the speed traps and the long stint pace of the car looking good. Force India, Toro Rosso and BMW Sauber have all enjoyed periods of short-stint glory, and all remain confident of having made a dreaded "step forwards" for the new season. STR reckon they're close to Red Bull's pace, Findia are targeting 5th in the constructors, and Sauber have their eye on podiums. Is this all just blase pre-season bluster? Or do they actually all have the packages to match their confident dancefloor thrusting? Nobody knows.
All of which is, let's face it, brilliant. Nobody likes being kept in the dark about something, and some might pine for the days when teams tested so much and so regularly over the pre-season that a pecking order naturally established itself, but sometimes being kept in the dark is for the greater good. The completely baffling order of cars being thrown up on timesheets so far in February are adding to the impatience and expectation ahead of the new season. So maybe, just maybe, the tesing ban is rudy bloody brilliant. It looks like we're heading off to Bahrain with nobody, not even the teams themselves, really having a clue who might be quickest.
We had a similar situation last year, of course, when everyone arrived in Melbourne not entirely convinced of who was exactly where in the pecking order, and the unfancied Brawn GP team came from nowhere to clear up. So if you want PW's tip for one to watch in Bahrain, all PW can say is that we have stuck a significant amount of our pocket money on a Campos 1-2 result.
Hail the conquering Virgin
For a long long time at last week's Jerez test, all good satirical F1 writers (and PW as well) were punching the air with glee at the spectacularly awful beginnings of the Virgin Racing team. Not that we wanted to see the team fail, but the happy coincidence of the team failing coupled with Nick Wirth's decision to design the car entirely on computer was a veritable potential goldmine for easy mickey-taking for the rest of the season.
And after three days of the test, with bits and pieces falling off the car and needing quick on-the-fly redesigns, rain blighting their running time and just 24 miserable laps completed across the first three quarters of the test, things were looking good. Knuckles were being cracked, puns were being prepared and articles were being created in celebration of the abject failure of Wirth's bold wind tunnel-less dream.
And then something terrible happened. The skies cleared on Saturday, the car stayed together, Lucas di Grassi climbed aboard and...they did ok. Not very well, obviously, but ok. Di Grassi ended the day just over three seconds off Lewis Hamilton's low fuel superlap, and was a similar gap behind in long(ish) stints as well.
Not that such trifling matters stopped some sites from running their 'hilarious' Virgin piss-take articles anyway (mentioning no names...). After all, if a joke's worth telling, it's worth telling whether the facts behind it are valid or not.
And PW was going to be no different, and merrily fill this e-mail with tired jokes, snipes and puns about the gigglesome Virgin failure. But in the end, we decided that it wouldn't be Wirth the effort.
Quote of the Week
"To be able to be around for so long, I sometimes had to close myself up a bit. It may be the same again this time." - The People's Schumie admits that his new shiny happy persona might not be around for long once the new season gets underway. Expect him to churlishly ignore an attempt at an interview on Martin Brundle's gridwalk come Bahrain.
Slight Bemusing Headline Of The Week
"Williams F1 holds road prevention campaign" - The Angola Times
News and Rumours
- USF1 have laughed off suggestions that the fact that their Charlotte factory was up for sale would have an impact on their dwindling F1 plans for 2010. The team are leasing space in the factory, and a spokesman confirmed that “USF1 has a long term lease on the building so there are no worries there." Yes, the only worries are with the team owners, the car, the budget, the drivers, the timeframe, the engine, the crash tests and the testing schedule.
- According to a report by the cheery financial folk at Formula Money, F1 team budgets dropped by around 10% in 2009, as F1's answer to a budget cap, namely anyone with any money abandoning the sport, came into effect. McLaren were the top spenders with a budget of £308.8m, knocking perennial wad-blowers Toyota in second on a "mere" £262.4m. Thankfully, when sponsorship and other revenues were removed, Toyota were still the highest-spending manufacturer, ploughing £162.6m into their failing team last year, compared to £143.5m by Mercedes. It's a wonder that Toyota withdrew really, isn't it.
- The mutterings over the health of Michael Schumacher's neck will hopefully be dying down soon, after the German came through the Jerez test without needing his personal doctor at the track. The presence of Johannes Peil at the earlier Valencia test had led some to speculate that the seven-time champion's head was about to fall off, but Schumie told the official F1 site that "We wanted to make sure I am best prepared, and obviously I am, as we both didn't see the necessity to have him join me in Jerez." So there.
- Fernando Alonso is moving house! That's almost news! The Spaniard will move from one canton of the rich boy tax haven that is Switzerland to another, after buying a property in the Italian-speaking region of Lugano in the south of the country. He is moving in order to be closer to his new Ferrari base in Italy, though not moving close enough that he has to start paying tax. Bless.
- Felipe Massa has confirmed that the paddock story about him first attending an F1 race as a delivery driver was pretty much true. "I was already a [racing] driver, but my pass was only for Friday," Massa explained, "My agent had a restaurant and was doing catering for the Benetton team, so I drove an old van to the (Interlagos) circuit and stayed after that." No word yet on how bashed up the food was after he spun the delivery truck six times on the way there though. Arf.
Shameless Patty Plugs Section
- Patty's latest contributor, The Beard, strokes himself into a frenzy over the Stefan GP saga here.
- The Head, meanwhile, suggests that USF1 may well be far more messed up than Campos here.
- The Ankle presents Six of the Best...Title-less Drivers here.
- Follow all the times from the third pre-season test of the year, back at Jerez again, here. Or read Patty's ill-informed preview here.
- All the "latest" news on F1 is in Patty's news section.
- Tweet Patty, or e-mail us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with thoughts, issues, rants and adverts for various erectile dysfunction cures.
Yours we're sorry for the Wirth gag-ingly,
Patty Weekly
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