Comments on: What can be read into Raikkonen’s pace?

By: Chrish

Chrish — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:06:58 +0000

David – Yes! He no doubt had a hand in the rain at Barcelona today to stop the two teams go head to head.

By: David brader

David brader — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:42:29 +0000

Do you think Bernie paid McLaren and Ferrari to test seperately?!?

By: Chrish

Chrish — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 23:00:52 +0000

In the newsgroup discussion rec.autos.sport.f1 which led to this article, an author has added some interesting comparisons between Ferrari and Mclaren. Yet more fuel for the Ferrari testing speculation.

“Nothing much to add except that Ferrari looked good, but they were only running with Toyota. Toyota seemed to be about 1.6s per lap slower.

When Toyota ran with McLaren at Jerez & Valencia they were about 1.3/1.4s slower than McLaren – over a shorter lap. That suggests that McLaren are probably about as quick as Ferrari, which is what appeared to be the case at the Spanish tracks last month – sometimes McLaren were quickest and sometimes Ferrari were.”

By: Jonny

Jonny — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:07:09 +0000

This probably also shows how slow the Toyota is seeing as they’re the only other team there.

By: suspicious

suspicious — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 08:09:27 +0000

Maybe they’ve put the flexible floor back in.

By: Raikkonen fastest ‘again’ in Groundhog Day Test! - Forumula1.net - F1 News and Forums

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 01:16:33 +0000

[...] was 1:31.359, Kimi today set a time 1.3 seconds faster than that. Read Chris Hayes’s article ‘What can be read into Raikkonen’s pace?’ for more insight into what we can expect from the 28 year old Finn and the Ferrari team when the [...]

By: Ali

Ali — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:58:49 +0000

Raikkonen’s time was clocked at the race simulation, that means fuel load is more or less the same with that of a qualification run. It was not a short stint either, instead, a simulation of a full race. In this respect, Raikkonen’s time of 1.30 can be compared to Massa’s fastest lap time last year in Bahrain as being 1.34 and to Massa’s fastest Q2 time (which is run at the possible lowest fuel load thus enabling the cars to be quickest for all Q1, Q2, Q3 and race) as being 1.31. This is some other thing that must be considered also.

By: Chrish

Chrish — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 18:57:31 +0000

Hi Sarah,

Yes good point. Thats it isn’t it, we never really know just how much fuel they are running in testing as well as the state of their tyres.

What worries me about Ferrari is that they have traditionally been ’sand-baggers’. So if this is them holding back – and I’m not 100% sure they are – god knows what they will be like in full race trim.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:31:57 +0000

Great article. I think another reason why comparing test times with last year’s pole is foolhardy is that when qualifying, the drivers might have had fuller tanks of fuel than in testing (where Raikkonen could have been running on fumes). Last season we saw instances where pole position was not actually the fastest time of the qualifying session, so really, comparing test times with pole position time is pretty meaningless!