Formula 1 has six world champions in the field this year and today three of them stepped out of their cars, having done the early test work while three others stepped in. It was the turn of Alonso, Vettel and Hamilton to get their first taste of the Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren respectively. Meanwhile Nico Rosberg came in for Michael Schumacher in the Mercedes and continued to set the pace; the German running the same 2011 specification car with the blown diffuser as the team builds up data on the new generation Pirelli tyres. Rosberg did his fastest time More…

In today’s second day of testing at Jerez ahead of the start of the 2012 F1 season it was Michael Schumacher who set the pace, following on from Kimi Raikkonen’s performance yesterday. This test marks the first occasion the pair have shared a race track since 2006, when Schumacher retired and Raikkonen took his drive at Ferrari. The seven times world champion was at the wheel of the 2011 Mercedes, the only top team not to bring its new car to the first test. After some early fast laps by Red Bull’s Mark Webber, Schumacher lowered the bar set by More…

Ferrari’s most aggressively-designed car for a number of years made its track debut at Jerez on Tuesday, and afterwards its designer explained the approach the team is taking to the opening test of pre-season. The F2012 features a number of wholesale technical departures compared to last year’s disappointing challenger, notably pull-rod front and rear suspensions along with fundamental changes towards the rear of the car. Although the team’s recent cars have proved disappointing, Ferrari has nonetheless often been consistently at the sharp end of the winter testing timesheets with its cars invariably proving reliable out of the box. On Monday More…

Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time at Jerez, as winter testing ahead of the 2012 F1 season kicked off in earnest. In total there were 11 teams running in Jerez, with only Marussia not present. Most teams were giving their new cars a debut outing, however both Mercedes and HRT were running 2011 specification cars. Both Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher got a chance to run in the Mercedes today. Raikkonen wanted to start strongly and send out a positive message and he certainly did that; he was straight into the groove, after his two day outing in Valencia in More…

The final day of pre season testing was very wet, as predicted, giving teams the chance to sample Pirelli’s wet weather tyres, but gaining little other useful data. That’s it now for testing until after December- following the final race in Brazil. The feeling is that Red Bull has the edge going into the first race, with Ferrari close behind and Mercedes came through the ranks to close up quite a bit of the second deficit they had to the front runners at the final test. Nico Rosberg ends the week with a positive frame of mind after the improvement More…

The penultimate day of F1 testing before the start of the new season, saw a number of teams trying to give both drivers a run in their cars, with heavy rain forecast for tomorrow. Michael Schumacher at the wheel of the updated Mercedes set the fastest time of the test so far with 1m21.268s. The team has been bringing the new update parts to the car in stages this week with exhausts and various aerodynamic parts, including a new front wing, being added until today it ran in final spec for the first time. The results looked pretty good, not More…

Today was the third day of the test at Barcelona; with just two more days of running before the new season starts and the testing ban kicks in the pressure is mounting for teams to find set-ups, incorporate new updates and get their cars sorted. Track temperatures of over 30 were welcomed by Pirelli and the teams today. Meanwhile rain forecast for Saturday will not help the teams much, although it will be useful to Pirelli in learning more about the intermediate and wet tyres. Sergio Perez set a very quick time of 1m 21.761 on a qualifying simulation, the More…

On the second day of the final F1 test at Barcelona Sebastian Vettel went for a time, setting the benchmark in the high 1m 21s, some way clear of his opposition. Up to this point Red Bull have played their cards pretty close to their chest in terms of outright pace. Now the others have something to aim for. I said at the last Barcelona test that engineers had told me they felt the RBR car was capable of a high 1m 21 and today it happened. There is clearly a tenth or two more to come as the lap More…

The final test session before the start of the new F1 season kicked off today in Barcelona with most, but not all of the teams running today. Ferrari, Williams and Mercedes did not run and we have yet to see the new HRT car on track. Saturday will be the final day of F1 testing until after the end of the season in November. McLaren ran with a load sensing device on the nose of the car, with robust struts out to the outer parts of the front wing. This was a device to measure front wing flex and, given More…

On an interesting day’s running in the third official test at Barcelona, Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull again came out on top and main rival Fernando Alonso was forced to admit that the world champion team look like they will start the season with an advantage. Vettel did a series of short runs culminating in a lap of 1m23.315s, which is 2.7s slower than the pace set in similar circumstances last February on day two of the Barcelona test – a combination of downforce lost from the double diffuser and the relative pace of Pirelli tyres compared to Bridgestones. Red More…

Eleven of the twelve Formula 1 teams were out on track today at Jerez for the start of the second official F1 test ahead of the F1 season. Only HRT was absent. The team has opted to take part in a Pirelli filming event in Italy rather that test alongside the other teams this week in Spain. Felipe Massa set the pace in the new Ferrari on the first of his two days in the car. He did not get as much mileage in the car as team mate Fernando Alonso in Valencia after an oil leak. The afternoon session More…

The winter break ended today with the first day of Formula 1 testing on the permanent circuit in Valencia ahead of the 2011 season and the top of the time sheets looked much as they did in November with Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel on top. In total eleven teams were running today, all except Lotus, whose planned programme in the new car starts tomorrow. Although world champion Sebastian Vettel set the pace today in the new Red Bull RB7, not all teams were using 2011 specification cars. Force India, McLaren, HRT and Virgin were using last year’s models, aiming More…

The start of F1 testing is just 23 days away and most of the teams are flat out getting their first chassis built. It’s an exciting time but also a nervous one. From talking to a number of teams this last week they all share an anxiety that one of their rivals might have come up with a silver bullet, this year’s equivalent of the F Duct – a must-have aero device which gives a good few tenths of a second advantage and all must copy. The ones they really fear are those built into the chassis, like McLaren’s F More…

Today the 11 teams who have got their cars ready for the start of the new season were on track for the first day of the final official test at Barcelona. Mark Webber set the fastest time, but the headline lap times are not really important at this stage, that will come in the later stages of the test when we start to get the low fuel qualifying specials. What was interesting today was that the teams were working hard on the adjustable front wings which have become a crucial device on the long runs with heavy fuel loads. Since More…

The final official test starts this morning in Barcelona, with 11 teams out on track – all the teams competing this season except for USF1 and Campos. The four day test is the final chance for the teams to test out new developments before the first race in Bahrain on 14 March. The first two tests were largely about proving reliability, while the more advanced teams started to push the performance side a lot more in Jerez last week. For this week a wide range of new aerodynamic upgrades is expected. Teams like McLaren and Ferrari have produced significant packages More…

It rained on Friday in Jerez, in the afternoon it rained hard enough for the track to be empty for stretches of time. So two of the three days so far have been washed out. Saturday is forecast to be dry however. The same happened last year in the pre season tests, but this year it’s even more critical because there is so little track time available. For Virgin, Red Bull and Force India, who are running their cars for the first time it’s a frustrating week. Frustrating also for Nico Rosberg who somehow seems to have ended up getting More…

Today was the first dry day of running in the second official test of the pre-season. Ten of the 13 teams who will contest this year’s world championship were in Jerez on the second of four days. Forecasts suggest it may turn out to be the only dry day’s running at this test. After remarkable reliability in the first test at Valencia, today several teams lost time due to technical problems. The most extreme of these was Virgin Racing, which managed just 11 laps before the front wing came off. The team called a halt to testing for the day, More…

In front of a crowd of 40,000 fans at Valencia, Fernando Alonso had his first drive in a Ferrari today and set the fastest time of the week. On a historic final day of this first test, there were three world champions on track with Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button also getting a feel for the Mercedes and McLaren respectively. “It was an important day for me, first time in a Ferrari,” said Alonso. “A very emotional day this morning and also last night. I think I maximised the day in terms of laps and time on the track and More…

Today the new cars from seven teams hit the track and Formula 1 2010 really took off. Although there are still 40 days to go to the first Grand Prix in Bahrain, the new season kicked off in style with a frantic day of car launches and testing in Valencia. We had first sight today of new cars from Toro Rosso, Williams and the Mercedes W01, the keenly awaited follow up to the championship winning Brawn. Michael Schumacher took the wheel in the afternoon for his first laps in a contemporary F1 car since the end of 2006. Missing from More…

The Formula 1 test season starts next week in Valencia, the first of four official F1 tests before the opening Grand Prix in Bahrain on 14 March. We will be analysing the testing performances here on JA on F1, looking at how the cars are developing. And on Monday of next week, to co-incide with the first day of testing, we will be launching an exciting new service which will help to cover the action and bring the fans and the sport a little closer together. The tests are open to the public and it’s a very good value way More…