Did you notice in Bahrain Q3?

Following the form displayed at the four pre-season testing events, qualifying at Bahrain threw up a few surprises that we are all now talking about: Vettel and Red Bull on pole; the poor one lap pace of McLaren; Schumacher consistently slower than Rosberg; the great pace of Kubica in the Renault and the poor speed of Sauber and Toro Rosso. However, did you notice the difference between the times of Q2 and Q3?

Unlike last year, the teams qualify in low fuel for all three sessions and the entire top ten used the ‘option’ tyre (super softs) for both Q2 and Q3. You would expect drivers to get quicker or at least produce very similar times in these two sessions, especially with no change in track conditions.

This did not happen. With the sole exception of Massa in the Ferrari, every driver was significantly slower in Q3 compared to Q2 with most doing times half a second off their previous pace.

Pos	Driver	Team	Q3 Time	Diff. To Q2 time
1	Vettel	Red Bull	1:54.101	+ 0.218s
2	Massa	Ferrari	1:54.242	– 0.089s
3	Alonso	Ferrari	1:54.608	+ 0.436s
4	Hamilton	McLaren	1:55.217	+ 0.510s
5	Rosberg	Mercedes	1:55.241	+ 0.559s
6	Webber	Red Bull	1:55.284	+ 0.966s
7	Schumacher	Mercedes	1:55.524	+ 0.419s
8	Button	McLaren	1:55.672	+ 0.504s
9	Kubica	Renault	1:55.885	+ 0.922s
10	Sutil	Force India	1:56.309	+ 1.313s

As the track conditions had not changed, the difference can only be put down to drivers trying too hard to get that perfect lap for the first pole of the new season. Rosberg said that he really thought he could get pole but struggled with his tyres and said that if he got too much oversteer in one corner and overheated the tyres, the next few corners would be ruined.

Therefore, Massa’s performance is all the more impressive as he was the only driver to keep his cool and go quicker in Q3 than he had in Q2.

Vettel was quickest in both Q2 and Q3, but if you believe pre-season testing then the Ferraris will definitely beat the Red Bull tomorrow in the race. However, it just goes to show, don’t be fooled by what happens in pre-season testing!

Jake McMillan

Poll Result: The F1 rivalry we are most looking forward to in 2010

2010 is a year of fantastic rivalries and a recent poll on this site has revealed that the F1 rivalry we are most looking forward to, far beyond any other, is seeing back from retirement Michael Schumacher compete against all the current top F1 elite of Massa, Button, Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel and Webber.  Two-thirds of the poll (67%) stated they were most looking forward to seeing this battle.

Next highest vote (19%) was the battle between the two McLaren drivers of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. Popular opinion seems to be that Hamilton will come out on top for 2010, but we are all wondering just how close or far away Button will be.

A small percentage of people are looking forward to the Vettel Vs Webber fight. Interestingly, no one voted for Alonso Vs Massa?

2010 F1 Test2 – Jerez Day2 – Reading Between the lines

Today was dry in Spain, thank god! The forecast is rain for the next two days so today is likely to be the most meaningful day of testing this week. And when I say meaningful, I mean only a tiny bit meaningful as with the new rules this year and the massive difference in fuel loads we can’t actually tell who is quickest.

Here are the fastest times from today:

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1.	Kobayashi	BMW-Sauber (Ferrari)	1:19.950	103
2.	Buemi	Toro Rosso (Ferrari)	1:20.026	121
3.	Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:20.618	83
4.	Hulkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1:20.629	67
5.	Liuzzi	Force India- Mercedes	1:20.754	80
6.	M.Schumacher	Mercedes GP	1:21.083	124
7.	Alonso	Ferrari	1:21.424	129
8.	Kubica	Renault	1:22.003	103
9.	Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:22.043	99
10.	Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1:29.964	11

What you need to know from today’s action:

• Kobayashi in the Sauber was quickest, but only was achieved in the final seconds of the day, Buemi in the Toro Rosso was fastest for most of the day

• Alonso in his Ferrari did an impressive 129 laps without any problems or issues. He did a 48 lap run and was doing 1min 21sec laps at the very end. Ferrari still seem to be impressive.

• Glock managed a few more laps in the new Virgin Racing car, but the front wing fell off and they had to stop for the rest of the day as they needed to get new parts to fix it

• Schumacher‘s Mercedes completed 124 laps and did a 35 lap run and 27 laps in was doing 1min 24sec laps. So doesn’t appear as impressive as Ferrari but we don’t know the fuel loads.

• Force India were very happy with their day, completing 80 laps without issues and Liuzzi was fastest in the speed trap at the end of the straight – 270.7km/h

• Button said he had a good day in the McLaren and feels much more comfortable and at home in the car than he did at Valencia. They spent a lot of the day and yesterday doing various set up work. He stopped out on track at the very end of the day because a warning light came on but nothing was broken they claimed.

• Webber almost did 100 laps in his Red Bull without any issues. He was 9^th fastest but put in competitive times when on a heavy fuel load

• Hulkenberg had another technical issue (hydraulic) with his Williams early in the day so did not complete as many laps as preferred. Their live internet test times was also down all day.

Here is some interesting statistics  on the distance covered so far in testing (produced by f1fanatic.co.uk) that confirm the Ferrari engine and car is proving very reliable.

Distance covered so far (all tests)

Driver	Total laps	Total distance (km)
Fernando Alonso	344	1469.511
Sebastien Buemi	330	1408.365
Nico Hülkenberg	311	1323.81
Robert Kubica	291	1209.024
Kamui Kobayashi	254	1084.104
Michael Schumacher	246	1037.682
Jenson Button	233	997.038
Felipe Massa	226	905.13
Nico Rosberg	215	885.186
Rubens Barrichello	177	708.885
Vitantonio Liuzzi	151	668.628
Mark Webber	149	659.772
Pedro de la Rosa	154	616.77
Lewis Hamilton	108	432.54
Vitaly Petrov	102	419.931
Jaime Alguersuari	97	388.485
Gary Paffett	86	344.43
Timo Glock	16	70.848

Model	Total laps	Total distance (km)
F10	570	2374.641
FW32	488	2032.695
W01	461	1922.868
STR5	427	1796.85
MP4-25	427	1774.008
C29	408	1700.874
R30	393	1628.955
VJM03	151	668.628
RB6	149	659.772
VR-01	16	70.848

Engine	Total laps	Total distance (km)
Ferrari	1405	5872.365
Mercedes	1039	4365.504
Cosworth	504	2103.543
Renault	542	2288.727

Jake McMillan

Here are various pictures from today’s action:

The Hulk does an early pre-session drive

Alonso was popular today!

Force India had a good day today

Glock, before his front wing fell off

Fellow Germans Sutil and Hulkenberg have a chat

Alonso and Ferrari were quietly impressive

Kubica was in the Renault today

Kobayashi was quickest today - note the message on his engine 'See you in Bahrain'

Redbull diffuser

McLaren just love to put weird looking devices on their cars

Schumacher at damp Senna S early in the day

The Hulk - You won't like him when he's angry

Virgin has a conservative diffuser

A big shame Heidfeld couldn't get a race drive

Interesting NEW Rule Amendments for 2010

Following a meeting by the Formula One Commission in Paris on Monday, a couple of rather interesting rule amendments have been agreed by the teams and the FIA, which will be officially ‘rubber stamped’ by the World Motor Sport Council in the next day or so.

Firstly, there is a minor amendment to the new points system, so rather than the top 10 being awarded 25-20-15-10-8-6-5-3-2-1, there is now a greater gap between 1^st and 2^nd place and this is meant to encourage drivers to push to overtake and get wins, rather than settle for a second or third place and only lose a few points to a close rival. The new scoring system will be as follows: 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1.

I think this will incentivise drivers a little more, but do not see it having a major impact at the majority of races for those at the front. If you apply the new points system to last year’s results then you will get very little change. Button’s winning margin would have been comparatively bigger under the new system and the title would still have been decided at Brazil.

The big difference in the points system is that now the top ten are rewarded which means that the racing will be more competitive in the middle of the pack. Running in 12^th last year meant you were nowhere and a driver would probably not be as motivated as he might be, but this year, he will have a sniff of a chance of a point and that will make a big difference.

The second rule amendment concerns the use of tyres:

• Reduction of the number of dry weather sets allowed per team from 14 to 11

• “In addition, to encourage teams to run during the Friday practice sessions, one set has be returned before the start of the second practice session, and two sets before the start of the third practice session”  FIA statement.

• Top 10 starters to begin the race on the same tyres they set their best qualifying lap on

These tyre rule changes will force the teams to be far more strategic. They have the dilemma of having an odd number set of tyres to be shared between an even number of drivers. The approach to the Q3 Top 10 shoot out will also need to be thought out carefully. Do teams go for pole on soft tyres and then have to use the same soft tyres with the maximum fuel load or use harder tyres in qualifying and restrict their ability to get high up on the grid?

It’s just another little addition to make the 2010 season even more interesting!

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Jake McMillan