Are we fast or not, quaestion of the day?!?
The final four-day pre-season Formula One test takes place from Thursday to Sunday in Barcelona, which will bring the total number of testing days before the season starts in Australia next month up to 12. The Circuit de Catalunya was also the venue for the previous test last week, which will allow the teams to make use of prior data as they assess tyre performance and degradation combined with a variety of different set-ups and fuel loads on their new cars.F1 Teams and all the equipment are in Barcelona since last week test session, period in which data analysts had their hands full. Which Team has advantage we will know after the last test day, that if all teams play with open cards.
The last test at Barcelona was affected by bad weather, which meant that we experienced more degradation than usual due to the tyres not being able to operate within their intended working range. Hopefully this time we will find conditions that are slightly more representative, which will allow the teams to collect more relevant data.This year, we think that degradation will be higher than it was in 2012, and we estimate a degradation rate of around 0.15 to 0.18 seconds per lap in race conditions for the hard compound in Barcelona.
TEAM THURSDAY,28/2/2013 FRIDAY,1/3/2013
Red Bull Mark Webber Mark Webber
Ferrari Felipe Massa Fernando Alonso
McLaren Sergio Perez Jenson Button
Lotus Romain Grosjean Romain Grosjean
Mercedes AMG Lewis Hamilton Nico Rosberg
Sauber Esteban Gutierrez Nico Hulkenberg
Force India Paul di Resta tba
Williams Valtteri Bottas Valtteri Bottas
Toro Rosso Jean-Eric Vergne Daniel Ricciardo
Caterham Charles Pic Giedo van der Garde
Marussia tba tba
TEAM SATURDAY,2/3/2013 SUNDAY,3/3/2013
Red Bull Sebastian Vettel Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari Felipe Massa Fernando Alonso
McLaren Sergio Perez Jenson Button
Lotus Kimi Raikkonen Kimi Raikkonen
Mercedes AMG Lewis Hamilton Nico Rosberg
Sauber Esteban Gutierrez Nico Hulkenberg
Force India tba tba
Williams Pastor Maldonado Pastor Maldonado
Toro Rosso Jean-Eric Vergne Daniel Ricciardo
Caterham Giedo van der Garde Charles Pic
Marussia tba tba
Each car will have a maximum of 35 sets of Pirelli’s new P Zero supersoft, soft, medium and hard compounds available in Barcelona, including the Cinturato intermediate and wet tyres if needed. The data from race simulations during the previous test session at the 4.655-kilometre Montmelo circuit indicates that the objective of two to three pit stops per race, requested by the teams, the governing body and the promoter, is on target. Even though the data collection process was hampered by cold weather, all the initial indications point to this conclusion.
TYRE SETS PER TEAM 2012 FASTEST TIME
Super-soft 1 1:22.155 (3 day)
Soft 5 1:22.030 (4 day)
Medium 5 1:22.721 (4 day)
Hard 6 1:23.708 (4 day)
Intermediate 2 1:43.343 (3 day)
Wet 1 1:48.596 (3 day)
