JEREZ 2012 First pre-season test: Combined Lap Times
Topped for Ferrari
By Goggs
February 14 2012
A review of last week's lap times gives us a little view into what the 2012 season may hold. As many have said, times mean nothing...but there is always something to take away from tests like these.
We won't see anyone's true pace perhaps until Australia, but the numbers below paint a picture and each one of us will see a different image...
yes, we wait till Australia and see if Mercedes' strategy of understanding 2012 tyres using their 2011 car with one season of 2011 tyre data served them well. it is easy to make a comparison as only the tyres changed unlike those teams that changed the car and the tyres
The whole test Mercedes did makes absolutely no sense to me at all.
Reason being: The front end is, under new rules, going to completely change. The rear is also changed. That means the aerodynamics are TOTALLY different. Knowing that, you can't learn ANYTHING about what's going to happen.
For all Mercedes know, what they have now is a false sense of security: Tires made for this years cars with different levels of downforce seem to have better grip on their old car.
OK. Fine. Dandy.
What's going to happen when they THEN decide to go with a design based on that and find out the new tires on their new car built with data from the old car test can't grip the road AT ANY SPEED AT ALL?
I think it was a dog and pony show or they were actually testing new electronics or something. That could NOT have been about tires. Only a complete idiot would bother testing tires on a car that have absolutely NO BEARING on the car they're going to be run on.
It would be like tasting a steak to see if you would get heart burn when you eat a really spicy curry.
Are you actually suggesting that an F1 team would lie to us in an attempt to conceal something that they hope might prove to be an advantage for them???
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