"Cato Batista" 16/03/2012 17:00:52 ID #128
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Heavy rain between sessions prevented the first comparison of the teams’ real performances. McLaren was comfortably the fastest out of the box with BUT leading teammate HAM in P1, both lapping in the 1m 27s bracket followed by SCH, ALO and ROS in the 28s. Note that BUT did it only 11 laps, half or less compared to his rivals.
The downpour made the track too dangerous for most of the P2 session. Without spare parts so early in the season most team didn’t want to risk damaging their cars and they only went out until the last 20 minutes with dry-weather tires. HUL back in F1 with Force India and SCH traded fastest laps but the 3 big teams did very little running effectively losing valuable track time. With a few hours to go there’s a strange air of uncertainty on who’s really got the fastest car comes QF time. VET (11th in P1, 10th on P2) admits they haven’t got the right set-up; Ferrari says they still have no idea how competitive they are but they know they are behind McLaren, Red Bull and...Mercedes. RAI is not happy with the power steering on his Lotus ‘it works in well some circuits’ but in not Albert Park. In F1 a few tenths of a second means 2-3 positions, so it doesn’t look promising for the former Champion. The dark horse seems to be Mercedes, the fact that Schummi was fastest in medium compound than HUL in softs left their rivals cold. Ross Brown introduced his unique rear wing design (recently approved by the FIA) that creates a stall when the DRS is closed and all eyes are studying it and wondering if that is what’s giving Mercedes their improved form.
P1 - BUT (1.27.560) HAM SCH ALO WEB ROS RIC MAL RAI KOB (VET 11th, MAS 18th)
P2 – SCH (1.29.183) HUL PER ALO KOB DIR MAS KOV ROS VET (WEB 11th, BUT 15th, HAM 16th)
We don’t really have much to work with. Most laps were done under race condition simulation runs (no DRS, medium to full fuel loads, medium tires) The top teams are still no revealing their weapons, but of course the big question remains on how fast the Red Bulls really are...
So here we go, out first test of 2012: the top 3 qualifiers for the Australian GP-
Bring out your lucky charms, you’ll need them.
Cato – HAM BUT VET
Good luck!