MP4-20 Looks good!
02-04-2005, 06:39 AM
#1
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MP4-20 Looks good!
The new McLaren seems to be running very very well, esp. in the hands of Kimi. This may bode well for the boyz from Woking this year and for Soopa as a die hard Kimi fan:
KIMI SHOWS MP4-20'S POTENTIAL
Last Updated: Friday, 04, February, 2005, 12:25
McLaren’s domination of this week’s Valencia test continued on Thursday, with Kimi Raikkonen topping the times in the new MP4-20.
More significant was the fact that the Finn outpaced the 2004-spec MP4-19B driven by the team’s test driver Alex Wurz.
If the rulemakers have indeed – as they claim – cut downforce by 25 per cent thanks to the new aerodynamic regulations, the engineers have clearly managed to claw back a major portion of that deficit before the season is even underway.
Raikkonen’s time of 1m09.005s was only a few hundredths shy of the unofficial lap record at Valencia which he set last February, and put him nearly a second clear of Wurz on the day.
As the yawning margin suggests, Raikkonen’s best lap was achieved on a low-fuel run – a point that was emphasised when his car ran dry out on the circuit immediately after his flyer.
Another driver who almost certainly opted for a low-fuel special was Jarno Trulli, a surprising third quickest in the Toyota TF105.
Fernando Alonso concentrated on long runs but still managed to clock the fourth fastest time in the promising Renault R25. Team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella was a couple of tenths slower in seventh despite a technical problem.
Renault’s chief test engineer Christian Silk declared himself satisfied with the outcome of the three-day test.
He said: “Overall, we are very pleased with the car’s performance – we know that it is sound and quite competitive. We are still experiencing some problems, but that is normal at this stage of the season, and we will begin testing solutions next week in Jerez.”
Takuma Sato was again the standard-bearer for BAR in fifth place, but admitted that he was having difficulty finding a Michelin tyre compound that gave him a comfortable balance on the 007.
Jenson Button was more than a second adrift of his Japanese team-mate in 11th place, and the early signs are that BAR still have some work to do to gain both speed and reliability.
Meanwhile a spanner seems to have got into the works at Ferrari, usually paragons of reliability. Michael Schumacher’s tyre evaluation work in an F2004 was interrupted by two stoppages and he managed only the eighth best time. Rubens Barrichello was 10th in the F2004M.
Schumacher said: “We had an engine defect, which was probably caused by another problem before. There was something which we did wrong that caused the second red flag. But as long as we can explain and understand these things then we are not worried.”
BAR continued their young driver assessment programme, with Adam Carroll getting a run in the morning and fellow British F3 standout James Rossiter taking over in the afternoon.
Thursday testing times from Valencia
1 RAIKKONEN McLaren 1m09.005s
2 WURZ McLaren* 1m09.946s
3 TRULLI Toyota 1m10.198s
4 ALONSO Renault 1m10.306s
5 SATO BAR 1m10.465s
6 HEIDFELD Williams 1m10.499s
7 FISICHELLA Renault 1m10.507s
8 M. SCHUMACHER Ferrari* 1m10.890s
9 WEBBER Williams 1m11.118s
10 BARRICHELLO Ferrari 1m11.137s
11 BUTTON BAR 1m11.557s
12 R. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1m11.577s
13 ROSSITER BAR* 1m12.671s
14 CARROLL BAR* 1m13.358s
* denotes 2004-spec car
KIMI SHOWS MP4-20'S POTENTIAL
Last Updated: Friday, 04, February, 2005, 12:25
McLaren’s domination of this week’s Valencia test continued on Thursday, with Kimi Raikkonen topping the times in the new MP4-20.
More significant was the fact that the Finn outpaced the 2004-spec MP4-19B driven by the team’s test driver Alex Wurz.
If the rulemakers have indeed – as they claim – cut downforce by 25 per cent thanks to the new aerodynamic regulations, the engineers have clearly managed to claw back a major portion of that deficit before the season is even underway.
Raikkonen’s time of 1m09.005s was only a few hundredths shy of the unofficial lap record at Valencia which he set last February, and put him nearly a second clear of Wurz on the day.
As the yawning margin suggests, Raikkonen’s best lap was achieved on a low-fuel run – a point that was emphasised when his car ran dry out on the circuit immediately after his flyer.
Another driver who almost certainly opted for a low-fuel special was Jarno Trulli, a surprising third quickest in the Toyota TF105.
Fernando Alonso concentrated on long runs but still managed to clock the fourth fastest time in the promising Renault R25. Team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella was a couple of tenths slower in seventh despite a technical problem.
Renault’s chief test engineer Christian Silk declared himself satisfied with the outcome of the three-day test.
He said: “Overall, we are very pleased with the car’s performance – we know that it is sound and quite competitive. We are still experiencing some problems, but that is normal at this stage of the season, and we will begin testing solutions next week in Jerez.”
Takuma Sato was again the standard-bearer for BAR in fifth place, but admitted that he was having difficulty finding a Michelin tyre compound that gave him a comfortable balance on the 007.
Jenson Button was more than a second adrift of his Japanese team-mate in 11th place, and the early signs are that BAR still have some work to do to gain both speed and reliability.
Meanwhile a spanner seems to have got into the works at Ferrari, usually paragons of reliability. Michael Schumacher’s tyre evaluation work in an F2004 was interrupted by two stoppages and he managed only the eighth best time. Rubens Barrichello was 10th in the F2004M.
Schumacher said: “We had an engine defect, which was probably caused by another problem before. There was something which we did wrong that caused the second red flag. But as long as we can explain and understand these things then we are not worried.”
BAR continued their young driver assessment programme, with Adam Carroll getting a run in the morning and fellow British F3 standout James Rossiter taking over in the afternoon.
Thursday testing times from Valencia
1 RAIKKONEN McLaren 1m09.005s
2 WURZ McLaren* 1m09.946s
3 TRULLI Toyota 1m10.198s
4 ALONSO Renault 1m10.306s
5 SATO BAR 1m10.465s
6 HEIDFELD Williams 1m10.499s
7 FISICHELLA Renault 1m10.507s
8 M. SCHUMACHER Ferrari* 1m10.890s
9 WEBBER Williams 1m11.118s
10 BARRICHELLO Ferrari 1m11.137s
11 BUTTON BAR 1m11.557s
12 R. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1m11.577s
13 ROSSITER BAR* 1m12.671s
14 CARROLL BAR* 1m13.358s
* denotes 2004-spec car
02-04-2005, 09:46 AM
#2
Senior Moderator
2004
IIRC, McLaren was very fast in testing prior to the 2004 season started, and we all know what happened once the green flag dropped. Never rely on early testing data as a forcasting tool. Early testing times are just used by teams to sell sponsorship deals and magazines to sell copies.
02-04-2005, 10:02 AM
#3
Community Architect
robb m.
robb m.
too bad last years Ferrari is still faster than most of the other teams current cars!
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