Barcelona: Day One & Two

Testing resumes again this time at the beautiful Circuit de Catalunya in sunny Barcelona. The 2.8 mile circuit plays host to the Spanish Grand Prix, an event that could soon be shared with the Valencia Street circuit. This test will be a more representable picture of race pace for the beginning of the season, unlike Jerez which was mainly used for sorting out reliability issues.

One of the key figures missing from the Jerez test was 2012 runner up Fernando Alonso who was not featured at all. Day one marked the first time that he has been in the F138. Positive performers such as Lotus, Red Bull and Force India will be looking to build on their current foundations while under performers like Mercedes and Williams who were in their brand new FW35 for the first time will be seeking ways of improving.

Day One Final Standings

1. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) – 1m.22.616s
2. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) – 1m.22.623
3. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) – 1m.22.952
4. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) – 1m.22.965
5. Pastor Maldonado (Williams) – 1m.23.733
6. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) – 1m.23.884
7. Sergio Perez (McLaren) – 1m.24.124
8. Paul di Resta (Force India) – 1m.24.144
9. Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) – 1m.25.124
10. Max Chilton (Marussia) – 1m.26.747
11. Charles Pic (Caterham) – 1m.27.534

The top spot was in constant change throughout the day with numerous drivers setting quick laps, some even went on to beat themselves. In the end, it was Nico Rosberg who put his Mercedes on top at the end of the day, finally putting behind all of the mechanical issues of Jerez. Ross Brawn's team look as though they have finally put their demons to rest. Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen also continued to show their unbelievably quick and consistent pace setting the overall second quickest, he was follwed by Fernando Alonso who was the early pace setter. Reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel also continued a theme of consistency keeping his RB9 within mere tenths of the top spot.

Sergio Perez and McLaren finished a disappointing 7th overall, some have argued that their lack of pace is not a good showing for their 2013 title ambitions. 

On a positive note, the back marker teams of Marussia and Caterham (driven by Max Chilton and Charles Pic respectively) were not too far off the midfield teams. Don't read too much into it though, odds are they'll still cause havoc again this season.

Day Two

A few drivers changed around, Lewis Hamilton will be hoping to emulate his team mate Nico Rosberg's success in day one and the young Flying Finn Valtteri Bottas hops in for his first full taste of the new FW35.

Final Standings

1. Sergio Perez (McLaren) 1m.21.848s
2. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1m.22.197s
3. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) 1m.22.697s
4. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m.22.726s
5. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) 1m.23.247s
6. Valtteri Bottas (Williams) 1m.23.561s
7. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) 1m.23.718s
8. Paul di Resta (Force India) 1m.23.971s
9. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) 1m.24.205s
10. Max Chilton (Marussia) 1m.25.115s
11. Charles Pic (Caterham) 1m.26.243s

Day two marked an event with very little red flags. In fact there were only two towards the very end of the session. Therefore all the simulation work the teams carried out will have collected very rich data, very beneficial as the start of the season looms. The man on top today could not have contrasted any further from his performance yesterday, Sergio Perez drove his McLaren to the top of the time sheet putting a considerable amount of daylight between himself and second placed Sebastian Vettel who was at the top for a considerable portion of the day.

Disappointment and even less laps for Kimi Raikkonen and Lotus today as the E29 suffered it's worst bout of reliability issues yet after suffering a gearbox problem. Not enough to stop him from setting the  third fastest time, but still a cause for concern as Kimi set an unprecedented record last season for completing every single lap in the year. Lotus were not alone, Red Bull and Ferrari both had reliability concerns. Hamilton completed a series of laps to put his crash nightmare of Jerez behind him, moving forwards in good strides.

I must say, the one team who have continued to impress me throughout every single test session this  year is Toro Rosso. They are doing an excellent job and I hope it brings them good fortune this year. I need someone at Red Bull whom I actually like instead of a German 'yes man.'

Check back here tomorrow where I will have a run down of day three!

Note

There will be no review of the Williams FW35. The car is very much unaltered and I am not particularly fond of the idea of Pastor Maldonado still retaining his seat. I think Valtteri Bottas will surprise quite a lot of people this year, I have my eye on him. I will say though that despite my previous Renault engine theories, Williams have decided to go with the vanity cover, a move I am very pleased to see.

Force India will not be receiving any further coverage from me on my blog. I am totally appalled by their decision not to announce a second driver. It is terrible management and they will be putting someone in the car with little laps under their belt. It doesn't matter if they run every lap of the third test, they will still be at a disadvantage and therefore a risk to drivers around them plus a potential threat to our viewing pleasure. 

Jerez: Day Two

Day two saw a few driver changes, such as Perez, Hamilton, Razia and Force India's James Rossiter got to run a few laps towards the end of the session.

Final Standings

1. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) 1m18.218s
2. Paul di Resta (Force India) 1m19.003s
3. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) 1m19.134s
4. Mark Webber (Red Bull) 1m19.338s
5. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) 1m19.502s
6. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m19.519s
7. Sergio Perez (McLaren) 1m19.572s
8. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1m19.914s
9. Pastor Maldonado (Williams) 1m20.693s
10. James Rossiter (Force India) 1m21.273s
11. Giedo van der Garde (Caterham) 1m21.311s
12. Luiz Razia (Marussia) 1m23.537s

Romain Grosjean affirmed team boss Eric Boullier's prediction of competitive times when he set the fastest lap time of the session and the test so far. He was nearly 0.8s quicker than the next car down, which just happened to be another blinder of a session by Paul di Resta.

Day two was an extremely tight session with seven cars being split by under a second. Both van der Garde (typing his name out is going to be a bag of fun this season  and Razia went quicker than the teams previous times (Chilton ran day one) with the Caterham still ahead.

Without doubt the biggest disappointment of the day came from Lewis Hamilton (albeit not his fault). His maiden run for his brand new team ended in disaster when his brakes failed, rendering him a passenger as his car headed for the tyres. Luckily he was unharmed but the problem couldn't be mended in time to get him back out. Two major problems in two days is pushing it, even for testing. He remained fairly upbeat and he was posting fairly quick times before the failure. There was hope yet.

Jerez: Day One

Welcome to my take on the first pre-season test in Jerez! We got our first glimpses of the cars that will make our lives so much more interesting come mid March! Bare in mind that no matter what my opinion, I am still very adamant that there is no existing correlation between test pace and actual race pace.

Final Standings

1. Jenson Button (McLaren) 1m.18.861s
2. Mark Webber (Red Bull) 1m.19.709s
3. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) 1m.19.796s
4. Paul di Resta (Force India) 1m.20.343s
5. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) 1m.20.401s
6. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1m.20.536s
7. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) 1m.20.699s
8. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1m.20.846s
9. Pastor Maldonado (Williams) 1m.20.864s
10. Giedo van der Garde (Caterham) 1m.21.915s
11. Max Chilton (Marussia) 1m.24.176s

Rosberg had managed to set the fastest time at one point but his running was ended whenever his Mercedes F1W04 hit mechanical issues. A fault in the car produced mass flames from the rear. This was the second time the session was red flagged. The first came whenever Button's McLaren MP4-28 showed it's consistency early on. Consistency that is in the form of reliability issues. The disappointment ended there, whenever the team managed to get the car going again he posted the quickest lap of the session.

Romain Grosjean managed to keep Lotus's brand new E21 out of the gravel and out of other cars as he produced a wonderful set of laps placing his car in third behind Mark Webber's RB9. Paul di Resta was the quickest of the midfield teams pipping Ferrari's Felipe Massa, a feat also achieved by Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo.

Giedo van der Garde started off his new career on a high after going two seconds quicker than fellow back marker Max Chilton in the Marussia.

A great crop of drivers kicked off testing, day one (like the majority of pre-season tests) is usually the day when niggles like seating issues are addressed and if things didn't go wrong, then that's when people should start getting worried. McLaren and Mercedes will have questioned why both their respective cars developed faults and how to prevent them happening again in the future. This is why for me there were no real disappoints for day one.

2014 - The Formula 1 Tsunami

No doubt by now you've heard me bang on about the regulation changes to the current engine formula (that has been in place since 2006) which will make teams reinvent the way Formula 1 cars are designed in 2014. Lotus technical director James Allison has provided further insight into why the 2014 season is going to be such an important milestone in Formula 1 history.

"2009 changes were a ripple compared with the tsunami in 2014" - James Allison

Allison was talking specifically about the most recent set of regulation changes which impacted aerodynamics involving altering the levels of downforce to improve the chances of overtaking.

The brains behind the new Lotus E21 also stated that work on the 2014 challenger began as early as mid season 2011.

"Most of the way the 2014 championship will be was laid out sometime ago and you deal with a huge change like that by not leaving it to the last minute before you think about it."

Allison also believes that Renault (the team's engine supplier) will not prioritise championship team Red Bull over Lotus.

"They (Renault) offer an even-handed approach but they are also extremely conscious of the fact they need to make a car that works well in 2014, not just an engine."

Even though Red Bull are the works team, Lotus was still Renault for years. In my eyes the supplier will always be closer to Lotus than Red Bull.

Lotus E21

The E21 has got off to a flying start in Jerez for pre-season testing with Romain Grosjean running the car for the first two days and 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen taking over for the final two.

Final Lap Times For The E21 So Far:

Day One: Romain Grosjean 1.19.796s (3rd fastest on the day)

Day Two: Romain Grosjean 1.18.218s (fastest time of the day)

Day Three: Kimi Raikkonen 1.19.200s (4th fastest on the day)

W04 / MR02 / CT03

Yet another triple review for you today! The last three cars have finally been revealed, Williams have yet to officially launch their FW35, but at the test in Jerez they ran the 2012 car, only in the 2013 livery with some 2013 parts so they will get their own review at the end of the month when they launch on the 19th February.

The first test is well under way at Jerez, I'd like to take this opportunity to mention that I will be publishing a full review of the four days after the first test is over. Keep up to date on Twitter @Houston60 for more info!

W04

I covered the launch for Let's Talk F1, including a comprehensive review of the launch, my thoughts on the car and provided lots of photos of the Mercedes F1 W04. Click here to read it. 

Feel free to check out the rest of the site and get in touch with us at @LetsTalkF1.














MR02

Marussia have came back from an okay 2012 campaign that saw them nearly get that very valuable 10th place in the constructors championship.











Right after their last race, they saw rookie Charles Pic leave them for Caterham and recently tsaw veteran Timo Glock depart for the DTM. Before Glock left, Marussia had confirmed the signing of GP2 ace Max Chilton and the line up was not fully completed until today when the team announced they had signed another GP2 name in Luiz Razia.

The MR02 essentially looks nearly the same as the previous model, maybe a design change but nothing clearly visable. 

The car has adorned the optional vanity cover that is used to hide the ugly boxers nose of 2012 regulation changes. There is still a visible slope but it is nowhere near as bad as last season.

The technical aspects of the car remain the same although with the dissolution of HRT, they are now the only team on the grid to run the Cosworth engine. Throughout the year they may look for a better engine deal in order to prepare for the 2014 season where the sport undergoes a massive regulation change. I'll speak more about that at the end of this post.

What Marussia have done is introduced the KERS (kinetic energy recovery system) to their car, a first for the team. This will close the gap between them and fellow back runner team Caterham who were already equipped with the technology.

The team have all the mechanical components for success, but after allowing a driver like Timo Glock to slip through their fingers, they lack that experience. But I have faith in young Chilton and I believe that this is the season where they overtake Caterham in the pecking order.



CT03

Caterham have seen a reshuffle of members including two new drivers and a new team principle. Giedo Van der Garde completes the driver line up for this season.











First of all, the car looks FANTASTIC. I love the brighter shade of green and having always wanted to own a Caterham car, I am naturally drawn to the colours. Because of Tony Fernandes's departure from the game, the stupid soccer ball team logo is removed from the car. Soccer ball doesn't belong in a real sport like F1. 

If you're not a regular reader (you should be it's great) you would have known that I made a prediction about the Caterham having the stepped nose and why. In my Mercedes W04 review, I stated that it might have something to do with the Renault engine. So far, all the Mercedes powered cars, all the Ferrari powered cars and the one Cosworth powered car have opted to cover up the stepped nose. Lotus's E21, Red Bull's RB9 and now Caterham's CT03 (all Renault powered cars) have all decided against using a vanity panel, citing performance over beauty. Is there maybe a cooling issue with the Renault engine or other components that deem a vanity panel unnecessary? Lotus cited a weight issue, but if the majority of teams have added it to their cars, surely it doesn't mean a thing? It's a disappointment to know that we're going to have a very stupid looking field next season, but what's worse is that if the panels mean lesser performance, the covers will all be dropped meaning one more season of the disastrous looking noses!

NOTE

"The technical aspects of the car remain the same although with the dissolution of HRT, they are now the only team on the grid to run the Cosworth engine. Throughout the year they may look for a better deal in order to prepare for the 2014 season where the sport undergoes a massive regulation change."

I recently purchased Jenson Button's book "A Championship Year" and I must say it is a fantastic read, loving every word. The reason why I brought it up is because of how he describes how the Brawn car was so successful in the opening races. In 2008, Honda stopped developing their current car because it was a lost cause, and also because there were big regulation changes coming in 2009. They started work straight away and financial issues aside, they (after become Brawn) developed a championship winning car for 2009. This is because they got ahead of the curve.

Why is this so important? What can be learned? If Caterham and Marussia both separately sat down and said to themselves; "let's do a Brawn" and started focusing their energy on 2014, they could seriously turn things around! I'm not saying they'll have a Brawn story or anything but if they just got over themselves and focused on the important issue, they could find themselves with a bit more respect next season and a status shift from back markers to a midfield team. Brawn done it on a budget, there is absolutely no excuse why these two can't. And who knows, maybe Scorpion Racing (HRT) may have already got the jump on us all. Food for thought right there.