Toro Rosso STR5
The winter testing has finally begun. Early today Mercedes GP and Scuderia Toro Rosso unveiled their new cars – MGP W01 and STR5. Then at 10am local time the first on track action of 2010 F1 year started.
Mercedes GP (Rosberg morning, Schumacher afternoon), McLaren (Paffet), Ferrari (Massa), Renault (Kubica), Barrichello (Williams), Buemi (Toro Rosso) and de la Rosa (BMW Sauber) are scheduled to run today.
Here are the morning times:
1. Felipe Massa – Ferrari – 1:13.’088
2. Pedro De la Rosa – Sauber – 1:13.247 +0.159
3. Nico Rosberg – Mercedes GP – 1:13.543 +0.455
4. Gary Paffet – McLaren – 1:14.018 +0.930
5. Rubens Barrichello – Williams – 1:14.449 +1.361
6. Robert Kubica – Renault – 1:15.298 +2.210
7. Sebastian Buemi – Toro Rosso – 1:19.279 + 6.191
8. Michael Schumacher – Mercedes GP – no time, no laps
Felipe Massa ended the day with the fastest time, about 2 tenths faster than time recorded by Pedro de la Rosa in Sauber. Michael Schumacher took the Mercedes car over from Nico Rosberg in the afternoon. He finished the day one of testing with third fastest time, 6 tenths faster than his team mate. Sebastien Buemi improved at the very end of the session and relegated Robert Kubica to the bottom of the time sheets. Here are the times at the end of the day 1:
1. Felipe Massa – Ferrari – 1:12.574 – 102 laps
2. Pedro De la Rosa – Sauber – 1:12.784 +0.210 – 74 laps
3. Michael Schumacher – Mercedes GP – 1:12.947 +0.373 – 40 laps
4. Nico Rosberg – Mercedes GP – 1:13.543 +0.969 – 39 laps
5. Gary Paffet – McLaren – 1:13.846 +1.272 – 86 laps
6. Rubens Barrichello – Williams – 1:14.449 +1.875 – 75 laps
7. Sebastian Buemi – Toro Rosso – 1:14.762 +2.188 – 18 laps
8. Robert Kubica – Renault – 1:15.000 +2.426 – 69 laps
Scroll down for photos from the first day of 2010 F1 winter testing:
And here are few images of Michael Schumacher back in F1 action:
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How do the times compare to last year’s testing? Good start for Ferrari.
Frankly I haven’t really bothered to compare the times with last year as it would not make much sense anyway. With larger fuel tanks to facilitate the refueling ban the cars are running very different fuel loads . Here is how Gary Paffet described it:
Its always been somewhat of a guessing game as to how fast a car is due to fuel loads and other changes to the car. Still, if Ferrari is quicker than Brawn was last year, then it tells me they are going to be a force this year. Today’s session times for Ferrari were once again well ahead of the group.