Shaun left this comment yesterday under one of the Barcelona test posts:

Why is Schumacher testing for Ferrari instead of Raikkonen or Massa ? sorry if this is an obvious question.

Well, good question and I do not think it is obvious. Ferrari has Raikkonen and Massa plus test drivers proper Gene and Badoer. But they still use Michael Schumacher and used him again in Barcelona this week. Schumacher did one day of testing. This was half of what Massa did, but about a day more than Kimi (thanks to rain on Thursday). Why is he still testing ? And why do they keep two other test drivers on payroll when they do not use them (almost) at all?

He still probably gives the team valuable input but is his input more valuable than input from one of the race drivers would be ? How does Kimi like the fact that he gets less running ? Perhaps he likes it and is actually thankful to Schumi for stepping in . But as far as I remember Kimi was never too excited about having Schumacher around.

Perhaps it is only publicity stunt as no matter what people may think about Michael Schumacher, he is a phenomenon that still attracts lots of attention.

Or perhaps it is just something that Jean Todt cooked up before leaving the team and Domenicali has to live with it now …

Well, who knows. The fact remains, Schumi is still around and he is definitely not slow.

There is another blog post on Michael Schumacher today here …

F1Wolf

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Day 3 in Barcelona was about new BullRosso car that was supposed to run for last 2 days of test. Unfortunately Mr. Bourdais smashed it beyond repair and we probably will not see STR03 again for the rest of the Barcelona test.

Fernando Alonso must have felt like at the end of 2006 season, his Renault finishing just ahead of Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari.

Not sure what exactly are McLaren and Toyota testing, they did not show much pace yet in Barcelona. Well, important will be the pace they show next week on the same track…

Most important development yesterday was however related to the team that does not test in Barcelona at all - Super Aguri …

Barcelona test April 2008 - Day 3 times:

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F1Wolf

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The day 2 in Barcelona felt a bit like deja vu. First either Adrian Newey did some freelancing for Renault, or Red Bull showed some aero love to their engine supplier, or Renault simply copied what they have seen in the next garage. Well, I though that the Renault car can’t get any more ugly that it already was. I was wrong apparently .

It looks like in Honda they not only decided not to do much upgrading this year. They took it one step further, they are going retro . The Dumbo ears back almost exactly a year after their premiere in Barcelona in 2007. Honda never used them in a race, but at least we had some Dumbo jokes :-) …

The only other obvious new develpment I spotted on Tuesday was what looks like a new front wing for Ferrari.

Let’s see what today will bring besides Michael Schumacher … Toro Rosso are to test their new car so we may see yet another ugly fin covering the F1 engine …

For an in-depth report on all that has been tested in Barcelona so far I recommend checking out the comment from Kotenok below the previous post.

Just for the record, below are the times from day 2 of Barcelona tests. But as teams are testing very different packages, the times are of no significance. But it has been a while since Barrichello and Fisichella were on top of the timesheets.

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F1Wolf

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It looks like the first day day of Barcelona testing was all about the new Ferrari hole. The fact that the combination of the new hole in the nose part of Ferrari car and the slick tyres resulted in 3 seconds gap between Massa and the second fastest car, Honda of Alex Wurz, is one of the reasons the expected hole got so much attention.

McLaren slow times should not be taken too seriously though. If you look carefully at the pictures from Barcelona, you can see the tiny almost Monza like rear wing on de la Rosa’s car. McLaren obviously spent the day focusing on 2009 season rather than updates for the next race. BMW Sauber did not run on slicks yesterday, so Heidfeld’s times can’t be compared to Massa either …

One thing remains fact nevertheless, the Ferrari was scary quick on Monday in Barcelona.

While browsing the pictures from yesterday’s test, the only other ineteresting thing I spotted were the front wheel covers on Renault. If I am not wrong, that is new.

There is a nice picture gallery from Barcelona here. The site is in Spanish.

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F1Wolf

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Yesterday was the final day of the four day test at Circuito Ricardo Tormo in Valencia. The teams are in very different stages of their 2008 car development so no conclusions should be made yet, but there are already some signs of what may come.

Ferrari seems to be ready to mount another title challenge. Both Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa had good runs in the new Ferrari. Massa was fastest on Tuesday, Raikkonen on Thursday. It can be said that Ferrari is the fastest car at the moment.

McLaren did not do too bad either. Heikki Kovalainen is settling in the car pretty well and he even managed to set the new lap record on this F1 test track. He later disclosed it was on very low fuel, but nevertheless the combination of Heikki Kovalainen and McLaren car looks impressive. Lewis Hamilton was in the car on Wednesday and Thursday only, both time outpaced by his team mate. It may mean that Heikki will be formidable opponent, it may also mean each of the McLaren drivers had different test duties.

Williams, the pleasant surprise. At this stage of the testing season clearly the third fastest car, no matter whether driven by Rosberg or Nakajima. They however have to keep up their job, because there are several teams right behind them … Considering that they only came out with the new car this week in Valencia, the performance of Williams is very impressive.

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F1Wolf

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Well, only for the Jerez test in December but nevertheless it is a sign that FIA is seriously considering bringing them back.

Slick tyres were expected to return for 2008 season but the plans were ditched without much explanation. This test will be aimed at collecting the data before the possible 2009 return of slick tyres.

Statement from Bridgestone:

“Bridgestone are supplying these tyres as a response to a request from the teams and the testing committee, as the teams want to gain data as they look to the 2009 season.”

The tyres are believed to be similar to those Bridgestone supplies to the GP2 series.

It is hard to believe that Max Mosley and FIA are actually taking some steps to improve the racing …

F1Wolf

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