iSport's Motorsport Editor Kunal Shah was keenly following the first F1 test in Valencia last week. While the Ferrari's were quick out of the box, he was greatly impressed by BMW Sauber's consistent pace. He is wondering if 'Sauber can do a Brawn?'
Its testing time and the first official F1 test was underway in Valencia, Spain last week. While testing didn’t make much news till a few years back (thank God the new F1 rules), Valencia had some 35,000 fans in the Grand Stands to watch Fernando Alonso make his debut in the Scarlet Ferrari! And a good testing debut it was for the Tifosi’s new hero as Alonso managed to clock the fastest laptime overall and a clear 3 tenths faster than his team-mate Felipe Massa. The Ferraris are back on top, temporary or not, but that is not what I am going to discuss!! Discuss Schumacher’s come back test? No! Enough has been said and enough has been predicted – I’d rather wait till the multiple Champion re-creates his magic on-track!!
So the Ferrari and Mclarens topped the time sheets comfortably and the Mercedes’ were slightly off the pace. Reliability, aero efficiency or whatever the reason – they surely need to play catch up! But the one team that surprised me with their consistent pace was the BMW Sauber, powered by the Ferrari engines! (weird it is!!)
The Peter Sauber owned team, which was deserted by the German car manufacturer BMW at the end of last season managed to consistently clock the second fastest lap time on all the three days. The only team to have gone quicker than the Saubers, were the Ferraris! Does this indicate something?
The answer might be little too early to answer, but with the limited testing mileage available to all the teams this year, testing times like last year could just help you find an early answer. Like 2009, where Brawns blew the competition away in their first test itself, the Saubers too are looking consistently quick!!
Their pace didn’t increase as drastically as Ferrari’s during the 3-day test in Valencia, but they did manage to out pace the rest of the teams consistently. The rule changes for 2010 mean that there will be a lot more variables for the teams to master before dominating performance on-track.
But could the 2010 season be yet another where a miniscule privateer team dominates the world’s best car manufacturers? Or is this yet another low-fuel dash to attract much needed sponsors to the newly formed Sauber team? I think not…
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Kunal Shah
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... Hmm. Reasons could be various - I would rule out a low fuel run. You can't always get one on all three days and stay on top. Though BMW chose to pull out - they did give up on their 09 development and chose to focus on '10 challenger. One of the reasons could be an early development cycle. Many cars look similar this year, however, pointing out one single factor would be a little difficult. |
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