• Valencia test

Squeezing blood from stones

Laurence Edmondson February 4, 2011

Want to know which of the eight new cars is fastest? "It's too early to say." Want to know why the cars are running two seconds slower than they were at the same circuit last year? "It's too early to say." Want to know what the 2011 regulation changes will mean for racing? "It's too early to say."

Those five words have been uttered in sequence far more than any others in Valencia this week. The teams undoubtedly have a better idea than the rest of us what's going on, but for the most part it is still guess work.

The problem is that for every lap recoded there are so many variables that could skew the time. There are the obvious ones like fuel loads, tyre compounds and track temperature. But there are also the all-new ones for 2011 like the use of KERS, the moveable rear wing and level of degradation on the new Pirelli tyres which have yet to be finalised.

Robert Kubica set the fastest time of the week on the final day, but the fact he barely mentioned it after the session is telling. Instead he was more interested in the reliability of the car in the morning session and the innovative new systems on the Renault.

A lot has been made of the R31's exhaust pipes this week, which exit lowdown at the front of the sidepods rather than at the rear. The idea is to increase the blown diffuser effect along the whole length of the car's floor, accelerating the airflow out of the underside of the car at the rear and sucking it to the tarmac.

But Kubica warned ESPNF1 that it will take more than one good idea to make a race-winning car this year: "Definitely the competitiveness of the car does not depend on the single bits, it's a package that has to work." It's a mantra that Red Bull stuck to last year when other teams attempted to copy its blown diffuser; and one that's worth bearing in mind as ideas are copied and bolted onto chassis later in the season.

On the subject of Red Bull, it is looking every bit a world championship-winning team this year and drew the biggest crowd for its launch on Tuesday. After the car was unveiled the media piled into the two-story hospitality centre where mock Haynes Manuals for the new RB7 were being handed out by a man in a brown trench coat, flat cap and a stick-on moustache. It was all fun and games, but when testing got underway at 10:00 the same morning it was clear that the team meant business and it notched up 93 laps and the fastest time by the end of the day.

The next morning there was even a fleeting appearance by team owner Dietrich Mateschitz, who snuck into the infield largely unnoticed and observed his cars at close quarters. He didn't hang around long enough to be asked if he liked what he saw, but Mark Webber finished the test on Thursday commending Red Bull's "bloody awesome job". There's no doubt they will still be an incredibly hard team to beat this year.

Ferrari was also putting on an impressive display up until Wednesday, but on the morning of day three the new F150 came over all Italian and burst into flames at the side of the track. You had to feel for Felipe Massa, who had only completed 12 laps at the time and spent the previous two days diligently watching team-mate Fernando Alonso pound round the circuit to the cheers of the Spanish crowd.

Such was Alonso's popularity at the test that the first corner grandstands were nearly at capacity on day two and several fans stood on a footbridge over the paddock all afternoon in the hope of catching a glimpse of him on his way to the men's room. The Spaniard, who is now going into competition with Nigel Mansell for the fullest moustache in motorsport history, kept his public happy by setting the fastest time on Wednesday.

Away from the action on track, the Lotus v Lotus shouting match continued to rumble on, admittedly after some prompting from the media. With the date of the court case set for after the first grand prix in March, tensions are only set to rise as both sides up their rhetoric during pre-season testing.

Renault owner Gerard Lopez started proceedings by saying Tony Fernandes was only holding onto the Team Lotus brand because he would stand to lose his FOM prize money from last year if he changes the team's name: "I'm aware of the decisions that took place and I know that money was essentially central to it, it's not passion, it's not taking over the Lotus name, it's the fact that if 1Malaysia changes its name, they lose their FOM money."

To which Fernandes replied in an interview with ESPNF1: "Of course it's passion, otherwise I would have called it AirAsia Racing. I've been watching bloody Lotus for years so I'm very, very proud of it. But let's not be stupid, of course it's dollars and cents. But why doesn't he change his chassis name to Renault? It's not a Renault. Call it Genii or Lotus Genii. It has as much to do with Renault as I have with Renault, it's an engine and that's it."

It added an unpleasant undercurrent at both team's launches and distracted from the usual excitement that goes with getting a brand new F1 car on track. Both teams deny it will have a knock-on effect on their performances, but the image they are portraying to sponsors and the watching world is of greater concern.

Next up is Jerez where the picture won't get much clearer and the addition of the 2011 McLaren, Force India and Virgin, while exciting, may only muddy the waters further. By Barcelona the final Pirelli tyre compounds will be set, and from that point onwards the teams will be shorter on excuses to put the media off their trail. But, of course, we'll have to wait for the first grand prix in Bahrain for the true pecking order to emerge. The good news is it's now just five weeks away.

Laurence Edmondson is an assistant editor on ESPNF1

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