Sidepodcast

Live: Barcelona Testing - Day Three (February 2010)

The third day in Barcelona gets underway and Williams will be coming off the back of good headlines yesterday, thanks to Hülkenberg. Rain is expected to mix up proceedings at the circuit, when teams desperately need a clear day of running on this penultimate pre-season test of 2010.

Up and down the pitlane, plenty of race simulation work was covered yesterday, and that's likely to continue into the weekend. Will anyone run some light and fast qualifying simulations?

On track action begins at 9am CET (8am GMT).

Circuit Information

• Track length: 4.655km
• Corners: 16
• Lap record: 1:21.670 (Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari, 2008)

You'll find Circuit de Catalunya located in the North East corner of Spain.

Drivers and Teams Attending

The following teams and drivers are confirmed for testing on Wednesday

Useful Links

• Official Circuit Homepage
• Autosport Live
• F1 Today

Live: Barcelona Testing - Day Two (February 2010)

It's day two in Barcelona as F1 teams make the most of some decent weather and get down to work. Only a few drivers carry over their work today as Schumacher, Hamilton and Vettel all grab the hot seats.

Lucas di Grassi managed to complete just 31 laps on Thursday before throwing his Virgin car into the barriers on Thursday, but it was Mark Webber who grabbed the headlines as the RB6 managed to stretch it's legs in the Spanish sunshine. Look out for more from them today.

Of note, Ross Brawn has stated that Mercedes' definitive diffuser won't be fitted to the car until Bahrain, which means they're running around Barcelona learning about tyres and not a lot else.

On track action begins at 9am CET (8am GMT).

Circuit Information

• Track length: 4.655km
• Corners: 16
• Lap record: 1:21.670 (Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari, 2008)

You'll find Circuit de Catalunya located in the North East corner of Spain.

Drivers and Teams Attending

The following teams and drivers are confirmed for testing on Wednesday

Useful Links

• Official Circuit Homepage
• Autosport Live
• F1 Today

Live: Barcelona Testing - Day One (February 2010)

Today, F1 teams will finally get to test their 2010 cars on a modern Formula 1 circuit, as the pre-season testing calendar draws to a close. This is the week that matters the most, and this is the track that will sort the men from the boys.

Circuit de Catalunya will host the fifth race of the season, and weather permitting, it will also offer teams and drivers their best chance at preparing for the opening round in Bahrain. 11 teams are scheduled to attend these final four days in Spain, many are behind schedule, all have plenty of work to do.

On track action begins at 9am CET (8am GMT).

Circuit Information

• Track length: 4.655km
• Corners: 16
• Lap record: 1:21.670 (Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari, 2008)

You'll find Circuit de Catalunya located in the North East corner of Spain.

Drivers and Teams Attending

The following teams and drivers are confirmed for testing on Wednesday

Useful Links

• Official Circuit Homepage
• Autosport Live
• F1 Today

Is 2010 the Year the F1 Testing Died?

I wrote earlier this week about my desire to attend pre-season testing this year, partly as a way of seeing some F1 action, and partly as a way to prove to Mr C that track testing is still relevant and interesting. Four days later and things could be going better.

Credit: Force India F1

Adrian Sutil tests the Force India in 2009

We narrowed the choices down to the sole Valencia test, and the price and the location were pretty appealing. We already knew that Red Bull weren't going to be attending the circuit for the first test of the year, and that was a sticking point. It was almost acceptable to miss out on seeing the new Red Bull, despite it likely setting the 2010 aero standard. US F1 are almost certain to remain in the States for their first test, and new team Virgin Racing have also confirmed they would delay their first taste of track time until a later Jerez test.

This is all understandable, and no one could put money on the new teams being ready in time for the beginning of February, although they are going to have to get a wriggle on because the start of the season is not far behind. Roll on the next news announcements, and cue both Sauber and Force India stating they are not planning on attending the Valencia test either. For what reason?

It seems as though on track testing is just no longer as valuable to teams as days spent in the factory, hours spent in the wind tunnel, and computing minutes spent on CFD analysis. Christian Horner proves this point for at least one of the absentee teams: "It's to optimise the time in the wind tunnel as much as possible."

From the real life experience of track time, the future now seems to be sitting behind a wall of screens. As big enthusiasts for shunning the real world, I don't suppose I can fault the logic behind these decisions. The real question, though, is what are they doing? The regulation changes for the 2009 season were so massive that I would have forgiven teams for turning round and saying: "Hold up, we need a year out for this." But the majority were raring to go as soon as the track time was presented to them. 12 months later, and you can't coax them out onto the tarmac.

Is it an attempt at keeping secrets? Surely teams are aware by now that it is almost an impossible task. Or perhaps they have learnt from the double diffuser debacle that there is the possibility of springing a surprise.

Perhaps it is simply that the track at Valencia is not particularly useful and they would rather wait until Barcelona - they can certainly reuse data collected at Circuit de Catalunya during the season, whereas maybe the Ricardo Tomo track is less useful to them. What would happen if Bahrain got their way and became one of the pre-season preferred testing tracks instead? Would the teams be more or less keen to head out there and stock up on some numbers?

We've seen a distinct lack of interest in testing recently, but does that mean fans are missing out? I know when we attended Silverstone for mid-season testing in 2008 it was full of excited fans, a really good day out, and although different to a GP atmosphere, it's certainly something you'd want to experience. Now it's all pre-season, more clinical, and less teams are bothered. It seems like everyone from fans to drivers to mechanics are missing out.

That being said, it wouldn't surprise me if the trend for testing is over. With cost cutting the first bullet point on everyone's agenda at the moment, extra track time, flights, cargo, fuel and tyres can't be an appealing option. If the fans aren't bothered about going, the teams would prefer to stay in the warmth of the factory, then perhaps testing really is dead. Could we get by without it altogether?

Either way, I'm going to have to admit that Mr C might be right. It looks like we're just going to have to settle for a regular old holiday. Where's the nearest wind tunnel?

Ready to Test the Water

Suddenly today, out of nowhere, I felt like I wanted to go to the pre-season testing in Spain. It's been a while since we saw an F1 car in action, and we're not heading to Autosport this month to tide us over. So, we were discussing the upcoming testing action, and I started pondering whether we might go, if only to convince Mr C that testing isn't a waste of time. The most important thing is that it is in the immediate future. There are ongoing plans for trips to many different races this year, but they all seem so far away. Testing is just next month, so deliciously close.

Credit: Paul Gilham/Getty Images

Red Bull ready to skip first test

It's also a lot cheaper than visiting a GP. Somewhere in the realm of 30 Euros for a three day ticket, although getting there and staying there are another matter. I can't quite work out the websites for Jerez and Catalunya, though. Jerez has testing on the calendar, but no apparent place for ticketing, whilst the Barcelona circuit doesn't seem at all sure there is testing about to happen at all.

That leaves Valencia, who have a much more user friendly site, with ticket prices and everything. The problem with a potential visit to Ricardo Tomo is that there is at least one launch the night before - and we've been making plans and looking forward to covering launches from the comfort of our own desks. There's also the possibility that Red Bull are skipping the first pre-season test of the year, and I think I'd want to see all the teams if I had the chance.

None of these are big problems, of course, I just wanted to share my thought process as I navigated the various possibilities. Sidepodcast traditionally leaves everything to the last minute, so we'll not be making any decisions yet. What about you? Is testing even an interesting proposition, or would you rather save your coppers for the real thing?

F1 Digest 2009 - Spain Preview

• Length: 07:03 
• Size: 6.5 MB 
• File: digest93.mp3 
• Transcript: digest93.pdf 
• Torrent: digest93.torrent 

We're well rested ahead of the race at Barcelona, and as a track we visit frequently for testing, are we expecting anything out of the ordinary? Listen on to the F1 Digest preview to find out.

Vital Statistics

• Date: 10th May
• Circuit: Circuit de Catalunya
• Length: 4.7km
• Laps: 66
• 2008 Winner: Kimi Raikkonen

Preview

The weather for the 2009 season is topsy-turvy, sometimes hot, sometimes wet, and this race is going to head one way or another, it seems. All the teams are glad for the rest, looking forward to their updates, and hoping they're better off for them.