Official 2010 F1 Pre-Season Thread

I thought Torro Rosso and Red Bull were supposed to be independent this year? The cars are the same.
 
If you get pedantic there are differences, but they are minor.
Compare these two images and tell me that the cars are not the same design. Torro Rosso clearly still has no independence.

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I can tell you that the diffusers are very different. Once the 2010 wings come in place the differences will become bigger.
 
That looks awesome! Glad to see he kept the Polish flag on the side, I don't mind drivers showing a bit of patriotism on the grid, after all, no matter what team they're in and where said team is based, they're still looked upon by the public of said countries as representing them on the world sports arena.

It looks especially cool with the Renault livery!
 
Peter3hg said:
If you get pedantic there are differences, but they are minor.
Compare these two images and tell me that the cars are not the same design. Torro Rosso clearly still has no independence.
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STR had the fastest chassis on the 2009 grid sitting in their workshop when it came time to design their 2010 car and their lead designer came from RBR, why wouldn't the cars look the same? The RB6 is just an evolution of the RB5, well so is the STR5.
 
I can only think of that McLaren's upcoming fail at Monaco. Even with that diffuser, they can't get the Monaco GP right with that massive wheelabse.
 
It's not like it's a London bus or anything.

Testing resumed just over an hour ago. Track is still pretty wet but should hopefully dry out for the afternoon. Vettel was lapping but stopped on track a short while ago which brought out the red flag. Not sure what the issue is - Autosport speculates it was deliberate running out of fuel to test the limits.

Hamilton just set the quickest lap of the day so far, and continuing his rapid pace. 1m26.833, a long way off yesterday's times, but almost a second quicker than anyone has gone today in the wet conditions.
 
Which F1 driver was it who described driving at Monaco being like trying to 'fly a helicopter around your living room,' or something to that effect?

Anyway, I'm just having mental images of the McLaren trying to navigate the Monaco circuit being like trying to do a u-turn with a B-Double in a residential street, or an ocean liner in a creek, or an American land yacht trying to take a snaking mountain road with sheer cliffs at every bend ....you get the idea!
 
Gee Zesty, covering all your bases? How many drivers do you wanna support! :p

Hamilton in the pits now, looks like it was just a short run. I hope McLaren have some longer runs scheduled for later in the day, to my knowledge they've yet to do any really long continuous stints.
 
Red_Bull said:
Gee Zesty, covering all your bases? How many drivers do you wanna support! :p

Hamilton in the pits now, looks like it was just a short run. I hope McLaren have some longer runs scheduled for later in the day, to my knowledge they've yet to do any really long continuous stints.
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They did nothing but 25 lap runs in Valencia, but I don't think they've done a run like Alonso's 42 lap run on Thursday. I think they'll do that today.

Hamilton sounded pretty pissed off with the weather though:

Q. Obviously not the best day with the weather...

Lewis Hamilton: It's one of those days. Not too much to say really. We had a dry morning and it straightaway felt okay this morning. It's not too bad in the wet, but there was too much water.

Q. Did you try both types of wet tyre?

LH: I did.

Q. Did you have the same problem with the intermediates wearing out quickly that everyone else had on Wednesday?

LH: I had the same thing.

Q. What were the extreme wets like?

LH: It seemed to be okay. We didn't do too much running today so there's not really too much to say.

Q. How does the car compare to how it was at Valencia? Are there any differences?

LH: There's no difference to the car. It's the same car as Valencia.

Q. But has it improved as the team has worked with it more?

LH: We haven't made any steps. We haven't done anything. There are no changes. It's exactly the same car.

Q. Does it feel different now you're at a more challenging track?

LH: I did 15 laps this morning in the dry so you can't feel too much. It felt really good in Valencia. Today this morning was very cold and had different fuel loads. It felt the same as it did in Valencia.

Q. Have you seen the plans for Silverstone's new Arena circuit? What do you think? Did Silverstone need to be changed?

LH: I liked it the way it was but I welcome new ideas.

Q. If it's wet again tomorrow, is there anything you can achieve?

LH: There are always small things, sign-off things, checks that the team have to do. But otherwise, in terms of my driving there's nothing that you can really learn. Time on the track is always valuable but in the wet it's not really worth it.

Q. You sound pretty down...

LH: I do? I feel great. We got enough work done. I would've loved to have had a dry day of course, everyone probably would have. I like driving in the wet, but it was just a bit too much water. It would be nice if it was a bit more consistent. But I feel positive about my car.

Q. How would you sum up the current situation?

LH: We've only done one test and there's such a huge variation with fuel loads so we have absolutely no idea - less of an idea than we had in the past. Some people could be driving with 30 kilos or 10 kilos, others could have 150. So it's impossible to say.

Q. What's your programme tomorrow if it's dry?

LH: Lots of laps hopefully. I'd like to get out there and do some of the programme that we were going to do today, and try and get as much running as possible.
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Red_Bull said:
Gee Zesty, covering all your bases? How many drivers do you wanna support! :p
Click to expand...

Oi! I restricted myself to 5 from each series! Koba replaced Kimi on the F1 list when he went to the WRC. ;)
 
Vettel is fastest now, the track just about ready for slicks. I hope the rain stays away so the teams can get in some serious running.
 
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