FERRARI TOPS THE LIST
- 20 May 2013
Ferrari broke out of their winter hibernation and topped the timesheets at the end of the latest test at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya. This, however, was not all that it seemed. Michael Schumacher in last years car was the one at the top of the list, were it should be but in the car running with this years aero package they struggled to better the times set by the new Toyota. Indeed on day 1 Michael was six tenths slower than Trulli and only marginally faster on day two. It was only on the final day that Rubens Barrichello managed to slip in a fast time on a day that the Toyotas were beset by engine and hydraulic dramas.
Toyota themselves were content to concentrate on set-up work on the new cars although this was hampered by the very slippery track conditions as well as the mechanical problems. With only four cars running this years package, which has about 20% less downforce, it was no surprise that the two new Toyotas were near the bottom of the timesheets overall. The only other two were the Ferraris and of them on Barrichello broke under the 1 minute 17 second barrier with his quick day four time.
The only other two teams in attendance both continued their respective “driver shoot-outs” with once again Nick Heidfeld proving a match for Antonio Pizzonia in The Williams and Christian Klien showing a clean pair oh heels to Liuzzi at Red Bull. Although Pizzonia actually pipped Heidfeld for the first time here it was mostly because his fast time was set late in the day on a cooling track with fresh tyres. Heidfeld however, was still very impressive, setting second best time on day two, just three tenths behind team leader, Mark Webber.
At Red Bull, David Coulthard continued to show his ability and actually topped the charts on day three with the third best time of the entire test. Despite a massive head on crash into the barriers Klien still set a time exactly one second faster than Liuzzi’s best although Liuzzi impressed when he beat both Klien and Coulthard on day two.
If I had to guess who the number two drivers will be at these teams, it would be Heidfeld for sure, and probably Klien, who has the benefit of a years experience, with Liuzzi as the Friday tester. If Liuzzi proved the faster of the two over the first four races I would then start thinking about a switch.
BEST TIMES DRIVER CAR TIME 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari F2004 1'15.461 (1) 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari F2004B 1'16.131(4) 3 David Coulthard Jaguar R5B 1'16.134(3) 4 Antonio Pizzonia Williams FW26C 1'16.230 5 Mark Webber Williams FW26C 1'16.627 (2) 6 Olivier Panis Toyota TF104B 1'16.796 7 Nick Heidfeld Williams FW26C 1'16.954 8 Christian Klien Jaguar R5B 1'17.035 9 Jarno Trulli Toyota TF105 1'17.335 10 Ralf Schumacher Toyota TF105 1'17.490 11 Vitantonio Liuzzi Jaguar R5B 1'18.035
(-) fastest on day
Sam Snape
22-01-05