There were two eagerly awaited debuts at Valencia yesterday. One was every bit as good as could have been hoped for but the other was just a little disappointing. Fernando Alonso drove the Ferrari F10 for the first time in anger and very early in the piece set not just his best time for the day, but the best time for the entire test. And not just by a little way. The Spaniards time of 1'11.470 was three tenths quicker than team-mate Massa was able to achieve in his two days of running and over six tenths better than any other team could manage.

Alonso topped the test in his Ferrari debut

    Although Ferrari was the quickest of all teams during the week, Alonso was not going to claim that they were title favourites. "I think maybe if we topped the times the three days is related to fuel load or whatever, or maybe because it's true we are competitive. But before being competitive we need to make sure we do a lot of laps and that the car is strong and can finish all the grands prix. We are at that period of winter testing. The first impression is always good. It was very good last year, and I was not in Q3 very often. For that I'm very, very cautious.

   Jenson Button's McLaren debut was probably not the start that the reigning world champion was hoping for. His best lap was 1'12.951, good enough for only fifth fastest on the day (beating only Petrov and Hulkenberg). It was not only 1.5 seconds off Alonso's pace but seven tenths slower than Hamilton managed the previous day.

  Once again the Sauber was second quickest, this time with de la Rosa getting another run and so long as they were not setting their times in an under-weight car (as certain unsponsored teams have been known to do) they could be in for a good season.

  Michael Schumacher was back in the  Mercedes and set their best time for the test but that was still a second off the pace. Like Alonso, the cobbler said it was too soon to tell if the car was a potential winner. I'm thinking we will be competitive, but whether this is a winning car straightaway or not, that's another story," he said. "For me that's not so important - it's a long season. We need to be there and taking points from the beginning. I wouldn't expect to be winning right from the beginning. It wasn't something that I was aiming for and expecting to be the case. But we need to be strong enough on development."

  Jaime Alguersuari gave some relief to the Toro Rosso boys setting the days fourth best time after Buemi suffered from gearbox troubles and was well off the pace on the first two days. At Renault, Vitaly Petrov had his first ever run in an F1 car and managed a best of 1'13.097 which, although not setting the world on fire, was a pretty good start. After all, Robert Kubica with all his experience and known pace could only manage 1'12.426.

  Of all the teams that tested, the ones that now must be the most worried are Williams. Neither driver could break out of the mid 1'13s with the Cosworth powered FW32 over the three days with Nico Hulkenberg setting the days slowest time of 1'13.669. Being around two seconds off the pace, even at this early stage of testing is not a good sign.

For all the times from the Valencia Test go to - http://www.mmmsport.com.au/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=150&Itemid=38

  In other news Bernie Ecclestone is pushing for Stefan GP to receive an entry to race this season as he is still not convinced that both Campos Mate or USF1 will make it to the start line in Bahrain. Headed by the Serbian Zoran Stefanovic, Stefan has set up camp at the former Toyota factory in Cologne and as Toyota has withdrawn from F1, both Toyota's 2010 car and engine would be rebadged as 'Stefan'. Williams refugee and Toyota protegee, Kazuki Nakajima is lined up to take one of the race seats.

Plans to test later this month in Portugal are already in place, and equipment will be sent to the Bahrain season opener, despite Stefan not having an official team entry.

Sam Snape

4-2-2010

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