Barcelona lap time comparison
Back in March, Oliver White at BlogF1 posted an interesting comparison of pre-season testing times from 2008 versus those of 2009.
In those numbers was a hint of the dominance to come from Brawn GP and the relatively poor performance of McLaren’s MP4-24. But they were also a bit misleading in that the second best improved team was BMW followed by Ferrari, neither of which have impressed much this year. Red Bull, currently second in the Constructors’ Championship, did only marginally better in the comparison table.
Last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix marked the start of the European F1 season which is traditionally the time when teams introduce upgrades to their cars. In fact, in previous years, many teams would only release their new car when they got to Europe, choosing to run the previous season’s car for the opening flyaway races.
So with most of the teams bringing updated cars to Spain there was a lot of talk of improvements in lap times. BMW’s upgrade was the most radical, attaching a new rear wing, front wing and a completely redesigned nose. BMW team boss, Mario Theissen, said they were hoping for a half second per lap improvement.
But are the cars significantly faster now than they were at the beginning of the year? As the teams all tested at the Circuit de Catalunya in the winter we can compare their times set in testing with their times set during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend.
Below is a table comparing the fastest time set by each team at the Barcelona test in February to their fastest time set during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend.
| Team | Driver (Test) | Best Time (Test) | Driver (GP) | Best Time (GP) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Williams | Rosberg | 01:19.744 | Rosberg | 01:21.588 | +00:01.844 |
| Brawn | Barrichello | 01:18.926 | Button | 01:20.527 | +00:01.601 |
| Toyota | Glock | 01:20.091 | Glock | 01:21.247 | +00:01.156 |
| BMW | Kubica | 01:20.214 | Kubica | 01:21.239 | +00:01.025 |
| Renault | Alonso | 01:20.664 | Alonso | 01:21.392 | +00:00.728 |
| Force India | Fisichella | 01:21.045 | Sutil | 01:21.742 | +00:00.697 |
| Ferrari | Massa | 01:20.168 | Massa | 01:20.553 | +00:00.385 |
| Red Bull | Vettel | 01:20.576 | Vettel | 01:20.660 | +00:00.084 |
| Toro Rosso | Buemi | 01:21.013 | Buemi | 01:21.067 | +00:00.054 |
| McLaren | Hamilton | 01:20.869 | Hamilton | 01:20.805 | -00:00.064 |
To be honest, I’m a bit confused by the results. It shows that all the teams except McLaren posted slower lap times at the Spanish Grand Prix than they did in testing. In fact Brawn GP were the second biggest losers in the comparison despite dominating the race last weekend.
Perhaps this kind of comparison is not really valid but if BMW claim their car is now half a second a lap faster shouldn’t they have been able to at least match the time they set in testing?
If anyone has any ideas about how to interpret these results, I’d love to hear it in the comments.
Image: BMW AG
I wonder if the best lap time during a race will always be slower than in practice, as the cars will be lightest at the point when the tyres have done the most laps?
What does a comparison of winter testing times vs. free practice best times show?
@Andrew Hill
You’re right, but the times in the table above are the fastest times set over the whole race weekend including practice, qualifying and race.
Of the times above, all were set in qualifying except for Rosberg, who set his in P2, and Massa and Kubica, who were fastest in P3.
@David
Ah, okay. In that case, I have no idea what’s going on then 🙂
Testing with non-09 spec cars, perhaps?