Fernando Alonso set the fastest time for Ferrari on the second and final day of the Pirelli test in Abu Dhabi as the Spaniard drove a marathon 105 laps, more than any other driver and the equivalent of almost two full Grand Prix distances.
Once again most teams were represented by 2010 race drivers, with the exception of McLaren, who employed third driver Gary Paffett and junior test driver Oliver Turvey, and HRT, who used Pastor Maldonado.
In addition Paul di Resta shared driving duties at Force India with Tonio Liuzzi, and future Sauber driver Sergio Perez split the day with Kamui Kobayashi at his new team.
“Overall, it was a positive day,” said Alonso. “We had no particular problems with the Pirelli tyres and we were able to gather a lot of data for their engineers to work on. We are pleased with the way we worked and in how we were able to adapt the set-up of the car to suit the new tyres, especially in terms of the work we can do on the new car in preparation for next season. From what we could see, the switch from Bridgestone to Pirelli should not be a traumatic one.”
Much interest surrounded the appearance of Michael Schumacher, who did his early Grands Prix for Benetton on Pirelli rubber back in 1991. Mercedes and its drivers have been hoping that the front tyres will give them a hand next season. After some less than glowing comments to the media from Nico Rosberg yesterday, Schumacher caught the eye when he was second fastest on the day – although his time was later revealed to have benefited from a trip across a chicane. He dropped down to seventh, but nevertheless he sounded more positive than his team mate.
Schumacher said: “Today was my first day of testing for 2011 and I feel that we had an interesting session. We gathered a lot of data and insights, and have positive feedback from our first impression of the new tyres. I am probably the only driver to have driven with Pirelli tyres before but it was 20 years ago and I didn’t have any certain expectations before today. In terms of consistency, it looked quite good but we were using the 2010 car today and it will be all about how these tyres suit our 2011 car. I am already curious to try it out but at the same time I am looking forward to having a break now.”
Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn added: “This week’s test has been very productive for us and comes at a time when we can use the information gathered here to fine-tune the detail of our 2011 car and optimise the areas which we believe will be critical. Pirelli have done an excellent job to get these tyres to where they are now after such a short period of time and we are looking forward to working closely with them through the winter test programme at the start of next year.”
Sebastian Vettel was third fastest today on the final outing for the Red Bull RB6. It was the German’s second day in the car, as Mark Webber was not scheduled to do the test.
“We have had two busy days on track, getting our first impressions of the new tyres, analysing how they perform and looking at some things for next year,” said the new World Champion. “There is still a lot to do, but I think the tyres are already better than expected. Since February we haven’t really had time to do any in-depth testing on track, so these two days have given us a chance to reflect on things we have tried during the season.”
Adam Cooper F1 
new Wprld Champion
Ahem! 😀
Thanks for that, typos happen when you are trying to get the news up in a hurry. Although I’d like to think that you’ll find fewer of them here than on certain other blogs…
I love the title of this post, Adam. 🙂
Maybe you can provide some insight about the situation at Mercedes this year. It’s been said that the car doesn’t suit Michael’s style at all, something about the balance and “getting the tyres to work” at one end or another. It happened to suit Nico’s style much better I guess. So is it possible that with the Pirellis, and with more time to design the chassis, that next year’s Mercedes will suit Michael better? In your opinion, how much does the chassis/driving style nexus affect overall speed and how much is it just a matter of the driver getting on with driving the car he’s given?
Note, I’ve also heard that Schumi used to be terrible at feedback, cos he could “drive around” a car’s problems and still post fast times, rather than ask for changes that would make him still faster.
Nico’s always said that he had a similar issue to Michael this year, he’s just been able to deal with it a bit better maybe. It’s going to be fascinating to see if Merc can build a car that works for MS and NR and with the Pirellis. If it does, it’s obviously going to be quick. The unusual thing this year is that we’ve never really heard Michael complain about a package before, and there must have been times when he drove around it and still won races. But remember this sort of thing happens from time to time – including to Robert Kubica a couple of years ago – when a driver just doesn’t like the tyres on offer
Well Alonso was above everyone when it isn’t needed any more :DDD
A real committment from the young champion Vettel, when he was supposed to be celebrating the title he just won!
Maybe only true committment makes World Champions 😉
Have you any news about Webber? I’ve heard voices he may be replaced by Hulkenberg for 2011 :((
Not heard the Hulk rumour. Two Germans seems a little unlikely especially when they have so many young guys!
And yes, impressive that Vettel went back to do two days when they could have sent him on a PR tour…
I am amazed that the 10 top drivers are covered by 2 seconds or less in qualifying, you and I know how difficult it is to drive a gokart or even in a pc game. Either you brake to early or late gets under steering and cannot take a tight line. But the f1 drivers can with different cars, different engines etc. race a car around a 3,5 km track in a car with much more power and therefore much easier to brake to early/late with much worse result and yet they are covered by 1-2 seconds. In my mind there must be a limiting factor. Is that the tires? So no matter if you have an engine 10 hp faster you will not go any faster due to not being able to apply the power faster and you will have to brake earlier. Or are they just so evenly matched be course the car/engine has been designed by the same computer program uses the same tires and they study the telemetry and knows when and where to turn and brake? I like very much if you could ask drivers or engineers about my question and maybe write an article.
And why has we not seen any identical qualification times like we saw in 97 Jerez where Schumacher, Villeneuve and Frentzen had identical times or are there an funny anecdote about that?
Interesting thoughts. I think we do rather take for granted what the new teams were able to do this year in terms of creating cars from a standing start that really weren’t that far off. Re Jerez qualifying 1997, I was digging into that only this year, but FIA sources always insist it was absolutely genuine…
I don’t see any difference between Schumacher and Rosberg other than Rosberg has been able to wring a marginally better qualifying lap out of the car. With the cars so close this equates to several grid positions. With even less overtaking than past years it is impossible to make it up in the race. With the inflated point system the spread is exaggerated.
Both drivers are flattering the car. The car needs to improve.
Good point. Senna was usually miles quicker than the 5-year-older Prost – but as they were on the front row anyway, nobody really noticed. These days there’s nowhere to hide…