F1-Blog

It seems that the week of testing at the Spanish circuit of Barcelona has turned up a few new aero tweaks, and most of them are on the front end of the cars. This may mean that the teams believe that they are struggling most with the front Bridgestone tyres, forcing them to try make up for the 2007 rubber. This has been helped by the fact that the teams have had four weeks off between races, allowing their aero teams to really analyse the data from the first set of races.

Honda have been showing a new front end, with small winglets attached to the upper nose cone.

The team is saying that it improves the issues they are having, but is not the solution to all of there problems with the RA107.

Jenson Button should hold out hope though, as if the strange winglets work then he could have more confidence in the front end of the car, one of the things he complains about in interviews.

Toyota have also introduced a new aero package.

The Japanese manufacturer has not introduced quite as radical a change as the McLaren and Honda, although there is significant visual changes to the car.

Jarno Trulli has been testing the package, but the team have not really had a clean run with it to fully evaluate the design changes. He did manage the third quickest time on the day of testing.

Red Bull are another team to introduce some visual upgrades to their car. David Coulthard put the obviously better balanced Red Bull on the top of the speed charts, recording the fastest ever unofficial lap at the Barcelona circuit.

It has to be said thought that this time should be taken with a pinch of salt, as it is well known in the pit’s that the time was set with a very low fuel load.

Red Bull have been testing their car on ultimate pace for the week, trying to work out where the setup for their car is. The Adrian Newey RB03 had also been given significant mechanical upgrades in the way of seamless shift gearbox and transmission.

So what is to be learnt from the testing week? It’s obvious that the teams are all moving the ’saved’ funds from the engine development into their aero departments in an attempt to find pace.

It also seems that all of the teams have taken advantage of the 4 week break to advance their cars significantly.

After all, even the Ferrari team have tested nose modifications this week, so all the teams have decided that is where the most speed can be found.