F1-Blog

The Sand Bagging debate

There has been a lot of talk recently that BMW Sauber have been sand bagging during testing, and as of yet we have not seen the actual test times for the car. People have said that when they have been testing with the other teams that they ran high fuel runs, whereas the other teams were running on mixed/low fuel runs alongside.

Sand Bagging (or not showing your hand) is common place in F1 testing, and the top teams (McLaren / Ferrari) have got it down to an artform. If you look at the testing times, and equate them to the Australia times for the last 5 years or so you will see that none of the top teams actually showed their true pace in winter.

Some of this pace discrepancy is down to the work done between the last test, and the first race where new aero parts are honed and changed due to the data that has been collected during test. But sometimes it’s down to the mindgames that the teams attempt on each other.

So that leads us to ask, Who has been sand bagging, and by how much?

Lets look at the team that’s kicked off this debate, BMW Sauber. Are they sand bagging? Well yes, they are, but how much is yet to be seen. I very much doubt that they have the race pace of either the McLaren or the Ferrari, having said that, they may well be quick in qualification trim on light fuel.

McLaren have been well known to sand bag during testing, so expect them to be quicker than the off season has them, they also did not suffer too badly on breakdowns during the testing, so expect them to be quick, especially during launch from the start and pits. I would expect them to have the upper hand (at least in the season openers) over Ferrari during qualification as they understand their car more than Ferrari who have come back to a slightly shorter wheelbase.

Ferrari have moved their 2007 design over to their 2008 one quite well, the car has certainly been quick, however the shortening of the wheelbase from last years title winning car may bring them some issues during setup for the race as they cannot rely on their data from last year. Expect that issue to be overcome quickly though as they have talented drivers and engineers on their books. I do however expect them to have the race pace over McLaren for the first few races at least.

Toyota are an interesting one, it’s a team that in theory should be the one the others are chasing. They have shown very good pace during low fuel runs at the testing sessions, but have certainly been middle of the pack when the car is loaded up. This may just be down to the team trying to understand the new aero package, or it could be an inherent issue with the aero where it does not handle well with fuel on board, then again they could have been sand bagging during test. I expect it’s a mixture of all the above, so expect Toyota to show in the point on a regular basis now. They have obviously been sharing information with Williams on more than just the engine, now I’m not saying that Williams have helped with the Aero, but I’m sure that some of the underpinnings of the two cars are very similar.

Williams, in there dominating years they used to be the masters of sand bagging, and I’m sure the brains at Williams have still got that skill. The car has shown good pace in testing, and always run top 8 times at the tracks so expect them to take a step up this year and constantly challenge in the good points places. Time will tell if they are starting to come back to form.

Renault I don’t think have sorted all the issues they had with the car last year, and even if Fernando can bring them 0.6 of a second it’s not enough to get back to the front. That said I think they have turned the corner and will still be thereabouts at times. They are also good at keeping their cards covered, so expect the pace to be up a little from what has been shown in testing.

Red Bull are a strange one, the new Adrian Newey car is certainly the first one that can have his name stamped through it, but it’s been a hot and cold test for them. They have had issues though, a couple of car failures, a spell with Coulthard injured, then a spell with them towards the top of the timesheets. If Adrian was focused during the creation of the car, and the drivers can deliver then I think they could do quite well this year. But it’s all down to if the car can hold together or not, a lot of Adrians designs have suffered from reliability issues when they are first used, so hopefully they are sorted.

So looking forward to the weekend, and sticking my neck out, what will the result be? I think that Kimi will take the top step, with Lewis and Massa taking the next two, but I also expect the McLarens to start from the front of the grid.

Whatever happens, it’s going to be great to get back to real racing, bring on Sunday!