F1-Blog

Where did Toyota come from?

Or day three of the Barcelona testing, as it should be titled.

Toyota - The surprise of the third day of testing at Barcelona was without a doubt the TF-108 with Jarno at the wheel.

Jarno set the fastest time of the day in the car saying , “That was another positive day. We made some progress in understanding the car and the set-up. Even though this is only a test, it’s nice to see the mechanics and the guys smiling because today’s times are good motivation. There is still room for improvement but this shows the team has done a good job over the winter tests. Of course we won’t know the real running order until Melbourne but I’m quite confident for the season. It’s definitely looking much better than last year so I’m happy for the team.”. Way to understate the fact Jarno, setting a time of 1:20.801s is an impressive feat, even if the car was running with low fuel, as last years Pole time set by Felipe Massa was only a 1:21.421s. Jarno did 83 laps in the 08 car, so he was not running on fumes for most of the day at least.

McLaren First Day Testing

A couple of shots from the first testing day for McLaren at Jerez.

You will notice that the Aero Bridge on the nose of the car is back, even if it was missing from the car at the launch event.

How much of the actual 2008 car is on show is anyone’s guess, you do however notice the slight increase in the cars wheelbase in these shots, the shots below have a nice closeup of the detailing around the rear wheels and exhausts.

Pedro and Heiki are the drivers on the track at Jerez at the moment. Today however should see Lewis behind the wheel.

Ferrari F2008 Shake Down Pictures

Here’s some pics from the F2008 Fiorano Shakedown.

There is a bunch more shots after the jump.

Super Aguri step it up

Super Aguri have shown off their latest SA06 car today (Wednesday) at a Silverstone test.

The Car although still based on the SA05, which was a modified 2002 Orange Arrows, has apparently had so much work done to it that the FIA made the team pass the crash test again.

The SA team are hoping the car is a big step in the right direction, and hopefully stops them being relegated to the rear of the grid.

The engine after all, is the Honda engine used in the works Honda team, so horsepower should not be an issue, it could be interesting though, if Honda cannot pick their game up, the satellite team may start to qualify ahead of them. 

Silverstone Test Day 1

I headed along to the Silverstone test today to get some shot's and video of the event and to see what I could learn if anything about the running. Most of the teams have deemed it a 'Tyre' test session so I was not expecting much.

What surprised me was the openness that Renault had with their pits. Unlike the other teams that covered the area up with boards every time a car came in or out. Renault did not really bother, having the pit garage open for anyone to see as some of the shot's show.

I could not really see anything glaringly obvious from the different teams running to show that perhaps they where trying new parts, however the Honda's did seem to be running at least one new engine (as Anthony Davidson stopped out on the track at one point, so that must be replaced or repaired)

There was a fair few stoppages today, unfortunately for the spectators, most of these happened on the closed side of the track, so details of the issues and pictures are missing (at least from my set).