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As it happened: Test day four
By Geoff Creighton, Pablo Elizalde and Steven English
The live commentary has ended. No further updates will be posted.
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| FASTEST TIMES |
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| P |
Driver |
Team |
Time |
| 1 |
Massa | Ferrari | 1m22.625s |
| 2 |
Webber | Red Bull | 1m23.442s +0.817 |
| 3 |
Buemi | Toro Rosso | 1m23.550s +0.925 |
| 4 |
Heidfeld | Renault | 1m23.657s +1.032 |
| 5 |
Hamilton | McLaren | 1m24.003s +1.378 |
| 6 |
Maldonado | Williams | 1m24.057s +1.432 |
| 7 |
Sutil | Force India | 1m24.177s +1.552 |
| 8 |
Perez | Sauber | 1m24.515s +1.890 |
| 9 |
D'Ambrosio | Virgin | 1m26.501s +3.876 |
| 10 |
Schumacher | Mercedes | 1m27.079s +4.454 |
| 11 |
Trulli | Lotus | 1m29.992s +7.367 |
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| All timing unofficial. Updated: 16:03 GMT |
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| OVERVIEW |
DAY FOUR |
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| CURRENT WEATHER |
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Mainly cloudy |
High Temp: |
16°C / 61°F |
| Track: |
Dry |
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SHOW LIVE FORUM
Used PVA and some macaroni tubes with glitter 
they are in top 10 now!!!11 
Tyres are going to be one of the major factors this year, so send us your questions for Paul and we'll put the best to him this afternoon.
Without a wind tunnel, the Virgin team needs all the data it can get to validate the CFD work that has produced the MVR-02.
Pirelli's Paul Hembery will be our special guest today, so keep your tyre queries coming to live@autosport.com.
AUTOSPORT.com features editor @TeamAnglais says:
We're used to watching laptimes come down over a stint because as the fuel loads decrease the car gets lighter and faster. This was able to happen because the Bridgestone tyres were hard enough to withstand the strain of a heavy car and still produce a similar level of grip after several laps.
Now, the Pirelli tyres are much softer and degrade faster. That's what we wanted to provide more entertaining racing. But a side-effect of that is that the tyres have a steep drop-off in grip and times after the first few laps, so the best times are being done at the beginning of stints in spite of a heavier fuel load.
It's worth remembering though that we haven't seen very many full tank race simulation runs. It's a lot easier to do faster times at the beginning of a stint with only 10 laps of fuel on board as opposed to 60. We might see that pattern level out a bit as race fuel loads are added.
AUTOSPORT F1 editor @eddstrawF1 says:
They definitely aren't hiding anything. The car looks pretty bad on track – lacking front end grip and forcing the drivers to work hard to get it to do what they want, which is never a good way to carry speed through corners.
The car seems to be something of the order of 1.5 seconds off the pace, which is definitely a big problem. Ross Brawn has said that the plan was to launch a "plain" car for the start of testing and then do a big upgrade for Bahrain, but you can be sure that the plan wasn't to run a car with such plain performance.
The team has been switching between two versions of its front wing – one with two slots cut in the main element – suggesting aero problems. Our technical consultant, Gary Anderson, firmly believes that a two-element front wing is more unstable than a three-element one, and it's possible that this is to deal with airflow separation problems.
Nico Rosberg was at his fastest running this wing yesterday, so we will probably see a new front wing based on that concept. There will also be new exhausts – Brawn has promised an innovative design – as well as other aerodynamic revisions. Although it would be an exaggeration to call it a B-spec car, this will be a major package and bolting it on at the eve of the first race is not something you would do in an ideal world, as it will change the characteristics of the car. Also, new exhausts can lead to overheating problems.
This is not the kind of schedule you would design, unless forced to by circumstances, so the team has a lot of work to do.
Just to save you wasting questions he won't answer...
Well, we always want to hear about people following us from boats, mountains and other unique locations, but that's still a good idea. Who is hiding us from their boss? And how?
AUTOSPORT.com features editor @TeamAnglais says:
Haha, I'll have you know this little beauty has been serving me admirably since the pre-season of 2008. It's been everywhere from Pembrey and Croft to Sepang and Surfers Paradise. Sure, it overheats anywhere warmer than Silverstone in February, scorches my palms as I type, and there hasn't been a button on the L key since Le Mans 2009, but it gets the job done!
So what would be your fantasy GP combination if you had to pick your team now?
AUTOSPORT F1 editor @eddstrawF1 says: You're the first person to raise the very important question of fantasy Formula 1 – although based on my performance in Fantasy NASCAR in last night's Daytona 500, I might not be the best person to ask. Obviously the way the fantasy game you are competing in is structured will play a big part in who you choose, but hopefully I can give you a few pointers...
Looking at your question, it seems you're mainly pondering what might be termed the good value picks. Lotus, I'm a little concerned about, because the team has had quite a few problems despite occasionally showing some good pace - and the lack of KERS could do them a lot of harm come race starts. That said, I'm confident the team will be in the mid-pack this year so they could be good value, especially with a stronger driver line-up than the likes of Toro Rosso and Sauber. Both of those look well-balanced, consistent and brisk enough cars, meaning that both could improve on their 2010 performance.
As for Michael Schumacher, I'd be very cautious. Value-wise, he would probably be a great pick if the car is good, but you're on shaky ground given that, right now, it's well off the pace. The car will have changed hugely by the first race, so if you're confident in the team, go for it. But I would suggest as an alternative Rubens Barrichello. The Williams FW33 looks great on track and the way that the rear is packaged is absolutely incredible. There's an air of quiet confidence, and in Rubens you have a driver that you can guarantee will deliver the goods and improve the car – not to mention adapt well to the tyres.
By way of a disclaimer, it's still early days, so I'd leave locking in your team as late as possible, but I'd certainly say that all things considered, the Williams/Rubens combo will probably offer pretty good value.
Tim Ceuppens says: "I just have you guys up on my second screen. Being self-employed, I'm going to give myself a stern talking to when the test is over."
I should think so too, Tim. Good idea to wait until the end of the day. You wouldn't want to damage morale and reduce productivity.
As for cover-ups, there seems to be a lot of Alt+Tab'ing going on. We've had lots of anonymous emails so people obviously fear their boss is watching too.
One says: "Toggling between screens is a trifling hot-key sequence to hide the evidence. Who'd have thought we could get so hooked on what is effectively a modern-day CEEFAX update service!"
We'll try to take that as a compliment, cheers!
Hannah Fitzpatrick says: "Testing has been while I'm at sixth form so I've had to get the commentary up on my phone and hide it in my folder. Every other minute I open and take a look, I'm getting pretty good at it now!"
Cunning.
Anna in Poland says: "I've been hiding you at work all the time! It's not easy as my boss sits right behind me and can see my computer any time he wishes. I take a look every time he leaves the room, but sometimes even when he's still in if I'm too curious. It's getting dangerous."
Brave.
Nipam Shah in India says: "I am 14 and my mom thinks I am doing my homework!"
Don't blame us when you get caught!
Aramis Cano in South Africa says: "I'm a technical manager and I use the excuse that I'm monitoring international bandwidth to our network, and that your site is a good benchmark since it auto updates and auto scrolls... it's worked so far."
Genius.
Email us if you've come up with something similar, live@autosport.com
We are back from lunch, ready for the final three hours of testing at Barcelona, for this test, at least.
The teams are set to decide what to do next and where to go if they call off the Bahrain test, although they are already packing up to leave the Circuit de Catalunya
Webber did 59 quick laps during his three-stop race simulation. We think tyre use went soft-soft-hard-soft. Red Bull has been the best at holding onto the tyres, but the times drop away pretty quickly when he is on a full tank throughout both the first two stints.
The hard tyre hangs on a lot better and for a lot longer, but the pace is not as impressive as we've seen it. Webber explained after the session that the steep drop-off at the beginning of the final stint was due to traffic and not the tyres. The feeling is that this was quite a conservative run, and Webber admitted that they would do things differently in later race sims...
Webber
29.7, 29.8, 30.1, 31.4, 32.0, 32.0, 32.4, 33.2, P
27.4, 27.9, 28.9, 29.8, 30.2, 30.8, 31.1, 31.3, 31.9, 32.4, 32.6, 33.2, 33.6, P
29.9, 29.6, 29.8, 30.3, 30.8, 30.2, 30.8, 30.4, 30.6, 30.7, 30.6, 32.6, 31.8, 31.3, 31.1, 32.3, 32.5, 32.3, 33.6, 33.2, P
24.9, 28.3, 29.1, 28.4, 28.3, 28.3, 29.0, 28.5, 29.0, 29.4, 28.6, 29.1, 32.0, 29.2, 30.1, 29.8, 30.3, 30.7
McLaren only did one run of more than 10 quick laps, and it was this 16-lap effort. The times are scattered all over the place and the only explanation Hamilton would give afterwards was that he was getting overtaken a lot... So we're still waiting for a positive sign on the MP4-26.
Hamilton
29.5, 29.1, 29.4, 29.7, 32.1, 30.8, 34.8, 30.8, 37.0, 31.1, 31.4, 32.3, 44.5, 51.9, 49.2, 34.3
Ferrari did a lot of laps again. There was no race simulation, but there were a couple of runs of around 30 laps. This one was 27 with one stop in the middle, and the F150 Italia held onto the tyres impressively - less than two seconds slower after 14 laps. The pace was a lot more varied after the pitstop, but the genuine pace seems to drop by around two seconds again.
Massa
28.2, 36.5, 27.8, 28.1, 28.3, 28.7, 29.0, 28.9, 28.9, 29.3, 29.2, 29.4, 29.9, 30.1, P
31.5, 26.5, 26.9, 31.4, 27.3, 27.4, 27.6, 28.3, 28.4, 28.9, 32.1, 28.0, 28.1
That means McLaren is yet to be able to focus 100% on set-up work, and thus its times are even harder to read because the potential of the car has not been extracted.
All that again leads to the same answer every team and driver is giving at the moment: It's impossible to know yet.
We think they could go into the 1m22s, and maybe into the 1m21s if the temperatures were higher.
We hate to come back to the same thing again, but right now there are so many different variables that it is very hard to predict.
As suggested by Jenson Button, the best indicator of form right now is consistency, and Toro Rosso has been quite consistent in its runs, so it is looking quite good for them, and also they have full backing from Red Bull, so I don't believe they are looking for sponsors.
Sauber has also been quite consistent too, but again it's very early to say.
As for KERS, teams reckon it is worth around three tenths of a second per laps, so it's not a huge factor that will make a team be competitive or not.
Probably one of the best pieces of evidence of this is the drivers' own words:
Here's what Hamilton has said
And here's what Button has said
We will have to see how that translates in the races
Up until this morning, Fernando Alonso has been the busiest man in 2011 testing with 1,914 kms covered. He is followed at some distance by Michael Schumacher, who has 1,501 km (not counting today's session).
Barrichello is third with 1,407, Webber fourth with 1,405 and Vettel completes the top five with 1,377.
Lotus drivers Kovalainen and Trulli follow with 661 and 721 km respectively
Of course, some teams have completed some of those laps with old cars
Well, the test has not been officially cancelled yet and an announcement is expected in the afternoon.
Anyway, if it is cancelled, the main problem the teams will have is not having been able to test the Pirelli tyres in hotter conditions, something they haven't been able to do in Spain so far.
So they are likely to arrive in the first race of the season not knowing how the tyres will behave and degrade in the heat of Bahrain, Australia or wherever the first race is.
Lotus said it has not been his fault, but rather a car failure, although it did not confirm the exact cause of the accident
"Mercedes has poor traction, McLaren looks shocking as if on cold tyres, Red Bull+Ferrari+Renault Lotus Lada+Williams all pounding round"
In Hamilton's case consisted of just standing still with his engine running, and then setting off after a while. A wait-for-the-start sort of situation
Of course it varies from driver to driver, but yes, the times drop down pretty consistently, especially over stints that reach the double digits.
Over short runs of three laps or so, the times seem to stay consistent without dropping.
Unfortunately we don't know which tyres each driver is using, as they are not marked yet and will not be until the first race of the season
Paul Hembery: You have to be careful about making judgements about the tests so far, they've all been in cold conditions. The tyres aren't in their working conditions, there aren't any races that run in under 15 degrees. From our testing we've done so far elsewhere, the tracks do get rubberised. So we expect to see the tracks get rubberised more and less marbles.
PH: There are no changes planned at the moment. Though we've always said that if the teams want changes during the season we'll find a way of introducing that, together with the FIA.
PH: We'd certainly consider increasing the allocation if that became an issue. But from the conditions we have at the moment you could draw bad conclusions. If the teams are talking if they had to race in these conditions tomorrow, eight degrees first thing in the morning, then they'd be on a two-stop strategy. We believe they'd be on a two-stop strategy if we had the normal conditions for Barcelona.
PH: Drivers will always push the boundaries to the edge of the envelope. There are different elements. They'll be driving to the limits of the whole package and one part of that is tyres, so yes they will still have to manage that situation.
PH: We'd like to see less marbles, that's certainly the case. At the moment the tyres are chipping so there's more compound coming away than we'd seen in our own testing. So we'd certainly like to see less, and if we have to we'll find a solution to have less. If you do have a heavy wearing of marbles on the circuit it does make overtaking less favourable because you have the pick-up on the tyres.
So, from our point of view, we foresee having less but if we didn't, we would seek to make some changes to reduce it.
PH: In the rain we had three teams that ran 40 laps minimum on the intermediate, and the rain tyre hasn't really been used, so from that point of view it's hard to understand those comments.
In terms of degradation that's a straight line relationship with wear. That has been much greater than what you will see when we get to the warm conditions. We could change. Ultimately, if the public perceive us as a bad product we can go more extreme and make a tyre that stays the same for the whole race, doesn't degrade, doesn't do anything.
We were asked to do something different, which is very challenging and far more difficult than to do it the other way. To make a tyre last 25 laps, which is what we're talking for a two-stop strategy - you want to force the changes for pitstops. If you take Canada from last year as an example, that's the type of thing we're trying to get. It's much easier to make a tyre that lasts all day.
PH: The compound is the same front to rear, which is a challenge because they have quite different jobs to do. The rear tyre is probably 75 per cent of the performance.
It's harder with one compound but to try to simplify the life of the teams, so they're working in one parameter, we decided to go with one compound. if fairness they said if we wanted to do two compounds, we could, but from the outset we said no we'd stick with the same compound front to rear.