By the same token, D'Ambrosio beat the best Virgin time by 0.5 or something... Timo Glock is definitely no slouch by any stretch and D'Ambrosio has been unspectacular in lower formulae - suggests to me that the track has definitely ramped up a fair bit.
Yes...I was seeing that too....but, why didnt other young drivers improve their teamates' laps in 0.5 or more too?
Fuel loads... or total lack of ability?
I can't believe Bianchi is THAT slow, for example...
But all cars run almost empty in qualifing sessions.
Yes, that is why using quali times is a decent way of comparing cause it's the 'fastest' the cars can go, in theory.
Karun Chandhok reckons the track is probably 1.1 - 1.4 faster now anyway, so on the basis of that i'm writing off a lot of the times set.
Yes, also when it comes to testing I think some teams do some illegal things to their cars to make them go faster so they are attractive to sponsors. This is generally in the area of weight and making the car as light as possible. I think the guilty ones at the start of 2010 were Sauber when they were setting the fastest times at testing but as soon as the first came they were midfield.
I know teams do that, but it tends to happen more with new cars, before they've been raced and anyone really knows how fast they are.