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I read what you wrote and no I myself do not think domination is boring. To me it means that a team has achieved a higher standard on their chassis and team strategy. Alot of people preach about how awesome McLaren was back in 1988 but I was not bored I was on the edge of my seat and I am a Ferrari guy.
If I was concerned about a 'whitewash' of a season and decided to tune out I would not have witnessed this, get what I mean now?
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Redbull seem to be very confident with the way their running their testing program,guess they have the fastest car.
Snooze. If it's going to be a red bull whitewash I might not bother.
I guess you might have to try and entertain the shocking possibility I might be wrong,
Seeing as I've started guessing team rankings, I'll continue.
I think Mclaren really have their work cut out for them.
Think Renault have made a step forward, along with Sauber.
Mercedes? I dunno,
OH and last year wasnt even close,if you think it was!!!!!!!
So whats McLaren like??? come on somebody help me out here
So whats McLaren like??? come on somebody help me out here
So whats McLaren like??? come on somebody help me out here
The real answer is no-one really knows where any of the teams are. I keep saying, pay absolutely no attention to fastest lap times and almost no attention to other lap times.
Most teams work loads would see them need to complete 90+ laps per day.
Red Bull had problems today. The car was in the garage for a lot of the day up on jacks with mechanics working on the rear of the car. Guaranteed, they would trade their fast lap for 30 more laps under their belt today.
On McLaren, they got through a decent work load, although there was an extended period around lunch when they too were working on something.
And, to try and show how meaningless the lap times today are:-
Today's best Vettel with a 1:24:XX
Last years best time at practice was 1:20:4XX by Lewis
Last years pole position for the race was 1:19:99X
Honestly, pay no attention to fastest lap times.
Also, pay no attention to where your team/driver is in the list....
Last year at Barcelona practice (the last before the first race), Vettel finished 5th, 8th and 5th. He was the run away leader a few weeks later at Bahrain, and would have won by a country mile except for a faulty spark plug.
Fastest Lap time at practice mean nothing - they are glory runs for the benefit of fans, or sponsors or to aid in public company floats
Broken record or not, i think it's still a fair point that is rightfully being emphasised...
While there is an element of business as usual with Red Bull topping the timesheets on the first day of the Barcelona test, events in Bahrain are overshadowing anything that happens on track. Drivers and teams are practising for the first race, but they do not know where the first race will be.
Before that, the expectation is that the test which was due to be held in Bahrain from the 3-6 March - a week before the grand prix there - will be cancelled, and contingency plans are being made to hold that test in Europe instead.
The options are to stay in Barcelona and run again at the Circuit de Catalunya or to head south for Valencia, Jerez or into Portugal's Algarve to the Portimao circuit.
That way, the teams would still be able to achieve some warm-weather running. The decision will have to be made by Monday, as the teams need to know where to send their trucks.
So with the next test venue unconfirmed, these four days in Barcelona are growing in importance.
Red Bull and Ferrarihave topped the timesheets so far, and from watching the cars on track, look the class of the field. The Red Bull RB7 is using its movable rear wing in places no other car can, for example in the middle of the fast corner heading onto the main straight.
Sebastian Vettel confirmed that the car is a clear step forward from the RB6 that carried him to last year's world championship.
McLaren's running has been compromised by a lack of reliability and the car has not looked particularly quick when it is out on the track.
On the face of it, that does not bode well for Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button's title hopes.
However, it has to be said that the car is still running with a 2010-spec front wing and McLaren do still have time to add performance to the car before the start of the season.
Exhausts have been a major topic this winter because using the gases to increase downforce has become such a major factor in gaining performance since the return of the blown-floor concept last season.
There has been a lot of speculation about where McLaren's exhaust exits, and the exact design remains a mystery for now.
What we do know is that their exhaust pipes bend round from the back of the car, to be vented somewhere further forward.
Ferrari are trying different exhaust geometries here, blowing the exhaust more centrally across the top of the diffuser.
The Italian team have covered the sides of their rear crash structure with temperature sensors to monitor how the hot exhaust gas is affecting that area of the car.
In this area of development, the Renaultis the most radical car so far, with its exhaust exiting at the front of the sidepods, so the gases can be channelled under three-quarters of the length of the car.
Whether this has a huge impact on performance remains to be seen, but it certainly affects the engine note, which sounds more like a kazoo than a high-pitched shriek.
Mercedes were the first of the big teams to stage a race simulation at this test.
Michael Schumacher did a three-stop race, with four stints ranging from 16 to 18 laps.
Tyre wear looked low, but his lap times in the first stint were strangely off the pace - lap times in the 1:32 and 1:33 bracket whereas other teams have been doing 1:31s on full fuel with hard tyres.
Mercedes are clearly lacking some pace compared to the front-runners Red Bull and Ferrari, but with a difference of a second per lap or more between consecutive tyre compounds, it is too early to make a judgement on how they will perform in the first race.
One final point of interest at Mercedes: Michael Schumacher is being engineered by Mark Slade this season, who has moved to the team after looking after Vitaly Petrov at Renault in 2010.
Slade engineered Mika Hakkinen at McLaren at the peak of their rivalry with Schumacher's Ferrari squad.
Once enemies fighting for the championship in opposing teams, Slade and Schumacher now pair up to form what they hope will be a potent force at Mercedes.
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