Ferrari... a sign of things to come?

[racerdave]

Back with tire changes, Bridgestone will likely be in the hunt again. Here's Tuesday's test results from Jerez...

TESTING RESULTS-TUESDAY DECEMBER 13TH 2005
1.-Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1.19.070 (91 laps) 2.-Ricardo Zonta
(Toyota) 1.20.061 (92 laps) 3.-Gary Paffett (McLaren) 1.20.226 (66
laps) 4.-Pedro de la Rosa (Mclaren) 1.20.318 (84l) 5.-Nick Heidfeld
1.20.794 (85l) 6.-Franck Perera (Toyota) 1.21.337 (60l)

EDIT:

Aha... more details come out. Interesting...

Ferrari and Massa On Top at Jerez
Written by: Cassio Cortes
Jerez de la Frontera, Spain – 12/13/2005

Running a restricted V10 for the first time, new Ferrari hiring Felipe Massa easily topped the charts as Formula 1 testing activities resumed at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit in Spain this Tuesday, after a one-day break.

Ferrari’s move was the latest to signal that some teams may be considering to start next year’s campaign with the rev-limited V10 in case the FIA doesn’t move strongly enough to quell the V8’s current power disadvantage.

Toyota’s Ricardo Zonta had the quickest 2.4-liter mill on the track, outpacing the McLaren-Mercedes of DTM champion Gary Paffett by 0.2s but still being over a second slower than Massa. Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa was fourth in the second silver car, while BMW’s Nick Heidfeld completed the top-five some 0.7s away from Zonta.

Toyota protégé and Euro Formula 3 graduate Franck Perera of France was the sixth and last car among today’s runners, clocking 60 laps with a best time of 1:21.337, or 1.3s slower than his Brazilian teammate.

[racerdave]

Ahem...

M. Schumacher Shows the Way at Jerez
Written by: Cassio Cortes Jerez de la Frontera, Spain – 12/15/2005

Ferrari fired a warning shot today at Jerez, as Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa topped the charts, with the German’s best time of 1:18.953 being almost a second quicker than the next-best V8-powered driver, Honda’s Anthony Davidson in fifth overall. It was Schuey’s first public F1 outing since the end of the season.

Massa himself was running a restricted V10, and slightly outpaced the Renault duo of Franck Montagny and Heikki Kovalainen, also powered by 3.0-liter units.

Whether rivals Toyota, McLaren, BMW and Williams were sandbagging or not, the fact of the matter is that Schuey significantly outpaced them all, all running V8s too. Ricardo Zonta was the best Toyota in sixth (1.1sec behind Schumacher), a tenth ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya’s McLaren. Nico Rosberg had the quickest Williams-Cosworth in 11th, another 0.4sec further back, with BMW’s Nick Heidfeld in 12th, 0.1sec behind the German youngster.

Jerez F1 testing times - Thursday:

1) M.Schumacher, Ferrari (B), 1:18:953, 67 laps
2) Massa, Ferrari (B), 1:19:060, 97
3) Montagny, Renault (M), 1:19:066, 20
4) Kovalainen, Renault (M), 1:19:100, 119
5) Davidson, Honda (M), 1:19:877, 114
6) Zonta, Toyota (B), 1:20:035, 106
7) Montoya, McLaren-Mercedes (M), 1:20:168, 106
8) Carroll, Honda (M), 1:20:170, 48
9) Panis, Toyota (B), 1:20:342, 93
10) de la Rosa, McLaren-Mercedes (M), 1:20:492, 117
11) Rosberg, Williams-Cosworth (B), 1:20:597, 46
12) Heidfeld, BMW-Sauber (M), 1:20:700, 38
13) Webber, Williams-Cosworth (B), 1:21:453, 25

[Alex Baumann]

Winter testing doesn't mean a lot (to me)

They are testing a lot of different things, setup, tires or aerodynamic parts. We'll see the real performance after a full race.

[Patrick]

Winter testing didn't mean a lot to me. Until last year.

Renault was clocking some spectacular times, but I also just thought "it's just testing".

Oops.

I suppose that we can all agree that no one has a clue what will happen in 2006. Perhaps more so than any season in a long time (now that the FIA is helping all of the teams to "save" money).


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