F1 pre-season testing
This 2009 F1 season promises to be mixing things up considerably.
I was in Jerez in Spain from 2nd to 4th March to watch the cars in action [for those of us who feel the 'owch' of the cost of Grand Prix ticket prices, its worth considering: 7 hours of F1 action each day in open stands, 5 euro in and 1 euro for all day car park - only 10 mins from Jerez airport and 'Ruinair' fly direct there from Stansted - Malaga airport is 2 hours 20 mins away]
Alonso certainly seemed to be enjoying the Renault 29 - it appeared to be the sort of car in which he has confidence. He was throwing it into the corners like at Singapore last year. Over the two days they and Ferrari looked the most impressive and consistent. Michael Schumacher was out and about at various corners eyeing up the opposition's handling as well as keeping a watch on Raikonnen and Massa.
The BMW engine has a particularly raw sound when decelerating, their back end was stepping out a bit but they were putting in decent times. Toyota have a tidy chassis - possibly their best ever? And Red Bull look to have a sharp front end, their nose reminds me of the '96 Williams, both Newey's of course.
Even a couple of weeks ago it was obvious that McLaren do have a serious aero problem. They were still running their (much wider) 2008 rear wing. Heikki ran a 2009 spec wing for a short time on the Tuesday whilst Lewis Hamilton ran the old wing for all of Wednesday. He got a very warm welcome from the Alonso fans of course and then proceeded to spin in front of the main stand on the next lap, much to their delight!
There were very few breakdowns during the test days (I expected more with the KERS system being so new) and not many 'offs'. Amazing reliability!
The Brawn Racing hadn't been launched at the time. They are putting in some seriously fast times, but I do have a 'caveat' nagging at me that they are running underweight in a desperate attempt to get some last minute sponsorship. Their former incarnation BAR did that several seasons ago. Still they would not be running anything close to where they are without having a tidy car all the same.
I am really looking forward to watching an entire GP without ad breaks. I gave up on ITV and used follow it on Setanta Sports (available here in Dublin)
Gary Anderson, the former Jordan and Stewart designer gives some excellent commentary on it.