The three testing days at Mugello Italy have now been completed by the teams. So is there any new information about the pecking order? Which team will have the fastest car at Circuit de Catalunya next week and who will conquer the pole and win the race?
On Tuesday afternoon the circuit was hit by some heavy rain showers so that did have some influence on the teams´ testing programmes. Especially team Lotus changed their plans and announced that Grosjean would drive both on Wednesday and Thursday which meant that Kimi missed out the entire testing session! On one hand it´s understandable because the team lost some valuable time on Tuesday so they wanted to maximise the benefit of the outcome by using only one driver... On the other hand I´m sure Kimi´s skills to improve and develop the car would have benefitted the team a great deal! But if it had to be one driver only, I think it´s definitely Grosjean who needed the test days more than Kimi. Grosjean is a young driver who needs all the mileage he can get. Kimi seems to be "at home" in the car, he´s completely ready to drive it any time any where!!
Grosjean has topped the time sheets both on Wednesday and today so it seems Lotus really has the speed that it takes to win races this season! And the team is constantly developping the car and bringing new parts into it so I am about to get carried away with images of huge success and glory reached by the team (Kimi especially!)... I do believe that this test result isn´t a lie. Lotus really is a serious contender in both championships this year!
I am extremely glad to notice that Red Bull seems to be improving their pace race by race! Though Vettel still keeps saying that they have a lot of work to do their performance looks strong. And this result isn´t a lie either. I´m sure Vettel (and Webber) will be up there to fight for podium places when the lights go out at Barcelona!
What I find more surprising is that Alonso was 3rd fastest today and only a few tenths slower than Grosjean! Ferrari brought a new exhaust system into their car today and so far you can only speculate how it will affect Ferrari´s pace... Personally I don´t think that Ferrari would be ready to fight for the podium places next week but I´m convinced that we´re going to see a lot of improvement by the legendary Italian team this year! But gaining victories in normal weather conditions may be out of sight for a while!
How about Mercedes and McLaren? Mercedes seemed sooo strong in the very first races but are they improving as much as the other top teams? It´s interesting to see at Barcelona whether Nico and Schumi are still up there to challenge their rivals for pole. And McLaren then... The team´s decision to allow the test drivers drive all the three days raises many questions at least in my mind. Especially after Hamilton stating that he would have preferred to drive the test personally because at Bahrain he didn´t feel that comfortable in the car and there seemed to be many issues to be solved... Not that I would underrate the work done by the test drivers but I´m sure Hamilton and Button would have had more experience and knowledge to develop the car... So the real pace of the McLaren is still kind of a question mark when arriving in Barcelona.
I think the pecking order is slowly taking shape. Lotus and Red Bull definitely belong to the top teams but we´ll see if they´re joined by some other teams as well... Roll on Barcelona! Three-week breaks in the F1 calendar should be banned, it´s simply too long a time without any thrilling F1 action! ;D
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