Ferrari still on top, now with Alonso

Quick post because it’s late. Fernando Alonso drove for Ferrari today and did the quickest lap of the Valencia test, a 1:11.470. No other team went under a 1:12 all week. Also relevant are the facts that he did it before another 8 laps and then pitting – meaning he still had some fuel on the tank; and that he did a pretty quick 16-lap stint that started on the 1:13s and ended on the 1:11s. I’m not sure that’s any better or worse than Hamilton’s stint yesterday though, so I’ll not jump on the bandwagon that Ferrari is in better shape than McLaren right now…

The times (copy-paste from Autosport):

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Alonso Ferrari (B) 1:11.470 127
2. de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari (B) 1:12.094 80
3. M.Schumacher Mercedes GP (B) 1:12.438 82
4. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:12.576 97
5. Button McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:12.951 82
6. Petrov Renault (B) 1:13.097 75
7. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth (B) 1:13.669 126

Other quick notes:

• Ross Brawn and Michael Schumacher have hinted at that Mercedes is fairly competitive but Ferrari and McLaren are a little ahead at the moment. That’s consistent with the times we’re seeing. I think Merc has more tricks up their sleeve for the next few weeks though.

• I’m not fully convinced by Sauber’s pace yet – there’s no news of any impressive stints from them, only good laps on short ones. I think they’re behind Ferrari, Mac and Merc but don’t quote me on this.

• This was the first Formula 1 test ever for Vitaly Petrov, and also for Jaime Alguersuari (he only raced, never tested), they should be happy with the laptimes. Jenson Button sat on a McLaren for the first time and was a little unconvincing.

• Nico Hulkenberg continued his now 3-year long tradition of crashing on the first day of testing, as a small misunderstanding with de la Rosa forced the spaniard to pit and repair. Williams did no decent laps but will be very happy at the amount of them, with the new Cosworth engine avoiding failures so far.

New Ferrari revealed – and the Williams

Ferrari presented today their new F1 car, named the “F10″, and it looks like this:

It has a nose similar to last year’s Red Bulls, as expected, and I must say I quite like it. Even the livery somehow seems much more natural and less obnoxious than in last week’s testing photo. I am however a little surprised that the car isn’t much fatter, given that it will now have a much larger fuel tank. People on the forums are saying that the car design is underwhelming and a sign they’re playing catch-up against Red Bull, but I’d rather wait for its performance on track – my technical knowledge isn’t anywhere near good enough to even understand the design options of the car, so in these cases it’s better to just not say anything at all.

But here’s a surprise! Autosport managed to take a photo of the brand new Williams FW32 as well, which was today on the hands of Nico Hulkenberg, on a shakedown run today at Silverstone prior to next week’s tests in Valencia:

That’s another high nose, and it makes the car look pretty damn good! The nice blue livery helps, specially since it isn’t full of sponsors yet – apparently they’re still going to put a few more stickers on it. That’s even if I’m a little surprised that they’re not going with that great 100% dark blue testing livery of the last few years.

F1 pre-season kicks off tomorrow

Okay, Mercedes are only going to show off a livery tomorrow, but it’s the first glimpse as to how will the Formula 1 grid look like next season. Things are going to get more interesting later in the week, as McLaren, Ferrari, Sauber and Renault will show off their new machines – as I wrote before. Expect pictures of the new Merc livery everywhere in the internet tomorrow morning.

This photoshop released by Merc recently should resemble what we're going to see tomorrow at their launch

Meanwhile, since I’ve been busy this week and felt like doing other things in the weekend, here’s a quick recap of what happened this week in Formula 1 (not much). Alguersuari was finally confirmed at Toro Rosso, ending nonsense rumours that Bortolotti or Fisichella would move there. The argentinian press has yet again said José Maria Lopez is right about to sign for USF1, and the international press has now followed on their lead, but it’s still not officially confirmed (should be this week). No word yet on who will be his team-mate, with the second USF1 remaining the most mysterious of this silly season.

José Maria López, a couple years back when he was a Renault tester

The shocker of the week was Nick Heidfeld’s manager confirming he’ll be the test/reserve driver of Mercedes, and then denying it. There are some rumours saying he is still in contention for the much wanted Renault seat, but these statements by his manager are very worrying news as it could well mean he does have a contract with Merc, which can’t be announced yet (perhaps tomorrow). I think it’s completely mad that a driver of Nick’s caliber might not have a seat, but he played it risky this silly season and these are the consequences. We get paydrivers instead, a sign of the crisis…

The goofy-bearded Heidfeld is at a serious risk of not making the F1 grid this year

Speaking of paydrivers, the man who is thought to be #1 on Renault’s list right now is the russian rookie Vitaly Petrov, who comes with a large chequebook. Will be interesting to see if this means Robert Kubica will drive a car with big fat “RUSSIA” letters on it, as Petrov used to race in GP2 – the polish fans on the forums are already mad about this possibility! Petrov was also rumoured to go to Campos, but from the spanish squad there have been very little news on the press recently. I have, however, heard that things are not well with them, and they’re unlikely to make the grid. This would be an absolute shame as more cars on the grid are always nice, and because it would put yet more F1 people out of a job, one of which is Bruno Senna. The brazilian driver would get shafted by the second consecutive year, since he was a strong contender for the Honda seat last year.

Vitaly Petrov raced with "Russia" adverts in GP2

By the way, back to cars and liveries – Lucas di Grassi has said the new Virgin F1 car will be black, a color we have missed in F1 (old black Arrowses and Lotuses were awesome!). And I’ve not spoken the truth with the first paragraph of this article, as the Mercedes livery is NOT the first glimpse into how F1 cars will look like this year. Because photos emerged, of Fernando Alonso doing some promotional work for Santander, racing a 2010-liveried last years Ferrari…

I’m not sure if I like it or not, it’s too many Santander adverts? The car shape doesn’t help it. I’ve added a poll to see what you people think of this livery, despite the fact the blog doesn’t really have any regular readers at this moment – my perseverance isn’t fading just yet.

Alonso’s new helmet

In Italy this week there was this sponsors event called Wrooom where the Ferrari drivers and Ducati riders compete in all sorts of ridiculous things, like Fiat Pandas in the snow, and skiing. This was one of the first official appearances of Fernando Alonso in Ferrari gear, and it just happened to reveal his helmet design, as they used helmets in several of the mini-games:

I’m not sure I like the light blue, but it sure is distinctive. The aces in the back remain from last year’s helmet in Renault and represent his two world championship titles, in 2005 and 2006.

Funny pic there with Bernie as flagman and Felipe, Fernando and Giancarlo in an… awkward pose. Speaking of Giancarlo Fisichella, the word around is that he surprisingly beat de la Rosa to the Sauber seat, after all. But it’s not officially confirmed yet.

Nice Alonso photoshop

Yet another thing taken from the forums (I need to get some new sources!!). This picture has been going around the internet and it looks great:

I’d almost start supporting Fernando Alonso and Ferrari if the race suit and helmet looked like that. Perfect. Reminds me that we won’t have to wait much for the team launches, another week or two and we’ll start getting some pics of the new cars, race suits and helmets.