F1: Ferrari Tops First Jerez Test Day

I'm also very curious to see how Alonso fairs with a new ride and new rubber...

True - I don't think he got the nickname "The Iceman" from his fans alone, but that might just be so much F1 gossip.

Schumi's technical insights will certainly be one of the biggest gaps to fill besides that of actual driver.

Dead-on, mate.

McLaren's dismal performance over the past few seasons can be attributed to any number of things. But, I would bet that if JPM and Kimi gave the engineers good feedback, the team would have at least shown some improvement over the years.

It will be interesting to see the trend this season at both Ferrari and McLaren.

To a point that is true. But, each driver has a different style. His feelings and confidence in the car do account for a big part of his ability to push the car to its limits.

Kimi and JPM had very different setups of the same car. The same was true for Michael and Rubens, Michael and Felipe, Alonso and Fisi and so on. If it were as simple as sending a car out on track and reading the computer data, more teams would be able to improve. McLaren and Williams certainly have similar budgets and resources to Ferrari and Renault. The resource that they were each missing was the Schumacher and Alonso element.

Part of the car set-up is for the driver is done for each race, but a lot of set-up is not. Peddle travel length, seat position, mirror position(s), paddle positions, steering wheels (Shumacher had far more controls on his steering wheel than some of his co-drivers specifically so he could further fine-tune his car).

Of course, each track demands a different set of settings for the cars - A Monte Carlo set-up will not suit a Monza track. But the cars are indeed set up for the driver - if you watched any telemetry read-outs when Schumacher and Alonso were going head to head, you saw two very different driving styles with regard to full throttle/full brake/tc, yet two very competitive cars with very different set-ups to suit their different cars and styles.

Take Ruebens and Jenson - those cars are set up very differently due to their styles - and Ruebens didn't get his car settled til much later in the season - but when he did, he was far more competitive. A simple thing like the distance it takes to take the gas pedal from idle to full throttle varies wildly between all the drivers, as each like to lay on the power in different methods.

With regard to the Schumacher and Alonso element Kimi and McLaren would have one the 2005 championship if the car had been reliable, no feedback could have fixed the reliability problems as Mika discovered in 2000.

One of the things Ferrari may miss most is Schumacher's feedback (and originally his demand that he had a car that could finish the race) - it not only made their race car more reliable, it did dramatic things for their retail autos and reliability reputation as well.

Anything gained on a test day is fundamentally useless on race day.

Someone should tell the manufacturers to stop burning that money testing and give it to me.

why do teams run test drivers

There are a number of reasons that the teams employ test drivers:
* To get more miles on the car. This gives them more information and driver feedback.
* To test modifications to the car. Sometimes the race drivers are unavailable to test every mod during the season. They may already be at the race when a problem is identified. Engineers at the factory and the test drivers will be able to run a mod through some testing before sending it out to the track.
* To be a substitute driver should one of the primary drivers not be able to race. Seat time is critical to being able to get into the car and be fast.

Sure, there is plenty of information that the teams can get from computers or test drivers. But, there is no substitute for feedback from the guys that are actually pushing the cars to the limit.

As gzirra noted, each driver has a different style that plays a big role in car setup and performance. F1 Racing magazine ran an article a few years back about Ferrari. The team provided the magazine with the telemetry from one complete race lap. There was an unbelievable contrast between the two drivers. When they got on the gas. How much throttle. When they braked. How much throttle the kept during braking. Etc, etc.

The test drivers are testing far different things during different testing conditions - during race weekends, they're mainly testing four main components for the cars' setups for that specific track:

1. tire conditions
2. downforce conditions
3. the track's level of grip/road surface attributes
4. how different fuel loads affect all those other attributes so the team can plan their fuel strategy.

The better teams know exactly how to translate those test results into each driver's setup.

They run the test drivers during the rest of the year and during non-race weekends to test a host of items - the reliability of the transmission, the drive train, the engine and its durability, how long the engine can sustain a "pushed" or maxed-out RPM load before things go Ka-blammo, brake durability, new aerodynamic winglets, a part that failed during the last race (think the locking wheel nut that failed on Alonso) etc. etc.

A simulation test of engine load will give you an idea of how hard you can push it, but to date even the best simulators cannot accurately recreate the effects that track conditions and g-force loads have on the cars.

go Ka-blammo

Are you auditioning for a place in the Speed TV booth? That is a pretty good David Hobbs impression...

You have to love the Ka-blammo. (Although, I prefer Mr. Matchett's Ka-blammo to Mr. Hobbs'.)

Matchett's is more of a "Ker-Blammo".

39 days until Melbourne.