Could Mclaren Go Faster?
By Sam Cooper
March 1 2007
The team used its three divers to complete its testing program at the Bahrain international circuit, which it finished under 0.6 seconds behind main rivals Ferrari. However over the last few days the reliability issues have not happened so frequently.
On day 2 of the Bahrain testing McLaren Sidelined Double World Champion Fernando Alonso and left Britain Lewis Hamilton and Spain’s Pedro De La Rosa completed day 2’s testing, completing 107 laps in total, Lewis completing 55 and Pedro completing 52.
Mclaren sent Alonso “undercover” to get a look at Ferrari’s car and what their doing for their Australian Grand Prix set up, as Ferraris Felipe Massa stopped out on track which looks to be a misfire which stopped his testing session temporally.
Worryingly McLaren are still 0.6 seconds slower than Ferrari, lets hope that Mclaren are sandbagging their true performance.
the second days testing times are shown below.
Bahrain International Circuit - Bahrain 28 February 2007
|
Position |
Constructor | Time |
Laps | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 01:30.640 | 100 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren | 01:31.178 | 55 |
| 3 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 01:31.490 | 94 |
| 4 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Renault | 01:31.967 | 109 |
| 5 | Pedro De La Rosa | McLaren | 01:31.971 | 52 |
| 6 | Hekki Kovalainen | Renault | 01:32.068 | 30 |
| 7 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW | 01:32.264 | 73 |
| 8 | Jenson Button | Honda | 01:32.293 | 73 |
| 9 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | STR | 01:32.359 | 47 |
| 10 | Robert Kubica | BMW | 01:32.648 | 54 |
| 11 | Rubens Barrichello | Honda | 01:32.650 | 61 |
| 12 | Takuma Sato | Super Aguri | 01:32.837 | 100 |
| 13 | Ralf Schumacher | Toyota | 01:33.054 | 85 |
| 14 | David Coulthard | Red Bull | 01:33.146 | 52 |
| 15 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 01:33.238 | 53 |
| 16 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 01:33.384 | 33 |
On the third day of testing Spain’s reigning double world champion Fernando Alonso and fellow countryman and Vodafone McLaren test driver Pedro De La Rosa completed McLarens test program. The Spanish drivers completed 203 laps all together, Fernando completing 113 laps, and Pedro De La Rosa completing 90 laps.
McLaren had a trouble free day on the final day of testing at the Bahrain international circuit; let’s hope that all their grand prix will have the same reliability that they enjoyed today.
the final days times are shown below
Bahrain International Circuit - Bahrain 1 March 2007
|
Position |
Constructor | Time |
Laps | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 01:29.989 | 45 | |
| 2 | Hekki Kovalainen | Renault | 01:30.384 | 61 | |
| 3 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Renault | 01:30.498 | 64 | |
| 4 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 01:30.534 | 77 | |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 01:30.564 | 113 | |
| 6 | Rubens Barrichello | Honda | 01:31.067 | 118 | |
| 7 | Pedro De La Rosa | McLaren | 01:31.354 | 90 | |
| 8 | Scott Speed | STR | 01:31.500 | 124 | |
| 9 | David Coulthard | Red Bull | 01:31.589 | 66 | |
| 10 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW | 01:31.720 | 83 | |
| 11 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 01:31.742 | 92 | |
| 12 | Robert Kubica | BMW | 01:31.751 | 98 | |
| 13 | Ralf Schumacher | Toyota | 01:31.791 | 81 | |
| 14 | Jenson Button | Honda | 01:31.837 | 97 | |
| 15 | Frank Montangy | Toyota | 01:32.264 | 119 | |
| 16 | Takuma Sato | Super Aguri | 01:33.357 | 53 | |
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