Tracy testing times for Benetton?
Simon Field
How did they compare with the GP times?
Simon
Christopher Wood
: Can anyone tell me Paul Tracy's testing times for Benetton last week?
I read in a newspaper today that Tracy's best times were about 3 seconds
off of Schumacher's, but were only 1/10th of a second behind JJ Lehto's
qualification for the most recent race. That would have put Tracy in
14th starting position for the race at Estoril in Portugal. Not bad for
his first time in a F1 car.
Christopher
Jeff Deskins, #47203
From the Toronto Sun:
After the final test Paul was only 3 second off of shu's fast time. That would of put Paul 5th on the grid in Portugal.
Cheers Paul and Good luck!!!
Marcus Bonse
>3 seconds is an age in F1 terms.
>I would have expected him to be closer than that.
>I know that there are considerable differences between F1 cars and IC cars,
>braking distances for starters, but with 2-3 days in the car I thought that
>a driver of Tracy's calibre would have been closer.
>Did he not get that much time in the car ?
>
Don't forget that after such a long time the benneton is practically taylor-made
for Schumacher (not detracting from his driving abilities, remember that he was
faster than Senna in the Williams, which is more powerfull). Tracy may just not
be happy/familiar with the cars handling. And there is a huge difference between
and Indy and a F1 car.
Marcus Bonse email: m.h.w...@wbmt.tudelft.nl
Delft University of Technology
Lab. for Micro Engineering
Simon Field
Jeff Deskins, #47203 <desk...@umbriel.noname> wrote:
>In article 36rkde...@bhars12c.bnr.co.uk, s...@bnr.co.uk (Simon Field) writes:
>>Can anyone tell me Paul Tracy's testing times for Benetton last week?
>>How did they compare with the GP times?
>
3 seconds is an age in F1 terms.
-W.FRISCHEMEIER
Schu was using experimental goodyear tires that were extra sticky. This would
help to explain why schu was so fast
Brooke
Brian Wong - SMCC Product Marketing Engineering
[replying to PT being ~3 seconds off Schumacher's pace]
>3 seconds is an age in F1 terms.
>I would have expected him to be closer than that.
>I know that there are considerable differences between F1 cars and IC cars,
>braking distances for starters, but with 2-3 days in the car I thought that
>a driver of Tracy's calibre would have been closer.
>Did he not get that much time in the car ?
Not everything is as simple as it appears. Schu was testing new, softer
compound tires, which is part of the reason he broke the track record.
He also ran something like 6 sets of sticker tires, while PT ran for the
most part on Schu's used tires. He got one set of stickers the last day.
Besides, how is anyone supposed to learn how to set up one of these things
in three days? If it were that easy, everyone would have a perfect setup
all the time. I can't even set up an IndyCar on a simulator where I can
wreck an unlimited number of Lolas for $42... :-)
--
Brian Wong Product Marketing Engineering
b...@chessie.corp.sun.com Sun Microsystems Computer Corp.
415-336-0082 Palo Alto, CA 94303
Simon Field
>>> Can anyone tell me Paul Tracy's testing times for Benetton last week?
>I read in a newspaper today that Tracy's best times were about 3 seconds
>off of Schumacher's, but were only 1/10th of a second behind JJ Lehto's
>qualification for the most recent race.
Any idea how much time he spent in the car ?
I know it was scheduled for three days, and I heard he only had 10 minutes
on the first day.
Simon.
Joao Alcino de Andrade Martins
: In article <1994Oct6.1...@dhnews.dehavilland.ca>,
I wish to add some data and comments for discussion :
Schumacher best lap time during tests was 1:18:87, almost 0.5 seconds better
than Hill 1:19:33. The pole position by Berger in Estoril race was 1:20:608.
Between Schu in tests and Berger's pole is 1:738 sec diff. and also comparing
Berger's own times (1:19:79 in test) and Hill own times (1:20:766 in the grid)
it's shown that from test to race there was an average 1.2 sec. improvement
in lap times. Explanation are new GoodYear tires compound, test weather
temperature in the afternoon, much more time and freedom to test the car,
absence of a GP pressures, and so on...
My point is : If Tracy had been in Estoril qualifying, keeping the 3 seconds
behind pole position he would get 1:23:61 corresponding to 21th place in
the grid, not 5th! If Schu was in Estoril and was 0.5 better than the pole and
Tracy 3 sec worse than Schu this would send him to 1:23:11 ref to 18th.
Please don't take me wrong! I'm Tracy's style admirer in FIndy but in order
to be fair we need to compare apple with apples and banana with bananas.
On the other hand, in Paul's favour a detail was not well reported : As Paul
is a F1 rookie, and well known car destroyer, seated in a many millions
dollars car, the team used a six blades rear wing instead the normal four
blades, to put more balance in the corner but causing a lot of drag in the
straights. Also Paul got the time after many laps, meaning that he wasn't using special tires or soft tires. This may explain part of the big 3 sec. diff.
to Schu best time in the tests.
Just my R$0.018 in today's exchage ;-)
Thanx for your time,
Joao Alcino.
______________________________________________________________________
| jmar...@cat.cce.usp.br |"If you look up into the night sky and see |
| | a star moving faster than any other, you |
| Ole..., Ole, Ole, Ola | know who will be driving it." |
| Senna, Senna ! | ??? |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
David Johnson
|> In <373gat...@bhars12c.bnr.co.uk>, s...@bnr.co.uk (Simon Field) writes:
|>
|> >3 seconds is an age in F1 terms.
|> >I would have expected him to be closer than that.
|> >I know that there are considerable differences between F1 cars and IC cars,
|> >braking distances for starters, but with 2-3 days in the car I thought that
|> >a driver of Tracy's calibre would have been closer.
|> >Did he not get that much time in the car ?
|> >
|> Don't forget that after such a long time the benneton is practically taylor-made
|> for Schumacher (not detracting from his driving abilities, remember that he was
|> faster than Senna in the Williams, which is more powerfull).
That was only at the Brazilian GP. Supposedly the Williams had been having
handling problems early in the season. Schumacher did not outqualify
Senna in the three races he participated in this season (Senna qualified on
the pole for each of the three races).
|>Tracy may just not
|> be happy/familiar with the cars handling. And there is a huge difference between
|> and Indy and a F1 car.
Agreed. Michael Andretti said that F1 cars brake later and it is difficult
to break old braking habits from Indy cars. He also said that F1 cars are
much less forgiving of mistakes than Indy cars. I am sure Tracy is
experiencing much of the same difficulties that MA experienced in terms
of handling the car.
--
David Johnson
XLNT Designs, Inc. (XDI)
da...@xlnt.com