Testing Tag

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Robert Kubica has completed his first Formula 1 test in six years. The 2008 Canadian Grand Prix winner had an incredibly bright F1 future curtailed in February 2011 after crashing his Skoda Fabia rally car in the Ronde di Andora. The accident left Kubica’s arms and hands severely injured and put an immediate end to his single seater career. After intensive rehabilitation he was able to recover and went on to compete in various World Rally Championship and sports car races in the years that followed. RecentlyRead More

The Sauber F1 Team is pleased to announce that Gustav Malja will be in the cockpit of the Sauber C36-Ferrari for one test day during the second in-season test at the Hungaroring following the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend (28.-30. July). It will be the first Formula 1 experience for the 21-year-old Swede, who is currently racing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship and has been a competitor since 2016 (former GP2 Series). As with many other racing drivers, Malja began his career in karting when he was eleven years old,Read More

Valtteri Bottas set the quickest time of the final day of in-season testing in Bahrain, posting a time of 1:31.280 as the Mercedes driver worked through 143 laps of the Sakhir Circuit. The Finn’s time eclipsed that of Sebastian Vettel by just under three tenths of a second. The lap total gap between the Mercedes driver and his Ferrari counterpart was much greater, however, with Vettel logging just 64 laps as he spent a significant portion of the day in the garage. Ferrari had brought Vettel to the garage duringRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Mercedes reclaimed the top time in pre-season testing from Ferrari today by becoming the first to crack the 1 minute 20 second barrier around Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. A morning run on the ultra soft tires for Valtteri Bottas netted an impressive 1:19.705 lap time. Enough to edge Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel by two tenths of a second. Keeping with recent form the Ferrari ran a harder compound of tire than the Mercedes as Vettel did his run on softs, which indicates there is still plenty of paceRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The much anticipated 2017 Formula One cars finally took to the track en masse today at Circuit de Bracelona-Catalunya in Spain. Unsurprisingly Lewis Hamilton set the day’s fastest time with a solid 1:21.765 on the soft tires. Somewhat surprisingly, Sebastian Vettel nearly matched him with a 1:21.878 on the mediums! The Mercedes looks good, but Ferrari’s risky new design seems to work well. Both teams performed flawlessly and racked up the mileage. The Mercedes duo of Hamilton and newcomer Valtteri Bottas covered 152 laps for theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – For more than a third of active NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers, there will be no rest for the weary. One driver from each Cup organization is eligible to participate in a test of newly repaved Kentucky Speedway on Monday and Tuesday. The test is a continuation of NASCAR’s proving-out process for a new lower-downforce competition package earmarked for 2017. Last year, as the sanctioning body solidified the rules for 2016, races at Kentucky and Darlington were used as benchmarks forRead More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor Marco Andretti set the top time in today’s Manufacturer aerokit test from Indianapolis Motor Speedway in windy, somewhat rainy conditions. Andretti led a field of 15 drivers, who logged a combined 501 laps on the 2.5 mile superspeedway. His 223.427 mph lap just edged his Andretti Autosport team mate Ryan Hunter-Reay, which will give Honda some reason to smile, as their full superspeedway kit may finally give them an edge on their Chevy powered rivals. The full results can be found here. The purpose of the twoRead More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor Porsche again topped the timesheets for the second and final day of running for the World Endurance Championships ‘prologue’ test from Paul Ricard in France. Brendon Hartley picked up where Neel Jani left off yesterday and set the fastest time of the test with a blistering 1:37.448 lap during a qualifying simulation. Once again, the time was close to those set last year by Porsche, despite the 8% energy reduction via the fuel flow regulation changes, but it is worth noting that last year Porsche ranRead More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor Porsche has started off 2016 the same way the finished 2015, on top. Day one of the World Endurance Championship’s traditional ‘prologue’ test at Paul Ricard has seen the new 919 top the timesheets in both the morning and afternoon sessions. The days fastest lap was a 1:37.487 by Neel Jani which is just two tenths of a second off his test best time of a year ago, despite new fuel flow regulations designed to slow down the extraordinary speeds the LMP1 cars achieved last season.Read More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor Day three at Barcelona has been the most note worthy yet, with a large shakeup in the order that saw Nico Hulkenberg in his Force India top the time sheets ahead of Romain Grosjean in the new Haas VF-16. Hulkenberg ran quickest most of the day, progressing from medium on to soft and super soft tires, setting a time just 3/10th’s off Sebastian Vettel’s time on the ultra-softs from yesterday. Grosjean set his time of 1:25.874 on the soft tires, pushing the Haas VF-16 hard forRead More