Ferrari's new nose: note "hole" at the top. (LAT Photo)
Armed with a unique-looking front nose and a set of slick tires, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa set a blistering pace today in Barcelona, as Formula 1 testing kicked off at the Circuit de Catalunya, hosts of the Spanish Grand Prix on April 27.
Massa posted a best time of 1:18.339, 2.7sec ahead of Honda tester Alex Wurz, who was also on slicks. McLaren’s Pedro de la Rosa completed the top-three in the nine-car field as the silver team experimented with a new rear wing. The nosecone on Massa’s F2008 features a slot on its top, the end of a tunnel that takes high-pressure air created under the wing and helps it disperse over the top of the car.
All drivers bar BMW’s Nick Heidfeld and Toyota’s Timo Glock sampled the slicks this Monday.
"Today was a productive day and the team and mechanics did a good job," said Toyota's Glock. "Everybody was focused on the new bits and pieces that we have brought and trying to find the right way forward.
"In the end that's what we did. I made one small mistake in the morning and spun off but it didn't cost us too much running time. In the afternoon we collected a lot of data to look at and now we just have to fine-tune that.
"Hopefully overnight we can find the right direction from all the information we have gathered today. The time sheets might not show it yet but I'm happy with our work so far."
Barcelona F1 testing times – Monday:
1) Massa, Ferrari , 1:18.339, 77 laps
2) Wurz, Honda , 1:21.059, 75
3) de la Rosa, McLaren-Mercedes , 1:21.566, 113
4) Heidfeld, BMW-Sauber , 1:21.679, 105
5) Piquet, Renault , 1:22.125, 69
6) Coulthard, Red Bull-Renault , 1:22.197, 59
7) Nakajima, Williams-Toyota , 1:22.431, 72
8) Glock, Toyota , 1:22.590, 92
9) Liuzzi, Force India-Ferrari , 1:22.846, 91
