How much does the F1 rookies test this week in Jerez actually tell us?

Twelve young (can they be called baby? not really, but still likely to happen, coming from someone who is continuously made to feel old at age 25 by 19-year-old Jaime Alguersuari) drivers took to the Jerez circuit Tuesday to set times and look good for the available racing and testing positions in Formula1 and its feeder series.  While the times set have already been published here at F1B, a bit of opinion and evaluation is called for, even if it isn’t Sunday.

While a bit of information about each of the men testing has already been published by yours truly, only a few of those at the test took to the track Tuesday.  The rest will get their turns Wednesday and Thursday.  The easiest way to begin discussing the times set today is by comparing them to one set in March.  At the last test session at Jerez, Sebastian Vettel set a 1:19.055 lap time in a Red Bull.  None beat it today, though fastest Andy Soucek was just over one-tenth slower, with a 1:19.158.

Of course, each rookie has to deal with different equipment, much of which has been scattered throughout the field over the 2009 season.  One might presume that the team formerly called Brawn (and currently called champions) might be fastest, until remembering that even at the end of the season and the height of development the team had issues when the ambient weather was cool, and it was quite cold in Jerez.  As such, it is not difficult to note that Mike Conway and Marcus Ericsson were sixth and eighth, respectively, at the end of testing.  Soucek took the Williams to the top, which either means Williams are good on cold tracks, or that he is an extremely fast boy.  No one else posted times in the Williams, so it is hard to make a conclusion.

Continuing with an inter-team comparison, Paul di Resta (who posted the second-fastest 1:19.369) was more than a second faster than Force India “teammate” JR Hildebrand, who posted a personal fastest, and tenth fastest overall, time of 1:20.537.  Gary Paffett was similarly faster in third (1:19.426) than fellow McLaren driver Oliver Turvey in eleventh (1:20.856), though his proficiency could well come from his position as an official tester for the team.  Daniel Ricciardo, fourth, was the only Red Bull driver for Tuesday’s test and posted a 1:19.534.  Similarly, Jules Bianchi (fifth, Ferrari, 1:19.626), Alexander Rossi (seventh, BMW, 1:20.227), Bertrand Baguette (ninth, Renault, 1:20.511), and Brendan Hartley (twelfth, Toro Rosso, 1:21.325) did not have a fellow driver to be compared to, for Tuesday, at least.

From this sort of comparison and the essential racing paradigm that to be the best one must first beat one’s teammate, di Resta looks to be the best in the field, or at least the best against his three-day teammate, Hildebrand.  Except, he was 1.2 seconds faster than Hildebrand at Force India, while third-fastest Paffett was also eight positions ahead of teammate Turvey and 1.4 seconds faster.  As a sort of tie-breaker, di Resta was about five-hundredths faster than Paffett.  Hard to say, eh?

Who is the best of these young drivers?  Does this test have any actual bearing on the future of F1?  It is hard to say.  There are innumerable conclusions to be made, and each person calculating them could come up with a different one.  Lots of factors go into the methods of determining which of this new batch of future F1 drivers is the best…and not all of them are easily defined.  Did anyone expect Kamui Kobayashi to shine in his two GPs this season?  Of course not, he does not have the GP2/F3/Formula Renault championship pedigree we expect from our young stars.  Still, a bit of practice and exposure to the rest of the world can not hurt anyone.  Keep watching the rest of the Jerez baby drivers test, and someone is bound to step forward and shine.

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