ATLAS F1 - THE JOURNAL OF FORMULA ONE MOTORSPORT
2003 SuperStats: Winter Testing

By David Wright, Australia
Atlas F1 Magazine Writer



Advice: With each table, click on a column's header (title) to sort the table by that column; click again to change the sorting order.

Driver days compares the number of days each driver, and team, has driven during winter testing, with a driver day being counted for each driver that tests for a team on a day of testing - multiple drivers for one team on a day of testing mean multiple driver days. A total of 39 drivers have driven for ten teams in these tests during November and December, for a total of 179 driver days of testing, about a 10 percent increase over last year. Every team has taken part in the testing, while of those drivers confirmed to drive in 2004, Ferrari's Michael Schumacher (just like last year), McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen and Minardi's Zsolt Baumgartner have not taken to the track.

Of the drivers that have taken part, Luciano Burti leads the way with 11 days, with the three drivers of Franck Montagny, Takuma Sato and Alex Wurz having tested for 10 days. From the teams' perspective, Williams-BMW lead the way, just one ahead of Ferrari, with BAR-Honda, Renault and Toyota next with Jaguar-Cosworth and McLaren-Mercedes just behind.


The driver totals compared the total number of laps completed by each driver during testing, with the total number of laps broken down circuit by circuit. A total of 11423 laps were completed during testing in November and December, over 25 percent more than last year. Jaguar's rookie Christian Klien leads the way with 775 laps, just two laps ahead of Renault tester and 2003 Superfund Nissan champ Franck Montagny with faithful Williams tester Marc Gene just five laps further back. The rest of the order is fairly evenly spread out, while at the bottom of the table is a group that includes drivers that the teams are evaluating for possible further use as test drivers.

By default, the table is sorted by total laps in descending order.


The driver totals compared the total number of laps completed by each driver during testing, with the total number of laps broken down circuit by circuit. Again, 11423 laps have been completed during the testing period. On top, just like last year, were Williams, with Jaguar a clear second. Next up and close together were Ferrari and Renault, followed by Toyota, with BAR-Honda and McLaren-Mercedes next separated by just a few laps. The remaining three teams put in a comparatively token effort, completing less laps between them than any of the seven teams above them completed individually.

By default, the table is sorted by total laps in descending order.


The distance totals compare the total distance completed by drivers and teams during testing. A total of 49441.115 km has been covered during testing, the equivalent of more than 160 Grand Prix distances! These two tables follow a similar pattern to the previous tables, Christian Klien and Williams again heading the tables.

By default, the tables are sorted by total distance in descending order.


The averages compare the average distance completed and average laps completed by the drivers and teams. A shake up in the order occurs in the drivers' listings, with Gianmaria Bruni and Neel Jani closely matched at the top, both drivers only completing one day of testing. Next up are Giancarlo Fisichella and Christian Klien, Fisichella completing three days compared to Klien's nine. In the teams' battle, Jaguar-Cosworth lead Sauber-Petronas, followed by Renault, ahead of a tightly bunched Toyota, McLaren-Mercedes, BAR-Honda and Williams-BMW.

This table is listed in alphabetical order (drivers by surname).


Finally, the battle of the two tyre companies. With BAR switching to Michelin, Bridgestone have only four teams at their disposal while Michelin has six teams out there running. On top of this, Ferrari is the only Bridgestone team running at the top level, with Bridgestone also having the two lowest ranked teams on its books. This table reflects this, with Michelin's totals around four times Bridgestone's totals in each of the categories of total distance, total laps, and driver days. When looking at the averages, Bridgestone runners are more competitive, within around fifteen percent of the average running per driver day compared to Michelin.

This table is also listed in alphabetical order.


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Volume 9, Issue 52
December 31st 2003

Articles

2004: A Tough Act
by Richard Barnes

Winter Testing Superstats
by David Wright

2004 Countdown Facts & Stats
by Marcel Schot & Marcel Borsboom

Columns

Bookworm Critique
by Mark Glendenning

Elsewhere in Racing
by David Wright & Mark Alan Jones

The Weekly Grapevine
by Tom Keeble



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