Dennis not worried by McLaren form

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By Matt Beer    Wednesday, March 11th 2009, 14:19 GMT

Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren, Barcelona testing March 2009McLaren chairman Ron Dennis says he has no concerns about his team's apparent lack of testing pace and is certain they will be title contenders.

The 2009 McLaren-Mercedes has not been at the front in recent tests, but Dennis is confident that Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen will be among the frontrunners in Melbourne.

"Whatever performance level McLaren have today we will be a competitive racing team," he told the BBC.

"That means we will be fighting for the world championship.

"The objective is to go to Australia and be the most competitive car there, not to come out of every single test at the top of the timesheets. Testing is about a disciplined approach to making the car go faster and you have to ignore the performance of the other teams."

He added: "Whereas our main competitors are finishing testing in two days we still have the ability to test next week in Jerez. When we get to Australia that will be the first measurement of everyone's performance.

"We expect our car to go faster with every grand prix and we expect to maintain our pace to allow us to win the world championship."

McLaren have continued using a 2008 rear wing at several tests, but Dennis denied this was a sign of problems with the 2009 aerodynamic package.

"We ran the 2008 rear wing because it was more relevant in its performance to the wing that we are going to have in Australia," he said. "It doesn't mean you are lost or that you don't know what you are doing."

However he admitted that McLaren had fallen behind schedule.

"We lost some time," said Dennis. "We had a strategy for this year to leave it to the last possible moment to produce our aerodynamic package for the Australian Grand Prix.

"That in itself gave us some production challenges and we have really only started to run the car in the last day with the Australian aero package."

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Button shows Brawn's pace in Spain

By Matt Beer    Wednesday, March 11th 2009, 16:41 GMT

Jenson Button, Brawn GP, Barcelona testing March 2009Jenson Button continued the new Brawn GP team's excellent start in Formula One by comfortably setting the fastest time of the week so far on day three of the Barcelona group test.

The British driver's time of 1:19.127 put him a full second clear of his rivals, and was a similar margin faster than the best times of the previous two days.

Given the level of superiority, Button's lap was likely to have been set in low-fuel qualifying trim, but data from the rest of the test suggests that the Brawn-Mercedes has also been competitive on long runs and with heavy fuel.

Button had been fastest for much of Brawn GP's first public test on Monday, before being edged back to fourth place by the day's end, while his team-mate Rubens Barrichello took third place yesterday.

"It's been another great day and a very positive test generally," said Button.

"After the challenges we have faced, to come here and get off to such an encouraging start is just what we all needed and I can't thank the team enough. All that effort has really paid off and everyone can feel very proud."

Ross Brawn said yesterday that his car's performance was no surprise to him given the effort Honda had put into their 2009 programme before the parent company's exit.

"It's 15 months of work," he said. "We said that we were sacrificing last year to concentrate on this car, and what you see is what we said we would do. So it is perfectly rational in my mind."

Felipe Massa was second quickest for Ferrari today, having completed a grand prix weekend simulation. His programme was interrupted during the afternoon when a hydraulic problem left him stranded on track.

Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber), Timo Glock (Toyota) and Renault's Fernando Alonso completed the top five, with Sebastian Vettel sixth for Red Bull despite ending the day in the gravel at Turn 4.

McLaren's apparent difficulties continued as Lewis Hamilton brought up the rear of the 10-car field, 2.5 seconds slower than Button. The world champion also had a brush with the tyre barrier, causing minor damage to the front of his car, after going off on the exit of Turn 2.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  Button        Brawn-Mercedes       (B)  1:19.127  124
 2.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:20.168  109
 3.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:20.217  109
 4.  Glock         Toyota TF109         (B)  1:20.410   99
 5.  Alonso        Renault R29          (B)  1:20.863  107
 6.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:21.165  102
 7.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:21.324   89
 8.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:21.545   97
 9.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:21.569  140
10.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:21.657   82

All Timing Unofficial

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Alonso says Brawn GP pace is real

By Pablo Elizalde    Thursday, March 12th 2009, 10:40 GMT

Jenson Button, Brawn GP, Barcelona testingRenault driver Fernando Alonso believes the Brawn GP team is one of three or four squads who are a step in front of their rivals ahead of the start of the season following its showing in testing.

The team has been impressive in its first public outing at Barcelona this week, with Jenson Button setting the fastest time of the week yesterday with the BGP-001 machine.

Although some suspect the team is running with low fuel to grab the headlines and attract sponsors, Renault driver Alonso thinks Brawn GP's pace is real.

The two-time champion reckons the team is among a group of squads who are a step ahead of their rivals.

"It's hard to judge right now, but Toyota, Ferrari, BMW or Brawn are very fast," Alonso told Spanish media. "The competition is very tough and everybody is working well, with a good progression.

"It's obvious that there are three or four teams ahead of the rest," added Alonso, who believes his own Renault team is not as quick as its rivals.

"I had a lot more doubts last season because the car was not going well. Ferrari, Brawn, or BMW are, right now, unreachable," he was quoted as saying by AS newspaper.

"We have to think that finishing fifth here, with one car per team, means being 10th in a race. There are three or four teams ahead of us. Even so, it's not all about winning in Melbourne because the championship is very long."

Alonso thinks Brawn GP has benefited from having switched its efforts to 2009 earlier than the rest.

"It's not normal that they are so quick in their first tests," he added. "The truth is that they have a car that Honda began working on in 2007 to use in 2009. And that's evident in its design, because it's a very elaborate car, with different shapes than the rest."

Despite his caution about Renault's form, the Spanish driver admitted he feels more optimistic than last year.

"I'm more optimistic that at the same point last year. In 2008 I was not optimistic and, after the first two or three races, I thought I'd spend the rest of the championship as a tourist in the cities where we raced.

"I've always been optimistic, but maybe in the last few weeks there has been an excess of optimism. We are nearly here not there. We were really bad at Portimao and ready to win the title at Jerez. We have to take it one step at the time and if we work well we'll be able to compete in a high level."