Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motorsport. Its the most expensive and technical of them all. Only few are lucky enough to race in Formula 1 and most of the time these drivers are the crème de la crème, although some circumstances have proved us otherwise. Now what is Formula 1 without a strict license requirement that is the ‘king’ of motor racing licenses? The answer is: Superlicense.
Anyone who wishes to race in Formula 1 needs a Superlicense from the FIA. To qualify for the license one needs a ‘decorated’ experience in motor sport. On top of that one has to cover 300 kilometers with a current Formula 1 car. Following yesterday’s official test session in Jerez, Fairuz Fauzy has qualified for a Superlicense as he clocked in about 334 kilometers.
This means that if Kovalainen or Trulli is unable to race anytime during the season, Fauzy can step in. The test session in Jerez continues later today with Heikki Kovalainen behind the wheel of the Lotus Cosworth T127. Force India’s Paul di Resta also qualified for the license as well.
Today the 2010 Formula 1 circus had its busiest official test session at the Jerez circuit. A total of 12 drivers from 11 teams clocked crucial laps at the Spanish race track. All teams were present except for USF1 and Campos, the only two teams that have yet to launch their 2010 contenders.
Today was also Lotus Racing’s first official test session and the team’s third and reserve driver Fairuz Fauzy was behind the wheel. He completed a total of 76 laps and managed to set a personal best lap time of 1:31.848. That lap time put him in 11th place but he was more than 2 seconds quicker than Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock who set a lap time of 1:34.453.
The fastest driver was Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull who set 1:22.593. The German was quicker than Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa from McLaren and Ferrari respectively while Michael Schumacher from Mercedes GP Petronas completed 111 laps and managed to set 1:23.803 which put him in sixth.
However its very hard to use these lap times as an accurate performance indicator. During such tests sessions, different cars may run on different fuel levels, tires and other settings such as aerodynamics. Teams are still developing their cars hence a more accurate indicator will be the performance during the season-opening race in Bahrain which will happen next month.
At the same time Virgin Racing has been spending a lot of time at the bottom end of the time sheets for the past five test sessions. This may be a sign that Lotus Racing’s ‘rival’ is struggling with its car. Nevertheless lets catch the first race on March 14th and find out!
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