Pre-Season Testing

The first official pre-season test session will take place on Tuesday in Valencia.

Although only one team, Ferrari, have unveiled their 2011 car, more teams are due to follow suit on Monday. Therefore, there may be a mix of 2010 and 2011 cars on track, but how much can you actually tell from testing results?

A couple of things to consider:
> Some teams, particularly Ferrari, are famous for 'sand-bagging' in testing. Meaning they do not run their car at it's full potential, often running high fuel loads, as they like to keep their cards close to their chest and not reveal how quick the car actually is.
> Also, in testing prior to the 2010 season, the Sauber team drew critisism from some, including Martin Brundle, for apparently running their car very lightly with little fuel. This may have been in order to make their car seem more competitive, possibly in an attempt to entice more sponsors.

As fuel loads are not published, it is not always possible to predict how well a team will do in a race situation based on testing results. However, you can often get a pretty good indication.

Fortunately, the Formula One Results Predictor is aware of all of this and this will be taken into account when predicting the results for the first race!