MotoGP.com
News, 02/02/06

Seven time MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi has concluded his third day of F1 tests in Valencia, onboard the Ferrari F2004 with which he took to the track alongside regular Formula One drivers.

Although familiar with the Valencia circuit on two wheels, Rossi had a far from excellent first day, spinning off after ten corners before the test was suspended due to poor weather. Yesterday he fared better, putting in a respectable 1´12.856 lap to place him ninth. Today he improved still further during his 54 laps in the depotencialised V10 Ferrari, especially when you compare his 1´12”316 lap with “teammate” Felipe Massa´s time in the V8 version, 1´12”1. Official times placed him 1.4 seconds off fastest driver Fernando Alonso.

Rossi did however make it clear that after the diversion of the day´s tests he was now channelling his commitments fully towards preseason preparation for MotoGP with Yamaha.

“It is satisfying, but now comes the turn of the bike, which is my priority for this year. I must focus on the MotoGP World Championship, just like Ferrari must focus on their Championship” Rossi now heads to Losail for the Qatar Test.



RoadRacingWorld
Rossi 11th Fastest At Multi-team Formula One Test At Valencia

Feb 02, 2006

Copyright 2006, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Seven-time World Champion motorcycle road racer Valentino Rossi was unofficially 11th-fastest of 15 drivers on the second day of a multi-team Formula One test Wednesday at Valencia, in Spain, according to Formula One's official website.

After an embarrassing spin on his out lap Tuesday, Rossi rebounded, turning 53 laps Wednesday and recording a best time of 1:12.851 in his V-10-powered, Bridgestone-shod Ferrari.

Rossi’s time was 11th fastest overall, a little over one second slower than seven-time Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher's 1:11.814 (who ran a 2006-spec, V8-powered Ferrari on Bridgestones) and 1.6 seconds slower than the fastest man at the test, defending Formula One World Champion Fernando Alonso (1:11.200, who drove a Michelin-equipped Renault).

This is Rossi’s fourth test for Ferrari, which has publicly stated it would like to sign the wildly-popular Italian to its race team when he is done racing motorcycles.

Rossi is contracted to race for Yamaha’s MotoGP team through the end of the 2006 season.

Many are speculating that Rossi will switch to Formula One car racing in 2007, when MotoGP is scheduled to change from 990cc to 800cc motorcycles.

Schumacher's current contract with Ferrari runs through the end of 2006.

 

The man is living the dream. And damn good at it.

 

That's good for Rossi.
Though I will miss him on 2 wheels.

 

Pardon my ignorance, but don't F1 cars run slicks? Why the treads?

And are they sure that's a picture of Rossi? The helmet looks so plain...

 

dif tires with dif weather
they run in wet weather too

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by killaj12 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">dif tires with dif weather
they run in wet weather too</TD></TR></TABLE>
Yes, I am aware of that. But the track looks dry, no?

 

Yea the track looks dry. They probably test the rain tires on dry anyways just in case they are ever stuck with them on during a race.

 

seems like it's only a matter of time. it should be interesting.

 

those are intermediate tires. there are dry/intermediate/wet tires. the reason they are running those tires are due to the fact that the track is damp from a previous storm that made its way over the area over the past few days before that test. they will never ever run wet tires in the dry for any reason unless theres only a lap left and it for some reason just became dry. the teams would usually switch over to dry slicks if the weather permits because its much more beneficiary towards them to do so, since literally seconds can come off lap times. that is indeed rossi and the reason i believe that he is wearing a plain red helmet is due to sponsorship deals clashing.

 

here we go...

http://www.motogp.com/en/motog...=news

 

They are going back to full slicks in 2008, right now they are still using the grooved tires (though the ones in the pics look to be rain or intermediates tires).

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by marmaladeboy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Pardon my ignorance, but don't F1 cars run slicks? Why the treads?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RynoDyno312 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">They are going back to full slicks in 2008, right now they are still using the grooved tires (though the ones in the pics look to be rain or intermediates tires).</TD></TR></TABLE>

im glad someone explained this. i was in agony as i scrolled down to see misinformation spread about the tires the cars have on them. although i am not disputing that it is an intermediate tire, considering that it states there was reain earlier in the tests. but F1 has been running the grooved tires since 2000 or so. michelin was actually busted for making a tire that when it got warm the treads would smash down and create a really wide slick with something like 60% more contact patch that was legal at the time.

ohh and full rains look like dirt track tires.