Lately I've been checking out the times the drivers get during the friday sessions. Most of the times Robert Kubica is upfront, getting the best times, sometimes beating Alonso, or Schumacher. Of course the GP drivers aren't running a 100% since they have to save their engines and such. (I checked out the times - on an average, the pole position time is about 1.5 seconds faster than the fastest time set on a friday session).

I'd like to get your view on these points (as I am a bit of a noob as far as F1 is concerned):

- do all the test drivers (the 3rd driver in a team) give it all they got during Friday sessions?
- or sometimes, do they only work on tyres or other car settings not focusing on the times AT ALL
- could it be, that the qualyfing laps are much faster also because there's more rubber laid down on the track? (afterall, these drivers put in quite a few laps during the 2 Friday sessions, and 1 Saturday).

In other words - if someone is consistently fast in Friday sessions, what could be made of it? Obviously not that "he's the BEST 1111one1111ONE!!!1111,he rox da world!!!!111!!"...

But what then?

Various things affect it but I think most teams focus on race setup, tyre selection etc.

I think some teams like BMW just run a lap on very low fuel compared to the rest to put them at the top. Just gives the sponsors more publicity. In the end if the test driver was the best driver they had he'd be sitting in the race seat. Look at Davidson he was topping the Friday practice all the time but is still a test driver.

I was thinking about it myself and I think all first and second team drivers just dont do their best at friday practice. Kubica is good, it's no doubt watching his past career and seeing him at first places during friday runs just says that he is skillful. He is believed to turn driver together with Heitfield on the next season when Villneuve leaves F1. It is good to see him at first places but noone can tell what would be his position if he starts in a normal F1 race.

Practice never tells you anything. Often in the past new cars have run slowly to hide the real pace they have come qualifying and race.

Yup, just like a lot of the race drivers sometimes only complete an installisation lap to check the systems in the car are working.

Keiran