There was plenty of talk this week that Rio Haryanto’s day two time in GP2 Series testing was quicker than what Marcus Ericsson achieved in the Caterham F1 car at Bahrain few weeks ago.
That is, in a sense, quite true. In a sense. But it is also playing games with the truth and reality.
The comparisons surrounding Haryanto’s best lap of 1:39.129s, as opposed to Ericsson’s best lap of the third day of the opening Bahrain F1 test which came in at 1:42.130s
While on the face of things, it may seem farcical that the GP2 runner was so much faster that it’s F1 counterpart, but the comparison fails to take into account several points.
With all due respect to Haryanto, he set his time on soft tyres in a well-known and understood car during a qualifying run in reasonably cool weather.
Ericsson meanwhile – who at this stage had yet to secure his super licence – was concentrating on longer stints on harder compound tyres, in a brand new car, under totally new technical regulations.
Come the end of the second test at Bahrain, the Caterham F1 was running comfortably quicker than the GP2 machine – alas this fact appeared to escape those angling for a cheap story.
Few commentators have used this comparison as yet another stick with which it can use to bash Formula One, but in reality, it is a lazy approach that does well to serve a skewered point of view.
And quite frankly, it’s also full of crap.
