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Formula 1 2017 Pre-Season |OT| The Ferrari is good this year
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Psychotext
Member
Watching a vid from yesterday and I'm really not a fan of the multiple wings on the Williams.
"I've just spent a bit of time standing by the pitlane exit where the drivers do their practice starts and you can get a good look at the cars. Of the top three teams, the Red Bull is the most basic car. There's nothing trick on there and it's all smooth surfaces so I expect there will be parts to come there. If I was writing a development list for the big teams, I would say Mercedes needs to concentrate on the bargeboard area, as although it has a sophisticated arrangement it hasn't fully exploited what is possible. For Ferrari, the focus would be on the diffuser. For Red Bull, it would be both areas.
Gary Anderson"
Gary Anderson"
Dutch Gronk
Banned
Lewis fucking it all up.
Ferrari resurrection is on hold again
Ferrari resurrection is on hold again
Lewis fucking it all up.
Ferrari resurrection is on hold again
avatar-quote.jpg
Those tiny wings above the rear need to be banned. They look terrible compared to how little effect they probably have.
That could be their tagline for their Formula 1 department.
Isn't this now 3 engines in 2 days? Utterly fucking awful. Surely the engineers at McLaren are wishing that Honda never re-entered the sport as all they have done is set back the team by 5 years.
I'm close to writing off this season as a McLaren fan and it's only day 2 of testing. Fucking Honda.
Edit: That Mercedes is ominous. The time on the Super Soft included a bad last sector too so plenty of time in hand. Very much laying down the gauntlet.
Do they have any ultras to play with?
Betta Lines
Member
Ban the tail fins while they're at it. Glad to see the Merc went out with no fin again today.
There's not much use in testing the fastest available tyre before you're even confident in the car.
Barcelona normally has softs as the softest tyre, ultrasofts would get shredded under any notable load.
Psychotext
Member
I think we've got much further to go on the times tbh, for all cars.
brotkasten
Member
Norwegian Rudo
Member
It's interesting how Ferrari are following Mercedes template from last year and pretty much only using one harder compound, while Merc is trying out most of the softer ones.
nekkid
It doesn't matter who we are, what matters is our plan.
Mercedes last year were ultra confident whenever they used mediums because of their testing, but notably cautious when using anything else.
Extensive testing of mediums plays the odds (aren't they the most used compound over a season?) but they need a more broad understanding.
At least another second and a half I reckon.
But the fact is that again, the Mercedes is reliable, and first setting quick times. If anyone was hoping they would drop the ball with the new regulations their hopes are pretty much dashed.
It's for the other teams, especially RBR and Ferrari to show they too have progressed over winter.
Obviously! The headline times are meaningless but there's lots that can be gleaned from testing.
I can't speak for others but this isn't my first rodeo. I realised a couple of years ago that I've been following F1 for over 20 years, which scared me at the time.
Agreed.
The only thing I think you can look into really is reliability as you can't fake it.
Apart from that, the only time I'd pay attention to is the fastest one as it gives us a rough idea of how much faster they might be than last year.
Fox Mulder
Member
McLaren really needs to think about dumping Honda if they're complete shit for another year. It's embarrassing.
Redbull cried about Renault, but got results.
Before testing I said McLaren would be lucky to have 2012 performance with 2012 reliability (which was bad enough to motivate Lewis to finally leave for tealer pastures).
What they have now is 2016 performance with 2015 reliability.
Praying for Nando and Stoff to not spend their last (it might be) and first years in agony.
What they have now is 2016 performance with 2015 reliability.
Praying for Nando and Stoff to not spend their last (it might be) and first years in agony.
You can't make this shit up.
I'm convinced McLaren would make a better engine if they decided to build one from scratch. Too bad the cost of that is probably too much for them to try.
brotkasten
Member
No.
Correct.
I wonder what might have been if Cosworth had the budget of a big gun like Honda and actually followed through on their Turbo project. Better than the Honda that's almost certain.
It's even worse now compared to even a few years ago, simulations are so good that testing is pretty much just a systems check at this point. Mercedes showing up and just out of nowhere doing 150 laps per testing day is a direct result of them already having developed and tested everything before a car was even build. This is also why, allegedly, RBR is running a car with all their new aero bits removed and not sweating it, they already know exactly how it will perform.
I was watching a interview with Max yesterday in where he said his qualifying set-up in one of the races was exactly the same as the one he and his engineers had determined in the simulator beforehand. That's pretty much where we're at right now.
...Unless you're 2012 Ferrari, the computers have already calculated exactly how your car performs.
nature boy
Member
Aren't they waiting for 2018 for a title sponsor? Says it all really.
The silicon chips keep ending up dead
Or primed to overload
And nobody's gonna do no laps today
Ain't gonna scuff that chrome
And Arai doesn't understand it
"Top power" is what he was told
And he can see no reason
'cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be sure
Oh, oh, oh, tell me why
We can't make engines
Tell me why
We can't make engines
Tell me why
We can't make engines
With this pursuit
Of raw horsepower
Dutch Gronk
Banned
Where is that RBR allegation coming from. Newey himself said they wanted to start without it all and see how the flow works, then start bolting things on.
Even then, testing is important, otherwise every team out there would have pounded round doing 100 laps a day.
Or 2017 McLaren Honda, unless if their computer simulation shows the car breaking down every 15 minutes.
Yes, simulation has got better but while drivers may say such a thing, the engineers making the car will tell you that nothing beats track time. Otherwise testing would be totally pointless and you wouldn't see teams complain about the lack of testing.
I don't fully buy the RBR sandbagging angle either. Closer looks have shown that the car is doing more than the lack of extra wings and flaps make it look. If the car is pretty quick without such gimmicks they may see them as easy additions later to test their efficacy once they have a baseline for their car.
It's all alleged until I see some receipts.
Again, I stick to what I'm saying. Testing is more about testing systems, and things like tire degradation. All the aero is long tested and then some before the car is even build.
In terms of fastest testing laps ranking, they were 5, 3 and 4 positions behind their championship position in the last 3 years.
People always talk about Mercedes sandbagging but Red Bull is clearly the bigger offender here.
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