Support NeoGAF

[gutterboy44]

3 races of double points makes a lot more sense than just one. Teams would probably be quick to throw in the towel to save engine or gearbox during the penultimate race, or play it super conservative once the field sorted itself. Everyone would be making sure not to get any penalties before the mega race.

 

[Juicy Bob]

I do think it's still way, way too early to make predictions about performance.

 

[Dutch Gronk]

Ferrari has the title on lock. Just a question of which driver is gonna win it. Gonna hear that Italian anthem all year. #YearOfFerrari #Believe

 

[mclem]

Ferrari has the title on lock. Just a question of which driver is gonna win it. Gonna hear that Italian anthem all year. #YearOfFerrari #Believe

I look forward to someone having to gingerly tell Raikkonen that the Alonso is faster and they need to allow him to overtake... and hearing the aftermath.

(Or, quite possibly, the other way around, but I think Raikkonen would be the more entertaining of the two!)

 

[Mastah]

Tobias Grüner F1 ‏@tgruener 3m

It's official: Red Bulls day is done. Horner just confirmed it talking to AMuS. Vettel will travel back home this afternoon.

All Renault teams have problems with ERS.

 

[Lach]

I do think it's still way, way too early to make predictions about performance.

That's what I believe...
I just hope they won't be able to get the reliability up to the level it was for the last few years....

 

[Hammer24]

This should give the other teams a motivational boost.

 

[Mastah]

Seems like first Mercedes failure:

F1 Fanatic Live ‏@f1fanaticlive 1m

Perez's VJM07 is now smoking enthusiastically.

 

[DBT85]

All Renault teams have problems with ERS.

Apparently the turbo was on fire today in Vettels. 11 laps in 2 days.

also

F1 Racing magazine associate editor James Roberts: So far today Mercedes-powered engines have completed 123 laps; Ferrari 56 laps and Renault just 13 laps in total. Not good!

 

[Wax Free Vanilla]

Interesting rear-suspension on the Mclaren:

Not sure how that is legal

So omnicorse were right - McLaren's rear suspension = double deck diffuser furore. Both championships in the bag for the Macca lads and lasses


They also say McLaren are working on a new cock nose / front wing


A total beauty:

 

[Hammer24]

Seems like first Mercedes failure:

I hope, all custom teams followed Merc cooling guidelines to the letter...

 

[Wax Free Vanilla]

McLaren 2014 F1 car's suspension innovation - Gary Anderson

This concept is designed both to give more downforce at low speed and reduce drag at high speed.

These blockers must be part of the suspension itself, but there is a very fine line between an independent shroud, which would be illegal, and something that is all one part and I'm sure that McLaren has ensured it complies with the rules.

This appears to meet all requirements of the regulations in terms of location and structure.

The rear beam wing previously did this job, but the 2014 regulations have banned that so teams are looking for new ways to make up for it.

The interesting thing about this package is that when the car is at higher ride height, these sections will almost completely close the gap at the top of the diffuser, helping it to work at low speed.

At higher speed, because of suspension deflection, a gap will open up between the bottom of the lower blocker and the diffuser, which will reduce drag.

So this makes it a double whammy, giving you more downforce under braking and in slower corners and less drag at high speed.

This could be McLaren's secret weapon because, if it does work, it is not something that can be copied in five minutes as it is dependent on a number of design parameters at the rear of the car.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/112341?source=mostpopular

 

[Hammer24]

This could be McLaren's secret weapon because, if it does work, it is not something that can be copied in five minutes as it is dependent on a number of design parameters at the rear of the car.

Let me put it this way: as RBR is not driving right now, they sure can put a little work into wind tunnel testing

 

[ramparter]

I do think it's still way, way too early to make predictions about performance.

Nonsense, just give Nando the title already.

 

[Mastah]

Rosberg has done 21 consecutive timed laps before Ericsson stopped causing red flag.

 

[Hammer24]

Rosberg has done 21 consecutive timed laps before Ericsson stopped causing red flag.

A 27.6 at the end of this "long run" is nothing to be ashamed about.

 

[acm2000]

No question in my eyes. They'll definitely start the season out of the front two rows.

im gonna say vettel will win first race, jerez is not a massively important test (glorified shakedown), bahrain will be, and they will (should) be sorted by then

 

[Juicy Bob]

I think Mercedes have impressed me the most out of everyone so far.

 

[Hammer24]

Looks like the different tyre mixtures vary widely.

 

[DrM]

84 laps so far for Rosberg.

 

[Dutch Gronk]

How is Kimi doing? Getting a good amount of laps in today?

 

[DrM]

How is Kimi doing? Getting a good amount of laps in today?

34 laps so far

 

[Mastah]

Marussia:

"But we're happy with our development, our rate of progress. I think people will be very pleasantly surprised when they see the car.

"Year on year we've taken a step up in terms of what we have produced and we've taken a giant step this year."

http://www.sportinglife.com/formula1/news/article/669/9140015/-

It would be great to see, but they have to bridge 1 second gap to the next fastest team.

 

[Risgroo]

How is Kimi doing? Getting a good amount of laps in today?

Rosberg (84)
Gutierrez (51)
Button (43)
Perez (37)
Bottas (35)
Raikkonen (34)
Ericsson (11)
Vettel (8)

From Autosport.

 

[Hammer24]

Marussia:

It would be great to see, but they have to bridge 1 second gap to the next fastest team.

Well, new regs do mix it up for everyone. Who knows, maybe some small team found a golden ticket? I root for these guys.

 

[Psychotext]

Merc have to be ecstatic with how it's going so far.

 

[Goldrusher]

Marussia has arrived!

Speaking of Auto Motor und Sport, here's Gerard Lopez' car collection:

http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/...lopez-die-geilste-garage-europas-7534594.html

RUF CTR
RUF CTR2
RUF CTR3
RUF RT35
Porsche Carrera GT
Porsche 356 Speedster
Ford GT40 mkII
Lamborghini Diablo
Lamborghini Countach
The Italian Job Mini
BMW M3 E30 Sport Evo
Mercedes 190E
Shelby Cobra
Chevrolet Camaro SS
Lotus Esprit
Venturi 300
Ferrari 512BB
Ferrari 365GT
Aston Martin V8 Vantage
MG TF1500
Peugeot 205 GTI, another favorite of his
Viper GT
Lancia Stratos
Lister Storm
Courage-Oreca LC70 Judd
Benetton F1

And many more.

His latest purchase: a Ferrari LaFerrari

 

[Lucius86]

Marussia:



It would be great to see, but they have to bridge 1 second gap to the next fastest team.

They also need sponsor cash, hence this quote.

I will believe when I see it. I hope thy can do it though, for the spirit of competition.

 

[Wes]

I didn't mention it at the time but I'm so happy to see Kobayashi back in F1.

 

[Hammer24]

ROS over 400km - so we have at least one candidate to actually finish a full race distance.

 

[DrM]

ROS over 400km - so we have at least one candidate to actually finish a full race distance.

I think they are satisfied with all acquired data and they managed to make up for all lost running yesterday

Results from Autosport:

Day 2 results:
1 Jenson Button (McLaren) 1m24.165s, 43 laps
2 Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) 1m24.812s, 47 laps
3 Valtteri Bottas (Williams) 1m25.344s, 35 laps
4 Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1m25.588s, 97 laps
5 Sergio Perez (Force India) 1m28.376s, 37 laps
6 Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) 1m33.270s, 53 laps
7 Marcus Ericsson (Caterham) 1m37.975s, 11 laps
8 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1m38.320s, 8 laps

 

[Hammer24]

Final lap tally:
Mercedes (97), Sauber (53), Ferrari (47), McLaren (43), Force India (37), Williams (35), Caterham (11), Red Bull (8).

 

[DBT85]

Final lap tally:
Mercedes (97), Sauber (53), Ferrari (47), McLaren (43), Force India (37), Williams (35), Caterham (11), Red Bull (8).

Engine laps completed today

Mercedes 212
Ferrari 100
Renault 19

All that data that Merc are getting.

 

[SCHUEY F1]

150 point for whoever catches the golden snitch.

 

[Hammer24]

150 point for whoever catches the golden snitch.

Might be hard, he left the circuit early today.

Spoiler

*snicker*

 

[brotkasten]

Funny, but ironic coming from Lotus.

 

[mclem]

If Lotus do - at some point - have to leave the sport, can we still keep their twitter feed? Please?

 

[Mastah]

Darren Heath ‏@F1Photographer 2m

Major cooling probs @ #F1 #RedBull Cutting holes in bodywork – & covering with sponsor decals apparently. Major work to be done...

.

 

[Zeknurn]

@NobleF1: Renault says fix for its problems can be sorted tonight so it can resume running properly tomorrow. Full story soon

I wonder.

 

[DrM]

Rosberg very pleased with car and today's work

 

[NHale]

.

Typical Newey designed car. Everytime regulations change and the design philosophy has to change, Newey designed cars suffer from reliability problems. People keep forgetting how unreliable the Red Bulls were at the start of last-era of regulations. They almost missed the 2010 title because of reliability alone and still the KERS was still a hit and miss 4 years later because he didn't want to compromise aero to fit the battery properly.

The car will probably very fast but the big question about Red Bull is reliability. If history has shown us anything is that the creative mind that is Newey 3 main priorities are aerodynamics, aerodynamics and aerodynamics... If the car doesn't have space inside for proper cooling they will try to solve it later.

Williams and McLaren had very fast cars designed by Newey but lost championships only because they weren't reliable.

 

[KimonoNoNo]

RUF CTR
RUF CTR2
RUF CTR3
RUF RT35
Porsche Carrera GT
Porsche 356 Speedster
Ford GT40 mkII
Lamborghini Diablo
Lamborghini Countach
The Italian Job Mini
BMW M3 E30 Sport Evo
Mercedes 190E
Shelby Cobra
Chevrolet Camaro SS
Lotus Esprit
Venturi 300
Ferrari 512BB
Ferrari 365GT
Aston Martin V8 Vantage
MG TF1500
Peugeot 205 GTI, another favorite of his
Viper GT
Lancia Stratos
Lister Storm
Courage-Oreca LC70 Judd
Benetton F1

And many more.

His latest purchase: a Ferrari LaFerrari

Hey I had something in common with a multi-millionaire.

I used to have a beautiful black 205GTI 1.9, until the insurance got crazy expensive. I wish I just moth-balled it now.

 

[Adam Scott Aukerman]

It's not like Red Bull haven't had a history with cooling issues, none of which prevented them from making the rest of the field looking like twits over the course of a season, so I wouldn't even bother start to think about writing them off (even for the first few races) just yet. Anything can happen, and they're just about the best equipped team in the sport to deal with such issues.

Interesting to read about McLaren's rear suspension solution. It would be rather amusing if Jenson were to win a second world championship in similar circumstances.

Thinking ahead to the first race though, I don't really think it could start in a more exciting way than with a Magnussen win.

 

[Juicy Bob]

I think this is about to become an issue...

It has emerged that Ferrari may have to change the design of the turbo housing on the Ferrari 059/3 power unit after a query over its compliance with the technical regulations was raised. The rule in question was a late addition to the 2014 Formula 1 Technical Regulations which states:

5.18.5 Measures must be taken to ensure that in the event of failure of the turbine wheel any resulting significant debris is contained within the car.

Two of the three engine manufacturers have apparently taken one approach while Ferrari feels that it has met the regulation by a different method. In some reports Renault is set to complain about the design but Rob White of Renaultsport F1 claims this is not the case; “I don’t know anything about the Ferrari so I couldn’t be unhappy about it even if I wanted to be.” However he admits that he is aware of the situation “There is a technical regulation that requires us to contain the debris in the event of a turbine wheel failure and in addition there was a technical directive published on the subject regarding correspondence between Charlie Whiting and Ferrari, but there was nothing in it about what Ferrari was or wasn’t doing so I don’t know what it is. For us its a matter of both technical regulation compliance and assuring the safety of the turbo in operation.”

Racecar Engineering understands that while Renault and Mercedes interpreted 5.18.5 as meaning that the turbocharger needs an additional ballistic cover (which weighs around 3kg) Ferrari has not. Instead it has designed the turbine housing in such a way that if the turbine wheel fails the turbo housing itself contains any debris. Whilst not a breach of the regulations it is thought that not everyone in the F1 engine community is convinced about this approach, and there are some that feel that the minimum weight of the cars needs to be raised by around 4kg to allow for the installation of ballistic covers. Ferrari apparently is not keen on this.

 

[Nicktendo86]

I think this is about to become an issue...

I thought it was confirmed that the Ferrari solution has been given the all clear?

 

[DrM]

Mercedes powered teams working together, to gather as much data as possible, Jenson Button revealed this for Sky

Button revealed that all the Mercedes teams had been running different kinds of programmes to understand the engine and admitted that, somewhat against the grain in the usually cut-throat world of F1, they could all help each other.

"Looking at the timesheets today it's very interesting because we're running a very different programme to [Nico] Rosberg and Mercedes," he revealed. "We're running very different engine modes, we're trying different things, so we're getting a lot of information from both cars. Also with [Williams driver Valtteri] Bottas and with [Force India's Sergio] Perez as well.

"So there's a lot of information, a lot of mileage. I think it's 75% of the mileage done by an F1 car has a Mercedes engine. You could say we're in good shape that way as long as it continues like that. We all need to work together. Obviously at the end of the day we're all here to fight each other as teams but the more information that we can share over the next weeks and months can really make a difference to our championship."

 

[Adam Scott Aukerman]

Mercedes powered teams working together, to gather as much data as possible, Jenson Button revealed this for Sky

I'd be surprised if Renault and Ferrari weren't attempting to do the same with their customers.

 

[AndyD]

Mercedes powered teams working together, to gather as much data as possible, Jenson Button revealed this for Sky

This makes a whole lot of sense, and I imagine it has been done before.

 

[Wax Free Vanilla]

Newey doesn't think McLaren's rear suspension is legal, but they apparently got the ok from the FIA last summer to develop it.

Red Bull are done.

Ronbo has returned to bask in world championship glory and see his boy Button crowned a 2x world champion.

 

[AcridMeat]

I didn't mention it at the time but I'm so happy to see Kobayashi back in F1.

Me too. I'm prepped for the season.