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[Psychotext]

What stopped Renault testing theirs before Jerez then?

Renault were already covered by the F1 testing ban. Honda aren't yet as they're not technically an engine manufacturer right now.

 

[Pimpwerx]

Honda will reign supreme after the other three have gotten thousands of miles of on track data? Interesting prediction.

McLaren fans started to lose the plot last year when Lewis left. Honda has become the F1 equivalent of secret sauce. Titanfall will save them. PEACE.

 

[Kworn]

Oh Kobi

 

[Psychotext]

 

[DD]

Suggestions coming out that Renault used an old WSR test mule for their straight-line runs in Idiada, not an RB10.

https://twitter.com/theWPTformula/status/438363104876195840

 

[Psychotext]

Would make sense.

 

[Wax Free Vanilla]

Honda will reign supreme after the other three have gotten thousands of miles of on track data? Interesting prediction.

They've already racked up thousands of miles on the tech and components that will go into their F1 engine with the cars above, plus tens of thousands more throughout 2014, and then thousands more when the finished unit is bolted in the back of one of their old F1 cars to fine tune. When it's time to roll they'll have a reliable and the most powerful unit on the grid.

 

[nature boy]

Why would they be scared? I genuinely don't know, no facetiousness intended.

Mercedes is afraid that Mclaren will share substantial information about the "power unit" so they're restricting the information going to Mclaren.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/formula-1-mercedes-mclaren-relations-change-110320362--f1.html

 

[DD]

They've already racked up thousands of miles on the tech and components that will go into their F1 engine with the cars above, plus tens of thousands more throughout 2014, and then thousands more when the finished unit is bolted in the back of one of their old F1 cars to fine tune. When it's time to roll they'll have a reliable and the most powerful unit on the grid.

These actually use V4 engines. =P

 

[Wax Free Vanilla]

These actually use V4 engines. =P

I know, Honda's engine guy at their press conference last December said the F1 engine uses the same tech / components found in this 2.0L turbo, with thousands of miles racked up on these it should be a reliable unit which will allow Honda to fine tune for a year.

 

[Shaneus]

What class car is that? The F3? Because that looks badarse. I'd kill for the simplicity of that aero style

 

[Nicktendo86]

Oh Kobi

You're status bar is disgusting.

 

[DD]

I know, Honda's engine guy at their press conference last December said the F1 engine uses the same tech / components found in this 2.0L turbo, with thousands of miles racked up on these it should be a reliable unit which will allow Honda to fine tune for a year.

Ah, didn't knew about that. =B

What class car is that? The F3? Because that looks badarse. I'd kill for the simplicity of that aero style

Super Formula (formerly known as Formula Nippon). It's a japanese series that it's faster than GP2 and F-Indy.

 

[Shaneus]

Super Formula (formerly known as Formula Nippon). It's a japanese series that it's faster than GP2 and F-Indy.

Damn. I need to look that up.

 

[Templar Wizard]

F14T clip collection, that power unit sound is great, so varied.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAlqdbpWfU0#t=65

 

[ramparter]

Super Formula (formerly known as Formula Nippon). It's a japanese series that it's faster than GP2 and F-Indy.

Some day they will be able to transform to robots and the first two that cross the line will battle to determine the winner.

 

[Kworn]

So guys what are the thoughts on where the cars are lap time wise?

Mercedes 1 second ahead of everyone else, is Mercedes going to do another Brawn with the first half of the season?

Mclaren next..

Then Ferarri..

Lotus...

What are your thoughts.

It would be crazy if Mercedes were sandbagging and were 2-3 seconds ahead of everyone else.

 

[Hammer24]

It would be crazy if Mercedes were sandbagging and were 2-3 seconds ahead of everyone else.

Define "sandbagging".
Has there been the intentional slow driving of years past to not show your hand? No.

But every team took it slower than usual, to shake the engines down more. I guess no team really pushed the cars to what they are capable of. Maybe they´ll do on the last test, at least where Merc engines are concerned. AFAIK Fer will still "only" try to do a real race sim.

 

[Kworn]

Define "sandbagging".
Has there been the intentional slow driving of years past to not show your hand? No.

But every team took it slower than usual, to shake the engines down more. I guess no team really pushed the cars to what they are capable of. Maybe they´ll do on the last test, at least where Merc engines are concerned. AFAIK Fer will still "only" try to do a real race sim.

Hiding the strength, skill or difficulty of something or someone early in an engagement.

I think they could be doing exactly this...

 

[Osiris]

Hiding the strength, skill or difficulty of something or someone early in an engagement.

I think they could be doing exactly this...

If they were running a tried and tested engine, with several seasons of data and refinements?

Sure.

Before a new season with a whole new engine package such as this year?

Not a chance.

No team, not even Mercedes, will have that luxury.

 

[brotkasten]

Renault is confident that they'll have their issues sorted by Melbourne.

"There is still room to play with and we hope to have everything working together at maximum performance when we get to Melbourne," Taffin told Autosport.

"I think we will be ready to run [at the Australian GP], but it depends what performance we will get there. We have a programme to do [before then] and if we do it maybe we have a chance to do well over there. If you look where we were three weeks ago and where we are now; if we make the same step to Melbourne I will be happy."

Despite the struggles of Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Lotus and Caterham in Bahrain last week, Taffin believes Renault's major problems are behind them now.

"The major ones are now behind us, so we can start building up programmes and try many items," he added.

"Many are fixed, but we still see a few. We are now far from having all the issues we had before. We are making progress. We are now in a position to tick every box on the list. "We have good support from our factory and our teams, and we are all working together.

"When the problems are fixed - and we are close to fixing them - then we can move on.""

 

[Osiris]

That sounds more like damage control to balance the more sober statements that Rob White made two days ago:

We have made some good headway, in terms of PU performance and operation in the car, we are now in a situation we could have accepted mid-Jerez. We have solved some problems and revealed some others.

We are not back on schedule but we are moving in the right direction – the running we have done is very valuable. The challenge is to improve the rate of progress, because the gap to where we wanted to be at this stage remains substantial.

We are some weeks behind where we wanted to be, and we acknowledge it will take time to unlock the full performance of the PU. We are working hard to get there and we are determined to succeed. We remain confident in the PU and its sub systems, we are just not at the level of operation and performance we want to be. The immaturity of the PU combined with the time lost to incidents, means the chassis work to prepare for the season is also behind schedule. From this point on we must pursue and accelerate an upward curve.

 

[Psychotext]

If they're running their engine on a test mule in Spain then I guess there's a chance they've made some progress.

 

[theignoramus]

http://espn.go.com/racing/story/_/id/10518289/texas-motor-speedway-president-eddie-gossage-upset-formula-one-scheduling

The top executive at Texas Motor Speedway is frustrated over Formula One's decision to hold the United States Grand Prix at Austin on the same weekend that his track hosts all three of NASCAR's national series.

Speaking before Tuesday's celebration of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s victory in the Daytona 500, Eddie Gossage said the scheduling change was "arrogant."
"I absolutely think it's foolish," said Gossage, the track's president and general manager. "It's a shot fired by Formula One at NASCAR. I can't say I was surprised because (F1 CEO) Bernie Ecclestone does a lot of foolish things. The thing he unfortunately doesn't recognize is there is an 800-pound gorilla when it comes to major American motor sports. The 800-pound gorilla is NASCAR.
"Any time you cut something into two pieces, whether it's 50-50, 60-40 or 99-1, it doesn't matter who's got the 99 and who's got the 1, it's less than 100 percent," Gossage said. "It's just not smart. There's 52 weeks in the year. But that was the only weekend that Formula One could make it work in Austin, Texas. Give me a break."

Gossage thinks a stronger stance by the management at Circuit of the Americas would have prevented the scheduling issue.

"It wouldn't have happened if they had the strength and the fortitude to stand up and say no," Gossage said.

Gossage sounds like an entitled prick himself, but he's met his match in Bernard E, who says "At the end of the day they run a domestic series in America - we run a world championship.''
(Bernard also notes the two series appeal to "different fans", lol)

Seems like there is a three week gap, rather a two week one, between Austin and Sochi for obvious logistical reasons

 

[ramparter]

Mercedes 1 second ahead of everyone else, is Mercedes going to do another Brawn with the first half of the season?

Mclaren next..

Then Ferarri..

Lotus...

What are your thoughts.

I hope McLaren will be more close. I don't see Lotus doing well, Red Bull, Force India and maybe Williams will be in front of them.

 

[DD]

Some day they will be able to transform to robots and the first two that cross the line will battle to determine the winner.

YES!

 

[NHale]

So guys what are the thoughts on where the cars are lap time wise?

Mercedes 1 second ahead of everyone else, is Mercedes going to do another Brawn with the first half of the season?

Mclaren next..

Then Ferarri..

Lotus...

What are your thoughts.

It would be crazy if Mercedes were sandbagging and were 2-3 seconds ahead of everyone else.

The consensus from those that watched the tests (not timelaps) seems to be: Mercedes - McLaren - Williams - Force India - Ferrari.

The big question mark is Ferrari. Some people at Bahrain and Jerez noticed that the car was much more stable under braking then other cars but the car had a lot of trouble putting the power on the ground after slow corners.

 

[ramparter]

I'd love to see Williams fighting in the front again. @Alonso Felipe is faster than you....

 

[olore]

Thought this was an interesting read. Number of cars built by McLaren for this season.

 

[Wax Free Vanilla]

Chassis #03 was the running car for the first Bahrain test, and will also undertake testing duties this week – it then hurries back to MTC, gets dressed (ie: it gets a new paintjob) and is rushed out to Melbourne, where it’s the last of three cars to arrive for the Australian Grand Prix.

Dat Sony paintjob?

 

[olore]

Dat Sony paintjob?

Is that still undecided? I thought that Lotus won Sony

 

[Wax Free Vanilla]

I haven't read anything but McLaren are doing something on March 6th in London according to James Allen. Ron Dennis will speak, maybe a title sponsor announcement?

 

[Deadman]

A ferrari f2002 lapping mugello

The sound....

 

[Dutch Gronk]

A ferrari f2002 lapping mugello

The sound....

I may or may not have an erection right now.

 

[Nicktendo86]

Thought this was an interesting read. Number of cars built by McLaren for this season.

Great read, thanks.

 

[theignoramus]

A ferrari f2002 lapping mugello

The sound....

doubt we will ever hear these sounds in F1 again. *sniff
thanks FIA & Jean Todt

 

[brotkasten]

I'd love to see both the F2002 and one of the V6 cars on track, racing against each other.

 

[gutterboy44]

The first test of the new engines will be when I can make it to Montreal again. For so many years, no matter where we were staying in the city, the second you got out of your car when first arriving, you could hear the cars if they were running all the way across the river. So good. It would always give me goose bumps and gave me that feeling, "Oh yes, this it's F1 time again and we made it!" Damn I miss Montreal, gonna have to make a point to go this year.

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

The first test of the new engines will be when I can make it to Montreal again. For so many years, no matter where we were staying in the city, the second you got out of your car when first arriving, you could hear the cars if they were running all the way across the river. So good. It would always give me goose bumps and gave me that feeling, "Oh yes, this it's F1 time again and we made it!" Damn I miss Montreal, gonna have to make a point to go this year.

I'm in Bahrain to meet few friends right now. I can go to the circuit I think the ticket is equivalent to $12 or something

I don't think I'll bother though. Too afraid to get disappointed. My friends say the engine sounds are shit, they thought it was a "support" event when they first went. They're not into F1 but they've been to so many races

I'm very worried about the sound. I think F1 is trying to control the media when it comes to reporting on the new engines sound. Because if what I heard was absolutely true, then attending F1 races will never be the same again....ever

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

So .. Redbull have sorted their major issues?

Ricciardo goes fastest with a decent time, relatively.

 

[ElTorro]

So .. Redbull have sorted their major issues?

Ricciardo goes fastest with a decent time, relatively.

Looks like that.

Let's see if they can pull off a reliable long-run.

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

Some people say the Ferrari engine is 75bhp down on Mercedes

 

[Mastah]

BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer Andrew Benson

"Ferrari's form has been difficult to read so far. They have periodically popped up at the top of the times. And a race run done by Fernando Alonso at the first Bahrain test looked reasonably competitive compared to a simultaneous one by Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, as far as it was possible to tell. But a senior Ferrari figure revealed this week that the team believe their engine is about 75bhp down on the Mercedes, and they don't understand how their rivals are getting so much power while staying within the fuel restriction introduced this year. Which does not paint too pretty a picture for Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen."

.

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

.

EDIT: If only Kimi signed that damn contract from Haug at the end of 2009!!!

 

[Dutch Gronk]

.

New year, new rules, same disappointment.

 

[jey_16]

And that about wraps it up for Ferrari

 

[brotkasten]

New year, new rules, same disappointment.

Please understand.

e: Great pictures from Lotus' Twitter.

 

[Mastah]

Mercedes has new turning vanes:

 

[Dutch Gronk]

Please understand.

"Next year is gonna be our year" - Every Ferrari fan in the last 5 years.

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

"Next year is gonna be our year" - Every Ferrari fan in the last 5 years.

Blame Dominicalli