**Testing has been extended to 8:00PM due to rain** These are the times as of 4:00PM: 1. Max Verstappen NED Toro Rosso-Renault 37 laps 1m 11.946s 2. Stoffel Vandoorne NED McLaren-Honda 35 laps 1m 13.546s 3. Pascal Wehrlein GER Mercedes-Mercedes 15 laps 1m 13.782s 4. Antonio Fuoco ITA Ferrari-Ferrari 51 laps 1m 14.740s 5. Esteban Ocon FRA Force India-Mercedes 25 laps 1m 18.095s 6. Pierre Gasly FRA Red Bull-Renault 17 laps 1m 19.197s 7. Romain Grosjean FRA Lotus-Mercedes 19 laps 1m 19.418s 8. Susie Wolff GBR Williams-Mercedes 9 laps 1m 23.710s 9. Raffaele Marciello ITA Sauber-Ferrari 1 lap no time
At first I was like ''Don't they need permission to extent by a few hours because of the noise?!'' Then I realized there is none.
Wow - McLaren managed 35 laps?! That's more than the did in the entirety of qualy and the race…
Final Tuesday results: 1. Pascal Wehrlein GER Mercedes-Mercedes 37 laps 1m 11.005s 2. Esteban Ocon FRA Force India-Mercedes 43 laps 1m 11.192s 3. Max Verstappen NED Toro Rosso-Renault 73 laps 1m 11.328s 4. Antonio Fuoco ITA Ferrari-Ferrari 71 laps 1m 11.331s 5. Romain Grosjean FRA Lotus-Mercedes 34 laps 1m 11.691s 6. Pierre Gasly FRA Red Bull-Renault 44 laps 1m 11.757s 7. Raffaele Marciello ITA Sauber-Ferrari 27 laps 1m 11.826s 8. Stoffel Vandoorne NED McLaren-Honda 50 laps 1m 12.530s 9. Susie Wolff GBR Williams-Mercedes 18 laps 1m 13.248s
Day two final test times: 1. Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes-Mercedes 100 laps 1m 09.113s 2. Esteban Gutierrez MEX Ferrari-Ferrari 94 laps 1m 09.931s 3. Valtteri Bottas FIN Williams-Mercedes 70 laps 1m 10.029s 4. Marco Wittmann GER Toro Rosso-Renault 142 laps 1m 10.103s 5. Pascal Wehrlein GER Force India-Mercedes 112 laps 1m 10.253s 6. Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda 84 laps 1m 10.718s 7. Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-Renault 107 laps 1m 10.827s 8. Felipe Nasr BRA Sauber-Ferrari 112 laps 1m 10.922s 9. Jolyon Palmer GBR Lotus-Mercedes 88 laps 1m 11.288s
That new nose is bad-a$$ looking. I hope it works for them. I'm wondering if other teams will give it a go at some point or test it out. So far testing has told me that Ferrari isn't really close to Merc... at least any more so than they were at the beginning of the year. Token spend didn't seem to do anything of consequence.
I dont think any team will challenge Merc this year or even next year. The rules just don't allow you to.
Well yeah... I mean isn't that the fundamental problem. The rules basically assure no one can refine their PU's enough, nor test them, to even approach catching up. Good for Merc that they had a bit of an "in" ahead of time when designing their new PU and knocked it out of the park, but for the rules to essentially lock out the ability for any team to improve their own is pure stupidity and personifies everything that is wrong with F1. Could that be anymore unfair? How is that even competition?
There is no real challenge to Mercedes, this is largely contrived in an attempt to generate some interest in the championship. MB has plenty of speed in reserve.
Agree, it is good looking and a creative way to come up with an hybrid (short vs long) nose. If it is deemed legal, other teams may take a look. So far Estaban Ocon said that the car is faster... We'll see in Silverstone. (I hope!).
Chris, every now and then somebody executes an act of clear, concise communication. You have just achieved that level of art and wisdom. Your post has rendered all the rest to the dust bin. Congratulations for summing up the entire problem in five sentences.
+1 Hopefully. I don't see anything illegal there - It's obviously passed the impact tests. It's symmetrical, so that's cool. Very nice idea. Hopefully, we'll see if it works soon. Cheers, Ian
I'm gonna assume you're not being sarcastic... but don't worry... I'll say something later to f it all up and look like moron in just a few posts from now.
Scarbs wrote an interesting analysis of the force India nose and that it's worth nearly a full second. Point being that it's very likely legal. We will see soon enough.
Scabs here: Testing tech: Teams push the rulebook - AUTOSPORT But some disagreement on its legality here: Force India VJM08 - Forum - F1technical.net
I'm sure this is not an epiphany to the hardcode F1 fans, but the main takeaway I have from this is that we need more in-season development and testing. Parts like this can change the competitive landscape, which leads to more excitement for the fans since the race result isn't 98% known when the cars line up.
Exactly... windtunnels and simulators are great... but don't reflect nearly what may happen on track. Teams shouldn't have to waste 100's of thousands of dollars to basically beta test during the race.
The big problem with not testing is that it enforces a status quo on the entire series that likely only gets shaken up marginally at the beginning of each season or potentially substantially at the change of the formula. Unlimited testing holds out the hope and/or anticipation of real competition, rather than marginal shifts up or down in the established pecking order. It is that anticipation, wondering who will win, that keeps fans engaged. It may be a great season for Merc fans, but the rest of the world is sleeping in on Sundays.
