Mclaren and Mercedes are recording tire behavior with high speed cameras, so it is rumored anyway.
Mclaren /Perez the first in the 1:21s with a 1:21.848. Pole was set by Mclaren 2012 with a 1:21.7. I'd say Mclaren have at least another second in them from this new car.
You can compare the results to qualifying in 2012 though. The cars seem to be a leap forward...ESPECIALLY if they are only sandbagging. McLaren is already at their pole time.
Seems that Merc was running without the Coanda exhaust this morning. That's a pretty interesting move, considering that everyone seems to be sold on the virtues of the Coanda. Ferraripilot, any insights??
It sounds like all of the cars have been suffering degradation issues due to the track condition/cold. It should improve as the week progresses and rubber is laid down (unless you're hearing specific info causing the concern)
Mercedes/Brawn stated to the German media shortly after Jerez testing that they would be testing all exhaust configurations including the old non-Coanda style we saw this morning. They only ran it for something like 10 laps and it was immediately shelved, and for good reason! Brawn stated the other day that they have the Red Bull ramp-type exhaust in CFD and have been evaluating it for some time. The thing is, neither of these diffuser blowing exhausts are really superior over the other, and here's why: The Red Bull type provider slightly superior on-throttle Coanda effect but is more unstable under braking, this is due to the loss of laminar flow around the sidepods and the fact that red Bull have probably taken the gamble in setting the car up with tons of rake to fully take advantage of their diffuser superiority, but at the expense of having an unbalanced front end under braking. The Mclaren/MB solution is much better under braking but not quite as solid (due to not having a ramp) under acceleration, but if everyone recalls, the Mclaren was the car at the end of 2012, and for much of 2012 for that matter. Red Bull have gambled in keeping the ramp solution as most teams have opted out of the ramp altogether, except Lotus. It could also well be that the Renault engine simply reacts better to the ramp arrangement, but I don't believe it to be superior.
It's bad for everyone, but looking a bit worse for Ferrari than others. Regardless, it's the tire cliff of death out there, unreal how much they fall off.
The record at this circuit is a pit-wall terrifying 1:19.995 set by the almighty RB7. Think anyone will get close to that come GP time later in the year? I think they will actually.
I knew I could count on you for a great insight/analysis. Makes sense as you explained it, and I had a feeling that they need to gather data to prove which system is most effective. ESPN F1 pointed out that they were 'testing without the Coanda exhaust' today, so I thought that was news (does this mean the Coanda is their standard or the ramp type?) Another question: did I miss something or are EBD's now legal? I'm certain I missed a headline along the way as clearly the exhausts are being set up to provide more stability/downforce to the back end.
Agree. If they are already at the pole time for last year's grand prix, I think it's fair to expect that someone has 2 secs of performance still in the bag. As you've already pointed out, McLaren has at least another second with their TESTING set-up. I thought this was going to be a throw-away, lame-duck season, but I'm starting to suspect that everyone has upped their games.
Directly blowing the diffuser is no longer legal. To ban this, the Fia mandated a set of perameters to where and how the exhaust is allowed to be positioned/exit. Mclaren and Red Bull starting last season devised a way to apply the Coanda effect to exhaust gases and direct them to the side skirt of the diffuser between the rear tire. This indirect blowing while not as effective as directly blowing (about 25% as effective) combined with running higher rear ride height enlarges in essence the size of the diffuser thus yielding around 12-15 points rear downforce which is usually good for a half a second no to mention allows for more front wing downforce to be run without unbalancing the car which is of course a good thing.
Very true. For completeness, they also clamped down on "bizarre" engine maps that provided 'off-thottle' blowing. FWIW, seems they are indeed all suffering with tire deg; Incidentally, they weren't whining like this at last weeks test...... Cheers, Ian F1 Testing: Leading drivers predict more pitstops in 2013 - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com
Looking at lap times, it's insane how a run can start in the 1:23s and then end after a dozen laps near 1:30. No one saw this coming!
BBC Sport - Sergio Perez clocks fastest time on day two of Barcelona test Ferrari cooking bodywork. Mclaren and Red Bull looking very strong.
+1 IIRC, they ran the hards & mediums there though..... Maybe there's a big step between those & the softs & super softs they're running here? It is also very cold there..... FWIW, tire choices for the first few races; Australia - medium, supersoft Malaysia - hard, medium China - medium, soft Bahrain - hard, soft Aus could be pit-stop fans dream come true!..... Cheers, Ian
The RB7's pole time around here in 2011 was a 1:20.9. I think they're capable of beating that this year but it will also be much warmer come race time which will hurt performance. I don't think they can beat the 1:19.995 set by the RB6 in 2010. Will be interesting to see. I'm predicting a pole of 1:20.7 this year.
Cooler temps would only help prevent degradation. The warmer it gets, the worse your deg. will be. One of Alonso's runs...DAMN: Alonso 1:23.946 (45) 1:24.737 (46) 1:25.848 (47) 1:27.015 (48) 1:27.830 (49) 1:28.256 (50) 1:28.330 (51) 1:28.406 (52) 1:28.668 (53) 1:29.792 (54) 1:30.617 (55)
It's 55 degrees in Barcelona today. FAR from an extreme. Plus if anyone thinks deg will be worse in 50 degree weather than 90 degree weather you're nuts...
Not an extreme, but that was the "high" I believe. I guess the drivers don't know as much as you. Nico; "I don't know if it's because of the temperature and it being very cold." Sebby-V; "But you have to be careful because it is too cold, as simple as that." Cheers, Ian
