more 2014 car sounds from bahrain...still sounds like horsesh!et. Also an interview with Boullier & Horner. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klif8qvVLVQ]askCrofty - F1 Bahrain Testing Day 2 - Sky Sports F1 - YouTube[/ame]
1% is pretty close. And they're going to get faster. They might be faster than last years cars at certain tracks! So much for the dooms dayers!!
I think so for high-speed circuits, while probably not as fast at the "handling" tracks, due to the reduction in aero/downforce (not to mention the torquey nature of the cars)
Ferrari not running a "monkey seat" on days 3 and 4 in Bahrain and they are still running a very basic front wing compared to Mercedes and McLaren. It seems strange at this late stage they would not be running closer to race spec aero, but I can only hope we will see all of the updates at the last test. It appears we have only seen reliability testing to this point with no real effort at performance and set up. Fingers crossed it is coming next week...
While I'm sure you can argue that 'testing results mean nothing', if the season started today I think this would be the top 5 (in order) based on times and reliability/laps completed: 1. Mercedes 2. McLaren 3. Ferrari 4. Williams 5. Force India Clearly, the Mercedes power unit looks to dominate the grid like the 2004 Michelin-shod cars did in the first half of the season
They were screwed by their telemetry problems on Friday that cost them most of the session. Still, I've seen enough chest-thumping in social media by M & M to know that they feel VERY good about their progress.
Unless something changes drastically and Red Bull and Ferrari find more speed, hypothetically speaking we could potentially see Mercedes do well for the first 3-4 races and set themselves up really well for a a dual title run. Im starting to think FerrariPilot is correct and Red Bull could be out of the game for 3-4 races early on. I hope Ferrari find more speed and time soon. The car seems a bit of handful and unstable in parts of the Bahrain circuit under braking/in the corners from some reports. Early days but as RickSB posted above....watch out lol!
Kimi Raikkonen says Bahrain F1 test crash not too disruptive - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com Kimi crash-- Kimi Raikkonen says Ferrari is still on course with its Formula 1 testing programme, despite crashing heavily at the end of the final day of the second test in Bahrain. The 2007 world champion lost control of the F14 T on the exit of Turn 4 and speared into the wall, ripping off the left front wheel and causing an early halt to proceedings. "I was on a kerb and got some fairly massive wheelspin," said Raikkonen. "I couldn't catch it anymore and unfortunately it went directly into the wall and damaged the car. "Things happen so I wouldn't say it's my fault. We improved the settings a lot and it's not too bad, but there's a lot of torque in the car." Picture here of the damage-- http://www.planetf1.com/photo-gallery/9178487/Day-Four-s-Action-In-Bahrain#photo=17 Raikkonen had earlier set the third fastest time on a day when Mercedes dominated the timesheet once again. Bahrain test day four report The Finn's crash and the telemetry issue he suffered on Friday have limited Ferrari's running and delayed a plan to try a race run with the F14 T. But Raikkonen does not feel this puts the team at a disadvantage compared to Mercedes, which completed a race run of more than 50 laps with Nico Rosberg at the wheel on day four. "We always want more laps, but today we didn't have any problems," Raikkonen added. "Obviously I damaged the car with the crash and there were many red flags, but we did more or less what we wanted to. I don't think it's an issue. "We could do long runs but the plan was to do something different. In the next test for sure we can do them."
Williams and new sponsor Banco do Brazil - Felipe appears to be 'paying off' so to speak. Impressive amount of sponsors aligned with Williams now. Williams forms partnership with Banco do Brasil - Pitpass.com
Given Merc's stable of drivers, I think them jumping out to a substantial early lead will be very difficult for the other teams to overcome. While admittedly Merc was focusing on running qualifying laps while Ferrari wasn't, I still think they are very impressive at this point in the game. We'll learn more about the Scuderia at the next session (is there a 3rd testing session?) when they will need to run race specs.
That and Williams running quite a bit has made them look great, as they should. Really glad seeing Williams get a nice injection, they have a solid platform to build upon.
It would be great to see Williams back in the game, I think the fresh injection of MBZ and Massa will pay dividends. But the big thing is also the arrival of Pat Symonds, he is very underrated IMHO. Hopefully the Sponsorship of these different companies gives Williams a feasible budget to see the Season through with developments. As far as Ferrari, as others have noted, I think they are running for reliability as opposed to pure speed right now.
Confirmed on the official F1 site. Merc was running quali laps in the a.m., while Ferrari was playing catch up to yesterday's program. We'll get an idea of their outright pace during the 2/27-3/1 test.
Ferrari not running a blown monkey seat, but I know they have one as they ran it briefly yesterday. I have no idea how much it's worth in terms of downforce points, it used to be considered very dirty as it's drag to downforce ratio was terrible, but now with the beam wing deleted and them scrambling for every shred of downforce they can get I'm not so sure it's all that bad now.
I guess the drivers must have been "dooms dayers" themselves considering they were voicing concerns about the speed of the cars. Im thrilled that the cars seem to have some speed. Would love it if they were faster than last year
Too bad Kimi had to screw up and crash the car, would have been nice if they could have gotten in the race sim they were planning
Just goes to show what the jockeys know before they go out..... Last years pole was 32.330, fastest race lap by KI at 36.961. Nico did a 33.283 today, and I'm sure there's more to come yet. I guess they'll get into the low 32's if not 31's next week. Not bad considering all the whining that's been going on..... Then they've got Aus & Malaysia before returning to Bahrain - By then they'll have done some more figuring and tuning, and I'll stick my neck out and say pole will be below 1:30. Nothing to whine about. Cheers, Ian
Mercedes will have a new and slightly lower front nose and upgrade package at the next test. The new nose is supposed to allow for more frontal downforce to hopefully eliminate conjectured understeer yet allow equal airflow under. This is from AuM and they are usually reliable. Mclaren will be running their Australia spec package at the next test and will test it knowing they're not specifically bringing anything further to Australia.
