Anyone that thinks Mercedes were doing glory runs is deluded. Ham backed off on his fastest lap otherwise would have been deep into the 1.18s. All times are sandbags and remember that pole last year was a 1.16s. I think it’s clear that ferrari, Redbull and Merc all have promising cars. The rest not so much. I’m impressed at how close these cars are to last years pole time. I thought these cars were meant to be slower overall? F1 designers are just super good at what they do… and have clearly found some good ways to claw back most losses.
Formula 1.com has a short video of cars driving by the camera from this afternoon, good chance to see the different sidepods. Wow the Williams one looks very small and far forward. The huge looking bulge of the Red Bull, or really the amount of space under the sidepod is wild looking. Looking for a close season up and down the grid with the Maranello squad on top!
What does any of that have to do with your assertion that Mercedes-AMG “COULDN’T CONTROL their drivers to not reveal the true speed of their car?
I could see them having two concepts/approaches and spending testing evaluating fully which of the two is most effective (not two different cars, per se, but different units for the base car that are part of an overall package). I guess we'll see in 10 days or so.
Interestingly, Russell has continuously mentioned Ferrari and McLaren as the benchmarks currently. Any chance he sees something we don't, since he is actually on site and racing against the cars. Interestingly, he does not mention Red Bull. That could be a function of Merc throwing shade, but I don't know how that benefits them in this situation. If we go by the principle that nobody really showed their hands here, I'm assuming Russell is looking at the way those two cars handled around the circuit versus their times.
I didn't mean from you or anyone else on the board. I mean in general, just doesn't seem to be a lot of pictures floating around from Day 3.
Take any laptimes with a grain of salt but I think the pecking order might be coming into view. Ferrari, look good both in pace and reliability. Each day putting a bundle of laps in, and the team is happy with the current car. No rush to fit new parts, I suppose that is a good thing if their launch model is strong out of the box. We did see a new floor being tested, but nothing major. Mercedes I think is much stronger than they showed. I read a rumor that they will be bringing a big update before the first race. We'll see about that. I am sure they, along with all teams, will bring out some solutions for the porpoising. Red Bull to me have been running the heaviest sandbags. My gut tells me that car will be fast fast. Reliability is a question mark though. McLaren are being said to be one of the best so far, but I am not convinced. AlphaTauri might be better than they showed. I hope so. 4 or 5 teams having a shot at a win or pole here and there would be great. Aston Martin I think aren't looking good and it wouldn't surprise me. Big Stroll buys his way through everything, ahead of his enormous cocky ego. No disrespect to Lance Stroll, but there are better drivers capable than him, and the team has pretty much been bought and built for his F1 career. Since purchasing the 2019 Mercedes, the team has fallen off a cliff. A shame since the Force India days brought some competitive cars with a low budget. Alpine look to be in trouble. The car isn't showing to be fast, but they also had some big reliability problems. The engine was probably the worst on the grid in 2021, and rumors is it is quite a bit worse this season. The push for performance over reliability doesn't appear to be paying off. Williams seems like they will be in the bottom 4 like usual. Budget cap or not, that team has enjoyed the best engine since 2014 and it's the chassis/aero that has let them down every year since then. Why would that change now? Haas probably won't be as uncompetitve as they were last year, but signs suggest they will still be back markers. With their whole Russian thing going on, sponsorship dollars could be a huge worry for the team, and I hope the wont shut the doors. Alfa Romeo looks to be the worst off. Loads of issues going on there. Again it doesn't really surprise me. Yeah these are F1 teams with supposed big brains, but that team has proven over and over to make stupid mistakes.
Correct spelling is Patrick Depailler, killed at Hockenheim's Ost kurve when a skirt got stuck in the up position on his Alfa Romeo F1. It is after his August 1 1980 passing that the circuit got its three chicanes. FYI for newbies: he won two Grand Prix, Monaco 78, Spain 79.
So here's some numbers for those interested: First pre-season testing in Barcelona cumulative, all 3 days & all 21 drivers: Best times, tyre compounds, number of laps by each driver - Image Unavailable, Please Login Cumulative kilometers for all 3 days by teams: Image Unavailable, Please Login Cumulative kilometers(3 days) by engine manufacturer: Mercedes: 6559 Ferrari: 3613.8 Honda: 3113.6 Renault(Alpine): 1234.2
Cut out on the Ferrari floor to fix the porpoising seems to have worked: Image Unavailable, Please Login Merc had to restrain floor edges and diffuser from vibrations due to the porpoising: Image Unavailable, Please Login Seems the teams were surprised by the phenomenon because the rules limit the speed at which they can run their wind tunnels and the issue occurs at speeds higher than they tested at.
Is Ferrari's cut out legal though? I didn't think you could have showing layers like that, otherwise why wouldn't teams have "multi-element" floors in strategic places.
As the cars don’t necessarily need to conform to the rules during testing, it’s either legal or it’s a fix while a legal solution is found. But judging by the “furniture” some other cars are carrying in this area, seems like there’s a bit of freedom here and doesn’t look like minimum radius rules apply: Image Unavailable, Please Login
I do find it quite funny that teams even pre-testing showed advanced floors...even though that area was supposed to be flat? lol
