F1 Bahrain Test - 10-12 March 2022

Perez LOL

 

Why isn't the rest of that paved too? There's pavement and there's gravel....

sjd

 

"Absolute animal!"

 

According to the FIA, clearly not.

 

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" Trying to justify yourself when you are not guilty, is akin to denounce yourself"

Chinese proverb.

 

Case closed then !!!!

 

The Mercedes looks industrial compared to the classically beautiful Ferrari.

Boots on the ground say the Merc looks uneasy out there, but it's also running the lowest ride height of anyone meaning they likely have a better grip on underfloor aero attachment issues. Top speed on the straights for Merc is also very low (288kph compared to 316kph or so of others) so they are clearly in heavy sandbag mode. Heaps of sandbags.

How many seconds ahead will they be on pole

 

Definitely not easy on the eyes, but allegedly was "eye-watering quicker" in the simulator.

Very unconventional packaging and I applaud them for their ingenuity.

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Testing is for ironing out all of the issues. I'm certain they are aggressively trying to look at set ups that allow them to optimize their less-than-attractive (understatement alert) package and work out the kinks.

 

I‘m very sure that MB‘s sidepods (let‘s better call them nopods) are absolutely legal! Mercedes would never launch this solution 10 days before the first race without involving the FIA!

But their aerodynamic rearview mirrors and the extremely flexible front wing is very much on the edge… I would say illegal.


„Se puoi sognarlo, puoi farlo.“ Enzo Ferrari

 

Results Day 1

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Lap count and kilometers Day 1 at Bahrain

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Overall lap count and kilometers in cumulative testing (Barcelona and Bahrain)

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ferrari is going to protest the mirrors as an aero device. Not the sidepods-yet. Also the front wing is flexing lots per some trackside observers. Of course it’s only testing.

 

Apparently several teams have voted NO to have HAAS make up testing on Sunday due to the logistical issue with their cars.

Mclaren, Alpine and Alfa Romeo voted NO against HAAS. HAAS was told to run late in the evenings these 3 days.

Haas will not be running long tonight - the team was told it’s not allowed. It has been told two hours tomorrow night and two hours Saturday but it doesn’t want to force its crew into working all night after doing so last night due to the freight delay.

 

The Salary caps was implemented in 2021. If I read things correctly, a lot of allocated CFD and wind tunnel time came off the result of 2020, which Mercedes dominated. I think that's the bigger concern to me. Ferrari had a load of CFD and wind tunnel time from their terrible 2020 season, and yet they have only made 1 chassis with so far virtually no upgrades. Yet Merc has supposedly managed to make 2 completely separate designs for 2022, but also the 2021 car and all it's development which included a trick rear suspension and it's only flexy wings. Teams talk about the tens of thousands of pounds it costs just for replacing a front wing, let alone a whole car. And that's just the cost of the parts that have already been designed. The R&D of a part likely costs many times more than the manufacturing of it. As for proving it? Well as it has been mentioned already, that's the problem. How do you police it? People have been fudging their taxes since forever.

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My concern with Brawn's comments is he is pretty much saying the Mercedes was reviewed by the FIA and considered legal, however he felt it could be against the spirit of the rules. Kind of a contradiction right there, but ok. He then said it's legal until other teams come up with a reason for it not to be legal and officially protest, in which the FIA will take a closer look. Furthermore, if the FIA later decide it's against the technical rules or "spirit of the rules", then they may change the rules. All of this is a poor stance by the FIA. They could allow an illegal car unless teams protest something that is clear cut (and should never have been allowed by the FIA in the first place), and then have the rights to allow it for 2022 and just change the rules in 2023. This smell just like the DAS conspiracy. There was enough reasons brought up that DAS could be argued as illegal. The FIA couldn't ignore it completely, so they allow Mercedes the advantage of running it the entire season and ban it for anyone else the following year. This seems like it possibly will happen again. The underlying favoritism towards Mercedes can be seen as the FIA clearly seem to consult with Mercedes about questionably illegal designs and help them get the OK to run it, and despite potentially reasonably complaints by other teams, still get the OK for a full year. On top of that, when Red Bull was found to have a competitive advantage that passed all FIA's tests in their 2021, the rules were immediately changed and the team was forced to change. Hell they even changed the rules for the pitstops to get rid of that advantage.

Personally I have no problem with the Mercedes design. Seems like a genius idea. If teams can come forward with ways it's illegal, then it should be banned before the first race. Mercedes already has their A spec car, so they can't say they don't have a car ready to race.

 

"Salary caps" ? What salary caps ?

You mean the budget cap.

 

Sorry... my mind keeps saying Salary cap because it's the term said over and over in the other major sports I follow. Budget cap! Thank you

 

+1 agree

 

Yep. It has very little to do with "sport".

Must be all those free Merc safety cars....or maybe something else

 

0.75 ahead

A country mile

 

That's assuming the car does not shake itself to pieces on the straights.

 

Which seems reasonable also considering Ferrari were forced to change their mirrors mounts a few years ago

 

George / Ham might arrive at the corner before the car does

 

Unless one is a conspiracy theorist of the first order, I cannot see anything contradictory in what Ross Brawn said about the working of the FIA.
The FIA devised new technical rules for 2022, and already one constructor exploits a loophole the rulemakers didn't see.
If anything, Brawn is making that admission. Mercedes has designed a car that doesn't contravene the technical rules, even if it's not what the FIA hoped for.
It's possible that some teams will find the design extreme, illegal, unfair and will protest it. You seem to abound in that direction.
As it is, the FIA cannot ban the Mercedes design outright, since it's not illegal and observes the present technical rules.
It was already the case with DAS, it was not an infringement of the rules, it didn't exist in the rulebook. What's not forbidden is allowed !
To ban it the FIA would need the technical rules to be amended, and that could only be done with the approval of ALL the other constructors (presumably).
In the meantime, even if the rules are re-written, Mercedes will be offered a grace period to run their cars, in all logic up to next year.
There is nothing conspiratorial about this, it is how sporting authorities work, and there are many cases to support that (CanAm; WEC, WRC, etc ...).
Personally, I am glad that engineers push the boundaries and challenge the FIA: that's how progress is made in F1.
I note that it's often coming from Mercedes, and then people wonder how they have dominated F1 for so long !

Regarding Red Bull pitstop method, the sporting rules were immediatly amended on the ground of safety.
Red Bull couldn't guaranty that their new protocol was safe, notably foolproof to avoid unsafe release.
Again it wasn't a plot to handicap Red Bull, just a safety concern.

Someone said: "It's easy to name everything a conspiracy when you don't know how anything works."