Winter testing 2014

I can no longer tell people who are not fans of F1 that they should be fans. The Ferrari looks acceptable, better than the step nose Ferrari. The other phallic, gonzo, beaked cars look so incredibly vulgar that it is embarrassing.

 

We may need a twelve step F1 anonymous program.

 

May Just be a bigger antenna for some kind of data recorder. They're prob trying to send a lot more data then in normal race conditions and thus need the bigger stick so to speak. Looks also to have some extra pitot tubes attached for measuring air flow up above the car.

 

They sound pretty good to me.

Who knew that they had Oscar Meyer hot dogs in Spain?

 

They sound like they are not even close max revs, even the Ferrari.

 

Definitely short-shifting

 

That sounds terrible...oh man, i think this "new era" is going to go down into the history books for all the wrong reasons.

 

IMHO not as good I like the old screaming bees sound of the V8s and V10's this sounds sort of throaty I like the look of the Williams

 

The latest in F1 fan gear.


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LOL I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member

 

Marxist!

 

Force India should go after the Oscar Meyer sponsorship deal we got your big winners

 

Another thing I find amusing is the amount of people attending testing. You can quite clearly see the numbers on the stands outnumber Bahrain Friday practice sessions.

They even offered pitlane hospitality for the event

F1 Testing ? Jerez | JDC Promotions

 

Great wrap up by Ted

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbzUgG2kPqQ]F1 Jerez 2014 - Teds Jerez Notebook Day 1 - YouTube[/ame]

 

AUTOSPORT Live: Test day two - F1 Jerez Test 2014

Day 2 has started!

 

Today is wet tire day - the sprinklers are out!

 

LOL! Bernie's dream has been realized!!!

 

WRAP UP from yesterday - Formula 1 testing 2014: Gary Anderson's day one verdict - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com

Formula 1 testing 2014: Gary Anderson's day one verdict
By Gary Anderson Tuesday, January 28th 2014, 17:16 GMT


Ex-Formula 1 designer Gary Anderson will be providing technical insight for AUTOSPORT throughout the 2014 season.

At the end of the first day of winter testing at Jerez, he answered the key questions raised by the 2014 F1 cars' debut runs.

Only 93 laps were completed today by eight cars. Why have the teams struggled to be ready?

I am a bit confused as to why some of the top teams, for example McLaren, haven't been able to go out at all.

Ferrari managed 31 laps, which was very respectable.

I suspected that if anyone managed more than 20 laps and could do more than four or five in a row, that would be some achievement.

This shows just how complicated it is to get on top of the new 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 power units.

F1 2014 tech guide: The new V6 turbos

Last year on the first day of the Jerez test, the fastest time was a 1m18.861s. Today, Kimi Raikkonen set the pace with a 1m27.104s. Why are the cars so slow?

We have not seen anything like the full potential of these cars. Nobody will have run with the full electrical power available or the true braking performance needed to charge the battery pack. So there is time to come.

But you might only be talking about two or three seconds this week, so we are looking at a significant drop in lap time.

I'd imagine we might see a 1m24s or at best a 1m23s this week. It seems that the cars could be four or five seconds slower this year but tomorrow will tell us a lot more.

Jerez test day one report


Given the problems, will teams be able to recover ground and get their cars ready for the first race in Australia on March 16?

Yes, they will get a lot sorted out. Will they be reliable in Melbourne? No, because the systems are complicated and nobody will be 100 per cent on top of it.

There will be a lot of crossed fingers on the pitwall because you never know when you are going to hit problems that you haven't yet catered for.

It's hard to predict how many will finish, some will be limping, but while in recent years we have been looking at 18-20 cars making the chequered flag in a normal races, that will be massively reduced early on.

Jerez testing in pictures

Mercedes was ahead in terms of laps this morning, but then missed the rest of the day after Lewis Hamilton crashed when he lost his front wing. So has Mercedes thrown away what was a very handy head start?

The fundamental car seems to be underneath the team. The reason for the front wing failure has not been revealed and there will be a lot of overtime being done at Brackley tonight with parts coming out overnight.

Ferrari, having stopped on its first lap, completed 14 more laps, so yes Mercedes did lose that initial advantage. But the car still completed more laps than the rest.

Tech analysis: Mercedes W05

Will tomorrow be similar?

Yes, more of the same. Everybody will come in, open the garage door and have no idea what to expect and many will have to work all night.

These cars are all new and even the routines when the car comes into the garage after a run have changed dramatically or are being created new here. It's an incredibly steep learning curve.


If you had to pick one team to be in charge of based on where it is so far, which would it be?

Red Bull. The car only did three laps, but that's about reliability and functionality and it will improve. But the RB10 looks a very logical, well-designed car.

That's very unfortunate for anyone hoping to see F1's dominant team struggle...

Tech analysis: Red Bull RB10

Have we learned anything definitive from day one of testing?

There are ugly noses and even uglier noses! It's interesting to see variations in car design in this area so it will be good to see which concept everyone hones in on as things develop. These cars will look very different mid-season compared to now.

 

Nice shot.
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I just notice the McLaren is silver... wasn't there a rumour they'd be orange again?

 

I wish they made it orange. Am just glad that neither Mclaren driver have a bloody yellow helmet.

 

Yeah, it looks great except for the stupid penis nose. It just looks so out if place.


Mark

 

I'm already at the point where I'm not noticing them.

 

Butt ugly, slow, unreliable, and 25% more expensive. Nice job, F1.

 

Renault power suffering!

12:59 A bit more insight from our technical expert GARY ANDERSON on some potential issues for the Renault teams:

"It seems that Renault is having a few problems. Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull was the only Renault-engined car we saw on track for much of today, with both Caterham and Scuderia Toro Rosso being sat in the garage for a long time.

"Red Bull is the works Renault team, so it's conceivable it is doing some troubleshooting work. Yesterday, the Caterham only managed one lap before stopping with an electrical problem while the Toro Rosso had serious trouble with the engine mapping, which Jean-Eric Vergne said led to the car "oscillating". You could see what he meant as it juddered up the pitlane and out onto the track.

"Today, the Mercedes cars are averaging 14 laps per car and the Ferrari-powered machines 24 laps. Vettel has done eight laps, which means the three Renault-engined machines are averaging less than three laps each for over four hours of running."