Barcelona Testing 2019 (Circuit de Catalunya)

I unfortunately agree. Mercedes is NOT concerned about speed. And they seem plenty fast in the long runs. I like our car, but won't know anything for a few races.

Kevin

 

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/141624/compact-honda-design-has-not-hurt-performance

Honda says the performance of its 2019 Formula 1 engine has not been compromised by Red Bull's push for a more compact design.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner said this week that the installation of the Honda power unit was the best his outfit had ever experienced, labelling the engine "a thing of beauty".

Honda's previous attempts to produce an extreme compact design hurt its progress in its first year with McLaren in 2015, but the Japanese manufacturer has insisted its '19 approach will not hurt its performance.

"I think we are in neutral," said Honda's F1 technical director Toyoharu Tanabe about the trade off between performance and packaging.

"The power unit performance or total package performance, we discussed very much with both teams [Red Bull and sister team Toro Rosso], and we compromised [to work out] which is better.

"If you have more power, [you have] more performance one way, but the chassis side is [at a] deficit. So what is the best compromise? Then we decide the best [overall] package performance."

Tanabe said the push for a more compact design was instigated by Red Bull Technology.

"Red Bull Technology discussed this between the teams and that makes our job very simple," he said.

"The aim is to make it compact and nice. That is what we have done during this off season."

Tanabe was also confident Honda had made progress on the reliability front this year, having stuck with the same concept.

"We carried over the concept from last year, which means the concept from 2017," he said.

"One of the reasons is the power unit regulations does not change this year, so we have kept working on our power unit.

"We improved our performance and reliability for this year. It means it [the engine] is not new but updated."

 

If Merc's tires aren't a shredded mess (like last year's), then they are exactly where they want to be.

 

Yes interesting point that is!!

 

My hope is that Alfa steals points away from other teams so Ferrari can win the championship.

 

German AutoBild Motorsport suggests Ferrari is driving significant rake but manages to lower that on the straights:

Das Auto ist ähnlich wie der Red Bull extrem stark angestellt. Allerdings, an der Strecke ist zu beobachten: Auf der Geraden senkt sich das Heck ab, erst beim Anbremsen kehrt es in seine (erhöhte) Ausgangsposition zurück.

https://www.autobild.de/artikel/formel-1-ferraris-technikgeheimnis-10929053.html

 

It's all very German of Mercedes and very Italian of Ferrari isn't it? haha, cheers.

 

This wing has to be double diffuser-like good for that to happen. I think if the wing is good but not an insane advantage Sauber will be 4th best team.

 

It's the hydraulic suspension concept that Bob Bell and Ross Brawn figured out and implemented first on W03. Ferrari have indeed snapped up a good number of MB people and vice versa these past few years

 

We'll get a much better idea once we see some race simulations. Look for those at test 3. Can't fake those.

 

Completely legal.

 

Someone please tell me the brack/no bracket tyres are for the test only and not for the season....if it's for the season they've managed to make something that was a little confusing entirely confusing. lol

 

I would imagine getting stuff out is not the problem as customs is the other end; its getting stuff in; and also where you have supply chains that pass components back and forth across boarders several times. It is not going to stop any of it; but i would guess it could considerably slow it down? And for companies that have very refined processes to get ideas through design, simulation, manufacturing, testing and into the car this will have some kind of impact.

Im sure companies have considered the potential risks and put plans in place to mitigate them, as Horner says. But even still this in itself is a disruption to the companies “normal” business.

We will see in due course, no negotiation is done early!

 

Britain will not become isolated like North Korea overnight because of BREXIT.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Seriously, why have 4 different 'soft' tires (get your spelling correct ). Instead of medium/soft/super soft/ultra soft/hyper soft, there should only be hard/medium/soft (plus inter and wet).

 

I really wouldn't worry too much.

****ing hell....I guess we do only get 3 compounds per track anyways so will still see only 3 colours? White yellow or red. If they do red bracket and red no bracket they'll have ****ed up again.

 

exactly.

 

thank you, this is good insight. I was hoping as much. Perhaps Italian Sandbags are bigger than Anglo-Germanic sandbags.

 

British team would travel to the EU Under WTO rules like they do when they visit other non-EU countries.

I really cannot understand what the fuss is about.

 

Alright, so I’m hearing the Ferrari is a good bit faster than even ferrari's models predicted. Need to see the race sims to get some meat out of that though. Coming very soon.

 

That’s about the strangest euphemism for male genitalia

 

I agree.

But wouldn't it be great if Mercedes became as authentically German as Ferrari is Italian. Cars designed and built in Germany would be a good start

 

Gosh I hope this is true and they blow Mercedes and the others out of the water.