Barcelona Testing 2019 (Circuit de Catalunya)

In other words business as usual for 2019

 

They said the same thing last year. Fact is, Ferrari really was ahead of Merc for a good portion of the season.

Will make for an interesting run up to Australia.

 

It’s really interesting when right before the test teams were pronouncing that cars would be 1.5 secs SLOWER than last season’s cars, due to aero changes.

 

ahead? No. Maybe for a few races was Ferrari the actual stronger force (marginally), otherwise for the first half of the season (excluding the special tyre races of Spain and France) Ferrari and Mercedes where even with each other. When the development went the wrong way (as we later learned, on orders of Marchionne), the scales tipped Mercedes way massively.

 

Yes there are others series worth watching , but none of them has the audience that F1 has and none of them are televised world wide . Fact is , F1 has been a total bore the last few years, no real racing per say and the only reason the audience is somewhat still there is because of Ferrari, the fans either want Ferrari to win or get their asses handed to them , it is about passion . Do you actually think MB , never mind the others , would stick around to beat up on a bunch of has beens or nobodies .

 

How I rank cars in order of speed after observing week 1:

Ferrari
Red Bull
Mercedes
Alfa Romeo
Renault
Toro Rosso
Haas
Racing Point
Mclaren
Williams

 

I can see this except im a bit short on Honda just yet. No sense that they have the power fully up to Mercedes or Ferrari. They seem to have reliability overall which is more than they had last year. Power will be the key. We know the aero on Red Bull is good of course.

 

I quietly predict that they're at or very near to 2018 Ferrari/Mercedes levels (to go with Red Bulls own narative). I was a bit skeptical when Red Bull first said it, thought it was just part of the ongoing war of words between them...But it really seems Honda has made a huge step forwards. Red Bulls extremely tight packaging suggested they had some great numbers to go off, and the car hasn't suffered a single issue (nor Toro Rosso) and done plenty of laps.

As we saw what Red Bull can do with an engine massively down on power compared to Ferrari/Mercedes last year, if they're within 25 bhp or so of them they'll be fighting them tooth and nail. The different aero concepts is extremely interesting and I think will be the ultimate decided.

 

People join a forum for discussion, to exchange ideas, learn, and not necessarily to agree with the other participants.
I don't need to espouse your opinions, I can very well form some on my own. And you don't need to attack everything I say either.
As a matter of interest, which opinion from another poster on Ferrarichat have you been convinced to adopt?

As for you second paragraph, it rests on an axiom*, that Ferrari is the cornerstone of F.1.
Your opinion, and a few other people too, is that Ferrari deserves extra money because without them, F1 would disappear.
I say that is pure bollocks, just to justify an unfair practise in the sport so vehemently endorsed by the tifosi; it favours their team!


*axiom: an unproved truth that is not up for discussion in a conversation.

 

William, please drop it, we are here to discuss testing, everyone as it's own opinion and i guess we're all quite happy with it.

 

I hadn’t heard this. Can you expand or send a link ...???

 

I thought the development issue was Arrivabene ordering a halt (or the like), not Marchionne related. So interested in the above as well.

 

Personally, I don't care if the racing I watch has a huge audience or is televised worldwide or not.
The most thrilling races I saw were in lower categories, mostly in specs series, some even in amateurs club meetings.
I don't Watch GPs because of Ferrari; to me it's just another team.
I am not that passionate about a team or a driver, all I am interested is a good race.
I attended many GPs in the past, never collected an autograph or bought regalia, and I have been following F1 for 57 years now
Now we have the Mercedes era, before we had the Cooper, the Lotus, the McLaren, the Williams, the Ferrari and the Red Bull eras.
Ferrari isn't bigger than F1, IMO.

 

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/leclerc-ferraris-rivals-sandbagging/4341790/

Charles Leclerc believes Ferrari's Formula 1 rivals have been "sandbagging" in pre-season testing at Barcelona.

Mercedes and Red Bull did not threaten the top of the leaderboard across the first three days of the first test, although Mercedes increased its performance on Thursday.

Leclerc helped Ferrari top the first two days of the test but, after lapping slightly slower than Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas on the final day, he believes its rivals are still holding back.

"The performance has no sense for now because it's testing, they are not pushing and we are not either," he said.

"We don't know how much the others are sandbagging. So, we'll see at the first race.

"The main importance for this test is to do the programme of the day and that's what we're doing, so we're happy."

Leclerc's teammate Sebastian Vettel said at the start of the week that Ferrari had almost achieved "perfection" with its swift start to testing.

That strong start has also led Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas to declare Ferrari is ahead at the moment.

"As Seb said it doesn't feel like a new car," said Leclerc. "It feels like it's already quite an established car.

"We need to keep pushing. The other teams are sandbagging. We need to see how much they are, but we are pretty happy with the car at the moment."

Vettel's feedback on Ferrari's SF90 included the claim that it gave him confidence to do what he wanted on-track.

Leclerc agreed that it is "quite easy to drive".

"I already feel quite at ease with the car," he said. "There's still a lot I need to get at ease with but already the feeling is very good."

 

This thread is about Barcelona testing. If you want to continue this tedious discussion please create a different thread for it.

 

So far true.

No, you do not need to "espouse" my opinion but if you come here with the principle that you will never change your opinion no matter what you are obviously not here to "exchange" but only for a monolog... maybe a diary would be a better place for that than a public forum. And if you think that I "need to attack everything you say" you take yourself far too serious!

There are a lot of opinions and facts from people with knowledge that help me to form my own opinion because normally I do not come here with an opinion written in stone just like you seem to do. The fact that your opinion does not convince me normally does not say that I flatly refuse whatever you say... But when someone is braging that he has one on ignore just to like every post that is written counter the very same person this looks very insincere for someone calling himself the "reasonable one"....

The history bonus is to reward a company that is in F1 since day 1. You are the one who repeatingly said that he does not care about the manufacturers because they join and leave whenever it suits them and here is something to rewards someone for exactly not doing this and you disagree again!!!
Fact is that to survive in the current form as an international series with international viewership and worldwide extension a brand like Ferrari and to a certain extend RB as an international trademark is desperately needed. Good for you that you like to watch lesser series with team unknown A racing against team unknown B but obviously you are very much alone or why are these lesser series not to be seen in television on a regular base? Probably because they do not reach the same audience... as a wild guess

Thank you for explaining but I knew what an axiom is way before I went to university....

 

The mind games are afoot!

 

Isn't it a little bit early for Charles to be working the Ferrari mind games?

 

Yes. Although it isn't really mind games is it? Unless you believe that Renault have the fastest car as they ended up with the fastest lap time. Clearly, neither Ferrari, Mercedes or Red Bull went anywhere near as fast as they could - not least in that none of them ran the fastest tyres. Perhaps F1 ought to give a point to the fastest driver on each day of testing then we might see who really has what pace right from the start.

 

>

You're absolutely right. I got my italians mixed up lol

 

Is anyone going to tell Singhoff to drop it or is that just a William thing?



Interesting to see if the bars stay on the back of the Red Bull and that's all Mac needed to do in order to quell the vibrations enough to get on with it. lol.

 

Somewhat bias'd headline. I find it hard to believe that Honda is getting these vibrations on a test stand. The engine and chassis are a unit, and stiffness of each will play a role in natural frequencies of the complete system. The addition of these rods is proof, if they in fact reduce the vibration.

 

Where do those rods attach? Looks like the rear floor/diffuser. If there's any flex at the rear engine cover/exhaust at high speed, pushing the rear floor/diffuser closer to the racing surface, they may be getting an aero benefit.

IDK. Looks like a flimsy location to improve stiffness/dampen vibration.