Barcelona Testing 2019 (Circuit de Catalunya)

Why don’t Pirelli just Shut Up.

 

Gary Anderson I believe mentioned it in one of the Autosport talks recently.

 

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/913675/1/perez-racing-point-low-mileage-due-limited-parts

Sergio Perez says Racing Point is having to be conservative with its mileage at Formula 1 pre-season testing as the team has a shortage of extra parts as it focuses on an upgrade package which will be delivered at the season opener.

Racing Point notched up the second smallest total of laps at the first pre-season test at Circuit de Catalunya with 248 laps between Perez and new teammate Lance Stroll – only ahead of Williams on 88 laps following its delays on track action.

Perez accepts the low mileage is the team’s choice due to its limited spare parts as it concentrates on dialling in the RP19 car ahead of a hefty upgrade package set to debut in Australia at the 2019 opening round.

“Because we’re having massive package upgrade for Melbourne, but we are very limited on parts as in the past,” Perez said. “Right now you’re going to see low mileage from us, simply because we’re short on parts, we don’t want to risk it too much.

 

Pirelli says Ferrari is fastest from their data:

“It’s still early days, but so far the tyres seem to be performing largely as we expected, with a performance gap of around 0.6 to 0.7 seconds between each compound,” Mario Isola, head of F1 and car racing at Pirelli, said.

“In more detail, it’s something around 0.6 seconds between C2 and C3 so far, and roughly the same gap between C3 and C4, which were the most used tyres in this session.”

So, on the assumption that there is a 1.2 second gap between the C3 to C5, the current timesheet would look like this:

1. Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:16.846
2. Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:16.961
3. Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 1:17.311
4. Romain Grosjean Haas 1:17.363
5. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:17.377
6. Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:17.393
7. Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:17.520
8. Pierre Gasly Red Bull 1:17.580
9. Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:17.587
10. Alexander Albon Toro Rosso 1:17.637

Of course, these times should not be set in stone either as they do not reflect all the other unknown variables such as fuel loads and engine modes

 

Judging from the mountain points on those bars, I highly doubt they're for dampening engine vibrations as some are speculating.

 

I really wish we'd have another start like that one year where we had like 7-8 different GP winners in the first races. I don't remember what year that was, but even Maldonado won a race.

 

Papaya => Burnt orange

 

Burnt orange is the now black

 

Might not last more than a month but let’s just enjoy it while we’re ahead then

 

Orange is the new Black???

 

If Ferrari leaves F1, the sport will go down. Not followers to see other teams beating Ferrari or Ferrari beating other teams. Either way Ferrari is involved. Ferrari = F1 on my book.

 

I don't think statements like this come out in a flippant fashion. Pirelli have enough data to be able to make this proclamation. On the final day, Leclerc ran a 1:18.0 on C3 tires while Merc was slightly ahead on C4's. Merc seems to acknowledge Ferrari's advantage, Hamilton sees it, Pirelli sees it.

Maybe it just might be real...

 

Zak Brown probably thinks any publicity is good publicity.

In any event, we are happy no one appears to be seriously injured. Racing IS a dangerous sport.

 

Someone smoking a lucky strike cigarette I bet.

 

I should read the article next time. Motorsports.com is making the assessment by reading into Pirelli data, not Pirelli themselves.

Lets see how things shake out next week. Ferrari may be up on the competition currently, but that doesn't mean anything until Melbourne. (although it's better to be at that end of the timesheets regardless)

 

Winter testing is BS to see who is on top. It can show problems though like McLaren has had in the past and Williams does now.

Everyone is sandbagging to some degree. Some aren’t even running with the latest parts. No driver is really pushing, at least all the time.

Bottom line: wait for Melbourne.

 

All I’m typically interested in for testing is reliability (mileage), any noticeable aero innovations and how the individual cars take the corners...laptimes have not meant very much.

With that said, from watching a bunch of YouTube clips, it does look like the Mercedes car is rather understeery and the Red Bull looks mighty around the corners and the Ferrari falls somewhere between those two.

Mileage amongst the teams (except racing point and Williams) seems to indicate that we’re going to see great reliability from everyone.

Mercedes bucking the trend in various aero bits, particularly their inwash endplates, front suspension layout and lower sitting sidepod inlets.

Renault is running the craziest rear wing of the bunch.

Clearest conclusion is McLaren are idiots, because well, RB have managed to accomplish that size zero w Honda they’ve been yappin about. If that’s not a clear F U from Honda I dunno what is...

 

Think of it this way.

Every time RB beats McLaren you have to ask yourself: “why couldn’t you guys do this?”

The Renault engine is dead end like Latin is s dead language.

 

It would make far too much sense for this to happen... we have to remember that some posters don’t actually come here to have a conversation, they only come here to rile and argue with Ferrari enthusiasts. Since that, apparently is not trolling, but answering them back is, then it’s clear that there will always be certain people posting who, despite having no clue about anything will continue to do so with the full support of the mod team. I would hope one day that those same posters decide to go to a soccer game, maybe Inter vs Lazio or similar, and engage in a critique of the team in whose ‘stadium section’ they sit...... they would get cut to pieces within a few minutes. Better they stay as keyboard experts/warriors and just destroy FerrariChat than take the risks in real life I guess

 

So am I destroying the forum since GLS did not like MY opinion and he subtly discouraged my attendance here!!!??????

 

These people could head over to the Millwall forum instead to receive some love

https://millwall-forum.vitalfootball.co.uk/forums/north-stand-banter.6/

 

More confirmation of Ferrari looking good vs Mercedes -

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/141705/bottas-mercedes-needs-upgrade-to-fix-handling

Valtteri Bottas says Mercedes needs an upgrade to solve the handling issues discovered during the first run of its new 2019 Formula 1 challenger in testing at Barcelona last week.

While Ferrari enjoyed a strong first week of pre-season testing, Mercedes had a low-key start that suggested it is currently on the back foot.

Speaking at an event with Mercedes title sponsor Petronas in Italy, Bottas revealed that the main issue for the team was finding a consistent balance for the car over a whole lap and that the W10 has "massive" problems in some corners.

"We have work to do, but it's a good feeling in the sense that it feels like there is potential," said Bottas. "We do need to make improvements.

"We were struggling a bit over the week to find a good balance for all the corners.

"There were some corners that were good, some corners we would have balance issues and other corners [where] we would have massive balance issues.

"We were getting to a much better state at the end of the week, but some of the handling issues can only be sorted with some upgrades. We're hoping to fix those hopefully soon."

Lewis Hamilton said he had not wasted too much time worrying about what other teams had done last week, but had no doubt about the scale of the fight Mercedes faces.

"At the moment, we are behind," he said. "So, we don't approach the first race currently at all relaxed, not that we ever do. We still have a lot of work to do.

"This is going to be the hardest year yet, but I feel I have the best group of people behind to climb that mountain together.

"We are going to face our toughest challenge but I feel like I have the right soldiers behind me."

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff agreed that Ferrari is currently ahead, and reckons that the Italian team still has plenty of performance it is yet to show.

"In Barcelona [test] one what we have seen is that Ferrari is ahead of the pack," he said. "The car looks fast and is fast on lap times.

"[On Thursday] they could probably have gone 1.5 seconds faster if they wanted to, and that is the fastest car we have seen in testing so far.

"Then it is pretty much everybody bunched up, which is pretty exciting between all the other teams.

"Now it is about seeing what happens in Barcelona [test] two.

"I have a feeling everybody will bring stuff to the car and then again in Melbourne. So probably only then will you be able to judge the competitive balance and not before."



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