Official 2013 car unveiling and conjecture thread

Nah!..... Just an opinionated old geezer in the peanut gallery.

Seems I was mistaken - At least as far as the rules go. 11.4.2 is the relevant section. In summary, it defines the location & size allowed, but nothing on "geometry" inside the defined "box". [Ferrari's are clearly compliant IMO BTW.]

I seem to recall Charlie issuing a "clarification" about getting any aero benefit from 'em, but there's certainly nothing in the regs.

Cheers,
Ian

 

+1

Almost as kick-ass as the front wings! Seems turning vanes are also returning. What concerns me a little though is when chunks fall off - Be it front or rear - they tend to go quicker......

+1 I suspect dear ol' Phil was scared of him until they tamed him some mid-season. His poor form was just that the car was that bad, nothing to do with the accident IMO. Fred tamed him sooner for sure, but that's why he's #1.

Cheers,
Ian

 

LOL. I love it when a part falls off the car and the car goes faster. That must really piss off some engineers.

-F

 

No kidding, I've always found that hilarious.

 

Hamilton off and in the gravel on his 15th lap. Hydraulic issue with the brakes at the rear. W04 is having a good amount of growing pains isn't it.

 

I wondered if their new testing regime is "to destruction".

Racing & Tracking > F1 > The new Mercedes is alive! > Post by NeuroBeaker​

All the best,
Andrew.

 

ACCIDENTE LEWIS HAMILTON MERCEDES F1 EN JEREZ. ESPAÑA. MIERCOLES 6 DE FEBRERO DE 2013. 6/2/2013 - YouTube



The latest scuttle is that Lewis simply braked too late OR he didn't have heat in the tires. Mercedes have said nothing mechanically was wrong with the car yet, as opposed to yesterday whe they advised everyone immediately what happened.

 

Here we go. Lewis stated the pedal went to the floor. Right rear caliper failure.

Lewis also noting lack of downforce and that he's obviously pushing those guys a ton. I like Lewis' real answers with this stuff. Nico and Michael also give bland answers.

 

I'm sure they aren't bland in relaying their analyses to the mechanics - they just present a united front to the public.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Oh yes I have no doubt their answers were whitewashed to an obviously completely uninformative point. Lewis on the other hand, he seems to give it more straight. Can you imagine Michael Schumacher saying the car needs a lot more downforce and I'm pounding away at our downforce guys? Haha, no way.

 

Could that account for the apparent speed we're seeing from the car (Hamilton felt that his P2 lap was "easy" and could have gone quicker)? Merc and McLaren seem to be picking up where they left off. Ferrari may be the story of the off-season so far...

...then again, we've heard this all before.

 

Mclaren have the car of the field IMO. Mp4-28 has low CoG all around, low exhaust exits, lower rear CoG, it checks all the boxes better than any so far IMO.

Mercedes have made up ground but I have no idea how much. Certainly not enough to challenge Mclaren. It has nice parts to it though, very low CoG all around, suspension system is the class of the field unless someone else have managed to copy it, and their exhaust system exits equivalent to Mclaren and W04 has Ferrari-ish broad quasi u-sidepods only lower. There's potential.

Ferrari have a excellent looking car, but it has gambles. Higher CoG sidepods, high exhaust exit, higher rear CoG (their gearbox is not as low as the Merc powered cars), but they do have the most amount of floor exposed around the sidepods so I believe the car will be very strong.

So far, it's Mclaren, Ferrari, RB in that order for me. RB just haven't done enough with the design to compete with the really nice innovations Mclaren and even Ferrari have brought to the table. Lotus and Merc will have fun, but I believe Lotus will slip away from them quickly. Sauber's sidepod design confuses me, I believe it's a mistake. FI is a nice car, let's see what the drivers can do with it.

Someone quote me at the end of the season lol.

Last year I had someone physically present I know at testing, this year no

 

F-pilot I will cut and paste this into the Predictions thread

 

Hold me to it later ! lol

 

This is all in good fun. Thank you for the technical views your provide here. Very glad we have testing now!!

 

Little off topic but I am sure this explains how Timo Glock has been able to maintain a Marussia seat for so long. Shame for Kovalainen he never stole Ferrari a world championship.
And same happened for Petrov tnx to renault. Good they're both out, shame for Heikki though.

F1 : British team principal went to bat for top Finnish Formula 1 ace at Russian outfit

 

To reassume:

Red Bull = eagle
Mclaren = swordfish
Mercedes = shark
Lotus = crow

Ferrari = walrus

Doh!

 

lots of positive feedback on the Lotus.

I'm refusing to take any times to hold weight and take that as a fact to where cars are as we don't know anything what sort of fuel they're running etc.

But I can't say it makes me hopeful. A kimi WDC would be pretty fantastic...