F1 Testing 2017: Week 1 Barcelona (27th - 2nd)

Spunkey said:
He did say that, 17.65 seconds of fuel-adjusted degredation over the whole stint. For clarification:
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Hmm that is less clear but, that is also still massively wrong, loads of drivers saying very low deg. But the way he's worded it is very strange, after 16 laps he's a total of 17 seconds slower after adjusting for fuel, which I think can be interpreted either way. IE his 16th lap is 16 seconds slower but counting for gaining 1.5seconds due to fuel loss, it's 17 seconds.

But even 1.1seconds a lap, think about what he's saying. The first lap has... zero time lost because that is the benchmark, the second lap is 0.1 seconds slower, then 0.2 seconds slower etc. For it to average 1.1seconds per lap you're talking about some very slow laps at the end to average that amount slower for every lap. The way deg works in general means it tends to drop off exponentially, so end up 1 second slower after 10 laps and 5 seconds slower per lap after 16.

It still flies in the face of what absolutely everyone else is saying.


Anyway, Merc seem a bit faster today ;)
 
this_is_gav said:
Pirelli are predicting a 1:17 for the pole at the Spanish GP, though whether that takes into account the hotter (slower) weather I've no idea.

Still down on the 2004 time (1:15.0) but obviously they had the fast sweeper that year rather than the mickey-mouse chicane we have now, which more than covers that.
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Yeah not very surprising, based off the start of a longer run pace I had it in the 1:18's, with the potential for a 1:17, really depending on how hard Merc are really pushing basically.

I tried to compare some 2004 qualifying times to 2009 qualifying times as the new layout track record is high 1:19.xxx in 2009. Almost impossible to tell really, Monaco was 1 second slower in 2009, Monza was 4 seconds slower, Hungary was 2.5 seconds slower. Track wise it's closest to Hungary out of those so maybe 2.5 seconds to the car, 2.3 seconds to the track change. Which would mean a 1:15.022 translates to somewhere around 1:17.5 for the new layout maybe.
 
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There's definitely a 1:17:xx in that Merc in qually trim with the engine set to 11.

In the race last year pole was 1.22:000, yet in the race (although the Mercs were out) it took until Lap 14 until anyone dropped below 1:30:00. If you say the Mercs were 0.5s a lap faster than this, that's a good 7.5s faster.

In Hamilton's race sim this afternoon in his first 10 laps he has been consistently in the low 1:25s. I imagine in May with the warmer weather 6-7 secs quicker than this wouldn't be overly optimistic.

It'll be interesting what Ferrari and Redbull's long runs are like.
 
We can't directly imply the difference between race and qualifying yet. They have more fuel, with higher drag but if they added a little more fuel. IE 10% more fuel but fuel usage is only expected to go up by 5% then they can push harder in the race, which would also mean less different to ultimate lap pace for qualifying. Also they may have been at the limit for fuel flow in qualifying making it harder to increase the times by as much there.

I still think there will be a big gap, but honestly until we hit Australia we can't know what the gap between race/qualifying pace really is.

There is also the fact that the tires have a wider operating temp and less degredation, neither make too much difference to qualifying, you go them as hot as you needed and deg didn't matter. In the race though last few years was purely about keeping in a temp window. So again that could bring race pace up compared to qualifying pace.

It's also possible for it to have increased, the gap between race/quali pace that is. It could be they upped fuel 10% but higher drag, heavier car has increased fuel usage by 12% and maybe the tires though they can be pushed harder in a race, give up even more grip at peak temp in qualifying.

Mclaren doing a short run on ultras and are near 3 seconds off. Who knows exactly how hard they or anyone else are pushing on their fastest laps yet though. Presumably everyone is no where near maxed engine, but if all at the same say 90%, then Mclaren looks very slow.
 
Watching Vettel through Turn 1-3 is definitely my 'wow' factor of the day. The Ferrari is just planted and, even on used tyres, it doesn't budge one millimetre off line.

Gary Anderson
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GA has been waxing lyrical about the Ferrari today which makes a change as he usually slates them pretty hard...early days but at least sounds positive there is an underlying good car there but relative pace who knows! Melbourne can't come soon enough :)
 
Going from the BBC website Palmer and Hulkenberg set exactly the same times "1:21.396" in the renault on softs. Pretty impressive.
 
SS-89 said:
GA has been waxing lyrical about the Ferrari today which makes a change as he usually slates them pretty hard...early days but at least sounds positive there is an underlying good car there but relative pace who knows! Melbourne can't come soon enough :)
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The Toro Rosso was doing exactly the same yesterday through turn 3, even in the very gusty conditions, as was the Mercedes. The Toro Rosso needed to take some curb on the exit, but both the Merc and the Ferrari can keep a tighter line.
 
Day 3 Times:

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