F1 Pre-Season Test Week 4: Barcelona 8th - 11th March

CS||nuTs said:
Things can change very quickly in F1. Tomorrow may bring more shocks/suprises ;)
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Indeed. And I suspect that your team will now do some fast qualifying runs, as they wrap up their pre-season testing program.

Most F1 watchers seem to think that RBR will start off the season with the fastest car on the track. I'm hoping Alonso can at least put Vettel under pressure. If he can do this, then Vettel could make errors. McLaren are already playing catch-up (before the season has even started), which does not bode well for them.

Oh and on the subject of "upgrades" - upgrades don't always work and could result in a team going backwards (before, maybe, going forwards).
 
Setroc said:
is it too early to congratulate you on another winner's bonus?
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You never know...Ferrari may give Alonso a great car this year. From what Alonso/Massa/Ferrari have been saying - everything is going according to plan. There have been no surprises and I believe that Ferrari are the team who have completed the highest mileage of any team.

On top of that Alonso seems to have regained "skillz" and as long he starts from where he left off last season, I think he be able to have a say in this year's title race.
 
Kerming said:
now you tell us that its not the wing flexing, its the camber of the track or set-up...

pff.......:D
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I didn't say that it's not the wing flexing. I said it's not flexing in relation to the other side as much as it looks. The last thing you want is the wing flexing in massively different amounts.

Besides the facts are even with an increased flex loading test the cars wing is not flexing as much as everyone seems to be clinging to. If it did it wouldn't pass the test.

If the other teams are not clever enough to design a wing to pass the tests and flex within the limits, tough.
 
dannyjo22 said:
I said it's not flexing in relation to the other side as much as it looks. The last thing you want is the wing flexing in massively different amounts.
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lol, yeah, OK -



I don't personally mind, if Red Bull are smart enough to get away with it, then good luck to them.

In other news, the rumour mill says that Mclaren are completely redesigning their L-shaped sidepods and the whole rear end. Presumably the current L-sidepods give them a lot of good quality airflow in a straight line, but while cornering they kick up a lot of turbulence and completely mess up the air flow. Just what I have heard, we will see what happens. I can't understand how wind tunnel testing and CFD didn't pick up such a fundamental flaw if this IS the case.
 
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Kerming said:
Mclaren are going to kick *** this season...

...did i mension im a Lewis/Jenson fan?
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I too am a big fan of McLaren and Hamilton. At the end of the day, I want to see Brits win, plain and simple, but McLaren are consistently playing catch up and relying on their drivers to make up the difference, year after year.

Ferrari used the same strategy last year (ie. asking Alonso to make up the difference between their car and the RBR), but even Ferrari understand that there are limits to what a driver can do and to that end, they seem to have created a very tight design schedule. They released their car exactly as planned. They planned and attended all the tests. They pretty much completed their testing program, on schedule racking up the most mileage of any team this year.

Now, compare the above to McLaren. Their new car was not ready in time for the first test, so they used the old car instead. Once their new car arrived, they are having reliability problems (not their fault, as these things happen), but they are struggling to produce new parts in time...meaning that the car is sitting in the garage rather than putting in test miles. Obviously McLaren are making the best out of a 'not so good' situation.

To me, it seems that Ferrari understand that RBR have the best design team in the World right now. So, what they have done is hire the best driver in F1, offering a huge salary. They have an open No.1/No.2 driver policy, openly giving Alonso preferential treatment, to ensure he gets the maximum points. They have created a design schedule for the Winter and have rigidly stuck to it.

To me, Ferrari are taking the fight to RBR, while McLaren are just...well...hoping for the best.

PS. before I get accused of beating up on McLaren. The one thing they have done better than anybody else is their driver pairing. They pulled a master stroke when they hired Button. Not many teams would even entertain the idea of having 2 world champs in their team.
 
CaptainRAVE said:
In other news, the rumour mill says that Mclaren are completely redesigning their L-shaped sidepods and the whole rear end.
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If this is the case, this is a MASSIVE blow. I say this because, to completely redesign a rear end is not a quick or easy job. Other teams have used the entire Winter to design those sections of the car.

Furthermore, if McLaren believe that the only way to make their car go faster is to redesign a major section of their car, this year is going to be tough.
 
But if they continue to give Lewis and Button cars that just can't compete where both the former world champs want to be, Will they attempt to jump ship?

Something is broken at Mclaren imo and they need to find out what it is.
 
sunama said:
I too am a big fan of McLaren and Hamilton. At the end of the day, I want to see Brits win, plain and simple, but McLaren are consistently playing catch up and relying on their drivers to make up the difference, year after year.

Ferrari used the same strategy last year (ie. asking Alonso to make up the difference between their car and the RBR), but even Ferrari understand that there are limits to what a driver can do and to that end, they seem to have created a very tight design schedule. They released their car exactly as planned. They planned and attended all the tests. They pretty much completed their testing program, on schedule racking up the most mileage of any team this year.

Now, compare the above to McLaren. Their new car was not ready in time for the first test, so they used the old car instead.
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See, I still don't think this was, at least in theory, a bad plan. Getting a tests worth of data from the Pirelli tyres on a known stable platform is a good plan.

sunama said:
Once their new car arrived, they are having reliability problems (not their fault, as these things happen), but they are struggling to produce new parts in time...meaning that the car is sitting in the garage rather than putting in test miles. Obviously McLaren are making the best out of a 'not so good' situation.
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But this is where, in hindsight, missing that first test was a terrible idea. Although they got the data they've had horrible reliability which is a time consuming process to fix, yet by missing the first test they limited their time.

Maybe they got complacent after having one of the most reliable cars for the past few years now.

Still, I think they're going to end up being the 3rd best team, again, so it could be a lot worse (read 2009 :p)
 
Schui has just gone fast with his new upgrade package, 1:21.2 which is half a second quicker than the benchmark set by Perez yesterday.

Obviously RBR and Ferrari more than likely still have pace in hand but it's encouraging for Mercedes.
 
ZG002 said:
But if they continue to give Lewis and Button cars that just can't compete where both the former world champs want to be, Will they attempt to jump ship?

Something is broken at Mclaren imo and they need to find out what it is.
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Adrian Newey left. This is the problem and the current aero team are useless. Of course, McLaren and Ferrari were compromised as they were fighting for a championship the season before the major rule changes - Ferrari have recovered well, McLaren, not so much.
 
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