If I think back to the previous hybrid era, Merc never really stood out in terms of fastest lap, presumably because they felt confident enough to just focus on race pace. Come the first race and they gapped the grid by 1sec a lap so it's really difficult to tell.
F1 Season 2024 - Pre-Season Thread
- Thread starter chrismscotland
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I think it's a single allocation pool i.e. they get 3 (or 4?) engines for the season and that's it. They can swap between those engines but I don't recall there being a separate allocation for practice.
Soldato
They can do what they like in pre-season testing, so long as they are within the cost cap. The car doesn't even technically need to be able to pass an FIA inspection, that only comes in to play when scrutineering starts at the first event.
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Soldato
I wasn't aware that the cars could be "illegal" and that they weren't scrutinised until the first Event.
Soldato
Think they can do so even in Free Practice sessions but need to disclose/ get permission from FIA.
They will have passed the initial set of FIA checks (the crash tests, etc that get done quite early) - but as others have said the rules on testing are fairly loose
Soldato
The best example of this was a few years back when McLaren mistakenly ran some suspension components upside down. This made the car run lower than legally allowed, and much faster than it otherwise should have been.
*Edit* It seems 'a few years ago' was 2013... how time flies.
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F1 testing wrapped for 2024; Qualifying this time next week!
Caporegime
According to the official entry list, the name of the entry is "Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team" and the manufacturer of the chassis is "RB" so he's sort of correct, but at the same time the name of the company is "Racing Bulls" so... ?
Feels crazy that they only have a couple hours over 3 days to test a year+ worth of work. Reliability is pretty impressive though - thinking back to when some teams would only manage 2 laps over a day.
Ferrari looking really strong on race pace.
Yeah remember the days when there were multiple pre-season tests? and they weren't even all at the same track; some teams would go to Barcelona, some to Silverstone and Ferrari obviously at Fiorano - good times!
Hard to take any huge conclusions, Red Bull still look on top, hopefully closer but not holding my breath to be honest
Soldato
Red Bull weren't concerned with any 'glory laps' , Max set his time today on very worn C3's so there probably is at least another second off his time that could be achieved with the same compound that Charles used to set his fastest lap. Ferrari set their times on the very softest C5''s which I believe will not be available for the race weekend. As I understand it only the C1, C2 and C3 tyres can be used.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
But the Ferrari's race pace does indeed look to be improved from last year.
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Commissario
I used to enjoy going to practise days at Silverstone, did it quite a few times. It was a really cheap way to see some cars on track.
It understand why they go to Bahrain (settled weather and I guess doing it the week before the race saves costs) but pre-season feels like a bit of a nothing event now.
As you say the test days were a cheap way of getting to see the cars, etc - it feels like fans missing out again really with the changes that have been made.
This unfortunately looks like RB have taken another step forward.
With them not changing Perez as well I think we are in for another very dull season in terms of the championship.
Hopefully Merc, Ferrari, McLaren and maybe Aston are all pretty close again and make the upper midfield interesting.
With them not changing Perez as well I think we are in for another very dull season in terms of the championship.
Hopefully Merc, Ferrari, McLaren and maybe Aston are all pretty close again and make the upper midfield interesting.
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It’s not surprising though. With how dominant their car was last year they probably spent all the available time they had working on this one. Hopefully someone can keep them honest…
Caporegime
Reading/watching the analysis from testing, it looks like Ferrari have sorted their tyre deg problem, hopefully that'll let them take the odd win at least.
(hopeful mode engaged)Merc looked quick. Only5 hundredths off the fastest Ferrari lap and on one compound harder. Nobody on that compound was even close...
BUT... RB was 0.4s off but on harder still compound.
I'm hoping that this means Merc might be close to RB... Wont be but I can dream for a week
IDC who wins races or title as long as they aren't Dutch
Would love to see wins spread across multiple teams. Like when Merc "dominated" - RB won, Ferrari won races. Heck even Toro Rosso and others did... The RB domination was just silly. It was two races- RB (so basically no race as Perez is a donkey) and Best of the Rest.
BUT... RB was 0.4s off but on harder still compound.
I'm hoping that this means Merc might be close to RB... Wont be but I can dream for a week
IDC who wins races or title as long as they aren't Dutch
Would love to see wins spread across multiple teams. Like when Merc "dominated" - RB won, Ferrari won races. Heck even Toro Rosso and others did... The RB domination was just silly. It was two races- RB (so basically no race as Perez is a donkey) and Best of the Rest.- Status