F1 Testing 2014: Week 1 Jerez

deuse said:
80+ laps for Rosberg and all in the 1.27s looking good so far for Merc.
From autosport
"And he finally pits. Rosberg's lap tally currently stands at 84, just nine short of the total of all the cars on day one."
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I thought the other line was funnier... Rosberg is the first car to do a run long enough that tyre wear is actually potentially an issue :p
 
Mercedes engines are looking decent in terms of reliability so far.

Renault are hurt by Lotus not being there meaning they're getting less running.

Though Lotus will benefit from all the upgrades at the next test.
 
Spunkey said:
In this years' cars, yes. Partly at least ;)
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Surely that's the KERS's??? The Turbo is run off of Exhaust gasses, do the KERS systems not just offer a separate drive to the power train?

Am I correct to assume Lewis will be driving the Mercedes F1 car tomorrow?

Reliability is the first race for the teams, Mercedes are leading this. The teams who didn't run yesterday and today will definitely be a step behind the others.
 
englishpremier said:
Mercedes engines are looking decent in terms of reliability so far.

Renault are hurt by Lotus not being there meaning they're getting less running.

Though Lotus will benefit from all the upgrades at the next test.
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Toro Rosso run the Renault engines now don't they? So they've got one extra when Lotus do arrive.

Hmmm so if the Renault engine package seems to be rubbish, what would stop Red Bull, etc switching suppliers mid way through the season? Does their contracts stipulate they can't change within contract?
 
Matt-Page said:
Hmmm so if the Renault engine package seems to be rubbish, what would stop Red Bull, etc switching suppliers mid way through the season? Does their contracts stipulate they can't change within contract?
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With them being effectively the Renault 'works' level team, I imagine that there would be significant difficulties in switching suppliers. Not to mention the hardware problems - remember what happened with the Brawn car, they had to chop 6 inches out of the back of the tub to get the Merc engine to fit where a Honda engine had been intended to go.

It's just the first test guys. Renault will get their act together, and the Red Bull won't be propping up the timesheets for long. While teams have dropped from grace in spectacular fashion before, I don't see it happening to RBR here.
 
The thing at the back of my mind is, I always feel like someone who pushes the boundaries further, has more teething issues but something fundamentally better when you get through those issues.

This is clearly not always true(Mclaren :p ), it could be that when they work the kinks out of the Renault cars, they are slow as hell. But Renault powered cars have been doing very well recently.

Lotus may have updates for the next test, but so will everyone else. Depending on how testing goes in the next 2 days, Lotus may be spending the next couple weeks working in entirely the wrong direction while say Mclaren/Merc find parts that just don't work.

ultimately new bits aren't always good, testing them and seeing if you are on the right track or not is as important and Lotus will be at a monumental disadvantage by missing an entire test. Some did last year, but those were basically the old cars with tweaks, not entirely new cars.

I hope we see some Renault cars get a good number of laps in the next couple days and some semi decent performance numbers to see how far they progress in between now and the next test.

Also worth noting that while the Merc appears somewhat reliable, we don't know how fast they are. Hamilton was supposedly not pushing the car hard, which is unsurprising. The cars may be 5 seconds faster and at high turbo/kers revs the engines all blow up. Till we get an idea they are pushing hard I wouldn't count on reliability being good. Good early signs but, when crap fails, it's usually when it's being pushed at 95%+ and at it's highest temps.
 
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1 Jenson Button (McLaren) 1m24.165s, 43 laps
2 Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) 1m24.812s, 47 laps
3 Valtteri Bottas (Williams) 1m25.344s, 35 laps
4 Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1m25.588s, 97 laps
5 Sergio Perez (Force India) 1m28.376s, 37 laps
6 Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) 1m33.270s, 53 laps
7 Marcus Ericsson (Caterham) 1m37.975s, 11 laps
8 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1m38.320s, 8 laps
 
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Is it me or does the Mclaren look more refined and streamlined?
 
I very much doubt we'll see an F1 car driven in anger this week. It's all about reliability and making sure the teams are actually race worthy. Mercedes are the only team to have completed any long runs so far, 24 laps being the longest.

I think we'll have to wait till testing in Bahrain before we see the teams pursue performance in earnest.
 
drunkenmaster said:
Lotus may have updates for the next test, but so will everyone else. Depending on how testing goes in the next 2 days, Lotus may be spending the next couple weeks working in entirely the wrong direction while say Mclaren/Merc find parts that just don't work.
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I was referring to Lotus having the new Renault updates (along with the other teams) at the next test. Presuming Renault get their act sorted, that'll mean they miss out on all the engine relating teething issues plaguing the cars this week.
 
Matt-Page said:
Surely that's the KERS's??? The Turbo is run off of Exhaust gasses, do the KERS systems not just offer a separate drive to the power train?
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The turbo has a generator attached to it so while it's driven by exhaust gasses that energy is used to boost induction as well as spin the generator. The generator can be reversed to spin up the turbo if required. Then there's the "traditional" KERS on the back axle acting under braking.

It's then all integrated into much more of a hybrid drive than before. The ECU decides when to deploy the stored energy rather then the driver hitting a button.
 
Spunkey said:
He's just tweeted that he won't be in the car until tomorrow's afternoon session. Due to the lack of running yesterday JB will be getting some more laps in the morning.
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Nice and befitting touch from Mclaren, after all it wouldn't be fair for KM to get two whole days and Jenson get one. So one and a half is very fair :)
 
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