F1 Testing 2014: Week 1 Jerez

Spunkey said:
Lewis stated yesterday that the tyres are much more durable this year, although overheating is an issue due to the rears spinning up on corner exit because of the extra torque.

Sounds perfect IMO.
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Yeh he was saying that he was going round bends in 5th gear :eek:

Jono8 said:
Serious problems for Renault it seems. This will surely hurt Red Bull a lot come the start of the season seen as they obviously haven't been able to gather much data on the car...other than it breaks :p
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Kobayashi is still out there with his Renault :)
 
McLaren nose cam to measure front wing deflection.
BfTRvVBCIAA1CO-.jpg:large
 
Lotus still having money issues it seems, they're laying off another 30 staff, even after losing 70 over the course of the last season: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2014/01/31/bad-noises-from-enstone/

The only way I can see them surviving is if another manufacturer wants to get involved, which is a bit more likely now that we have engines which have some elements of road-relevance.

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At least their PR dept. still has a sense of humour:

LtBnCNl.jpg
 
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lmao :)

Nico comes in after 65 laps only to get some new tires and his back out.
 
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looks like Maldo has aged over the winter, either that or the that swag makes him look older. Can't quite put my finger on it, maybe he just looks older side on haha.
 
"Cool, day 4 of testing & already completed a full race practice. Will now hand over the car to @lewishamilton."

Good stuff.
 
Shimmy said:
McLaren nose cam to measure front wing deflection.
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So with a car that looks very much like two nostrils on a nose... they add a zit to make it look even more realistic :p

smr said:
"Cool, day 4 of testing & already completed a full race practice. Will now hand over the car to @lewishamilton."

Good stuff.
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Didn't know they were going to switch around today. I was thinking Rosberg has got some serious laps in and was somewhat leaving Hamilton behind. Not sure if this was the plan or not to even out the laps. Obviously Hamilton's failed wing wasn't his fault, but day one was always likely to offer far less laps than day two. Either way, do you think it will be another full race run for Hamilton or a completely different program, qualifcation or fast runs?


EDIT:- Red Bull done for the day :o 15 laps today, Caterham seemingly the best running Renault at the moment in terms of laps, and fastest actually..........

So Jerez a disaster, have to see what they do in Bahrain... higher temps there probably won't help.
 
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I think you're probably right DM; Hamilton's front wing wasn't his fault and Nico has had an impressive day and a half of testing.

It makes sense to give Lewis a few extra hours to give them a similar amount of testing.
 
Are the engine companies like Renault allowed to make revisions before the season starts, or is there a change freeze until the end of the season?
 
I've never followed engine development before so have no clue. I do know there is a list of things that can be developed on the engine vs time, IE, I think everything is okay to develop this year, next year certain things get added to a no more development list, and every year more and more stuff gets added. I think a few expensive bits get added next year, and as the years go on more and more ickle things get added till very little of the engine can be developed.

However, I really don't know how it works, do the Renault using teams get a stock engine unit and the teams spend to improve/change parts. Or is it Renault developing the engine.... I have no idea. It makes more sense(in my head at least) that the engine guys deliver a stock unit which can't change throughout the year, except say fixing a major flaw/issue. Then the teams change things on their own throughout the year.

because the goal of reducing the development costs, well makes more sense in the context of teams spending less on development, considering the engines are a fixed cost. It may indeed work nothing like that at all though :p

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/09/16/fia-to-guard-against-extreme-engines-in-2014/

this gives the list of things and when the development is frozen for them, but it really doesn't say where these costs are, to the manufacturer(Renault) or the teams developing the individual parts.
 
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IIRC, due to the changes in regulations they can work on the engines up to the first race in any way they want. After this only changes that improve reliability can be worked upon.
 
They have until the last week before the first race to try and optimise the engines' performance (if reliability doesn't take up all that time that is :p), after that point they are stuck with that engine's performance capability until the end of the season and cannot optimise it further.
 
There's always ways to optimise within the regs.

Like the oil switch Renault did for "reliability" issues, but was actually giving them a few more BHP.
 
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