F1 Testing 2015: Week 2 Barcelona (19th - 22nd)

[Mr Jack]

McLaren are going from the best engine in F1 to the worst - did McLaren bosses factor this into their plans?

Bit of a leap to decide that Honda is the worst engine in F1 before we've even seen how it performs in anger. There's development issues, sure, but until Australia we won't know the pace. Even then, it's only the first year of their arrangement.

McLaren needed to do something; their long-term alliance with Mercedes was waning and with Mercedes having their own team the engine was never going to be developed to favour McLaren. If McLaren want to return to the number 1 spot they need to be lead team for their engine; Brawn managed it in 2009 thanks to some clever rule dodging but other than that you have to go back to the era of Renault engine domination to find times when two teams with the same engine were competitive for the title.

Put simply, Honda engines offer McLaren a better shot at winning than the Mercedes engines do.

 

[Mr Jack]

BTW, are bookies still taking bets on Hamilton winning this year's title?

8/11 on Hamilton winning and 1/4 on Mercedes winning. If you've not bet with the particular company before you can usually double those winnings for smallish bets by taking advantage of their free bet schemes.

 

[deuse]

Vettel about the ban on helmet design changes: "If the penalty is just a little fine for charity I'm happy to keep changing my helmets."

Nice one Vettel

 

[Banny]

Don't think you can discount the might of honda, they will bounce Mercedes, not this year maybe, but they will.
Take MotoGP as an example Yamahas where the the better package especially mid corner, but honda turned it round and now honda is the best overal bike.
Just depends on how bad they want it really.

 

[deuse]

Don't think you can discount the might of honda, they will bounce Mercedes, not this year maybe, but they will.
Take MotoGP as an example Yamahas where the the better package especially mid corner, but honda turned it round and now honda is the best overal bike.
Just depends on how bad they want it really.

Your living in the Senna years as Honda done bugger all when Button was with them.
The power units are changing again in 2017 and as for MotoGp the Honda was much faster on a straight then Yamaha.

 

[Skeeter]

Vettel about the ban on helmet design changes: "If the penalty is just a little fine for charity I'm happy to keep changing my helmets."

Nice one Vettel

I did think this. As lot of the designs will involve some sponsorship I imagine any fine will just be covered by whoever's paying for the design.

It's a stupid and pointless regulation and I hope the drivers ignore it.

The power units are changing again in 2017..

Source?

 

[Mr Jack]

Your living in the Senna years as Honda done bugger all when Button was with them.

They won in 2009. Sure, it had a different brand on the car, and they'd bolted a different engine in but make no mistake Brawn were running a Honda developed car. Had Honda not bailed on F1 at precisely the wrong moment, they'd have won in 2009.

 

[deuse]

I did think this. As lot of the designs will involve some sponsorship I imagine any fine will just be covered by whoever's paying for the design.

It's a stupid and pointless regulation and I hope the drivers ignore it.



Source?

It's all over the place. F1 Commission had a meeting about 1000HP engines and wider cars for 2016. But they voted not to do it till 2017.

 

[deuse]

1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m27.474s
2 Carlos Sainz Jr Toro Rosso 1m27.991s +0.517
3 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1m28.449s +0.975
4 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1m28.764s +1.290
5 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1m29.362s +1.888
6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m32.603s +5.129

McLaren is still not out as yet. The reason given is
"The new part arrived late last night so we needed time for the power unit to be configured."

From autosport
* Sainz uses softs to set pace
* Vettel, Rosberg, Grosjean, Bottas closely-matched in second to fifth on mediums
* Rosberg quickly back on track after spinning into gravel early on
* Nasr parks his Sauber in the pit entry with mechanical problems
* Delay getting Honda engine ready after arrival of crucial new MGU-K seal means Alonso misses first two hours and counting

 

[Ryan-3]

Closely matched with 1.3s between them?

That's half a season in F1!

 

[deuse]

Happy Birthday to Niki Lauda. He is a young 66


1 Carlos Sainz Jr Toro Rosso 1m25.684s
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m26.454s +0.770
3 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m26.782s +1.098
4 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1m27.241s +1.557
5 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1m28.029s +2.345
6 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1m28.171s +2.487
7 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1m28.308s +2.624
8 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull 1m29.798s +4.114

Rosberg 58
Sainz 54
Vettel 52
Bottas 46
Grosjean 40
Kvyat 33
Hulkenberg 30
Alonso 16
Nasr 3

 

[utajoker]

i want to see some true speed from mercedes!

 

[deuse]

i want to see some true speed from mercedes!

And me

Alonso's McLaren has stopped again on track..opps

edit=Alonso has crashed the McLaren better get it right

 

[this_is_gav]

Probably slid off on his own oil from a failed seal v3.

 

[this_is_gav]

He's crashed on the straight between turns 3 and 4 and there's an ambulance on the scene.

I hope Fernando is alright.

Edit: Autosport saying he's "OK and conscious" according to the circuit.

 

[Skeeter]

It's all over the place. F1 Commission had a meeting about 1000HP engines and wider cars for 2016. But they voted not to do it till 2017.

No, they voted not to do anything for 2016. There's been no agreement on anything for 2017. All the meeting did was confirm that if they do decide to change anything it won't be till 2017 at the earliest.

And the proposal isn't to change the PUs any more either.

 

[robbiemc]

Yep, it's to agree on how to modify the existing PU's to go up to the 1000bhp figure.

 

[this_is_gav]

The medical helecopter has taken off with Alonso inside it, though apparently just for precautionary checks.

Despite flashes of encouragement, what an awful test for McLaren.

 

[Skeeter]

Yep, it's to agree on how to modify the existing PU's to go up to the 1000bhp figure.

Yep. It would be quite easy to do. But you have to wonder what's the point? F1 is faster and more fuel efficient than the V8s already. Turning the engines up would mean needlessly burning more fuel to make the cars go even faster, when there's no need too?

The alternative is to turn the ERS down and fill the gap with more bhp from the engines. But that feels stupid, as they will have built all this new technology and then.... decide not to use it simply so they can say "moar powaaa!"

The 1000bhp headline figure made a bit (not a lot) of sense when it was part of a proposal to have new simpler twin turbo engines and a simpler, standardized ERS. Now that those plans have been scrapped they seem to have clung on to this 1000bhp figure for some bizzare reason. F1 doesn't need to be any faster, does it?

None of the proposals seem to hold much water to me. Making any regulation changes costs money, so in a world when F1 needs to cut costs the most sensible plan is to stick with rhw current regs. The whole 2017 1000bhp idea seems to just be the last ditch attempts by a shrinking group of cave men to hold onto a world that no longer exists. I can't see any of their plans happening.

 

[deuse]

No, they voted not to do anything for 2016. There's been no agreement on anything for 2017. All the meeting did was confirm that if they do decide to change anything it won't be till 2017 at the earliest.

And the proposal isn't to change the PUs any more either.

Yep, it's to agree on how to modify the existing PU's to go up to the 1000bhp figure.

He argues just for the sake of it. Yep 1000bhp\wider car with bigger tires.
Even big ron said it would cost to much for 2016.