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

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

I hope Fernando is alright.

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Edit: Autosport saying he's "OK and conscious" according to the circuit.
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Strange place to have a crash but glad his ok.
 
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Did something go wrong on the car? Seems like an odd place for such an experienced driver to crash.

utajoker said:
i want to see some true speed from mercedes!
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I doubt we will even see it in Oz unless they are pushed by a surprisingly competitive team or if something goes wrong. I too would love to see it though.
 
deuse said:
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.
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I think robbiemc was agreeing with me? I'm not arguing for the sake of anything, I'm correcting someone who constantly posts false 'facts' for the sake of it. Just look at your "the V6 engines caused F1 to lose 30% of its TV audience" argument and how quickly that fell flat on it's face. Or your 'confirmation' that Alonso wasn't going to McLaren. Or your 'proof' that V6s were 20 seconds slower than V8s by comparing wet and dry laps. Or your shifting definition of "faster" until you ran out of areas where the V6s weren't beating the V8s. Or your claim the V6s were costing teams $100m a year....

There is no agreement to change the power units for 2017. Posting saying there is is wrong. I corrected you.

deuse said:
Strange place to have a crash but glad his ok.
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Maldonado managed it last year. If he ran wide and hit the grass at the end of the exit kerbs on turn 3 then it will fire the car into the wall.
 
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CaptainRAVE said:
Did something go wrong on the car? Seems like an odd place for such an experienced driver to crash.
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Maldonado crashed there in qualifying last year.

The worrying thing is the lack of damage to the car. All 4 wheels are intact, the front wing is missing (destroyed on the grass by the looks of it) and the rear suspension is damaged, and possibly the front-left looks at an odd angle, but it doesn't look like a heavy impact.

There's a sequence of pictures here.

Vettel has supposedly said Alonso's car was travelling quite slow: "The speed was slow - maybe 150kph. Then he turned right into the wall. It looked strange."

Doesn't mean he hasn't spun into the wall (the picture sequence doesn't cover it), but there aren't any tyre marks to suggest he did spin.

There's lot of speculators suggesting that Alonso has suffered some sort of illness which caused the loss of control and the need for him to be sedated at the side of the track.
 
Surrounded by carbon fibre in a car full of electrical energy, its entirely possible. But the car would need to ground itself some how.

Its why the mechanics and marshals wear rubber gloves and the drivers are trained to jump from the cars after an accident. Was it a Williams mechanic that was electrocuted last year?
 
robbiemc said:
Do you think he was electrocuted? Is that even possible?
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It's possible for sure. I wondered if there was a problem so stopped car then got shocked getting out maybe. Or worse electrical fault caused him to get a shock while driving.
The lack of any real damage to the car points to no significant crash and so concussion as a result seems unlikely. Could be a Massa style issue, hit some debris while driving?
 
Sounds like he was shivering and shaking in the car. Based on what we heard about Hamilton at the start of testing, could just be this fever that is doing the rounds? Reports on Twitter also seem to be saying that the G meter failed, so they took him to hospital as a precaution.
 
From McLaren

"Today at 12:35 CET, while testing at the Circuit de Catalunya (Barcelona), during the fourth and final day of the current test, Fernando Alonso's McLaren-Honda car left the track at Turn Three, causing the right-hand side of his car to strike the wall.

"Fernando was driven to the circuit's medical centre where the circuit's doctors gave him first aid.

"He was conscious and spoke with the doctors.

"However, as per usual procedure in such circumstances, he was then airlifted to hospital where he is undergoing precautionary checks.

"We will issue a further update in due course."
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First aid for what?
 
It was not an electric shock as alonso would have had to be in contact with the ground through his body. Obviously whilst sitting in the car this isn't possible. He may well have fainted briefly as vettal, following behind, said that the car was travelling unusually slowly for that corner and the car moved in an unusual direction.
 
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reef said:
There we go, that's more like it:

1:24.321 from Rosberg on mediums, quite impressive!

Pole last year was 1:25.232 with a similar track temp (23C) but on soft tyres. The times this year seem to be a lot quicker.
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Last year the fastest time Mercedes did was something like within 1/10th of Williams but were on the slower tire, so adjust for tire difference and you could see they were realistically a second or more faster.

I would say adjusted for tires you're looking at an easy 1:23 on the softs, and potentially even a 1:22 on the supersoft.

They seem noticeably faster than at Spain last year but setup could be fairly different. If you want to do absolute fastest setup with no regards to how the car would handle over race distance or with heavy fuel you could end up faster than is possible in a qualifying(but at least part race) setup. Would be interesting to see other cars running some times on their 2014 cars as they were when the season finished, they would no doubt be noticeably faster than Spain early in last season as well.
 
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