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

cuke2u · 22 Feb 2015 at 18:41

Mclaren have also confirmed that alonso didn't faint, I wonder if the gusty wind caught him out as I believe it affected some of the drivers...

Glaucus · 22 Feb 2015 at 18:46

any pics or videos if what happened?

cuke2u · 22 Feb 2015 at 19:18

Only here http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/1...testing-at-barcelona-and-is-taken-to-hospital

pastymuncher · 22 Feb 2015 at 19:40

What happens if a team blows a engine during testing? Surely that doesn't come out of their yearly engine limit?

drunkenmaster · 22 Feb 2015 at 20:04

no, neither do engines that go in friday practice, so they put in one of their allotted engines(new or one they've previously used) for FP3, qualy and the race.

Flibster · 22 Feb 2015 at 20:51

drunkenmaster said:
no, neither do engines that go in friday practice, so they put in one of their allotted engines(new or one they've previously used) for FP3, qualy and the race.

They only have 4 engines for the entire season. That includes the friday sessions. That's why teams tend to restrict running on fridays towards the end of the year.

Not sure if Honda will have 4 or 5 engines this year, I suppose it should be 5 as it's their first year, have to homologate the engine, but I suspect it'll be 4. But they will have some tokens to spend.

Skeeter · 22 Feb 2015 at 21:02

It's 4, because that's what the 2015 regulations are. Doesn't matter if its your first or 50th year.

The Friday practice sessions are exempt from the grid penalties for changing components that you get when in parc ferme, which this year starts on Saturday morning before P3, but they are still limited to 4 of each component all year.

Testing engines aren't included. The PUs aren't even homoligated for this year yet.

Flibster · 22 Feb 2015 at 21:52

But Honda were being told initially that they weren't having any in season development.

I'd have had no problems with them in that case running to the 2014 engine regs with 5 engines. But that is the sort of thing that'll happen when you have manufactures arriving after the new rules come in. Especially when they have yearly limit changes. It'll soon become impractical for anyone else to join as the number of tokens is reducing and there is scope in the regs to reduce the number of power units available.

IMO, it should be a rolling rule form the point that the power unit entered.

Flibster · 23 Feb 2015 at 00:14

So after many 'Fernando is ok' statements, McLaren have said that he has a concussion.

So..... They were talking bovine supplied growth product then.

Emlyn_Dewar · 23 Feb 2015 at 00:45

From the pictures, it didn't look like the impact would have been that heavy?

Slam62 · 23 Feb 2015 at 07:50

McLaren in lack of clear communication shocker.

Skeeter · 23 Feb 2015 at 07:59

Emlyn_Dewar said:
From the pictures, it didn't look like the impact would have been that heavy?

The car didn't look to badly damaged either. Maybe he just got unlucky?

They haven't explained why he crashed though. The speed Vettel said he was doing wouldn't have meant he was pushing too hard.

Guerrilla · 23 Feb 2015 at 08:37

It does all seem a bit strange, glad Fernando is alright though.

Glaucus · 23 Feb 2015 at 10:23

It is Indeed strange, as BBC saying he's still in intensive care, despite McLaren saying it's all normal, usually released within hours. Then the way he went off track as well.

SS-89 · 23 Feb 2015 at 10:30

So alonso didn't faint, then had a concussion, is still in intensive care and has had an MRI and CT Scan, despite what looked to be a relatively minor impact...right.

this_is_gav · 23 Feb 2015 at 10:38

Emlyn_Dewar said:
From the pictures, it didn't look like the impact would have been that heavy?

Though there's no evidence to suggest it (smoke or tyre marks, though there is a large flat-spot on the left-front in one of the photos), I think he's probably spun towards the inside wall and 'slapped' it almost side on. The impact would have gone through the suspension and straight through the gearbox and chassis. Nothing designed to absorb the impact was even touched. If he'd hit it at a shallower or steeper angle, it would have buckled the suspension more and the sidepod would have crumpled, or the rear crash structure would have absorbed it.

It was just a freak accident I think, though it would be interesting to hear what caused it - Alonso doesn't make many of those sort of mistakes, and certainly not at the sort of speeds Vettel was reporting.

In the pictures the front left is turned right, which I think shows he was attempting to come out of a spin (you'd have turned left initially in an attempt to counter the spin, then as it comes around the 360 degrees you sometimes need to turn out of your correction to carry on straight ahead, but he's ran out of road and the car has slapped the wall.

cuke2u · 23 Feb 2015 at 10:57

The impact was heavy enough to set off the g force sensor warning, although all the tests on alonso come up as normal there could still be slight concussion from the impact. All probably precautionary but we don't know all the facts.

Nismo · 23 Feb 2015 at 11:12

I thought it was now confirmed he suffered concussion?

Some images seem to suggest only the front left was braking, and got progressively more aggressive towards the barrier. Not really sure what to take from that if true though.

this_is_gav · 23 Feb 2015 at 11:33

Nismo said:
Some images seem to suggest only the front left was braking, and got progressively more aggressive towards the barrier. Not really sure what to take from that if true though.

There are clearly other, fainter tyre marks suggesting he spun, not went straight in (you could interpret Vettel's words either way). The tyre with the thick black line (which changes in size) suggests it was the only real loaded tyre - probably the right rear, with the front of the car coming back around as he approached the wall, giving it the "slapping" action I suggested above.

Edit: People on the Autosport forums (LOL, I know) are thinking he went in front-first. I'm certain that wasn't the case. The marks to the left and in front of the main line are the front wheels swinging back around from his 360. With another few metres he might have saved it and carried on his way, or at the very worst gone in right front first, with the crumble zones and suspension crumbling, rather than slapping the wall as they did.

this_is_gav · 23 Feb 2015 at 14:06

A line on Autosport Plus is saying that Alonso ran wide at turn 3 and over-corrected a slide (and then presumably over-corrected the correction to end up on the inside - a sort of tankslapper if you will). Probably similar to Maldonado's crash in qualifying last year. There's no mention of a source though.