F1 Testing 2015: Week 3 Barcelona (26th - 1st)

[drunkenmaster]

Downforce with as little drag as possible. It's easy to put on buttloads of downforce, it's hard to put on more while keeping drag low. Williams have gone the lower drag route by having less downforce, RBR/Merc had the best balance of downforce and as little drag as possible which is why they pretty much stomped WIlliams in corners, but both lost to them down the straights though by varying margins.

Mclaren had those stupid fat wishbones and loads of downforce but no speed. I imagine it feels a worse in the corners but (if the engine gets going) faster down the straights and a more responsive light car.

 

[deuse]

Good news. Button is back out.

 

[Duke]

Mclaren had those stupid fat wishbones and loads of downforce but no speed. I imagine it feels a worse in the corners but (if the engine gets going) faster down the straights and a more responsive light car.

If you read up about it, they worked fine but the car lacked front downforce to match it. They might bring them back this year.

 

[Duke]

It's the total Honda mileage that's got to be the main concern. There were 4 teams running Renault engines last year.

Their engines were ok though (apart from lack of power), it was packaging problems iirc. We don't really know yet how much of this is Honda issues or the way it is packaged (connected up, cooling, etc).

 

[drunkenmaster]

If you read up about it, they worked fine but the car lacked front downforce to match it. They might bring them back this year.

I don't need to read up about them, too much downforce is bad, I didn't say they didn't work(in terms of producing downforce) but I did believe it was fairly obvious they would be drag inducing and as a result useless. They didn't work well in terms of downforce produced for the level of drag produced. If they did work they'd be on there, it's really that simple. From a purely downforce view they worked, for a good addition to the car when drag and downforce are equally important, they were crap.

They won't bring them back this year except maybe, just maybe, somewhere like Monaco. Everything that worked well last year has pretty much been copied. They see what everyone else does, have a play with any good ideas, see if it works with their car then copy it if they can. Big new concept completely ignored and removed on the car that actually came up with it.... you can bank on it being 99% certain it sucked in general.

 

[englishpremier]

It's the total Honda mileage that's got to be the main concern. There were 4 teams running Renault engines last year.

You'd think Honda would have tested their engine in the back of another car. An old Mclaren, or just an old Honda of some sort they might have had lying around. After all there was no restriction on what they could do last season.

 

[this_is_gav]

I don't need to read up about them, too much downforce is bad, I didn't say they didn't work(in terms of producing downforce) but I did believe it was fairly obvious they would be drag inducing and as a result useless.

I realise they're not exactly top of everyone's pile in terms of development at the moment, but I'm pretty sure McLaren's wealth of R&D showed they improved the 2014 car, hence why they largely remained.

 

[smr]

Red Bull aren't having the smoothest testing last few days either.

 

[drunkenmaster]

I realise they're not exactly top of everyone's pile in terms of development at the moment, but I'm pretty sure McLaren's wealth of R&D showed they improved the 2014 car, hence why they largely remained.

What have largely remained, the fat wishbones? if you think the fat wishbones have largely remained you're mad.

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/9698458/mclaren

comparison shot at the bottom. They are 100% gone, there are still wishbones because you'd struggle without having them at all.

I won't of course laugh at Button going a bit slower on the supersoft than Magnussen did, in much warmer/faster conditions having had way way more laps in the car.... okay, I won't laugh much

EDIT:- PS Mercedes have confirmed to press they have used a single engine throughout all of preseason testing.... Mclaren have used a couple just for this third test, maybe a third after yesterday. It sounds like a couple others died throughout testing but it's hard to know which have been brought back to life. They stick a new engine in for the day to day ability to run(or attempt to) but they can send the engines back and potentially fix them. Either way, Mercedes reliability again seems miles beyond Renault, even further beyond Honda currently, Ferrari look strong on reliability again though.

 

[Kulealshi]

The only thing interesting about Red Bull's testing program this year is the snazzy camouflage livery. I wonder what livery they will have for Melbourne.

 

[drunkenmaster]

SHould know in the next 2-3 days max. THey are doing the media testing days, both of them apparently. Somehow when I was thinking about who might want to use their test days before Melbourne I completely forgot that RBR obviously had to as they have no footage of their car without the daft livery. So yeah, their livery will be on show I think maybe tomorrow, they are doing the media test this week though and as they have to get to Australia in two weeks it will almost certainly be monday/tuesday.

 

[Kulealshi]

And it's a wrap! All official testing is done minus media filming days. Just two weeks to go, can't wait!

1 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1m23.063s
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m23.469s +0.406
3 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1m24.023s +0.960
4 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 1m24.527s +1.464
5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1m24.638s +1.575
6 Sergio Perez Force India 1m25.113s +2.050
7 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m25.186s +2.123
8 Jenson Button McLaren 1m25.327s +2.264
9 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1m28.272s +5.209

 

[cuke2u]

I realise they're not exactly top of everyone's pile in terms of development at the moment, but I'm pretty sure McLaren's wealth of R&D showed they improved the 2014 car, hence why they largely remained.

I also heard ted saying they'd gone for now but could make a reappearence. Of course, as Mclaren have all the data, which we haven't, in the wind tunnel that show what the impact was in terms of drag versus downforce they will make an informed decision.

One of the statisics over all the tests is that, apparently, mercedes have used only one engine. So that's some mileage it has done. Obviously too there was a race between button and and mag, not...

 

[Duke]

I don't need to read up about them, too much downforce is bad, I didn't say they didn't work(in terms of producing downforce) but I did believe it was fairly obvious they would be drag inducing and as a result useless. They didn't work well in terms of downforce produced for the level of drag produced. If they did work they'd be on there, it's really that simple. From a purely downforce view they worked, for a good addition to the car when drag and downforce are equally important, they were crap.

They won't bring them back this year except maybe, just maybe, somewhere like Monaco. Everything that worked well last year has pretty much been copied. They see what everyone else does, have a play with any good ideas, see if it works with their car then copy it if they can. Big new concept completely ignored and removed on the car that actually came up with it.... you can bank on it being 99% certain it sucked in general.

They didn't produce downforce in the way you are probably thinking - they produced low pressure which sucked the car to the ground behind it.

The design has clearly gone down a different route this time but it will help overall that thier front wing might actually be up to scratch this time.

 

[Duke]

Day 4 pics - https://drive.google.com/folderview...1GaEdxdW4xNk9adVlQWFJtTm54aTlfbXM&usp=sharing

 

[Dimi]

Should be an interesting season in terms of the positions behind the Mercs. Ferrari, Red Bull & Williams seem to be fairly close from what's been said by trackside observers at these tests.

 

[SS-89]

Looks like another season of hamilton vs rosberg. No surprise really but would have been a greater spectacle if the other teams had closed the gap (it may have even widened). Hopefully next year! For now I'm hoping ferrari can at least scrap for 3rd.

 

[Flibster]

Even if there's only a half second gap between the soft and supersoft tyres, that's certainly ominous. Wasn't even a 3 lap quali sim for the Mercs.

 

[Guerrilla]

Yea looks like it could be Mercs to lose, barring any reliability issues which you think they'd of ironed out by now.

 

[Mr Jack]

Looks like Rosberg will be in with a shot again. If the other cars are, again, too far back to challenge Mercedes he'll be able to reliably pick up 2nd places behind Hamilton and it'll go down to whether there's enough of a luck and reliability difference to let him sneak past his more gifted team mate.