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

SS-89 · 2 Mar 2015 at 10:50

Overall mileage across the 12 days of pre-season testing - by power unit:
1. Mercedes, 3,996 laps - 18,378 km
2. Ferrari, 2,427 laps - 11,132 km
3. Renault, 2,149 laps - 9,886 km
4. Honda, 380 laps - 1,751 km

Mclaren/Honda are going to have to a pull a rabbit out of the hat to be ready in 2 weeks.

Mr Jack · 2 Mar 2015 at 11:33

Just for comparison to SS-89's numbers, here are the 2014 values

1. Mercedes 17,994 km
2. Ferrari 10,214 km
3. Renault 8,743 km

So despite having fewer teams running this year, all three existing engine manufacturers did more laps than last year. And the comparison of Renault last year to Honda this year shows up their problems. They managed more miles than Red Bull alone last year - just - but the engine itself has had far less testing.

Shimmy · 2 Mar 2015 at 11:40

Transpires that Mercedes only used one engine throughout winter testing.
Although some bits were refreshed.

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/1...sed-just-one-engine-during-pre-season-testing

this_is_gav · 2 Mar 2015 at 13:31

Shimmy said:
Transpires that Mercedes only used one engine throughout winter testing.
Although some bits were refreshed.

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/1...sed-just-one-engine-during-pre-season-testing

Trigger's brush of the motor racing world.

Kulealshi · 2 Mar 2015 at 13:35

this_is_gav said:
Trigger's brush of the motor racing world.

"This power unit has had 22 new MGU-K's and 18 new ERS-K components in its lifetime"

SKILL · 2 Mar 2015 at 13:35

Another interesting snippet on the McLaren mileage was that Force India in the VJM-08 did almost as much (~50km less) in 2.5 days than McLaren managed all winter, including some decent length runs.

As far as I can remember McLaren's longest run was around 13 laps, and really didn't show anything close to pace, really not looking good for them...

this_is_gav · 2 Mar 2015 at 13:52

SKILL said:
As far as I can remember McLaren's longest run was around 13 laps, and really didn't show anything close to pace, really not looking good for them...

I don't whether to be concerned for them or not. Clearly the couldn't give a damn about this year - they want to be close to Mercedes by year's end, and that's their only goal. Apparently they still haven't turned the engine up to 11, and in that sense there's an awful lot of potential on tap. They've designed a car and engine package that looks to promise a lot later on. And I think F1 needs that, because none of the other teams have the potential to even threaten Mercedes.

The problem is, how many power units will they have used by the point where the package is stronger? If they're starting from the back at every other race, they'll be way down the pitlane in 2016 and it will be a PR disaster for Honda. Is that too much of a price to pay for trying to fast-track your way to the front?

It's going to have a knock on effect for other manufacturers considering F1 too. Even after the 2014 initial issues settled down and the experience was learned from that, Honda have had a worse time than even Renault did last year. It's clearly a horrendous job designing these stupidly complex units and it's testament to Mercedes that they did such a fantastic job out of the box last year (front wing excluded) to be as strong and reliable as they were, and are possibly even further ahead now (certainly than Renault) than they were at that point!

What incentive is there for the likes of VAG or Toyota to enter F1 now? In all likelihood Mercedes would trample all over them until the rules change again and everything is once more up in the air.