Soldato
I fully expect Haas to be laying down 100+ laps by the 4th day of testing.
F1 Testing 2016: Week 1 Barcelona (22nd - 25th)
- Thread starter Shimmy
- Start date
I fully expect Haas to be laying down 100+ laps by the 4th day of testing.
Yep. Lots of stuff like that. It wasn't so much incompetence from the FIA, it was all based around strategically selecting teams that would be allies in the event of a breakaway. They deliberately avoided selecting anyone who might have some clout behind them, or who were big enough to stand on their own feet, and instead chose 3 (4, USF1 never even made it) lap dogs who would be obedient.
Haas is the exact opposite of this in every way, so it will show what could have been had the FIA selected decent entries.
On a side note, customer chassis is the answer, and has been for a long time. The teams need to realise this. If you received the bottom half of the grid, and copy and pasted the top half down, the racing would be so much better.
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The manufacturers would likely be up for it as it would generate some income back into the business but the smaller teams like Williams have always been dead against it. The rules do state 'constructor' so Williams constantly fight any effort to bring about customer chassis proposals.
The rules currently state 'constructor'. They can be changed, and have been different in the past.
Is it still the case that F1 has allowed customer cars for more if its life than it has banned them?
Edit: Customer cars were banned by the Concorde agreement that came into effect for the 1981 season. That means F1 has had 36 years of no customer cars, vs 31 years of them being allowed (from the 1950 start point, although Grand Prix racing goes back a lot further).
Williams only exist in F1 because they were able to first get a foothold on the grid by running a customer Brabham.
Williams would likely be one of the teams who manufacturer and sell chassis anyway, so I'm rather perplexed by their totally rigid position on customer cars.
Is it still the case that F1 has allowed customer cars for more if its life than it has banned them?
Edit: Customer cars were banned by the Concorde agreement that came into effect for the 1981 season. That means F1 has had 36 years of no customer cars, vs 31 years of them being allowed (from the 1950 start point, although Grand Prix racing goes back a lot further).
Williams only exist in F1 because they were able to first get a foothold on the grid by running a customer Brabham.
Williams would likely be one of the teams who manufacturer and sell chassis anyway, so I'm rather perplexed by their totally rigid position on customer cars.
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I think your view of testing is a bit skewed. If they did an all day show live I would be incredibly dull most of the time.
I agree an all day show would be boring. One maybe two shows lasting two hours or so would be great. The action on track, however little, would almost be in the background.
The point I was trying to make was there is surely more for Sky to talk about than the 15-30 mins they give to Ted.
It's not in Sky's hands though. The FOM agreements with the teams ban the live TV broadcasting of testing. Sky got special permission for the 3D test a few years back, as it was primarily a test of the 3D technology.
It's not likely to change either, as the teams don't want their new cars plastered across the world's TVs in HD and slow motion. If they had their way, nobody would be invited to testing and it would all be done behind closed doors.
It's not likely to change either, as the teams don't want their new cars plastered across the world's TVs in HD and slow motion. If they had their way, nobody would be invited to testing and it would all be done behind closed doors.
Unfortunately not.
FOM are the only people who can film and broadcast live F1 footage. The Sky 3D cameras were probably the first non FOM owned kit to be broadcasting live F1 footage for decades (with the possible exception of Japan, do they still use a local broadcaster for filming there?).
I believe Monté Carlo is the only other race to use local TV. Every other race is FOM.
sky and the like would still pay for rights but at a reduced cost, as they don't have exclusivity, and fom would also get the money from online streaming. so overall they get similar money and we get a better package.
Soldato
15 mins to the start of testing
From autosport
"All eight Mercedes powered cars will have exactly the same hardware and performance potential come Melbourne, which is a good step for everyone."
I'm hoping Williams will do better this year.
And just for laughs: who's going to cause the first red flag?
Manor, Force India and the Haas has not hit the track yet.
Ricciardo is the first to set a time - a 1m40.746s which is 5 seconds faster then Merc.
From autosport
"All eight Mercedes powered cars will have exactly the same hardware and performance potential come Melbourne, which is a good step for everyone."
I'm hoping Williams will do better this year.
And just for laughs: who's going to cause the first red flag?
Manor, Force India and the Haas has not hit the track yet.
Ricciardo is the first to set a time - a 1m40.746s which is 5 seconds faster then Merc.
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Soldato
The Mercedes cars all have the same engine (to start the year with) but they will almost certainly not have access to all of the software and maps that Mercedes do.
Caporegime
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Autosport, idiots. For the majority of 2014-15 all Merc powered cars had the same hardware and performance. Only because Merc wanted to test some ideas and get early feedback on them did they go with a new engine for part of last season. So there were two options, keep with the same engine and push development/testing of new parts back, this would have kept them all on the same engine but almost certainly caused the 2016 engine to be slower as a result. Now with the same engine.... none of the Merc customers were a patch on Mercedes themselves, it was zero competition. So Mercedes test a new engine, they are still no competition but as a result 2016 all the customers get a stronger engine? So lose absolutely nothing in 2015 and gain for the entire 2016? The reality is all their customers would be extremely happy about that. If they were remotely competitive with Merc last year it would be a very different situation... but none of them were remotely close.
Williams won't do better this year, in fact I'd say they are boned. They got stuck with a low downforce low drag base car which they haven't updated. The only reason they've been third is down to everyone else sucking, as other teams get on top of their issues and evolve their cars Williams will only move down the grid imho. They don't have the money or personnel to throw away the car and make a brand new higher downforce base car to work from and with likely changes for 2017(maybe 18) dumping big investment into a new car with a very short life is just bad business. They backed themselves into a car with extremely little development possibilities and lucked into other teams having disastrous years with their engines.
Merc already putting in lap after lap, last update already double what the next team have done. Will they match the 157 laps Rosberg did last year on the first day? Already done 18 for the day.
Williams won't do better this year, in fact I'd say they are boned. They got stuck with a low downforce low drag base car which they haven't updated. The only reason they've been third is down to everyone else sucking, as other teams get on top of their issues and evolve their cars Williams will only move down the grid imho. They don't have the money or personnel to throw away the car and make a brand new higher downforce base car to work from and with likely changes for 2017(maybe 18) dumping big investment into a new car with a very short life is just bad business. They backed themselves into a car with extremely little development possibilities and lucked into other teams having disastrous years with their engines.
Merc already putting in lap after lap, last update already double what the next team have done. Will they match the 157 laps Rosberg did last year on the first day? Already done 18 for the day.
Caporegime
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They almost certainly will. As above post, none of the customer teams are the slightest threat to Mercedes themselves.... but are a threat to other teams and the better they do the better Mercedes do(in business terms for the company as opposed to the F1 team themselves). There is no reason at all for Mercedes to want uncompetitive customer cars to be further hampered by weaker engine options, none. There are only benefits from a Williams finishing 5th instead of 7th, Manor finishing 14th instead of 16th, etc. The better they finish the better for the Mercedes brand. None of them have great cars, none of them can compete and none of them have the driver quality Merc have.
With zero threat Merc only stand to gain from giving them the fastest engines possible and only stand to lose from sabotaging their performance. If Williams/FI were actually potentially competitive with Mercedes themselves it would be a different ballgame. But as is stands they are all massively lower budget, no where near the same quality teams that pose zero threat to Merc. In this situation every possible extra point for them is a potential point off their rivals.
Soldato
Hate to say it but that Red Bull looks sweet a.f.
Soldato
I know it's early but the lap count is
Hamilton, 17
Ricciardo, 14
Sainz, 8
Bottas, 7
Palmer, 7
Vettel, 6
Button, 1
Grosjean, 1
Hamilton, 17
Ricciardo, 14
Sainz, 8
Bottas, 7
Palmer, 7
Vettel, 6
Button, 1
Grosjean, 1