F1 Testing 2016: Week 1 Barcelona (22nd - 25th)

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Those rear end , suspension and exhaust layout looks sooo much tidier and cleaner than last season.
 
smr said:
What would be ideal is if Ferrari end testing on top by about an average of 0.2 seconds or something to Merc over these four days.. That way we'll at least have a Championship to watch!
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In testing last year, Merc weren't fastest in any day in the first or second test. In the third test 2 days Williams was fastest and 2 days Merc was fastest.

Ferrari/Sauber were fastest in the first test, Lotus/RBR were fastest in the second test, Mercedes/Williams were fastest in the third test. Kind of nuts that one engine had all the fastest times in a particular test.

Basically, testing times don't mean anything at all. Merc weren't fastest in 10 out of 12 testing days... Sauber were fastest twice, Lotus 3 times and Williams twice... were any on par with Ferrari or Merc?


As it stands today Vettel is mostly doing shorter runs and Hamilton is mostly doing longer runs.
 
Skeeter said:
Vettel is now into the 1:24s. Could we be faster than last year before lunchtime on day 1 of testing? :eek:
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Probably not. While pole was a 1:24.6, testing saw a 1:22.7 due to being able to use softer tyres (Rosberg on super-softs in this case).

Still, Vettel was only on mediums for that time and I guess they've not looking for times yet (fuel adjusted of course, so we won't know squat), just setup work and confirming what the simulations said.
 
Lunch time:

12:02 Laps completed so far:
Hamilton, 65
Bottas, 42
Vettel, 36
Ericsson, 36
Sainz, 35
Button, 34
Celis, 21
Ricciardo, 20
Palmer, 15
Grosjean, 13
Wehrlein, 7
 
this_is_gav said:
Probably not. While pole was a 1:24.6, testing saw a 1:22.7 due to being able to use softer tyres (Rosberg on super-softs in this case).

Still, Vettel was only on mediums for that time and I guess they've not looking for times yet (fuel adjusted of course, so we won't know squat), just setup work and confirming what the simulations said.
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Rosberg was on softs last year, which is what made that time so utterly menacing, it wasn't how far ahead they were, it was being 0.4 seconds ahead while still on the slower tire.

Again, Merc weren't fastest for 10 out of the 12 testing days last year... being fastest only matters if ALL the teams chose to try and go the fastest their car possibly can on the same day and for that matter, the same say 20 minute period on track with the same conditions.


It looks like Button/Mclaren managed to go from around the 22-24lap mark straight up to 35 laps so they did a relatively long run that time.


Meh, I completely forgot before looking through last years times ( http://www.gpupdate.net/en/testresults/1694/formula-1-test-at-circuit-de-catalunya-27-february-2015/ ) that Manor didn't even go to any of the tests. I have no idea what would be considered a good time for them as there is basically no benchmark to compare them against. Going all the way to 2014, they were actually only about 4 seconds behind in Jerez and 3 seconds behind in Bahrain.... which sounds surprisingly good. They've got an improved front wing, the car is tighter than I thought it would be and it's got is it a Williams gearbox and suspension which should be a huge upgrade. Still they don't have much money to get it all working well together. But if the 2014 car can get within 3-4 seconds in testing any more than that behind with fairly big improvements would probably be disappointing.


EDIT:- so Sauber brought the old car with the old engine... so they are basically doing tire testing on basically the same tires... another exciting year at the back for them?
 
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drunkenmaster said:
Rosberg was on softs last year, which is what made that time so utterly menacing, it wasn't how far ahead they were, it was being 0.4 seconds ahead while still on the slower tire.
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Ah yes. The BBC (first link I found) said super-softs, but it was indeed softs. Gotta love Andrew Benson. :rolleyes:

Not that the tyres year on year matter as the tyres change from year to year anyway, but still, it was two seconds quicker than in qualifying.
 
Well at least McLaren have some reliability and merc looking string, already done race distance.

As said times are pretty meaningless. Unless someone does like a 30lqp stint and still thrashes everyone fir the majority of those laps.
 
this_is_gav said:
Ah yes. The BBC (first link I found) said super-softs, but it was indeed softs. Gotta love Andrew Benson. :rolleyes:

Not that the tyres year on year matter as the tyres change from year to year anyway, but still, it was two seconds quicker than in qualifying.
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Which itself was on mediums ;)

Conditions were better in testing than the race weekend, it was 50c track temps in qualifying which would pretty much cause the softs/supersofts to overheat. The cooler temps actually enabled the softs/supersofts to work better than they would have in real qualifying but factoring in compounds they and conditions they weren't far off. Probably 1-1.2 seconds of that gap would be down to the compound difference, some the conditions, some on them having a few new bits and better setup between testing and the race.
 
https://www.periscope.tv/w/1zqKVgrkPOlGB

back for the post lunch action


Haas going to be going out again but limiting top speed. Wing came off down the straight at 320kph so I presume they are going to stay some way below that. honestly it's a Merc engine, they don't really need to know how good it is down the straights, they need to set the car up and get it working into the corners so in testing terms it's probably not a huge deal.
 
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smr said:
But then...
Albert Fabrega ES @AlbertFabrega
"Boullier is confident with the new MP4-31:" we have improved, but we don't yet know how much. There is no drama"

These quotes are about as meaningless as any times posted today. ;)
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Yet you will still defend McLaren to the end, regardless.
 
Surely the fact that the McLaren's best lap is a 1:27:691 should ring alarm bells. The fastest lap in testing last year was a 1:22:792 so unless they have been absolutely brimmed with fuel all day then its not looking great.

There would be absolutely no reason to trundle around slowly unless you couldn't go much faster. Surely they would want to get some fast(ish) laps in just to see the improvement if there was one?
 
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