F1 Testing 2016: Week 2 Barcelona (1st - 4th)

CaptainRAVE · 1 Mar 2016 at 19:18

Probably next year too.

smr · 1 Mar 2016 at 19:24

Glaucus said:
Another mega mileage day from Mercedes.
Can see them being even further out of touch this year, roll on first race so we can see truly were everyone stacks.

Sounds uber exciting. Another season of the Merc drivers not actually racing against any cars. When you're 10-30 seconds ahead of everyone else in an F1 game it's the most boring thing in the world, sometimes I drop back on purpose just so I can have some entertainment and actually race other cars

elmuzzy66. · 1 Mar 2016 at 19:35

Skeeter said:
Everyone said last year that the Honda sounded nice and growly in testing, which later transpired to be because it was broke.

How do we not know that this engine isn't just screwed? It certainly doesn't sound like a V6 turbo "should", which given Hondas inability to make one that works so far, isn't nessasarily a good thing.

Went to Jerez last year and the Honda engine note was never in the category of nice, maybe nonce but never, ever was it nice.

this_is_gav · 1 Mar 2016 at 21:06

Glaucus said:
Another mega mileage day from Mercedes.
Can see them being even further out of touch this year, roll on first race so we can see truly were everyone stacks.

Bottas has said that he thinks they (Williams) are in the ball park with Ferrari and Red Bull, and it's obviously very worrying from a competition point of view if Ferrari have dropped back towards Red Bull.

It's only testing, and we can only read so much into things, but when rival drivers are saying such things about Mercedes it does not bode well. It's bad enough that Mercedes have racked up a frankly staggering number of miles - I can't say I've ever seen a team look as imperious after testing than Mercedes have this year.

Skeeter · 1 Mar 2016 at 21:07

elmuzzy66. said:
Went to Jerez last year and the Honda engine note was never in the category of nice, maybe nonce but never, ever was it nice.

By 'everyone' I mean 'smr'

smr · 1 Mar 2016 at 22:36

Skeeter said:
By 'everyone' I mean 'smr'

Clearly you arent on any proper racing forums then.

smr · 2 Mar 2016 at 10:20

Andrew Benson

Chief F1 writer

It has been a torrid past year for McLaren and engine partner Honda, but is a light emerging at the end of the tunnel? Fernando Alonso was third fastest on Tuesday. OK, that was still 1.7secs off the Mercedes, but it’s a major step forward from where McLaren were last year.

Dig a little deeper, and the picture continues to look promising. Correcting the times for our best knowledge of fuel and tyres, Alonso was equal fourth quickest with Valtteri Bottas’s Williams, behind the two Mercedes and Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari.

Analyse the sector and speed-trap times and the McLaren chassis continues to look very impressive. Alonso was second fastest to Nico Rosberg in the twisty final sector; third fastest in sector two that comprises the middle part of the lap and the back straight; and recorded the third fastest speed at the first sector line - which is after the 150mph Turn Three and just before the braking for Turn Four.

The engine’s power output is still obviously a problem - the McLaren was slowest of all at the finish line and second slowest at the end of the pit straight. But at least things appear to be going in the right direction.

Nismo · 2 Mar 2016 at 10:31

I'm amazed he's still got a job now that the BBC has even less F1 coverage.

Have they relegated him to a closet in the BBC basement yet?

Greboth · 2 Mar 2016 at 10:38

So, based on the analysis, McLaren are going to roughly repeat last year: qualify well but then due to lack of top speed get DRS passed by almost everyone down the straights. Still positive news and hopefully they can start to regularly finish in the top 10.

smr · 2 Mar 2016 at 10:39

the fastest recorded speed last year was 326, fastest of the test this year is 326 - i expect they've made an improvement they just havent turned the PU up full wick yet.

Skeeter · 2 Mar 2016 at 10:54

An article from Andrew Benson, that attempts to accurately assess pace based on detailed analysis of times and speeds set during pre-season testing...

Could that get any less credible?

deuse · 2 Mar 2016 at 11:05

I was hoping to see Hamilton on softs today. But it doesn't look like he will

CaptainRAVE · 2 Mar 2016 at 11:31

All McLaren need to do now then is to finish a race.

SoliD · 2 Mar 2016 at 11:55

deuse said:
I was hoping to see Hamilton on softs today. But it doesn't look like he will

1:23:6 so far.

Junglist · 2 Mar 2016 at 12:40

God I hate testing. I always look into it to make predictions but I know you cant draw anything conclusive from it.

Hamilton was 6 tenths down on Nico's time. is he holding something back, did they have different fuel loads!? I NEED ANSWERS!

Glad to see Mclaren at the pointy end

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Not really related to testing but not worth a new thread....

Fernando Alonso says he almost switched to Mercedes last year in a move that would have involved Lewis Hamilton replacing him at Ferrari.

As it became clear during the 2014 season that all was not well with Alonso and Ferrari’s relationship, rumours emerged that the Maranello team and Mercedes might do a sensational driver swap.

“It was tried. Yes, yes, there was this offer,” Alonso told Cadena Ser radio.

“There were the circumstances for this idea but in that moment Ferrari didn’t want it. We were in full negotiations to renew with me until 2019, so in the end Ferrari did not convince me and I went to McLaren-Honda,” he said.

“I don’t know if Hamilton knew about it,” said Alonso.

Source

Reckon there is any truth in that?

Crippled Potato · 2 Mar 2016 at 12:45

Skeeter said:
An article from Andrew Benson, that attempts to accurately assess pace based on detailed analysis of times and speeds set during pre-season testing...

Could that get any less credible?

IMO Andrew Benson is one of the worst F1 reporters out there. I'm not sure why I keep going to BBC F1 anymore, there's hardly anyone left.

alx · 2 Mar 2016 at 12:57

JunglistE said:
God I hate testing. I always look into it to make predictions but I know you cant draw anything conclusive from it.

Hamilton was 6 tenths down on Nico's time. is he holding something back, did they have different fuel loads!? I NEED ANSWERS!

Glad to see Mclaren at the pointy end

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edit
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Not really related to testing but not worth a new thread....

Reckon there is any truth in that?

Wouldn't surprise me, but I couldn't see why Hamilton would ever agree to move to Ferrari when the Mercedes was/is so dominant.

Kimi · 2 Mar 2016 at 13:02

Im sure thats nonsense, Alonso would have done anything to get into that car so hes either lying or Mercedes didn't want him. Ferrari wanted him gone and have always been after Vettel

reef · 2 Mar 2016 at 13:18

Anyone see this from Autosport this morning?:

Talk of race simulations from Pirelli not so long ago gives us a chance to revisit Hamilton’s full race run conducted yesterday afternoon.

It was a three-stopper (soft/medium/medium/medium), and if you disregard the first laps, and credit the same time for each in-lap/pitstop/outlap sequence, Hamilton’s run yesterday was a whopping 1m41.891s faster than Nico Rosberg’s race-winning time from the 2015 Spanish GP.

Now, that doesn’t mean the 2016 Mercedes would have won last year’s race by a over lap (Hamilton didn’t use the hard tyres, for example), but it at least hints at a decent step from Mercedes.

You can't do a direct comparison of course as there's too many variables, nor do we know if Rosberg was pushing in the 2015 race as Hamilton was stuck behind Vettel for ages, but its interesting nonetheless.

drunkenmaster · 2 Mar 2016 at 13:36

It's all but impossible to make a comparison here. Track temps are lower than later in the year, tires are entirely thermally limited. The stint length and performance is determined by how hot the tires get. Cooler temps = cooler tires at a given speed = higher pace.

Pace should be different in these conditions(faster), softer tires better able to cope on this track in these cooler conditions and comparing to a race in which one car was held up for so long they weren't pushing.

So much reporting in F1 is dire, Sky are the worst, everything is about inducing as much drama as possible. Benson is awful, Autosport get so much wrong and post so much nonsense. Far too many people have this idea that reporters have to know more than other people and are automatically more believable and understand things better. Some may do, others clearly talk out of their behind, but lately they all seem to believe that fans want drama and gossip rather than real knowledge or showing lots of possibly comparable numbers so they just print stupid pieces like that.

EDIT:- we also know there was a knocking problem within the engine so for the Barca race they were running without the fastest race mode being available, it was fixed in Canada. So they definitely didn't run the race last year using their fastest possible mode during that race even ignoring that they likely backed off. This is testing, that was a race during the season in which they were trying to stretch that engine to Canada for the fix to that knocking problem in the new engine. The more you think about it the more you see the madness of comparing the times and that it should be faster now than in the race last year.