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

"if you disregard the first laps"...

Stopped reading there tbh. Its just typical journos making massive 'things' out of whatever they can in testing to try and make stories.

I expect if you tried hard enough you could take Manor's 3 best sector times, their fastest speed trap times, combined into a theoretical lap, applied a factoring based on an assumption for fuel load and a delta for assumed tyre wear, added in an offset for weather and a ratio for driver skill, and produce a result that says they have done a lap time that would put them on pole in last years race.
 
drunkenmaster said:
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.
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Pirelli have mandated that all tyres be 5psi higher than last year as well.
 
The race simulation also doesn't account for traffic which there is significantly less of during testing and won't hold you up unlike racing conditions, never mind yellow flags.
 
I love how people see patterns because they want to
Or more.. To make this seem any sort of basis to predict performance

It's only very gross differences that are clear
So many variables and deception there really is no point

But something had to be said.

When you need to qualify your findings with.. If, if, if and, when... You know you're clutching at the proverbial straw
 
Kimi Bingo :D

0ugFdCB.jpg
 
Interesting interview and article (http://as-web.jp/news/info.php?c_id=1&no=71278) with Satoshi Nakamura, Honda Chief Engineer, that mentions how Honda had an issue with the intake (or section of the intake) at the start of the first test which resulted in them having to detune/reduce the performance of the PU for the entire test as they couldn't get a new part delivered in time.
Supposedly they're running the new part now (second test), although there's conflicting information that suggests it won't be ready until Melbourne.

This would, to some extent, go towards explaining last weeks performance (arguable it doesn't explain the few reliability issues they had) although they've still got a massive amounts of work ahead of them before they're in a position to compete with the main pack :(
 
413x said:
I love how people see patterns because they want to
Or more.. To make this seem any sort of basis to predict performance

It's only very gross differences that are clear
So many variables and deception there really is no point

But something had to be said.

When you need to qualify your findings with.. If, if, if and, when... You know you're clutching at the proverbial straw
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At the end of all testing you can presume every team did a 'fast' run and if they ever did a race length stint with hot pitstops(ie t not disappearing into the pits where they could refuel) then you can probably compare the performance in each stint.

Even then the cars may be running 90% to make sure they get miles and use models and extrapolation to determine their own real performance, or they can add 15kg of fuel or remove 15kg of ballast in the car to be over/underweight if they want to. The reality is though that they won't run too far over or under weight and if you do full race length then you have a minimum amount of fuel. So if across 60 laps Merc is average 1 second faster in each stint I doubt weight difference would make up that gap. If the gap is 0.5 seconds... it could be closer than we think with the faster car being a little underweight or slower car running a little lower power or the reverse and it's more like a 1 second gap.

The daily crap of "hey, someone goes fastest".. is entirely meaningless, someone went fasts on the first day with say a 1:25, then someone does a 1:21 tomorrow. There are comparisons to be made but only after testing is finished because at that point you can make a few basic assumptions, everyone did a fast lap or even maybe one car is so unreliably that after all testing they were too scared to do a full speed run.... which itself suggests that engine isn't going to fair well for the season.
 
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Really good day at the testing today - just back in the hotel. Lots of track time from the majority of the teams all day, with the exception of Haas - we'll hopefully see them tomorrow.

It was pretty difficult to really try and assess where the teams are at the moment so I'll just pass on some observations:

- Mercedes just look quick and within themselves. The car is quick, never fidgets in a corner or under braking, and the engine sounds perfectly in tune. Both drivers were short-shifting a lot and they look to have more torque lower down the rev range
- Ferrari look like they're trying a bit harder than Mercedes. Vettel was regularly taking more kerbs today and generally pushing harder. The Ferrari engine is equally good, but interestingly much quieter than all the other engines. Sounds silky smooth
- Renault and Torro Rosso look pretty even - Magnusson and Sainz ran for long stints in the afternoon at pretty much equal pace
- McLaren looked good at times, terrible at others. The car looks very stable but the engine is very much hit and miss. I assume they were trying out different mappings but at times, particularly off-throttle, it just sounded dreadful. After a gear change it sounds like the engine revs drop, then drop again before picking up. When running well the Honda engine is easily the loudest of the whole field
- Sauber were completely unremarkable. The engine doesn't sound as good as Ferrari's
- Manor were pretty much the same as Sauber. The orange livery looks nice, as there's some subtle depth to it
- Red Bull - team of the day for me. Amazingly planted on the high speed turns 4 and 5, and Renault engine doesn't sound half bad either - feels like it is working well. Their livery is absolutely brilliant. I didn't like the press shots at all, but once you see it live it really works so, so well. Very vivid and great contrast against the shiny other cars
- Williams - looked better than I'd expected but didn't really stand out. They did a late run on the super soft orange tyres but clearly still were not really pushing hard

Full access to all the circuit, which was a nice change from Jerez. Non-alcohol beer only though, and few concessions open. It was actually pretty quiet there today and really nice and easy to move around. 21 degrees and sunny all day - track temperature mid-afternoon was up to around 37 degrees.

I won't go through all the photos until I'm back in the UK (there's some serious drinking to be done in Barcelona tonight!) but here are a few for you.

Jenson Button by Greg Kingston, on Flickr

Nico Rosberg by Greg Kingston, on Flickr

Kevin Magnusson by Greg Kingston, on Flickr

Barcelona day two testing by Greg Kingston, on Flickr

Barcelona day two testing by Greg Kingston, on Flickr

Carlos Sainz by Greg Kingston, on Flickr

Pascal Wehrlein by Greg Kingston, on Flickr

Valtteri Bottas by Greg Kingston, on Flickr
 
Cool, so the Honda is more powerful than the Mercedes, and the Mercedes teams will be sitting ducks during the races, being over taken down straights left, right and centre.

/testing waffle
 
Extremely foreboding in terms of Mercedes. Rosberg did a 'qualifying' run yesterday and in doing so registered one of the lowest in the speed traps, today Hamilton does the same. They are almost certainly(99.9% chance) running their qualifying with extra fuel and no where near max engine output. They are learning about tires at max pace by pushing hard in corners but taking time out of the lap by going significantly slower than they otherwise could down the straights and their times are still beating everyone comfortably.

Renault teams do appear to be hitting WAY higher in speed traps than they achieved last year which really does indicate a good step forward. Ferrari engines appear to be doing ago in that regard. TR appear to have taken a step forward in straight line speed also though a much smaller step, still stronger than last years Renault for them.

TR look to have good reliability which shouldn't be a surprise with the most tested engine on the grid, but if Renault have made a bigger step forward than anyone thought they could by now, they might struggle this year. I think they'll gain a bunch of places due to reliability though.
 
Skeeter said:
Cool, so the Honda is more powerful than the Mercedes...
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Strange how you singled out Honda yet Ferrari and Renault powered teams are quicker in the traps than both Mercedes and Honda; it's almost as if you have something against McLaren/Honda ;)

But, you missed out the usual "They're all dooooomed!" and how Ron Dennis should be cancelling the Honda contract and eBaying for Pinto engines so only 2/10 for effort :p:D

drunkenmaster said:
Extremely foreboding in terms of Mercedes.
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How so?
I think everyone knows it's going to be a whitewash (or should that be silver and green-wash?) for Mercedes this season and they'll suffer very few problems.
 
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To me it sounds like Merc are even further ahead, I'm not completely surprised but putting the best times up on a tire while running maybe 15kph slower down the straight, which suggests lower power mode and lower acceleration down the whole straight, is crazy.
I think they are sandbagging more this year than last year and with more complaining about domination they felt hte need to hide their increase in pace more this year.
 
Looks horrible, plus that design is not going to stop smaller fragments of debris or carbon fiber hitting the driver's helmet.
 
IPBA said:
Looks horrible, plus that design is not going to stop smaller fragments of debris or carbon fiber hitting the driver's helmet.
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Smaller fragments won't do much damage anyway. This looks like it would have stopped Massa's injury a few years back for example so probably worth it
 
Still not convinced at what those halo devices are trying to achieve from a safety perspective.

The spring that fell off Barrichello's car at Hungary would still have good odds at going into Massa's helmet.

I fear what happens to that halo in the event of a car hitting the back of a "recovery tractor" like Bianchi did at Suzuka.

But it could stop another fatality involving wheels, like Henry Surtees' one at Brands Hatch
 
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