2015 F1 Pre Season Testing Thread

[driveace]

But will Mercedes show ALL their cards ?
They show potential for 3/4 of a lap ,and then coast for the last 1/4
Think the Red Bulls will be nearer the mark when the sh** hits the fan in Australia

[anfield5]

But will Mercedes show ALL their cards ?
They show potential for 3/4 of a lap ,and then coast for the last 1/4
Think the Red Bulls will be nearer the mark when the sh** hits the fan in Australia

You are undoubtedly correct. Merc will follow their own testing path, and if full speed runs are not in the plan, they wont do them. I wouldn't exactly say they are sandbagging, as it serves no purpose, especially if the other teams know they are doing it. Think back to when they were Brawn in 2009. They arrived and blew the opposition into the weeds in testing, then continued to do the same thing for the first half of the season. During testing there was much speculation about them running an illegal car (which is ok in testing) just to fly the flag for the prospective sponsors, but their testing was at race pace. They are doing the reverse now, with a different agenda for their testing.

Usually the final test will see most teams true pace as they are trying to get the final pieces in place before they are shipped over to this side of the world for the Melbourne race.

[kfzmeister]

As for Ferrari being better?
Easy, James Allison.

A few things here: First of all, if you read the Jerez analysis from James Allen, it was heavily opined that Ferrari ran low fuel-Quali trim vs Mercedes heavy fuel-race trim. The Ferrari looked promising and got hype, but when hasn't it in preseason testing? Massa recently verified this to be common every year.

As far as Allison is concerned, he's also benefited from Byrne's input. He's been rumored to consult for the last two seasons.

Now, i know that Allison has not much to do with the PU, and Ferrari look to have found some HP for this year as well. Reports are that the engine has an additional 60-80HP this year. If they were off 75HP last season to Merc, and Merc supposedly has an additional 50 added for this year, then the Ferrari still has a deficit.

I'm sure there are additional things that have gone better for them, but i think it is never just one thing (person) that brings such an improvement. As hard as that pill may be to swallow for some diehard Schumacher or even VET fans.....

[jens]

I don't think anyone doubts that Mercedes is still the car the beat, and comfortably so. The question is what happens behind them. And if Ferrari can genuinely fight against Red Bull and Williams, it would be an improvement over last year, clearly.

[jens]

But will Mercedes show ALL their cards ?
They show potential for 3/4 of a lap ,and then coast for the last 1/4
Think the Red Bulls will be nearer the mark when the sh** hits the fan in Australia

Testing is not a place for showing 'cards' or "sandbagging". These things happen very rarely. You are more likely to see an underfunded small team going for fast laps, but deliberately playing fool and going slowly is wasting time. You have to concentrate on your testing programme and get as much data as you can. Difference in times is explainable by ongoing testing programme. Mercedes doesn't need to "coast" for quarter of a lap - everyone knows that they have the best car anyway. So there is nothing to hide. Except put some blankets on when the car gets back to the garage to hide some details.... But I am unsure, how much does even that help nowadays, because a photographer with an eagle eye can catch all details, when the car is out on track doing lap-times.

[AndyL]

I don't know if anyone saw the "development special" on Sky last night, but they had an ex-Ferrari engineer on there who had an interesting theory about Ferrari's and Sauber's pace. Given that it was Ferrari who instigated the whole business about not having to homologate their engine before the start of the season, he speculated that they might still be running their 2014 engine, or a lightly modified version, and were therefore able to run it at full power, while Mercedes would have been more cautious for the first test with a brand new motor.

[airshifter]

A few things here: First of all, if you read the Jerez analysis from James Allen, it was heavily opined that Ferrari ran low fuel-Quali trim vs Mercedes heavy fuel-race trim. The Ferrari looked promising and got hype, but when hasn't it in preseason testing? Massa recently verified this to be common every year.

As far as Allison is concerned, he's also benefited from Byrne's input. He's been rumored to consult for the last two seasons.

Now, i know that Allison has not much to do with the PU, and Ferrari look to have found some HP for this year as well. Reports are that the engine has an additional 60-80HP this year. If they were off 75HP last season to Merc, and Merc supposedly has an additional 50 added for this year, then the Ferrari still has a deficit.

I'm sure there are additional things that have gone better for them, but i think it is never just one thing (person) that brings such an improvement. As hard as that pill may be to swallow for some diehard Schumacher or even VET fans.....

I have to agree that testing often doesn't show the hand very well due to the type of testing and fuel loads.

And I would agree even more that one person usually doesn't have huge influence on the team. In the case of Ferrari, I think it is just as important (if not more so) to look at who is NOT on the team. They have been a capable team for years, being misdirected and pressured from the people driving the show IMO. And as much as I admire Alonso for being the "never give up" guy that always gets 110% from the car, he often did so at the expense of the car being set up for him and disregarding the other driver.

One thing is for sure. With yet another season of WDC drivers at the helm, the pressure is on the team to fix the car. Likewise for McLaren having Alonso in the seat and Honda money behind them.


Though I expect Mercedes to remain on top, I seriously doubt it will be another walk in the park. The other teams have had a long time to figure out what they did wrong. I hope for a much more competitive 2015.

[Roamy]

well fred is sucking wind at the moment - they need to get that rice rocket dialed in !!!

[AndyL]

From f1today.net:

Lewis Hamilton won't be testing anymore today. The reigning world champion is feeling unwell. Mercedes calls Pascal Wehrlein back from Force India to take over testing duties from Hamilton.

I hope Force India have a substitute, otherwise their testing programme will go from bad to worse!

[AndyL]

I hope Force India have a substitute, otherwise their testing programme will go from bad to worse!

Apparently Perez is on hand so it's worked out OK for them. They've got Mercedes' money for running Wehrlein and now they've got their own driver back in the car.