So the first pre season test has gotten under way at Jerez this morning. So I thought we could use a thread.
One Red Flag so far as Ericcson Spun his Sauber.
Mercedes straight in on a brilliant pace at the top of the times
Printable View
So the first pre season test has gotten under way at Jerez this morning. So I thought we could use a thread.
One Red Flag so far as Ericcson Spun his Sauber.
Mercedes straight in on a brilliant pace at the top of the times
Line ups for day one
Mercedes – Nico Rosberg
Red Bull – Daniel Ricciardo
Williams – Valtteri Bottas
Ferrari – Sebastian Vettel
McLaren – Fernando Alonso
Toro Rosso – Carlos Sainz Jr
Lotus – Pastor Maldonado
Sauber – Marcus Ericsson
http://cdn.images.autosport.com/edit...1422778545.jpg
Red Bull are sporting a groovy camouflaged livery for Testing. I reckon it should be kept. :p
Mercedes has already set the pace today.
http://cdn.images.autosport.com/edit...1422780734.jpg
and what are people's thoughts on Sauber. Great livery IMO compared to the grey they have had in recent years
http://cdn.images.autosport.com/edit...1422781109.jpg
Wow. Rosberg with 100 laps up already. Impressive early reliability from Mercedes.
time to come out of hibernation
I know the feeling :p
I barely post during the off season.
Aka CamoBull. The ROS with 150 laps today. Wow, what a monster effort!Quote:
Originally Posted by steveaki13
Here's a clip of what the new Macca sounds like. I know they've had their gremlins so far, but this thing just sounds nazty! http://www.motorsport-magazin.com/fo...ren-honda.html
I take that back. The ROS total laps day 1? 157!
ALO? 6
I thought the grey was fine, but I like the shape of the new car. All the new cars look terrific with the low noses.Quote:
Originally Posted by steveaki13
Yeah, I have kind of missed the interaction. Aside from one or two misunderstandings last year here was really good, and now I know who to avoid! I think we have a good community we can build on.Quote:
Originally Posted by steveaki13
I've given up on Indycar forums because the fans suck. Posting on Indycar forums is like going out to dinner at a nice restaurant that's full of screaming, rabid children. They are always unhappy about every little thing they can find. I think they go out of their way to be unhappy. It is really sad because Indycar racing is jolly damm good, and the sport deserves better fans than it has.
Are RedBull using monochamo to try to hide the fact that their car appears to be last years Mercedes?
Can you think of a better car to copy? ;)
To be honest I think the chassis that RBR had last year was if anything better than the MercQuote:
Originally Posted by Doc Austin
No one else seemed to do anything with a Renault, so you might be right.Quote:
Originally Posted by anfield5
It will be interesting to see how RBR go with no Adrian Newey to lead them. Hopefully for them his genius has rubbed off on the new design team.
Newey essentially trained all those people so I suspect they will be ok. If the new car is problematic I am sure Newey will come back for as long as it takes to get them competitive.
Here's the only video I could find from the test......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hliGQ6_Aoh0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpHwEFGlMQIQuote:
Originally Posted by Doc Austin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5QzSgLIOWE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftmTAaY3pIA
He was in Jerez giving interviews to the press about the car yesterday, I wonder how big a "step back" he has really taken.Quote:
Originally Posted by anfield5
Haven't really analyzed properly of what is going on.
But guess that Mercedes is probably going to dominate again.
McLaren-Honda was always in for a slow start. Let's see how much can they iron out issues and improve for the start of the season. They have the steepest learning curve.
It is never easy to replace geniuses. Otherwise all the students of a genius would also be genuises. But it really doesn't work like that in the real world - there are a few geniuses and usually students to not match up to that talent.Quote:
Originally Posted by anfield5
Having said that, Red Bull should still do reasonably fine. But it may not be enough to do anything against Mercedes GP, sadly.
---
To be honest. I must add I have never been so unexcited about the start of a new season/testing/etc. Because I feel that nothing interesting is going to happen this year and mostly a continuation of the 'same old' from last year. Everything is too "predictable". Mercedes will win anyway. Behind them we have the usual strong teams. And lower down the field our small privateer teams, who lack finances and struggle to survive.
Honours even in the first round of the battle of the champions at McLaren - 6 laps each
I hope Alonso doesn't end up regretting his move to McLaren. It will be just his luck if Ferrari have managed to get their act together for this year.
The cars sounded quite good in the trackside video on the BBC F1 page. I can't decide whether they sound different from last year, or if it's just because they are being recorded in isolation each time.
What times Were they doing last year in testing at Jerez ,and was it similar to Vettel,s Ferrari,s times of this year.
Impressed by Mercedes laps so far.Dark horses could be RB and Ferrari ,but with all the sandbagging that goes on in testing ,we won't know the true potential until Australia.
Are Williams going to spring a surprise ,would love to see Lotus competitive again too
I know Nico was 4 seconds quicker this year, than the fastest time set at first test last year.
But then, no one did much in the way of running at all last year.
Steve
I don't think Williams is a surprise. Based on the form last year they are expected to be around "best of the rest" group behind Mercedes anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by driveace
Lotus could be a dark horse indeed. After all they have got better engines than last year. So it is the matter of how good their chassis now is, and also integration with power unit.
Good to see Sauber looking fast. Following on from last years disaster and with one promising rookie and one erm.... 1 year veteran (read hugely disappointing 2014) driver inn the team, they can hopefully be competitive at least with Force India, Toleman etc this season
I keep hearing rumours of a Caterham or Marussia turning up in Oz in some form. I assume now this is completely out of the question and we will end up with just 18 cars this season.
Which makes me unbelievably sad.
Caterham's web site is a wee bit enigmatic, in that there is no news update since the 2 day Abu Dhabi test last year, but they have an active countdown clock to the start of the Australian GP running. The administrators looking after things are still saying that there are three interested parties looking to buy and run the team.
Marussia cancelled the wind up auction because there was apparently a buyer ready to talk, howener the factory has already been bought by the Haas team who are due on the grid next season, and it is really difficult to find any offcial statements from them re a buyer.
I think we can pretty safely write those two off. Sad, but they are probably gone.Quote:
Originally Posted by steveaki13
Right now I would take 18 cars. I'm a bit concerned that force India won't make it.
Yeah I think Marussia and Caterham were never likely to recover. We will find out, what is the situation with Force India, but they are inherently a stronger team and should make it. If they didn't, it would be a huge blow.
I can't remember there being such an overwhelming pre-season favourite as Mercedes now. Already before winter testing it seemed like a consensus that they are going to walk it again.
So the main hope for the season is that hopefully there is at least a good competition behind them. Most likely between Red Bull, Ferrari, Williams and we are yet to properly find out, what can the likes of Lotus and McLaren deliver. Or even Force India.
Sauber's times are nice and it is a good sign if both Ferrari-powered teams are going well. It may mean the power unit has become more competitive for 2015. But I don't really expect miracles from Sauber - if they can get points from time to time they will have done well. Toro Rosso will probably be somewhere they have always been.
Another innovation from Red Bull:
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/live-experie...omclarkson.jpg
Their car cover now has a sheet under the car, to stop the rest of the pitlane seeing the floor of the car when it's craned off the recovery truck.
Well, that didn't work.
Here's today's times. I know it is just testing, but Ferrari sure looks good.
1 7 Kimi Raikkonen Scuderia Ferrari 1:20.841 105 2 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1:22.019 111 3 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG 1:22.172 116 4 33 Max Verstappen STR-Renault 1:22.553 97 5 19 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1:23.116 73 6 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Mercedes 1:23.802 53 7 26 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull Racing 1:23.975 63 8 22 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 1:27.660 35
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/je...-lead-the-pack
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doc Austin
If Ferrari are as fast as appears, Fernando will kick himself in the air.
Just like Maldonado did, when he realized, how Williams and Lotus were going in the 2014 winter testing.Quote:
Originally Posted by steveaki13
Some people are prone to making wrong career decisions... But what can you do. Emotions can get very high in this game of high stakes. Alonso got very frustrated at Ferrari and couldn't stay longer with a straight face. But he must have known McLaren-Honda package would not guarantee him anything. More like even a longer shot at the top.
Maybe Jenson is kicking himself for nor retiring.
Times from this test are really not relevant to anything.
Sure it is really encouraging for the Ferrari powered teams to be running at the front, but what is more encouraging for them is the number of laps they have managed to complete.
Second and third tests will be more telling re where teams are truly at for the start of the season.
McLaren will be slightly disappointed with the laps they have done, but they have said all along that the first test was little more than a shakedown session for them. IF they are still struggling to get laps in in a few weeks time, then they, Honda and their drivers will start to get a bit edgy.
Did the Mcs not run at Silverstone like Mercedes did before going out to Jerez ?
I honestly think 1.20s are not the true pace of the Mercedes ,when they throw the sand bags out they will do 1.18s
Ferrari have even stated that the other teams are masking their true performance.
You can understand why Force India decided to save some coin by missing this test
As of two days ago, Autoweek was claiming that Force India did not even have their tubs yet.
http://autoweek.com/article/formula-...ncial-collapse