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Thread: 1st Winter Testing 27th Feb - 2nd March 2017, Barcelona

  1. #721
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    I don't if it was already posted but -
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVc8...U#t=200.950057

    Thoughts pls.

    F1 show biz 2016 :
    Toto - "Ferrari are a real threat" .... Nico - "Awesome, everything is just awesome" .....Lulu - "Mental strength man, lifestyle man, I'll drive at 400% as ever man".... and then suddenly a wild Bull out of nowhere slams into a Ferrari.

  2. #722
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    Quote Originally Posted by Imperatore View Post
    A nice HD vid of the 2017 cars.
    Thx for the vid... like compressing 4 days of testing into non-stop action, just what a deprived F1 fan craves.

    Two
    Forza Ferrari !
    "You need great passion, because everything you do with great pleasure, you do well." - Juan Manuel Fangio

  3. #723
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    Quote Originally Posted by PadGeT View Post
    I don't if it was already posted but -
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVc8...U#t=200.950057

    Thoughts pls.
    Methinks too much McLaren
    Forza Ferrari !
    "You need great passion, because everything you do with great pleasure, you do well." - Juan Manuel Fangio

  4. #724
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    Honda admits mechanical issue a "worry" for F1 season start: March 3, 2017

    https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/h...-start-879232/


    Like if some of us did'nt know this already......sad and dismal for both Honda/Mclaren. Hasegawa evidently will perform the samurai disgrace of seppuku.

  5. #725
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    Quote Originally Posted by Imperatore View Post
    A nice HD vid of the 2017 cars.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpJuAxK-fS4
    First shot of the Ferrari through the corner corner speed is so cool for 2017 and not even "pushing" yet.

    And as a Dutchmen Max sliding

  6. #726
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    Quote Originally Posted by S1000RR View Post
    First shot of the Ferrari through the corner corner speed is so cool for 2017 and not even "pushing" yet.
    cars look like they are on rails.....RB13 looks "squirrel-ly" in the turns IMO. Livery on that STR looks wonderful.

  7. #727
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    Quote Originally Posted by abbottcostello View Post
    Methinks too much McLaren
    Sorry wrong video

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F6J4Io3AsA

    F1 show biz 2016 :
    Toto - "Ferrari are a real threat" .... Nico - "Awesome, everything is just awesome" .....Lulu - "Mental strength man, lifestyle man, I'll drive at 400% as ever man".... and then suddenly a wild Bull out of nowhere slams into a Ferrari.

  8. #728
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    I hope He is really right

    Mercedes admits Ferrari SF70H ‘really fast’

    Toto Wolff says it is too soon to say Mercedes is still ahead of the field in 2017.
    After the first of just two pre-season tests, the conventional wisdom is that Mercedes leads, Ferrari is close behind, and Red Bull is the third force.
    But Mercedes team boss Wolff said: “Since we have these new rules, the teams are just trying to get a lot of mileage to know their cars.
    “At Red Bull, we probably haven’t seen the car that will be in Melbourne. But Ferrari is really fast,” he admitted to Osterreich newspaper.
    McLaren chief Eric Boullier admits that a pecking order is not possible to assess after four days of running, but he said Ferrari’s pace has been “surprising”.
    “We did not expect to see them on the pace with the Mercedes. Red Bull seems a little behind, but we do not have all of the information to judge,” he is quoted by France’s Auto Hebdo.
    “We may know a little more next week, but we really have to wait until Australia.”
    Boullier may be surprised with what he saw in Barcelona, but Red Bull’s Max Verstappen seemed calm.
    “Actually, nothing surprised me here,” he is quoted by Het Laatste Nieuws. “And I think everything is still within reach for us.”

    Read more at http://www.thisisf1.com/2017/03/03/2...S5PzHTzIcro.99

  9. #729
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    Quote Originally Posted by vetalo View Post
    I hope He is really right

    Mercedes admits Ferrari SF70H ‘really fast’

    Toto Wolff says it is too soon to say Mercedes is still ahead of the field in 2017.
    After the first of just two pre-season tests, the conventional wisdom is that Mercedes leads, Ferrari is close behind, and Red Bull is the third force.
    But Mercedes team boss Wolff said: “Since we have these new rules, the teams are just trying to get a lot of mileage to know their cars.
    “At Red Bull, we probably haven’t seen the car that will be in Melbourne. But Ferrari is really fast,” he admitted to Osterreich newspaper.
    McLaren chief Eric Boullier admits that a pecking order is not possible to assess after four days of running, but he said Ferrari’s pace has been “surprising”.
    “We did not expect to see them on the pace with the Mercedes. Red Bull seems a little behind, but we do not have all of the information to judge,” he is quoted by France’s Auto Hebdo.
    “We may know a little more next week, but we really have to wait until Australia.”
    Boullier may be surprised with what he saw in Barcelona, but Red Bull’s Max Verstappen seemed calm.
    “Actually, nothing surprised me here,” he is quoted by Het Laatste Nieuws. “And I think everything is still within reach for us.”

    Read more at http://www.thisisf1.com/2017/03/03/2...S5PzHTzIcro.99
    as much as i'd like to believe that sneaky Toto Wolf....i'm gonna be taking his comments with a grains of salt for the time being.....i still consider the Mercedes a "wolf in sheep's clothing"...if you guys know waht i mean

    i mean, our car looks pretty good, tight and fast through the sweeping corners as others like Gary Anderson has said....but we have to be cautiously optimistic still....i mean it is WINTER testing after all and everyone is doing their OWN thing......not to mention we don't even know fuel loads...etc, etc....

    but i have faith in our team....Forza FERRARI

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    So, read a rumour Ilmor will help Honda with their engine just like they did with Renault last year. Anyone has more info?

  11. #731
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    Quote Originally Posted by S1000RR View Post
    So, read a rumour Ilmor will help Honda with their engine just like they did with Renault last year. Anyone has more info?
    No, just that Mario Illien has officially stopped working for Renault
    #GillesPerSempre #KeepFightingMichael #JB17

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  13. #733
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    Never trust a fart, i mean never trust Wolf. Remember last year when he said Ferrari looked the team to beat etc, untill the Race I believed it when we made a tactical mistake after that it was never the same again.
    Hero's come and go, but legends never die!

  14. #734
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    Quote Originally Posted by SilverSpeed View Post
    Never trust a fart, i mean never trust Wolf. Remember last year when he said Ferrari looked the team to beat etc, untill the Race I believed it when we made a tactical mistake after that it was never the same again.
    I too never trust wolf. he started praising other teams and acted as if they were worried, when he clearly knew how far ahead they were. Hopefully this year we can keep him worried throughout the entire season.

  15. #735
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    I'm taking this with a pinch of salt....


    Ranking the 2017 Formula 1 cars so far

    Half of Formula 1's 2017 pre-season testing is complete. Who starred in the opening bout, and who has plenty of work to do?
    By Gary Anderson Published on Friday March 3rd 2017

    Judging car performance based on testing can be dangerous, given the number of variables in play. The different fuel loads, tyre compounds and run programmes means even to the trained eye it's only possible to pick some pointers towards where things really stand.

    But that doesn't mean you learn nothing. Ferrari is clearly impressive and McLaren-Honda is clearly struggling yet again. By looking at the lap times, spending time watching the cars trackside and tuning in to paddock chatter, you can get a feel of where things stand.

    Talking of watching trackside, it surprises me that this is something team personnel don't do more often. For example, I was watching at Turn 10 on Wednesday and on every lap Romain Grosjean was struggling with the rear on turn-in, and probably complaining about it to the Haas team. If someone had been watching they could have told him he was braking about two car lengths later than anyone else. Things like that matter.

    So how do you draw any conclusions from the lap times? While I don't quite have the same analytical power as all of the teams, there are things you can do to eliminate a little of the fog from the numbers and see things slightly clearer. These are very much tentative conclusions, but they give us some idea of what to expect in the second test and beyond.

    The team ranking below is based on taking the fastest single lap set during the four days of running and then normalising it for tyre compound using steps of 0.6s from medium to soft, 0.4s from soft to super-soft and 0.2s from super-soft to ultra-soft.

    The fuel load is also accounted for, with 0.05s allowed per completed lap on the run on which the time was set. I've also made a small allowance of 0.2s per day for track evolution, which isn't precise but, like the other adjustments, it helps to narrow the window of uncertainty.

    ADJUSTED LAP TIMES
    1 Ferrari 1m19.202s
    2 Mercedes 1m19.555s
    3 Renault 1m20.146s
    4 Red Bull 1m20.353s
    5 Williams 1m20.876s
    6 Sauber 1m21.374s
    7 Haas 1m21.818s
    8 Force India 1m22.059s
    9 Toro Rosso 1m22.156s
    10 McLaren 1m22.448s

    You can read the times however you want, and I'm not saying Ferrari is necessarily 0.353s faster than Mercedes. But using these 'fudge factors' to balance things up, I'm pretty sure that the two of them are running tit for tat at the moment. And with the fact that Valtteri Bottas didn't seem to get the expected improvement in the final sector of his fastest lap using ultra-soft rubber, you could certainly argue there was a bit more to come there.

    To bring into play observations of how the car looked on track and seemed to respond to the different conditions and tyre compounds, now we can look at each team in more detail.



    1 FERRARI

    On track the Ferrari looks like the most consistently stable car of the whole lot, whatever tyre it's on. So much so that, other than by looking at the colouring on the sidewall, I couldn't tell the difference between compounds.

    The car looks very precise, is able to drive a consistent line and has a good balance. I barely saw a Ferrari have a moment, save for when Sebastian Vettel once ran wide at Turn 1.

    Other teams are suggesting Ferrari is running a bit light; they may know something we don't, but from trackside it doesn't look too light and if there is a difference compared to Mercedes, it's not too much.

    So I suspect any fuel-load difference is minimal. If not, and Ferrari is running light, then the team's being pretty stupid because the season is coming up soon and it's better to work on your own problems and improve rather than camouflaging them.

    What we can be sure of is that Ferrari, relative to the rest, has taken a step forward from last year.



    2 MERCEDES

    The Mercedes often looks great on track on the soft tyre. But it didn't look so good on the medium rubber during race runs, and I wonder if there's something there that isn't quite right.

    Mercedes is certainly looking good, but I suspect there's perhaps a little inherent understeer in this car. Normally, going from the soft to the medium tyre you'd expect that to reduce, because you get a little less rear grip, but it wasn't doing that. That doesn't bode so well for when Mercedes is running on the harder tyre compounds.

    But it's true that Bottas could have gone a little quicker on his ultra-soft run, and Lewis Hamilton didn't have the chance to put in that kind of lap.

    Don't get me wrong, the Mercedes still looked like a very good car, but it was strange to see how much the drivers had to be cautious into Turn 3 to be able to get the nose in and then delayed getting on the throttle.



    3 RENAULT

    Renault has without doubt made progress since last year - there was a lot of progress to be made. Out of the bunch of cars behind the big-three teams, the Renault looks as good as any of them.

    In Nico Hulkenberg they have a driver of good experience. The team has had a bit of a resurrection, with some decent people there, and on track it looks reasonable.

    It doesn't have the grip of the Ferrari or the Mercedes, or even the Red Bull, because in the Turn 3 right-hander you can see it using a lot more road. The Renault can carry the speed in, but doesn't have the grip to keep it tucked in. That's usually a good indication that the grip level is just not there.

    It's certainly a solid car, but none of it is anything like as exotic as the top teams. So there's room for optimisation. The fundamentals are there and with a bit of confidence and good development work, Renault will see a reward. It's not going to be in the top three, but it could be strong in the next group.



    4 RED BULL

    The team has said that it's gone for a fairly simple package, whereas Ferrari and Mercedes haven't. Ferrari has worked hard on the sidepod/bargeboard area and Mercedes the diffuser area - obviously both have worked on all areas, but here in particular.

    I don't think Red Bull is going to get away with a simple package, and I don't believe that's really the case - there will be more on the car come the start of the season. So it will be there or thereabouts.

    But although we didn't see the most from this car in Spain, Red Bull probably does need to find that extra two or three tenths to be at the front, and I'm sure that's coming. Red Bull is very good at showing its true form when it needs to.

    On a few occasions coming out of Turn 2 the rear was getting a bit lively. The question I'd ask is, given that the sound of the engine is not up there with the Mercedes and the Ferrari (and the suspicion is it's detuned), what happens when it's at full power? That probably is just about a small balance change.



    5 WILLIAMS

    Williams has had a torrid time. The first day with Felipe Massa was OK. Given there was a big step in performance from the morning to the afternoon, perhaps the team turned the right or took some fuel out. But after the first day, we didn't see the car with an experienced driver in it.

    When Lance Stroll was in the car he was still experimenting. He doesn't leave the car alone - I describe it as having too tight a grip on the steering wheel, trying to feel everything the car's doing. He needs to let the car do the work. Like riding a horse, don't grip the reins too tight, just give it guidance.

    He had two visits to the gravel at Turn 3 and crashed there too, which you accept as par for the course because he's inexperienced. But that's enough, now the line must be drawn - although it should be added that it's possible there was something in the car that was making it difficult, maybe in the set-up or the way the ERS is working.

    The other crash you can just put down to getting on the exit kerb coming out of Turn 5. If you get wide and keep your foot in, something's going to go wrong and he was probably just being too brave.

    Don't write him off; plenty of young drivers have had difficult days like the two Stroll had. He's a good driver and he will get there.

    The car, from what we saw, looks to be about where it should be. Fourth place back is a tight bunch, and Williams should head that pack. But it could be difficult with only one experienced driver.



    6 SAUBER

    This team is definitely out of place in this order, and I suspect the lap time was probably done on the sniff of an oily rag.

    On track it doesn't look like it has the grip level to be sixth, as the car runs wider earlier than most. I'm not saying it's bad, and it seems to have no vices, but it can't carry the corner speed with the driver able to keep the throttle in. There will be a reason for that.

    Sauber is a small team trying to rebuild, and it has a year-old Ferrari engine. I've no doubt its true position is further back, if not at the back, but for now I'm sticking to the ranking creating by the analysis of the times.



    7 HAAS

    The Haas appears to be pretty good, perhaps better than its pace suggests. This is its second year, but it now looks like an established team able to turn up and log good laps, getting through all the work.

    The team's professionalism is clear. Both drivers got a similar opportunity, and Haas looks like it could be well up there in the midfield battle for fourth.

    The interesting question, from my point of view, is the similarities with the Ferrari. The sidepod does have some significant differences, but the treatment of the bargeboards and turning vanes is very similar.

    Haas also made good progress during the test and seemed to get better as it racked up the miles.



    8 FORCE INDIA

    This was a fairly low-profile test for Force India. It did waste time on day one with an exhaust-system problem, and it could definitely have used the third day better by not having development driver Alfonso Celis Jr in the car.

    It's alright having the extra driver in on day one to drive around and see that everything works, but you should have the proper drivers - who'll bring in the points - in the car later on. After all, their ability will bring more performance than Celis's chequebook.

    The car itself looks pretty decent. At first I didn't like the step in the nose-to-chassis interface, but as a performance concept it looks fine. On track the only time I saw it in detail was with Celis at the wheel, so was the variety of lines down to the car or the driver? I think the latter.

    The rest of the time it looked like a good, tidy car with decent balance. But I'd like to see a little more pace. Like I always say, it's hard to hold a good car back.

    It's OK, certainly, but more is needed in the next test.



    9 TORO ROSSO

    Everyone has been keeping themselves to themselves; I'm told the team has a lot of new stuff coming for the next test, and used the first four days to log miles and prove it has a reliable car that reacts to set-up changes.

    But I've also seen technical director James Key with a furrowed brow a few times. I've been a technical director with one of these myself, so I know what can be the cause. I suspect there are a few problems.

    Looking at the car on track, you would say it looked neat and tidy on day one. But it never built from there. Like Force India, the team needs to do more.



    10 McLAREN

    Oh dear. There have obviously been problems with Honda - there was that strange oil-tank problem, and power units that gave up the ghost. So McLaren has lost a lot of track time.

    The engine problems are well documented, and there's work to be done there. But if anyone bothered to look at the car on track, they'd see it's by no means as good as quite a few of the others - and not just the quick ones.


    Watching Fernando Alonso on day three - albeit with the caveat that you never really know if you're watching 'frustrated Fernando' or one who is properly trying - was interesting.

    Through Turns 1, 2 and 3 is quite demanding. If you get through there well, you can be confident the car is under you for the rest of the lap. I doubt Alonso ever felt that. He couldn't get the power on between Turns 2 and 3, and had to be very careful on turn-in. Then he had to be careful applying the throttle.

    So this is not just a very good chassis being let down by the engine - it's about the whole package. Both McLaren and Honda have some serious work to do.

  16. #736
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    Sounds positive

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    When I said last year that is not just the Honda engine, its the whole package, even the chassis isn't that great, it all sucks, all of the McLaren fanboys where out to get me, on a general forum. Top 3 chassis they said, better than Ferrari they said, its just the engine they said. Who's laughing now ...

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    History beckons when somebody who has been very critical in writing Ferrari off of the past 3 to 4 seasons and was right; suddenly start to say positive things about the team based on technical analysis he has written since the car launch.

    We still need to keep our feet on the ground, but Ferrari is on the right track and I hope come mid-year we can all say Ferrari is back!

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    Doesn't matter how good we are, we don't know that yet, the fact that the car is easier to drive is a great thing, even the reliability looks good. Seb and Kimi had to fight with the car last year, it was so obvious it was demoralizing, watching us against that Redbull in a high speed corner, our boys taking the narrower line because they were afraid to take the faster outside line. Watching how easy Verstappen was running very close to the far end of the track, and how planted that car looked, even in wet conditions, was something to behold. I bet even Mercs was jealous of that, they were faster just because of that crazy engine, RBR was still on top when talking about the chassis.

  20. #740
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    Quote Originally Posted by IulianFerrari View Post
    When I said last year that is not just the Honda engine, its the whole package, even the chassis isn't that great, it all sucks, all of the McLaren fanboys where out to get me, on a general forum. Top 3 chassis they said, better than Ferrari they said, its just the engine they said. Who's laughing now ...
    I concur

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    Quote Originally Posted by IulianFerrari View Post
    Doesn't matter how good we are, we don't know that yet, the fact that the car is easier to drive is a great thing, even the reliability looks good. Seb and Kimi had to fight with the car last year, it was so obvious it was demoralizing, watching us against that Redbull in a high speed corner, our boys taking the narrower line because they were afraid to take the faster outside line. Watching how easy Verstappen was running very close to the far end of the track, and how planted that car looked, even in wet conditions, was something to behold. I bet even Mercs was jealous of that, they were faster just because of that crazy engine, RBR was still on top when talking about the chassis.
    Excellent post!
    Someone gets it!

    F1 show biz 2016 :
    Toto - "Ferrari are a real threat" .... Nico - "Awesome, everything is just awesome" .....Lulu - "Mental strength man, lifestyle man, I'll drive at 400% as ever man".... and then suddenly a wild Bull out of nowhere slams into a Ferrari.

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    Vettel:

    BARCELONA, Spain -- After a strong but understated start to testing, Sebastian Vettel has hinted at Ferrari's quiet confidence during his first media briefing of the season on Wednesday.

    Ferrari made a solid start to testing on the opening three days at the Circuit de Catalunya, finishing in the top two and clocking up more than 100 laps each day. On like-for-like soft compounds Vettel was 0.115s quicker than pace-setter Valtteri Bottas on Wednesday, although the Mercedes driver was quicker on the ultra-softs.

    Despite a strong start in the first two days, Ferrari opted not to hold any media sessions until day three and has not issued any progress reports to the press. But Vettel said his team is focusing on what's important and avoiding distractions elsewhere.

    "For sure, we have a lot of work ahead of us -- the team is pushing very hard," he said. "We had a quiet winter where we tried to focus on what's important. Same here, we try to do our job. The list that we have to do is very long. We could have had a better first couple of days, but yeah, still a lot of work to do."
    Dan Istitene/Getty Images

    Ferrari had a strong pre-season last year but failed to win a race when the championship got underway. Asked if this year would be different, he added: "Well time will tell! I don't have a crystal ball. I have two other balls but they don't tell me much.

    "I think at this time we have a lot of stuff on our list. It's a very, very long list. So we have a lot of things to do. For sure the potential is higher as the rules are very different, but it is for everyone.

    "I'm quite curious to see from now to Melbourne how the car will change and how everyone else will change. In Melbourne we'll have more of a clue where we are."

    Vettel also said that he was a fan of F1's new rules.

    "Well I think from a driver's point of view it's better pretty much everywhere. Braking is better, cornering is better, you've got much more grip. Then in low speed where arguably downforce effect is less, you have wider tyres so the grip from them, it works pretty much like an aspirin, it fixes everything. It's difficult to compare. It's a different animal, a different beast."
    Hero's come and go, but legends never die!

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    After watching that 10 minute long HD video, it seemed the Merc carried more cornering speed than anyone else. Since the video was pieced together it's hard to tell if others could match them (also no context on tyre compound or fuel load), but that was my observation from that video.

    My feet are on the ground, Ferrari are not number 1 until they win the first race. There are just too many variables to draw any conclusions at this point.
    Rest in Peace Leza, you were a true warrior...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tony View Post
    After watching that 10 minute long HD video, it seemed the Merc carried more cornering speed than anyone else. Since the video was pieced together it's hard to tell if others could match them (also no context on tyre compound or fuel load), but that was my observation from that video.

    My feet are on the ground, Ferrari are not number 1 until they win the first race. There are just too many variables to draw any conclusions at this point.
    Not even winning Australia would mean Ferrari is number one, that's not a representative racetrack.

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    A short Ferrari vs Mercedes, corner for corner compilation.
    Of course it doesn't really tell anything without knowing the fuel levels, engine modes etc... but it's still nice to see how glued to the track our car is!
    All the problems from the past seem to have gone away... no more poor traction out of slow corners, good at caring speed in the high speed corners, nice change of direction etc...
    I think we can at least conclude that our car is not a dud :D

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGGUF-34c-8&app=desktop

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    http://www.autosport.com/premium/fea...clarenhonda-in


    How much trouble is McLaren-Honda in?

    McLaren-Honda arrived at Barcelona with expectations of having a chassis that can rival the best teams on the grid - Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari - mated to a redesigned engine that is supposed to be able to at least Match the level Mercedes' reached by the end of 2016, which is reckoned to about about 80bhp up on where Honda got to last year with its power unit.

    The talk has been been renewal - new regulations, new car, new name for the car, new livery, new engine, new management. A clean break with the past.

    But three days into pre-season testing, it already looks as though McLaren-Honda is struggling.

    The first two days were pretty much written off by engine problems. A fault with Honda's oil tank design lost Fernando Alonso his first morning in the car, requiring an engine change and the shipping of the faulty unit back to Japan for analysis, before Stoffel Vandoorne Suffering a significant combustion engine failure on Tuesday.

    Two days down, two engines down, only 69 laps on the board. And not even a proper run among them, according to Vandoorne.

    Honda's ongoing surveys will reveal whether these problems are mere niggling glitches, such as those that befell Red Bull-Renault early on day one in Spain, or something more serious.

    Like all manufacturers at the first pre-season test, Honda has been running its new power unit in a detuned state. But if Honda has to rethink its oil tank design, or discovers serious flaws in the new pre-chamber ignition technology it knows it Need to perfect in order to challenge the top manufacturers, that could have serious knock-on consequences when it comes to further performance, with an updated Melbourne-specification of the engine due to arrive for next week's second test.

    Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault are likely to pull further away when they start turning up their new engines, especially if Honda is unable to do the same as fear of further failures.

    This is probably why Honda's F1 engine chief Yusuke Hasegawa reckons it is "especially" important to find the root cause of Tuesday's combustion engine failure in particular, even so the team played down the possible impact of this week's problems on McLaren-Honda's ultimate development plan.

    Alonso languished in tenth, almost three Seconds off the pace

    What's more, the car did not express particularly impressive when it was circulating.

    "I was concentrating on Turns 1, 2 and 3," says Autosport's technical consultant Gary Anderson. "It's a complex, so if you get Turn 1 right then Turn 2 achievements simple, which in turn makes Turn 3 easy

    "The Ferrari, for me, is without doubt the most stable car - millimetre precise and never really seeming to change line. You would not know if it had five-lap old tires or 25-lap old tires on it, and it's good On both the soft and the medium compound.

    "The Mercedes looks pretty reasonable on the soft tires - still moving and with more understeer than the Ferrari - but not so good on the medium tire, just no grip.

    "Through that complex, the McLaren never seemed good. Alonso could not get hard on the throttle out of Turn 2 - the car just starts moving - and I never saw him go into Turn 3 flat on the throttle.

    "He's either having to lift big time beforehand, or just as he's coming into the corner. It's not understeer, just a lack of grip.

    "McLaren can not really complain about Honda's engine, because there are still horses left in there that they're not using at the minute. It looks OK on the very softest tires, but on softs and mediums - the most relevant tires for this Track - it 's just not there.

    McLaren's issues are not confined to the first complex, either

    "Up at Turn 9, the same thing," Anderson adds. "The Ferrari can commit properly on the way in, with barely a lift off the throttle. The McLaren can not do that. Obviously I do not know what the fuel Loads are, but if Alonso does not lift and slow the car down on the way into the corners, it will not go round properly. It does not look like it's got a horrendous balance problem, but it does look like it's got a grip problem.

    "The Sauber is not a good chassis - that's one end of the scale. The Ferrari is at the other end of the scale. At the the very best the McLaren is in the middle - and that would give it a pat on the back.

    "I do not know how many McLaren people have been around the track, but I've been around it a few times, and I've never seen a McLaren driver able to commit. It's visible in both sound and vision."

    McLaren is affected two days behind its major rivals in terms of understanding its new package, thanks to those earlier engine problems. Disregarding Alonso's 'headline' time on ultra-softs on Wednesday, the McLaren lapped in 1m23.8s on the soft compound Is around two seconds slower than Mercedes and Ferrari managed on day one, and just under a second shy of where Red Bull got to after its disrupted first morning.

    Anyway you slice it, there is still some serious work to do - with both the chassis and the engine.

    Alonso has put a brave face on things in public too, but quietly he must be seething at the thought of hidden seeing his three-year stint with McLaren-Honda go to waste in uncompetitive machinery.

    The more time passes, the more McLaren's decision to give up Mercedes customer power for this works partnership with Honda looks like a big mistake. At least with a Mercedes engine in the back, we would know for sure how capable the McLaren chassis really is.

    The McLaren-Honda project feels like Groundhog Day - valiant attempts at doing things resolution this influence seem to lead back to the same starting point.

    At some point, serious questions will have been to be linked internally about whether this troubled partnership is truly a dangerous proposition. Honda has been successful in F1 before, but during an era when it lacked credible opposition. That is certainly not the case today.

    Honda has not been ever competitive in Formula 1 since the early '90s; McLaren has not been ever competitive in Formula 1 since 2012. The more recent sustained persistent drought of success continues, the more dangerous there is of both organizations suffering irrevocable damage.

    Perhaps all will be well in the end. Perhaps more track time and development and set-up work will bring the MCL32 to life. Perhaps Honda will fix its early problems, turn up its new engine, and finally rise itself to be a serious player In Formula 1's V6 era.

    Or maybe case the writing could be well and truly on the wall for the McLaren-Honda dream.

  27. #747
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    1st Winter Testing 27th Feb - 2nd March 2017, Barcelona

    Quote Originally Posted by Tony View Post
    After watching that 10 minute long HD video, it seemed the Merc carried more cornering speed than anyone else. Since the video was pieced together it's hard to tell if others could match them (also no context on tyre compound or fuel load), but that was my observation from that video.

    My feet are on the ground, Ferrari are not number 1 until they win the first race. There are just too many variables to draw any conclusions at this point.
    Re: feet, most everyone's are at this point.

    The vid posted by ClaudiuCojo shows almost similar track behavior from both cars. It is tempting to compare performance at the winter tests and there may be value to it, but as is always said, the teams focus on performance vs. expectations set on paper. Wish we had that list, no?

    Anyway, it is right to still curb enthusiasm for now. But hey--at least we have less problems than McLaren.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  28. #748
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    I marked the places where they change the speed at corner 2 and 3. It seems that Ferrari has a little shorter gear ratio on the lower speed:








  29. #749
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    #GillesPerSempre #KeepFightingMichael #JB17

  30. #750
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    We should also note that on that video merc is using the soft tyre and ferrari is using medium tyres so that comparison falls short in my books

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