****Winter Testing #1 Jerez****
Discussion
Bradgate said:
I know it's early days, and Mercedes are almost certainly sandbagging etc etc, but surely Raikkonen's 1.20.8 is a bloody quick lap of Jerez on any tyres and with any fuel load.
I think Ferrari could be back in contention this season.
Too hard to tell. Testing isn't done in Parc Fermé conditions, so the cars don't even need to conform. But encouraging that they can at least get it out of the garage.I think Ferrari could be back in contention this season.
There's a rumour (in my front room) that the interferance issues McLaren are experiancing are due to the static build up in Freds beard 
other experts (in the armchair) recon Ferrari are fast cos they are running light on fuel cos Fred took the fuel card with him when he left.
One way to look at McLarens week is they have indeed learnt a hell of a lot, in fact they have the longest list of any team in the pitlane for what not to do cos it breaks the car whereas as all Mercedes have learnt is Nico never emptys the ashtray and so Lewis has to pit for it to be hooverd out.
All renault powerd teams are happy to have thier full compliment of stupid parts this year, Lotus were quoted as being gutted that after winning the championship last year mercedes still have not come to terms with fully supplying all the stupid parts needed to fail, an insider was quoted as saying "without our full compliment of stupid parts we may have to rely on Pastor to be the stupid part in the equation, i meen come on mercedes you've had all last year and all the closed season to fully supply all the stupid parts required! i meen renault have had their engine the same amount of time and the have more than enough stupid parts to go around, spares in fact it's simply not good enough for such an impotant test"
other experts (in the armchair) recon Ferrari are fast cos they are running light on fuel cos Fred took the fuel card with him when he left.
One way to look at McLarens week is they have indeed learnt a hell of a lot, in fact they have the longest list of any team in the pitlane for what not to do cos it breaks the car whereas as all Mercedes have learnt is Nico never emptys the ashtray and so Lewis has to pit for it to be hooverd out.
All renault powerd teams are happy to have thier full compliment of stupid parts this year, Lotus were quoted as being gutted that after winning the championship last year mercedes still have not come to terms with fully supplying all the stupid parts needed to fail, an insider was quoted as saying "without our full compliment of stupid parts we may have to rely on Pastor to be the stupid part in the equation, i meen come on mercedes you've had all last year and all the closed season to fully supply all the stupid parts required! i meen renault have had their engine the same amount of time and the have more than enough stupid parts to go around, spares in fact it's simply not good enough for such an impotant test"
Vaud said:
Bradgate said:
I know it's early days, and Mercedes are almost certainly sandbagging etc etc, but surely Raikkonen's 1.20.8 is a bloody quick lap of Jerez on any tyres and with any fuel load.
I think Ferrari could be back in contention this season.
Too hard to tell. Testing isn't done in Parc Fermé conditions, so the cars don't even need to conform. But encouraging that they can at least get it out of the garage.I think Ferrari could be back in contention this season.
To finish 1st, first you have to finish.
My guess is that they were embarrassed about the 6 DNFs last year, so they have to be eliminated.
Timing some of Lewis's long runs, his tyre deg. seemed less than Williams and Ferrari's
These days the fastest laps mean Jack! The average time over a long run, with fastest time mean so much more.
When someone like JB says team "X" are 1.5 secs a lap faster than us, he is not talking about the Qually run. It's is the laptime that will determine where they will finish a 200 mile race.
rdjohn said:
Having just got back from Jerez, my feeling is Merc's policy is the very old adage.
To finish 1st, first you have to finish.
My guess is that they were embarrassed about the 6 DNFs last year, so they have to be eliminated.
I think they're perhaps been concentrating on the rest of the car rather than the engine. Have the engine in a slightly lower tune and see how the car is balanced. Hence some of the "relatively" slow laps compared to Ferrari etc.To finish 1st, first you have to finish.
My guess is that they were embarrassed about the 6 DNFs last year, so they have to be eliminated.
rdjohn said:
These days the fastest laps mean Jack! The average time over a long run, with fastest time mean so much more.
When someone like JB says team "X" are 1.5 secs a lap faster than us, he is not talking about the Qually run. It's is the laptime that will determine where they will finish a 200 mile race.
That's always the case.When someone like JB says team "X" are 1.5 secs a lap faster than us, he is not talking about the Qually run. It's is the laptime that will determine where they will finish a 200 mile race.
The FLs get published and make headlines but what you don't get are all the lap times posted and analyzed degradation, drop off, etc.
Scuffers said:
Vaud said:
Too hard to tell. Testing isn't done in Parc Fermé conditions, so the cars don't even need to conform. But encouraging that they can at least get it out of the garage.
Exactly, as far as we know, they could be running 30kgs underwieghtBritishRacinGrin said:
Just spent a while listening to the various amateur videos of the McHonda on YouTube.
Sniffpetrol has been saying for ages that Jenson sounds like he needs a 'big cough', and now he has the car to match...
The Honda sounded more like the other cars did at the same point last year, lots of Asthmatic whining from generators etc.Sniffpetrol has been saying for ages that Jenson sounds like he needs a 'big cough', and now he has the car to match...
I thought the Merc engined cars sounded much better, the transitions from power off, braking, accelaration out of corner now seem seamless.
The Ferrari looked nimble compared to Mercedes, the RB seemed to have great difficulty in consistently hitting the same late apex at the hairpin. Whether that was a DK, or RB issue, I could not fathom, but like last year RB seem well down on mileage.
No more testing for two weeks 
rdjohn I noticed the same with the RedBull, suspect it's something to do with power delivery / mapping. Off throttle and partial throttle looks unpredictable.
Mercedes looking well sorted again, saw a perfect practice start so they must be pretty well on top of their power train's behaviour.
rdjohn I noticed the same with the RedBull, suspect it's something to do with power delivery / mapping. Off throttle and partial throttle looks unpredictable.
Mercedes looking well sorted again, saw a perfect practice start so they must be pretty well on top of their power train's behaviour.
Scuffers said:
Ferrari need the headlines...
I may disagree with you about McLaren but I'm tempted to agree here. I wonder if the testing times of Ferrari are because there are a lot of people with a need to show something positive to the Tifosi and therefore good lap times help.However, Kimi has said that he thinks the car is much better than the 2014 one so hopefully, for their sake, the times are genuine.
andyps said:
Scuffers said:
Ferrari need the headlines...
I may disagree with you about McLaren but I'm tempted to agree here. I wonder if the testing times of Ferrari are because there are a lot of people with a need to show something positive to the Tifosi and therefore good lap times help.However, Kimi has said that he thinks the car is much better than the 2014 one so hopefully, for their sake, the times are genuine.
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