*** Winter Testing #3 - Barcelona ***

[Chrisgr31]

mrloudly said:

Had a meeting with Charlie Whiting in Barcelona on Friday about some work I've got involved with for the FIA. What a thoroughly nice guy!

Is that the real one or the one on twitter?

[Megaflow]

So, we can conclude the Mercedes is very fast from this:



And can we now conclude that it is *very* reliable as well?

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/12472/9739841/to...



ETA: If a race distance is ~300km, lets assume a race weekend is 600km, and there are 20 races this season. That makes the entire season 12,000km. Mercedes did half of that on one engine in testing.

Edited by Megaflow on Monday 2nd March 11:29

[BritishRacinGrin]

Megaflow said:

If a race distance is ~300km, lets assume a race weekend is 600km, and there are 20 races this season. That makes the entire season 12,000km. Mercedes did half of that on one engine in testing.

Blimey.

[Vaud]

“We have used one engine only, but it is maybe not really one engine because we have refreshed the engine and worked on various components.”

So my Grandads broom. 80 years old, good as new. Of course it has had a new handle and 3 new heads... but it's his old broom!

[Some Gump]

He said engine, not power unit. Oh, and it wasn't just 1 engine.

Pure PR IMO. Mercades were cut short several times in Jerez, and a couple in Barcelona. Yes, they have great reliability, but 1 PU it was not.

[Vaud]

So what it means was "the same engine block" ?

[Some Gump]

Always impossible to say, isn't it?

The full PU is split into ICU ("engine"), MGU-k, MGH-H, energy store, control electronics and turbo. If you change any 1 of those, you tick off one of your 5 allowed uses for the season.

During a season, each bit is a sealed unit - so you can't change any components (which Merc's spokesman admits they DID change). So, what has he told us? That there were no catestrophic failures I guess - but we already know that. Only the 2014 FI had a full meltdown, and that could have been either engine or "!other" bit, we never got to find out...

[StevieBee]

mrloudly said:

Had a meeting with Charlie Whiting in Barcelona on Friday about some work I've got involved with for the FIA. What a thoroughly nice guy!

Had cause to engage with him and Herbbie Blash in the Brabham days. Both properly decent, nice blokes. In fact, it was their general mode of operation and niceness that then and since influenced my view on Bernie Ecclestone as being a softer and more benevolent dictator than many give him credit for as the monster that he is made out to be would unlikely have time for such individuals nor they with him.

You can often tell more about the individual from those they associate with.

[Rich_W]

StevieBee said:

mrloudly said:

Had a meeting with Charlie Whiting in Barcelona on Friday about some work I've got involved with for the FIA. What a thoroughly nice guy!

Had cause to engage with him and Herbbie Blash in the Brabham days. Both properly decent, nice blokes. In fact, it was their general mode of operation and niceness that then and since influenced my view on Bernie Ecclestone as being a softer and more benevolent dictator than many give him credit for as the monster that he is made out to be would unlikely have time for such individuals nor they with him.

You can often tell more about the individual from those they associate with.

I've talked with people that have met Mr E. They say that he's very, very loyal to people so long as they are good to him. Hence why so many of the FIA people are ex Brabham.

[mrloudly]

Rich_W said:

StevieBee said:

mrloudly said:

Had a meeting with Charlie Whiting in Barcelona on Friday about some work I've got involved with for the FIA. What a thoroughly nice guy!

Had cause to engage with him and Herbbie Blash in the Brabham days. Both properly decent, nice blokes. In fact, it was their general mode of operation and niceness that then and since influenced my view on Bernie Ecclestone as being a softer and more benevolent dictator than many give him credit for as the monster that he is made out to be would unlikely have time for such individuals nor they with him.

You can often tell more about the individual from those they associate with.

I've talked with people that have met Mr E. They say that he's very, very loyal to people so long as they are good to him. Hence why so many of the FIA people are ex Brabham.

It's the same old story. Mr E. is at the top of the pile, there'll always be those that want to knock him off ;-)