The Official 2017 F1 Pre-Season Thread

[BrettMRC]

Just giving this a bump...


How do we the fuel supplier change will impact Red Bull and McLaren? (Exxon to RB, BP/Castrol to McLaren & Renualt)

[StevieBee]

BrettMRC said:

Just giving this a bump...


How do we the fuel supplier change will impact Red Bull and McLaren? (Exxon to RB, BP/Castrol to McLaren & Renualt)

They use pump-grade fuel these days, not the special blend rocket fuel of the past. The move is purely commercial so the only difference will be the logos on the cars.

[Vaud]

StevieBee said:

They use pump-grade fuel these days, not the special blend rocket fuel of the past. The move is purely commercial so the only difference will be the logos on the cars.

Read up on Article 19 for the regs.

"The detailed requirements of this Article are intended to ensure the use of fuels that are composed of compounds normally found in commercial fuels and to prohibit the use of specific power-boosting chemical compounds"

Essentially it's the same chemicals as in pump fuel, but they had significant latitude within that composition, way more than just branding... it is not "pump fuel".

[Europa1]

Vaud said:

StevieBee said:

They use pump-grade fuel these days, not the special blend rocket fuel of the past. The move is purely commercial so the only difference will be the logos on the cars.

Read up on Article 19 for the regs.

"The detailed requirements of this Article are intended to ensure the use of fuels that are composed of compounds normally found in commercial fuels and to prohibit the use of specific power-boosting chemical compounds"

Essentially it's the same chemicals as in pump fuel, but they had significant latitude within that composition, way more than just branding... it is not "pump fuel".

Yep, I'm sure there was at least one article last year on how hard Petronas had worked on optimising the fuel for the Mercedes engine.

[thegreenhell]

This gives some useful insight into the challenges for the fuel and lubricant supplier.

http://www.motorsport.com/all/article/?id=872201

[HardtopManual]

StevieBee said:

They use pump-grade fuel these days, not the special blend rocket fuel of the past. The move is purely commercial so the only difference will be the logos on the cars.

It's not just the fuel; the lubricants play an important part in extracting all of the available performance from the car.

McLaren in 2014 for instance had a 40bhp deficit to Mercedes even though the engine specs were identical. Most of that came from using Mobil 1 rather than Petronas, which doesn't bode well for RB this year if you ask me.

A lot of Ferrari's performance increase during 2015 came from work on fuel and lubricants after the disaster of 2014.

[PhillipM]

The regulations were relaxed on fuels with the new power units, they very much play a massive part in engine performance these days, they're not all just off-the-shelf pump fuels at all.

[audi321]

So when do we think we'll have an idea as to who's hot and who's not for 2017? Are we going to have to wait for Australia or will the testing days show us anything (going by previous years).

I know they'll keep their true speed low so as not to give anything away, and looking at the times from the 2015 and 2016 testing days, the Mercs were nowhere close to first or second places.....but we all know what happened when the seasons started.

[ajprice]

We'll probably know who's sandbagging and who's up st creek in the testing, but not much more than a general idea of the order.

[Vaud]

Number of laps completed over the two tests might be one indication.

But sandbagging... who knows? I forget the source, but there were some indicators that the simulation data to the FIA showed some very big advances by some teams.

The proof, as ever is FP1 in March :-)

[ajprice]

I'm pretty sure that Mercedes hardly used soft tyres in the 2016 pre season tests.

[Inertiatic]

Flooble said:

suffolk009 said:

Am I right inthinking that means that they'll have a standing start after they've done a few laps behind the safety car in the rain?

Also I'm seeing news that there'll be standing starts after each saftey car period.

Good grief, I mean I know the start is exciting. But this will look utterly stupid. I'm not a Football fan, but it's like the FA deciding that everyone likes seeing goals scored so matches will now be 80 minutes of penalties.

US Owners? I heard it said that American Football stops play so often in order to accommodate commercial breaks. Presumably having lots of pauses in the race would be ideal for slotting in some adverts.

I really hope not. I won't pay for sky anyway as refuse to pay for adverts, so F1 is harder to watch, and then if it gets choppy because of restarts and ad breaks it will be unwatchable anyway.

[ISO51200]

Getting excited now, collected my team kit today and I fly to Barcelona next week, bring it on!

[MartG]

Confirmed that Wehrlein will be missing the first test

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/wehrlein-to-miss...

[Blib]

ISO51200 said:

Getting excited now, collected my team kit today and I fly to Barcelona next week, bring it on!

Red Bull? How exciting!!! What'a your role?

[audi321]

Sorry if it's been covered off before, but what's the changes to the exhaust note going to make? Have they released the sound of a 2017 car yet? That Williams video linked in another thread has some engine sounds but it sounded like a V8 from 2013 rather than these hybrid 1.6's?

[LaurasOtherHalf]

PRE-SEASON TESTING 2017

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/10725059/f1...

Begins tomorrow at Barcelona, just a heads up, Sky F1 again has an inability to series link the TV schedule for some reason again. And you only get a 15 min round up for each day followed by a half hour Ted's Notebook of rambling nonsense.

[MiniMan64]

This years grid, minus the Red Bulls..

[suffolk009]

LaurasOtherHalf][b said:

....Ted's Notebook of rambling nonsense.

He's now also available in printed word format in evo magazine. He's the new motorsport columnist. It was basically 800 words to justify writing a couple of rude words. A bit silly really.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

MiniMan64 said:

This years grid, minus the Red Bulls..

Red Bull rumoured to have a special livery again for pre season testing.