1st Test 2017

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Discussion

amokwa

478 posts

197 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
FourWheelDrift said:
Times combined


14. Antonio Giovinazzi - Sauber - 1m 22.401s (110 laps) - Ultra soft tyres - Day 4
17. Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren - 1m 22.576s (101 laps) - Ultra soft tyres - Day 4
18. Fernando Alonso - McLaren - 1m 22.598s (100 laps) - Ultra soft tyres - Day 3

Edited by FourWheelDrift on Thursday 2nd March 21:01
Sauber reserve driver with a year old engine, faster than both McLaren drivers on the same tyres. Hmmmm.....

deadslow

8,000 posts

223 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
amokwa said:
FourWheelDrift said:
Times combined


14. Antonio Giovinazzi - Sauber - 1m 22.401s (110 laps) - Ultra soft tyres - Day 4
17. Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren - 1m 22.576s (101 laps) - Ultra soft tyres - Day 4
18. Fernando Alonso - McLaren - 1m 22.598s (100 laps) - Ultra soft tyres - Day 3

Edited by FourWheelDrift on Thursday 2nd March 21:01
Sauber reserve driver with a year old engine, faster than both McLaren drivers on the same tyres. Hmmmm.....
very much hope Honda had it turned right down for reliability, otherwise just doesn't bear thinking about

HustleRussell

24,703 posts

160 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
deadslow said:
amokwa said:
FourWheelDrift said:
Times combined


14. Antonio Giovinazzi - Sauber - 1m 22.401s (110 laps) - Ultra soft tyres - Day 4
17. Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren - 1m 22.576s (101 laps) - Ultra soft tyres - Day 4
18. Fernando Alonso - McLaren - 1m 22.598s (100 laps) - Ultra soft tyres - Day 3

Edited by FourWheelDrift on Thursday 2nd March 21:01
Sauber reserve driver with a year old engine, faster than both McLaren drivers on the same tyres. Hmmmm.....
very much hope Honda had it turned right down for reliability, otherwise just doesn't bear thinking about
The question is will McHonda have to have it turned down for reliability all season?

I just read a couple of articles which suggest that the engine which they have run this week is producing less power than the 2016 PU and that Honda aren't sure if the new engine they are bringing next week will address the root cause of Tuesday's premature PU failure.

I admire the optimists and I am not a detractor of McLaren but I find it hard to be optimistic about their season. Renault and Torro Rosso are both much improved from last season and will relish demoting them to a position even lower than last season.

PhillipM

6,523 posts

189 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
Mclaren were darting in and out of the pits with aero rakes on....it's testing, the fastest lap times have about as much relevance to car performance at the minute as what colour underwear Lewis was wearing. Unless you believe a Sauber on last years engine is going to run just 8 tenths slower than Hamiltons Merc in qualifying come Melbourne?
That the Torro Rosso's are the slowest cars on the grid?

Edited by PhillipM on Friday 3rd March 14:16

peter tdci

1,770 posts

150 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
PhillipM said:
Unless you believe ... that the Torro Rosso's are the slowest cars on the grid?

Edited by PhillipM on Friday 3rd March 14:16
I wondered about that having watched Scarbs' YouTube video on the Toro Rosso. He was very complimentary about some of the design features of the body/chassis - not that will necessarily translate to pace on the track, of course!

HustleRussell

24,703 posts

160 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
PhillipM said:
Mclaren were darting in and out of the pits with aero rakes on....it's testing, the fastest lap times have about as much relevance to car performance at the minute as what colour underwear Lewis was wearing. Unless you believe a Sauber on last years engine is going to run just 8 tenths slower than Hamiltons Merc in qualifying come Melbourne?
That the Torro Rosso's are the slowest cars on the grid?
You don't have to even look at laptimes to see McLaren are in dire straits- They used PU parts equating to around 5 complete units to complete about three race distances (at an unspectacular pace) In season they will have 4 power units to complete 20 race weekends.

PhillipM

6,523 posts

189 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
They've been turning out some really nice cars for some years to be honest, very nice detailing and packaging work, this years looks like it could be another decent car given the budget they run to.

PhillipM

6,523 posts

189 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
HustleRussell said:
They used PU parts equating to around 5 complete units
Where's that coming from?
They only swapped one PU in and modified the oil tank baffles.
If they'd destroyed enough parts for 5 complete power units then Alonso would have been doing Fred Flintstone impersonations on the Friday.

Merc and Renault had that many failures too...


Edited by PhillipM on Friday 3rd March 14:53

HustleRussell

24,703 posts

160 months

PhillipM

6,523 posts

189 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
That's what the BBC are inferring rather than actually what Honda said - the engine with the oil tank issue for example was swapped back in and used once the tank design was sorted, the second engine (the one that actually had a failure) was the one that was shipped straight out for analysis.

peter tdci

1,770 posts

150 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
PhillipM said:
They've been turning out some really nice cars for some years to be honest, very nice detailing and packaging work, this years looks like it could be another decent car given the budget they run to.
And they have an up to date power unit as well.

HustleRussell

24,703 posts

160 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
Torro Rosso do look good, If comments from the drivers last season are anything to go by they were being severely held back by their 2015 Ferrari engine

rubystone

11,254 posts

259 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
HustleRussell said:
Torro Rosso do look good, If comments from the drivers last season are anything to go by they were being severely held back by their 2015 Ferrari engine
James Key could well be the best aero guy out there just now.

Some Gump

12,691 posts

186 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
IMO Torro Rosso have outperformed their budget for years. This years car looks really "right", the midfield battle should be cracking.

rdjohn

6,184 posts

195 months

Saturday 4th March 2017
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Oi_Oi_Savaloy said:
BoRED S2upid said:
Oi_Oi_Savaloy said:
I think it'll be the same as it's always been - fuel being the key factor Yogi imo.
It was fuel and tyres last year which was rubbish.
Sorry - you're quite right - forgot the tyres bit!
I think the main thing we will get from the new regs is an even greater difference between qualifying and average race lap times. The tyres not degrading just means even more "one-stopper" races.

Less braking time to recover energy and more drag to overcome means the race will be dominated by eking-out the 100kg fuel allowance.

Even Ross Brawn has commented that, apart from the ugly appendages, the cars still look remarkably similar even to his trained eye.

I have a feeling that an awful lot of money has just been spent to ensure another year of Mercedes dominance. Which in all fairness to Toto & Co, is exactly what they said.

HardtopManual

2,432 posts

166 months

Saturday 4th March 2017
quotequote all
rdjohn said:
Less braking time to recover energy and more drag to overcome means the race will be dominated by eking-out the 100kg fuel allowance.
The decrease in time on the brakes means there will be an increase in the rate of recovery - AFAICS there are no regulatory limits on the rate of recovery, just the amount of energy that can be recovered per lap.

The cars are heavier, so they may actually be able to recover even more energy from braking, assuming they are travelling at the same speed when the brakes are applied. They will in most cases be travelling faster at a given braking point due to increased corner exit speeds - it's only at the end of the straights where they'll be slower, but again, they're heavier, so more kinetic energy available for recovery.

There is also a 5kg increase in the fuel allowance this year.

Given the above, there should be a reduced need to save fuel, though it will continue as it always has as fuel is just another thing to be managed in order to complete the race distance in the shortest time possible.

anonymous-user

54 months

Saturday 4th March 2017
quotequote all
HardtopManual said:
The decrease in time on the brakes means there will be an increase in the rate of recovery - AFAICS there are no regulatory limits on the rate of recovery, just the amount of energy that can be recovered per lap.

The cars are heavier, so they may actually be able to recover even more energy from braking, assuming they are travelling at the same speed when the brakes are applied. They will in most cases be travelling faster at a given braking point due to increased corner exit speeds - it's only at the end of the straights where they'll be slower, but again, they're heavier, so more kinetic energy available for recovery.

There is also a 5kg increase in the fuel allowance this year.

Given the above, there should be a reduced need to save fuel, though it will continue as it always has as fuel is just another thing to be managed in order to complete the race distance in the shortest time possible.
The engines were already efficient enough to not need the full fuel load at the start of a race last year.

The new formula means they are on the throttle approx. 10% more than last year, so will burn more fuel during a race, with the gains made in efficiency, even with a 10% increase in throttle application they will be able to under fuel the car at race start in most events.

rdjohn

6,184 posts

195 months

Sunday 5th March 2017
quotequote all
jsf said:
The engines were already efficient enough to not need the full fuel load at the start of a race last year.

The new formula means they are on the throttle approx. 10% more than last year, so will burn more fuel during a race, with the gains made in efficiency, even with a 10% increase in throttle application they will be able to under fuel the car at race start in most events.
At Monaco, yes. At Spa, Monza and Canada, certainly not.

If teams were not struggling with the 100kg limit, they would have agreed with the Merc-engined teams that there was no need to increase to 105kg for 2017.

The reality is that the PUs only run maximum power during Q3. They have a high power engine mode for the first two laps of the race (remember ROS de-rating at Barcelona last year?) and then they run in economy mode for most of the race. Perhaps either turning the wick up to hold off a competitor, or down to concerve engine life.

Only a few seasons ago, teams were burning fuel during off-throttle periods just to energise their diffuser.

This "pottering" is what upsets drivers like Alonso and Hamilton, who remember the good old days. They started in Karts and went all the way through to GP2 maximising the power they had available to them at every opportunity.

The engine designers and the control software developers have done a great job. But we have yet to see any tangible development applied to everyday road cars. The Toyota Prius set a pretty high benchmark for hybrid road cars. There are now many more plug-in hybrids and none recovering energy from their turbo etc. In reality EV is the future of city-driving and Tesla has done far more in that field to stimulate manufacturers, than F1 will ever achieve.

rdjohn

6,184 posts

195 months

Monday 13th March 2017
quotequote all
HardtopManual said:
The decrease in time on the brakes means there will be an increase in the rate of recovery - AFAICS there are no regulatory limits on the rate of recovery, just the amount of energy that can be recovered per lap.

The cars are heavier, so they may actually be able to recover even more energy from braking, assuming they are travelling at the same speed when the brakes are applied. They will in most cases be travelling faster at a given braking point due to increased corner exit speeds - it's only at the end of the straights where they'll be slower, but again, they're heavier, so more kinetic energy available for recovery.

There is also a 5kg increase in the fuel allowance this year.

Given the above, there should be a reduced need to save fuel, though it will continue as it always has as fuel is just another thing to be managed in order to complete the race distance in the shortest time possible.
I am not sure just how reliable this source is but...
http://en.f1i.com/news/261796-teams-fear-fuel-cons...
.... seems to suggest that teams could be struggling with the fue limit.

Some Gump

12,691 posts

186 months

Monday 13th March 2017
quotequote all
I do wish they mandated full fuel at start. It would remove economy from all but a few tracks.