Official F1 pre season testing thread

[Piginapoke]

Hi all

The new season is getting close now and I thought we could use a thread to keep up to date with the pre-season testing. Perez in the RB will be really interesting, as will the wooden spoon competition between Haas and Williams.

[n3il123]

Piginapoke said:

as will the wooden spoon competition between Haas and Williams

And sauber/ alfa

[KR158]

I would love nothing more than for Williams to suprise everyone & turn up with an absolute Rocket ship, "B" spec or not. Until proven otherwise I'm going to savour this thought.

[Piginapoke]

KR158 said:

I would love nothing more than for Williams to suprise everyone & turn up with an absolute Rocket ship, "B" spec or not. Until proven otherwise I'm going to savour this thought.

me too, but sadly (if sensibly) it's largely the same car that finished last in the last 2 years.

[Piginapoke]

n3il123 said:

Piginapoke said:

as will the wooden spoon competition between Haas and Williams

And sauber/ alfa

I think Alfa will be just ahead of Haas and Williams, by virtue of the new Ferrari engine and the tokens it has spent- the new nose is quite interesting.

[KR158]

Piginapoke said:

KR158 said:

I would love nothing more than for Williams to suprise everyone & turn up with an absolute Rocket ship, "B" spec or not. Until proven otherwise I'm going to savour this thought.

me too, but sadly (if sensibly) it's largely the same car that finished last in the last 2 years.

I'm not interested in logic, reason, rationality, scientific rigor or prior form! Wishful thinking, lots & lots of it is where Laptime comes from!

[thegreenhell]

The interest for me this year is in how Perez, Vettel and Sainz fare in their new teams, and how McLaren go with Mercedes power. I'm not expecting many surprises anywhere else.

[jimPH]

Waiting for Bottas 3.0, he's got something to prove this year.

[MiniMan64]

thegreenhell said:

The interest for me this year is in how Perez, Vettel and Sainz fare in their new teams, and how McLaren go with Mercedes power. I'm not expecting many surprises anywhere else.

This

[thegreenhell]

jimPH said:

Waiting for Bottas 3.0, he's got something to prove this year.

Is that a rollback to an earlier, less buggy version? The 2019 version with a few minor tweaks would be his best bet.

[Lynchie999]

jimPH said:

Waiting for Bottas 3.0, he's got something to prove this year.

I thought we were on BOTTAS v.5.0.3.21 (March 2021 Security Patch) by now ?

[DanielSan]

KR158 said:

I would love nothing more than for Williams to suprise everyone & turn up with an absolute Rocket ship, "B" spec or not. Until proven otherwise I'm going to savour this thought.

Rocket ship is unlikely, I reckon they'll be on the back of class B on pace this year in the race not just for quali. Them and Sauber will maybe even pick up the odd point with Haas off the back.

[Fundoreen]

Bit of an early start. Guess I will be joining them at about 10am.

[thegreenhell]

It looks like Sky have live coverage of all the testing again this year.

[andburg]

I'm most interested in Vettel, see if the more stable Aston car better suits him.

[ivanhoew]

Lynchie999 said:

I thought we were on BOTTAS v.5.0.3.21 (March 2021 Security Patch) by now ?

[Muzzer79]

I'm not so much interested in individual drivers' performances. This is only testing, so foolhardy to look too much at times. I think we'll only glean how much of a handle they have on their cars when we get to the first race in a couple of weeks.

What I'm more interested in is how teams approach the fact that they have just 3 days to get the cars up to speed before that first race.

No time for fannying about, no time for failures. If something is wrong, there's very little time to fix it.

What will be critical for the drivers is not binning it.

[Fire99]

Lynchie999 said:

jimPH said:

Waiting for Bottas 3.0, he's got something to prove this year.

I thought we were on BOTTAS v.5.0.3.21 (March 2021 Security Patch) by now ?

Poor ol Bottas. I felt he was utterly patronised by the TV presenters etc, with all the Bottas 2.0 nonsense and asking if the "New Valtteri" was meaner and tougher etc.... I'd be interested how the likes of ol Mansell would have responded to modern day commentators?

[TheDeuce]

Muzzer79 said:

I'm not so much interested in individual drivers' performances. This is only testing, so foolhardy to look too much at times. I think we'll only glean how much of a handle they have on their cars when we get to the first race in a couple of weeks.

What I'm more interested in is how teams approach the fact that they have just 3 days to get the cars up to speed before that first race.

No time for fannying about, no time for failures. If something is wrong, there's very little time to fix it.

What will be critical for the drivers is not binning it.

I'm thinking the same. With only half as much testing as previously the pressure is on and it should be a much more interesting watch for us.

Also it's interesting to see just how held back the teams have been with the new regs and limited development opportunities. I'm guessing a couple of teams have probably done something a bit clever that we'll soon learn about.

[Vanden Saab]

Mansell not so much but Hunt would have punched them in the face.