Formula 1 2015 - pre season testing.

originally posted by: BornAgainAlien
a reply to: Psynic

Yes they were, you see at the video how the suspension system itself acts, the data given by the compressing or expanding can be registered...if it`s simply being logged for every millimetre it will know what the next few millimetres are going to be and can be made to adjust itself according to what will happen...no need for anything else as to what the shock absorbers are measuring, as long as there are lots of measurements.

No way.

Sorry mate.

If you can come up with any link to substantiate your contention that active suspension could remember an upcoming bump I'll eat my words, but until then, uh-uh.

Go Kimi!

Dare i to say it? yes i do after seeing this footage of the so called crash.



It is easy to run of the track going through turn 3 when one hits the gas pedal to early, that would mean going wide or even hit the wall on the outer side of this corner.
But this is not the case, it really seems as if something has happened with Fernando.
We can clearly see why the front wing broke off, but apart from that the car itself was fine with all four wheels and the nose undamaged.
So is there is obviously more to this incident which raises the question, "are we going to see Fernando Alonso behind the wheel in Australia?

Combined times from the previous test. SS=super soft S=soft M=medium H=hard

1. Romain Grosjean..........Lotus-Mercedes..........1m24.067s................SS
2. Nico Rosberg...............Mercedes-Mercedes.....1m24.321s..+0.254s.....M
3. Pastor Maldonado.........Lotus-Mercedes..........1m24.348s..+0.281s.....SS
4. Daniel Ricciardo...........Red Bull-Renault........1m24.574s..+0.507s.....S
5. Kimi Raikkonen............Ferrari-Ferrari...........1m24.584s..+0.517s.....S
6. Felipe Massa...............Williams-Mercedes......1m24.672s..+0.605s.....S
7. Sergio Perez...............Force India-Mercedes...1m24.702s..+0.635s.....SS
8. Max Verstappen...........Toro Rosso-Renault..... 1m24.739s..+0.672s.....SS
9. Lewis Hamilton...........Mercedes-Mercedes......1m24.923s..+0.856s.....M
10. Daniil Kvyat..............Red Bull-Renault.........1m24.941s..+0.874s.....S
11. Felipe Nasr...............Sauber-Ferrari............1m24.956s..+0.889s.....SS
12. Valtteri Bottas...........Williams-Mercedes.......1m25.345s..+1.278s.....S
13. Carlos Sainz Jr...........Toro Rosso-Renault......1m25.604s..+1.537s.....SS
14. Fernando Alonso.........McLaren-Honda..........1m25.961s..+1.894s.....S
15. Jolyon Palmer............Lotus-Mercedes..........1m26.280s..+2.213s.....S
16. Sebastian Vettel.........Ferrari-Ferrari............1m26.312s..+2.245s.....S
17. Marcus Ericsson..........Sauber-Ferrari............1m26.340s..+2.273s......S
18. Nico Hulkenberg.........Force India-Mercedes....1m26.591s..+2.524s......S
19. Pascal Wehrlein..........Force India-Mercedes....1m27.333s..+3.266s.....M
20. Jenson Button............McLaren-Honda...........1m28.182s..+4.115s......M
21. Pascal Wehrlein..........Mercedes-Mercedes......1m28.489s..+4.422s......H
22. Susie Wolff...............Williams-Mercedes........1m28.906s..+4.839s......M

Mercedes on top, with Nico Rosberg in second place on medium tires.
The last and third 4 day test at circuit Catalonia has begun today and Williams has shown a good pace with the fastest time of the day 1:23.500

Scary to think what's going to happen when Grosjean and Crashtor aren't back markers anymore.

There will be contact.

a reply to: Psynic

One thing's sure, it will be a tight field this year, there will not be a large gap between nr1 and 16/18.
So during qualifying, one little mistake will make the difference between a good position at the front, or starting the race from the back of the field.

Personally i think the order will be;

Mercedes
Williams
Ferrari
Red Bull
Lotus
Force India
Toro Rosso
Sauber
McLaren
Manor

a reply to: earthling42

I don`t know in your list about Williams/Ferrari/Red Bull exactly, I would not be too surprised if one is actually before the others (also not if it was just like that), but I do think you`re right about them being the 2-4 teams.

The same goes about Sauber/Toro Rosso/Sauber.

Both Force India and Toro Rosso have just begun to drive with new cars.

According to Max the STR10 does give more grip, feels nice and is and improvement, which is positive, but it doesn`t say that much about speed of the car yet. We still need to see how much more speed they will get from knowing the car much better and getting the set ups right.

And the same can be said about Force India with their new car. I haven`t read about other teams who came up late testing with completely new cars.

I still think Sauber keeps giving a strong impression and there could be change they will end up threatening spots 3-4.

So I do thinks you could be about right with your list, but too early to tell also, with if McLaren won`t show a little higher up the ranking after a few races (it`s still McLaren and with sticking in MotoGP Honda still knows a thing or two about building engines, but it might be more the hybrid part which they will lag in).

Carlos showed some decent speed with the STR10 today, that`s hopeful.

It might well be that Mercedes is way ahead, but it will be interesting to see how close the other ones behind them are compared to each other...I don`t think the differences are going to be that big.

a reply to: BornAgainAlien

Mercedes is indeed far ahead, that much is sure.
While Williams and Ferrari set their fastest time with low fuel on supersoft tires, Mercedes was 2 tenth faster on soft tires.
Carlos did set a fast time but had to park the car after turn 3 when he finished his lap, this could mean a technical failure, but it can also mean that he run out of fuel.
He had set his fastest time on the supersoft tires and is 9 tenth behind Ferrari and Williams.
Bottas was quite surprised by the speed of Mercedes yesterday when Nico Rosberg revealed what everyone already expected, Mercedes is still the team to beat.
His lap time, 1:22.7 is also 2,5 seconds faster than the pole position time last year.
If i recall correctly, they were using the hard and medium compound last year during the grand prix of Spain, so while some speed is down to the use of the soft and supersoft tire, the F1 field is at least 1 to 1.5 seconds a lap faster compared to last year.
Let's see if someone will be able to go faster than 1:22.7 tomorrow during the last day of testing.

a reply to: earthling42

Yeah, I`m afraid we will look at only Mercedes upfront again.

Williams are giving a strong impression and Ferrari is also looking good, RB I haven`t got a clue...I suspect the car will be good again and Renault has now a F1 engine guru working for them, so I wonder if they can keep up with Williams and Ferrari right away, or if we have to wait till mid season (or a bit earlier) when they will get the an even better engine.

According to Max the improved STR is much better which will lead too a lot less tire degradation. I`m really curious about them not only because MAX is in it, but they seem to have gone really ambitious with the car design also (I`m wondering on how much advise they have gotten from Adrian Newey also). It makes sense Red Bull wanting to help TR out also, because it would mean more commercial exposure and the ability to do things differently which could help out RB also later on.

It seems the engine of the STR10 has been the new Renault even in the old car, so I`m not too worried about the liability of the engine that much with both drivers having made plenty of laps so far. They now have only 4 engines for the season, which makes them also less prone to break down.

It would be nice if TR has a competitive car being able to battle with the other teams like Force India, Lotus, Sauber, McLaren (it would be good to see if ML can compete with those guys at least).

I can`t wait for the season to start.

a reply to: BornAgainAlien

Me neither, 14 days to go

What do you think? Max with a high 1:23 tomorrow?

For Red Bull i think a 1:23.3 if they set the car up for a fast run

a reply to: earthling42

I would expect from Max to be a bit quicker as Carlos again, so a high 1:23 would seem logical...mid 1.23 or low 1.23 would show really good potential, but that could be asked a bit too much.

About RB, I haven`t got a clue, they haven`t been showing that much so far, but should make times faster as TR or the car isn`t that good...it can be a revealing day tomorrow, or not.

a reply to: earthling42

RB again hasn`t shown much pace. It keeps me wondering if the Renault engine is good enough compared to the Ferrari and Mercedes engine. We probably have to wait, after 3 races we know more.

Franz Tost and Max seems to be happy with the car and the covered mileage, so that`s a good sign.

a reply to: BornAgainAlien

From what i understand, the renault engine falls short, it lacks about 70 brake horse power compared to Mercedes and probably Ferrari to according to Christian Horner.
That is quite a gap and the reliability does not seem to be as good neither.
But the positive side might be the chassis which seems to be a big improvement.

listen at 11:30

a reply to: earthling42

Thanks, good video !

I was already afraid the Renault engines would come up short, cars nowadays can`t make the difference too much anymore. That would put Ferrari and probably Williams ahead of them.

With only 4 engines a season, I heard there will be a better engine only just half of the season coming from Renault, but it could be big improvement with a engine guru now working for Renault.

I think the STR10 gives away being a decent car in the case of driving with less horsepower and Carlos being able to do 1.24 while they say the track was a bit slower as the previous days.

TV coverage of F1 in Canada has always been hit and miss.

TSN has preempted races here for women's tennis, golf tournaments and curling bonspiels.

I've occasionally managed to catch Sky news coverage of the races online at 'The First Row', but have to battle pop-ups from gambling and porn sites do do so.

Recent changes to basic cable packages has eliminated TSN or Speed Network coverage (I can stand the American commentators anyway) so I'm going to have to upgrade my package (which I am loathe to do) before the first race.

I'd like to know how you guys watch the races and whether I have any alternatives.

a reply to: Psynic

I watch BBC (only 10 races) or German TV nowadays (luckily able to understand it and it`s standard in our package) or else had to pay for them also.

The only other option would have been to watch in much lesser quality online (but those streams are hanging sometimes, so you need to switch during races and quality is just meh !)

When there`s an event, they will show up here and you can click the event you like and are able to choose which stream are best at that time (English ones available).

Link

...but they can be really annoying when they hang all of a sudden, so don`t expect too much from it.

a reply to: earthling42

Well it is as i suspected, Fernando Alonso will not take part in the race in Australia, Kevin Magnussen will drive for McLaren Honda.
It is still unclear what had happened, but one thing is sure, this was not a normal crash.

1. Nico Rosberg...........Mercedes-Mercedes....1m22.792s...............S
2. Lewis Hamilton.......Mercedes-Mercedes....1m23.022s..+0.230s....S
3. Valtteri Bottas........Williams-Mercedes.....1m23.063s..+0.271s....SS
4. Felipe Massa..........Williams-Mercedes.....1m23.262s..+0.470s....SS
5. Kimi Raikkonen.......Ferrari-Ferrari..........1m23.276s..+0.484s....SS
6. Sebastian Vettel......Ferrari-Ferrari..........1m23.469s..+0.677s....SS
7. Felipe Nasr............Sauber-Ferrari..........1m24.023s..+1.231s....SS
8. Romain Grosjean.....Lotus-Mercedes.........1m24.067s..+1.276s....SS
9. Carlos Sainz Jr........Toro Rosso-Renault....1m24.191s..+1.399s....SS
10. Pastor Maldonado...Lotus-Mercedes.........1m24.200s..+1.408s....SS
11. Marcus Ericsson......Sauber-Ferrari..........1m24.276s..+1.484s.....SS
12. Max Verstappen......Toro Rosso-Renault....1m24.527s..+1.735s.....SS
13. Daniel Ricciardo......Red Bull-Renault.......1m24.638s..+1.846s.....S
14. Nico Hulkenberg......Force India-Mercedes.1m24.939s..+2.147s.....SS
15. Sergio Perez...........Force India-Mercedes.1m25.113s..+2.321s.....SS
16. Kevin Magnussen......McLaren-Honda........1m25.225s..+2.433s.....S
17. Jenson Button.........McLaren-Honda........1m25.327s..+2.535s.....SS
18. Daniil Kvyat............Red Bull-Renault......1m25.947s..+3.155s.....M

In my view, the combined times paint a pretty good picture of the current situation in which Mercedes has quite an advantage over the rest of the teams.
They set the fastest laptime on soft tires, Williams, while driving on the supersoft tire, seemed unable to beat that time.

Behind Mercedes it will be a close battle between Williams, Ferrari and Red Bull.
What is interesting is that a good lap of Carlos Sainz has put Toro Rosso in front of one Lotus, the question is of course how much fuel they had on board.
Knowing that Renault still has work to do in order to close the gap to Mercedes and Ferrari in terms of engine power, either the Lotus cars had more fuel than needed, or Toro Rosso has a very good chassis.

For those who are interested, today the pre-season test has begun for Renault 3.5.

Live timing

For the dutch girl Beitske Visser it will be her second year in Renault 3.5, coming from Formula Addax which i think is comparable with Formula Renault 2.0, she had a difficult start last year but made good progress.

She is better prepared this year, so results are expected i think.
At the age of 16 she did something which stunned everyone, she won the Dutch Supercar Challenge.





When she drove in the German class Formula Addax in 2012, she had quite a hard crash at Zandvoort due to car failure, she was unable to stop the car and ran into the tire barrier.
She fractured her back because of that crash but that was not known until two days after the race which she won despite a lot of pain.
Fortunately the race was without incidents, she should not have been driving, this was a huge mistake from the medical team.

originally posted by: earthling42
a reply to: earthling42

Well it is as i suspected, Fernando Alonso will not take part in the race in Australia, Kevin Magnussen will drive for McLaren Honda.
It is still unclear what had happened, but one thing is sure, this was not a normal crash.

You're right, it wasn't a "normal crash". Almost like he had a brain fart. Had he a preexisting injury that caused a lapse in judgement?

I also suggested Magnussen should replace him in Melbourne, and for the record, two weeks after Melbourne is Malaysia and Fernando's status won't be much different in that short a time.

If he has another concussion it could be a career ender.

Another consideration is liability in case he has yet another inexplicable shunt and collects another driver.

I don't think sitting out one race is enough and would not be surprised if we don't see Alonso until his home race in May.