The gap is enormous considering some teams using the same powerplant is it just aero that makes the difference.

..and the driver

The thing is from the lap time improvements we’ve seen in Barcelona this week compared to last year, it’s clear that the cars have all made some big improvements. As such, I reckon it’s fair to say that while Merc were dominant last year, even they were a long way off the absolute maximum possible under the current regs. So, given their headstart from last year and the room for improvement, they’ve all progressed roughly the same amount (though McL and Ferrari arguably made fundamental mistakes in their chassis designs so have probably improved more), leaving Merc still out front.

So, money where your mouths are. Top 6 in Oz (assuming no crashes…).

I’m going for

1 Rosberg
2 Hamilton
3 Ricciardo
4 Vettel
5 Raikkonen
6 Kyvat

And an additional bet that McL will not finish either car, Maldonado will hit someone.

So, money where your mouths are. Top 6 in Oz (assuming no crashes…).

I’m going for

1 Rosberg
2 Hamilton
3 Ricciardo
4 Vettel
5 Raikkonen
6 Kyvat

1. Hamilton
2. Rosberg
3. Bottas
4. Vettel
5. Ricciardo
6. Alonso

Er… oops I seem to have somehow forgotten Williams 😳

My revised listing

1. Rosberg
2. Hamilton
3. Bottas
4. Ricciardo
5. Vettel
6. Massa

And at least 1 point for Max Verstappen.

I’ll take you on for the first part if not the second. FA to finish 6th 😉

RB’s ‘new’ colour scheme

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/red-bull-racing-unveils-2015-f1-livery

I preferred the camo one 🙁

1. Rosberg
2. Bottas
3. Ricciardo
4. Hamilton (places lost due to car issue caused by Rosberg)
5. Massa
6. Kvyat

Bonus: McLaren both to not finish.

I’m hoping that McL can spring a RB14 and turn up at Oz with a car that miraculously runs to it’s pace but I can’t see it right now but I suppose we said the same last year…

1. Hamilton
2. Bottas
3. Massa
4. Ricciardo
5. Vettel
6. Grosejean

Both Mclarens fail to finish, Sauber to score points.
Pastor to fall off the track on the 1st lap in an incident that’s entirely his own fault.

I don’t ‘get’ the doom and gloom etc around the McHonda car. Its a brand new engine/aero partnership- it wont be competitive until 2016. How can ANYONE expect that sooner?

Honda are starting afresh again. Even with a good engine (Merc) for seasons Mclaren have been nowhere really. So how can you expect a new partnership and new engine to be anywhere but retirements and maybe one podium?

It’s not doom and gloom though it’s clear that even considering how a new car/engine could be difficult, McL weren’t expecting so many problems. Merc managed it better than McL have comparing 2014 to 15 for example and I reckon that given a year of learning about the engines, Honda would have hoped to be closer to the 2014 Merc testing that the 2014 Renault.

As to the car, as I think I posted some way back in this thread, McL, like Ferrari, made wrong decisions (as they turned out to be) on the fundamental design of the 2014 car which they couldn’t fix in the year. With that sorted for 2015, there’s no reason they shouldn’t have a decent chassis this year.

There are a few people who reckon that if they can get it running reliably then it’ll actually be pretty competitive – eg up with the Williams, Ferrari, RB, etc. Merc look untouchable right now though…

The Mercedes factory team will have the best engine. Williams/lotus etc will have a unit that’s slightly less amazing than the full fat version. Ferrari and Renault won’t have made up their deficit from last year.

Honda have the chance to bring in an engine that has the legs of the Merc; but not necessarily straight out of the box. I reckon Australia will be a race they have to finish. Then they will turn up the boost and the real Honda will show itself.

It sounds different to the other engines. Why?

They reckon the control electronics haven’t yet been optimised which wouldn’t be a surprise when the others have a year’s more experience. There’s also suggestion that Honda are doing something different with cutting cylinders (like their road cars) when not on full throttle.

I remember last year where everyone was expecting a high failure rate at the first race which never materialised. I wonder if everyone was up at 11 over testing.

I expect this year to be even more exciting than last
oz prediction

Rosberg
Hamilton
Massa
Bottas
Vettel
Kimi
Grosjean
Ricciardo
Kyvat
Hulkenberg
Maldonado
Alonso
Verstappen
Erikson
Stevens
Nasr -dnf
Sainz -dnf
Button – dnf
Perez – dnf

I have no expertise at all, so basing my opinions on guesswork and hunches (is there anybody on this thread who isn’t), but reckon there’s a chance it could be ahead of the rest of the pack once up to speed – the tight packaging around the PU certainly looks to be an improvement on what everybody else is doing, provided it brings some real benefits to the rear aero. I’m sure it’s incredibly optimistic, but I don’t think there is any evidence yet that the Mc couldn’t be up with the Merc – we’re yet to see anything like the full potential, whereas with the other cars you’d expect they were fairly close to race spec. unless somebody has found a way to get good data from testing whilst sandbagging.

I think that’s about right – No one thinks McL have been running at full power yet, particularly given the need to try and actually get some laps in.

I can see McL having a bit of a nightmare at the first few flyaway races and then taking a noticeable step once they’re back in Europe. fingers cross I’m wrong though – aside from anything, I want another 2010 season where there are three teams capable of winning.

Mind you, Rosberg V Hamilton will hopefully be another close run thing.

Good summary here I reckon
http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/22058/9738457/order-order-where-the-teams-stand-after-the-final-pre-season-test-in-barcelona

To the McL size zero (still can’t quite believe that got past Ron – I’d have expected “Technically optimised, volume minimising design concept” or similar…), this pic shows how tight it is – the rear of the car (from behind the driver) looks really long but it’s just an optical illusion because of how elongated it is behind the radiators

Mind you, Rosberg V Hamilton will hopefully be another close run thing.

Lewis broke him though last season. All it’ll take is another close wheel thing during an early race and Nico will need a sports Psychologist/therapy session to cope with self-belief.

I’m not sure. That’s an easy soundbite to claim but LH was the one who was making mistakes most of the season. If Nico can up his racecraft a little then he could well be just as competitive this year, maybe even more so. Especially when you see what happened to LH last time he broke up with Shirtswinger.

Oh and I hope he’s not getting distracted again…
http://www.ok.co.uk/celebrity-news/lewis-hamilton-career-change-popstar-jay-z
(sorry for the OK link but this does seem to be the world LH lives in)

Mind you, Nico has a kid on the way…

Which reminds me of what Alonso said after pwning Schumacher in 130R

“At times like that, I always remember that Michael has two kids.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/legacy/andrewbenson/2009/12/schumacher_fighting_the_sands.html

Edit: the video is always worth watching again
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCl8Bbkm9T8[/video]

I’m not convinced that it actually makes a difference for many drivers (and Schumacher is definitely one of those IMO) but for some and at some point in their career it may do.

During testing, do they only have 1 car for the whole weekend or will they use both cars in turn? I read someone sauber had 4 cars with them, 2 2014 and 2 2015 spec.

They’re only allowed one car at tests.

Is that one car for each test, or are they allowed to swap each day? I don’t think FI ran two different cars at a single test, but not sure what the rules say.

Not 100% certain of that fine level of detail but I expect they’re allowed to have a spare car in parts there so that if they total one they can still test but they’re not allowed two cars running and probably not two cars built up (since that would have been a massive help for McL for example and given that they didn’t do that, I expect it’s not allowed).

On that basis, if you were a driver would you want to drive the one that’s been tested or a nice new one for the beginning of the year?*

* I apologise for the terrible oversimplification

The way F1 cars are is that they’re near enough completely dismantled between races and many parts replaced (they have a fixed life) anyway so a ‘new’ car is generally a mix of parts anyway. Typically the chassis are made at the start of the year and used through the year, only replaced if they break or if they don’t sometimes feel quite right. I think you’re asking the question from the view of testing as being something that checks a complete car over which it doesn’t. It’s really there to check the design and components rather than the specific car as a whole.

Carlos Sainz 4th fastest?..Ouch that’ll hurt some F1 egos… 😆

Most of them leave their egos at home for pre-season testing

Ok my predictions:

First race, on the Friday Nicole Sherzingerwinger announces she is pregnant to some new RAP star. Lewis finished 12th.

Hora in finally providing some relevant insight to F1 shocker 🙂

Any more?

seems mercedes had turned their engine up to 11

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/12472/9739841/toto-wolff-reveals-that-mercedes-used-just-one-engine-during-pre-season-testing

I wonder what broke ..

I don’t think they had a failure did they? More likely just that some components wore faster than expected while others wore less.

I’ll retract my suggestion above about finishing order in Australia then:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/31713292

pretty big news isn’t it?

They really are careful now following the Bianchi incident.

Now, can KMag beat Button 🙂

The real problem McLaren have is the car. They had the best engine on the grid last year in the Mercedes yet were a country mile off the pace. Therefore the problem was the car. The design team behind that hasnt changed so I dont see them being competative. Its hard to see Honda producing a better engine than the Merc at their first attempt. Give them another year then yes they could

Something still smells fishy with the whole Alonso saga, very odd.

That’s really big news – not so much in many ways because of teh one race but more the way they’re playing safe with head injuries – quite correctly IMO – in the past, the driver would have decided whether they were safe to race or not and I reckon almost to a man, they’d race regardless.

I’m not sure that Bianchi’s accident is actually that relevant though – that’s the sort of accident where the driver racing again soon is irrelevant against the fact that their life will be, at best, very different to before. This could potentially shape some season’s outcome for the World Championship where a driver has a bad crash one race (or before the race) and doesn’t compete in the next one where in the past they would have.

Ref last year’s McL we’ve already covered that and a big jump is perfectly possible though unlikely to close the gap enough to Merc to really bother them even if the Honda was on a par (which again is unlikely).

The design team behind that hasnt changed

Yes it has. They’ve recruited Peter Prodromou from Redbull and he’s totally changed the design of the 2015 car.

Something still smells fishy with the whole Alonso saga, very odd.

+1

All very strange. Supposedly Alonso’s ‘people’ have been making demands to McLaren for information in relation to the accident. They’ll regret taking him back – as good a driver as he is, he’s a team wrecker, not team builder.