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honda still sounds like a bag of nails
red bulls are in their race livery
merc sounds brutal, the renault a bit tinny
I noticed ear-defenders were being used again in the pitlane.
Recap of the 2018 liveries
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that honda engine sounds shit
Aesthetically the Renault wins IMO, Williams second. The McLaren looks nice but I think that can largely be attributed to the huge space they’ve left for a title sponsor once the trophies come flooding in… fingers crossed, Zak.
The Sauber looks great from some angles but a bit hmmm from others. All the others, meh. The Force India graphics are a bit of a mess.
the renault car looks good on the track early doors too, getting on the power earlier than most
My first prediction of the year fails!
Toro Rosso has already done 33 laps. 🙂
Latest lapcount:
Hartley 41
Hulkenberg 38
Bottas 37
Raikkonen 32
Stroll 29
Ricciardo 24
Ericsson 23
Grosjean 18
Mazepin 15
Alonso 6
The McLaren problem seems to be tyre related on the clip I have just seen.
Zac Brown said it was a wheel nut problem.
Renault are looking good early doors! 🙂
Ah ok, thought it wasn’t related to engine or drive train.
Top 4 lap times are all under 1:21:00, last year first day finished with only 2 cars under 1:22:00 so looks like they are quicker straight out the box assuming last year was comparable conditions
So, if we conveniently ignore the fact that you can reliably infer almost nothing from the first morning of testing, the table is interesting. Renault running with the incumbent top three, Honda not falling to pieces, McLaren 4 seconds off the pace and 2 seconds behind their old engine partner. Doubtless all sorts of things will change…
...and Red Bull not off to a slow start! Interesting times! 🙂
Can't really compare to last year's times due to the fact that the track has been resurfaced. Interesting to see that it does seem that Renault are a bit closer to the top - not that we can read too much into pre-season though!
red bull are really hammering in the laps looking very quick
First thing I've done this afternoon is to check the testing session.
I saw that Alonso fell off after six laps and thought "oh no, is the Macca another lemon?", but it looks as though despite a lap shortfall (again) it's around fifth fastest on super-softs, just over a second behind the Red Bull on mediums. I haven't seen any moving footage, so I've no idea how the cars are behaving and whether that McLaren is a handful or not, but either way I don't think that fifth fastest on super-softs is exactly where the team wants to be.
And everyone at Toro Rosso must be breathing a sigh of relief.
And everyone at Toro Rosso must be breathing a sigh of relief.
Quite!
It's been a quiet afternoon tho, because of the weather. I hope it gets better!
Alonso lost a good chunk of track time this morning. At this stage I don't think lap-times are high on their list of things to get right.
Stoffel has clocked a 1:20.325 in the McLaren Renault!
Stoffel has clocked a 1:20.325 in the McLaren Renault!
Which tyres?
eta: it's the hypersoft, for ref bottas did a 120.66 on the soft today
Reported that Williams will lose Martini sponsorship next year. If they can't beat Force India, this year, they're doomed.
Stoff's looking handy, even if the rubber's flattering the car. I'm cautiously anticipating/hoping he'll give Alonso more than a run for his money this year.
Testing times mean nothing, but this time last year Macca couldn't even dream of being on top of the timesheets, no matter what tyre they were using or the fuel load. Clearly no excuses this year though when they're sharing an engine with a team who nobody is surprised to see topping the timesheets.
"Williams will lose Martini sponsorship next year" - and now we know the real reason for the Russian Driver - CA$$$$H
Williams have needed cash ever since BMW dumped them. Their only chance of a return to their glory days is if they can entice an engine manufacture when the regs change in 2021.
Just a mid table team now who will have their OK and rubbish seasons.
Charles Leclerc is four tenths up on Ericsson's best effort from yesterday!
Massively unsurprising IMO…
Kubica has just leap-frogged Sirotkin in the times lol
Kubica faster than Sirotkin! 👍
😀
...and faster than Stroll from yesterday too (when it was warmerer!)
Amazed the team didn't give him a "don't beat Sergei" instruction, given that the media will be all over it.
Or maybe they did 😀
Ocon ready to go out... 😀
- Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari, soft) 1:19.673 - 91 laps
- Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes, medium) 1:19.976 - 94 laps
- Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren, hyper-soft) 1:20.325 - 37 laps
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull, medium) 1:20.326 - 63 laps
- Carlos Sainz (Renault, soft, pictured) 1:21.212 - 65 laps
- Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso, soft) 1:21.318 - 76 laps
- Robert Kubica (Williams, soft) 1:21.495 - 36 laps
- Sergey Sirotkin (Williams, soft) 1:21.822 - 52 laps
- Esteban Ocon (Force India, soft) 1:21.841 - 78 laps
- Charles Leclerc (Sauber, soft) 1:22.721 - 81 laps
- Kevin Magnussen (Haas, soft) 1:22.727 - 32 laps
Details of the new streaming service from Liberty are starting to emerge :
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-launches-ad-free-streaming-service-for-races-1009599/?s=1
8 to 12 dollars a month looks like a great option, if only sky didn't have a veto over here. The non live service might be interesting though depending how "non live" it is - I can live with a couple of hours, not a couple of days.
Oh and #ItsOnlyTesting
#PartyPooper 😉
Hopefully McLaren's exhaust won't fall off and melt their wiring every time they do a fast lap 🙂
Alonso fastest and most laps completed on day 3 of the testing with a blistering 2m18.545s! 😉
Haha for ages I thought that read 1m18secs lol!!!
Feel for Kubica, constantly being questioned over the same subject. I guess it happens with other drivers too, over all sorts of subjects, the media need to back off a little and cease constantly digging for 'a story' ..... perhaps focus on the sport for once, especially when they are at the race track!