F1 2016 (Bound to contain spoilers!)

Britneys been working hard too
http://sniffpetrol.com/2016/02/05/rosberg-working-hard-on-ways-to-get-arse-handed-to-him/#.VsnHZnOnzqA

I wonder how much it would cost to get my name/face/arse on an F1 this season car? Seems to be a lot of space going free

The Merc has always surprised me with its appearance. Doesn’t seem to have the aero detailing of the others and hasn’t done since the new engines but they’re clearly doing something right.

And there’s so much going on with the floors of these cars that we rarely see.

Live the Williams and that b spec Ferrari, sorry Haas, looks for a first attempt. Almost too good 🙂

I wonder how much it would cost to get my name/face/arse on an F1 this season car? Seems to be a lot of space going free

Remember when Honda did their Earth livery? My name was on there but I’m surprised other teams have never done a variation of it, drop in the ocean even then but better than nothing?

that haas front wing looks very ferrariesque .. The cars pretty much look the same with the skinny rear wings and bent noses.

My favourite is the fw-38 by a country mile. Lets hope its as fast as it looks

So what sites are people following on – Autosport seems to give the best updates to me, but other options welcome. Productivity about to take a nose dive…

Autosport for me too, I also did into this…

http://en.f1i.com/live/

blimey 6 laps by button and the engine hasn’t fallen out.

Klunk – Member

rosbergs posted a lap in the new merc on twerpper

So Merc did some running last week (upto 100km?) Did anyone else?

Just wondering how much the other teams are actually doing initial set-up vs merc doing it last week.

Klunk – Member

blimey 6 laps by button and the engine hasn’t fallen out.

Give it time, they’ll still have to turn the turbo/electrics on yet!

6 laps by button and the engine hasn’t fallen out.

By the time he’s posted, I think the engine is from an Accord Diesel.

What’s happened to Planet F1? It seems to have gone bung.

So…to the burning question.

Do the cars sound any better, or do they still sound like a collective of belching frogs?

http://www.crash.net/f1/livecommentaries/5497/barcelona-f1-preseason-test-1.html

Regular updates here, Haas front wing just decicded it no longer wanted to be attached to the car

PlanetF1 still there but not as Planet-F1 anymore

26 laps by button, they’ve worn out a set of tyres before the engine thats a first ! apparently still sounds as rough as night out in Newcastle.

I wonder if that’s the first time a set of tyres have ever been worn out without getting to operating temperature?

nice shot of the mclaren front wing

And in one photo we have an example of everything wrong with modern F1.

And in one photo we have an example of everything right with modern F1.

Brilliant engineering solutions at the cutting edge of technology.

I’m with dragon on this one.

It looks like some sort of marble game!

#teamdragon

Like someone very clever earlier mentioned (me!), fornt wings should be a constant profile. Like so.

Get rid of all the silly bits of tat stuck to the ends, and reduce all the wind tunnel time and excess carbon fibre.

Trimix – Member

And in one photo we have an example of everything right with modern F1.

Brilliant engineering solutions at the cutting edge of technology.

I’m torn because I love the clever trinkets and engineering. But at the same time, it costs a huge amount and has no crossover to road cars, also more capable aero seems to make the racing worse.

Also I bet it looks really crap to a casual follower when their favourite driver suddenly starts losing 1.5 seconds a lap because a virtually invisible little turning vane or whatever has been snapped off their front wing.

And in one photo we have an example of everything wrong with modern F1.

And in one photo we have an example of everything right with modern F1.

It’s oft quoted that you can’t uninvent aerodynamics. Although teams’ access to wind tunnels is being limited, computer simulations are growing ever more sophisticated, to the point where most of the work in testing is about validating all the simulation work done over the winter.

I agree that the sport has disappeared up its’ own fundament. I moaned about the state of F1 during the Vettel era, the Schumacher era and the era before that. With the benefit of hindsight, I miss the screaming V10 engines and the characters of the sport a la Piquet, Senna, Prost and Mansell.

It’s become technically very narrow and proscribed, the characters of the sport have become watered down to the point of being insipid and dull – that latter is a symptom of the fact that most semi-talented kart drivers have been practising giving interviews since they were in shorts.

I don’t know how you’d wind the clock back, F1 really has been a sign of the times depending on which era you look at.

Like someone very clever earlier mentioned (me!), fornt wings should be a constant profile. Like so.

Back when that McLaren was launched F1 fans of the 60s/70s were also moaning about how technology was ruining F1 with their fancy new-fangled carbon fibre.

F1 has always been a technology formula.

Even Indycar has crazy aero!…

Merc will have done 2 race distances by the end of today!

In this case it’s easy. Just set some rules for the shape and number of elements on the front wing. I’d be happy with the constant profile idea shown in the McLaren above. I guess there’s an argument that it reduces the opportunity for a smaller, less well-funded, team to come up with some innovation but it does that actually happen very much these days?

Isn’t the drag coefficient of an F1 something awful? Doesn’t exactly play into the eco-weenie ideals they are claiming with the engines power trains

That’s part of the problem, virtually every single change that has been touted as helping to ease the burden on the less well of teams has done precisely the opposite. An embargo on testing and wind tunnels has merely resulted in the teams buying huge amounts of processing power to simulate instead. Four engine manufacturers wishing to explore the potential of hybrid power trains has ensured that an engine supply costs £20m a year and a large number of potential engine manufacturers simply cannot be bothered anymore.

Long gone are the days when a high-achieving F3 team could have a friendly chat with Brian Hart, John Judd or Ford, build a chassis and rock up to pre season testing with a couple of hotshoe drivers. The last team that I can recall who did this was Jordan, back in 1991…

Bloody hell….. Rose tinted glasses and all that …… The whole of the 90s was dominated by….. Williams and Mclaren, 2000 by Ferrari, using special tyres diffusers you name it. It’s an old an old argument done to death, move on ffs!

quick question.. why is the 2015 sauber running mid pack in testing?

What are your thoughts on todays testing so far? Looks like Renault / Manor still have a bit of work to do.

Too early to say.

Manor looks OK from where they were last season, not propping up the timesheets.

Sauber pace – car is a known quantity, so they don’t need to bed it in, so can run at a higher pace?

McLaren – Honda looks more reliable already. A race distance on the first day is a good start.

We’ll see a bit more about pace when they do a qualifying run later in the week.

set some rules for the shape and number of elements on the front wing.

+1

I’d also change the rules so certain non-structural elements were banned, such as bargeboards and turning vanes. It may not help over taking, but one of the things about F1 is the cars need to look good, and currently the 24 hour Le Mans cars look better IMO.

I’d be happy to see an increase in testing and scrap the engine tokens.

Id say todays results are way too early to draw real conclusions from.

Bloody hell….. Rose tinted glasses and all that …… The whole of the 90s was dominated by….. Williams and Mclaren, 2000 by Ferrari, using special tyres diffusers you name it. It’s an old an old argument done to death, move on ffs!

Erm, that’s kind of exactly what I was saying, if you’d care to reread my previous post instead of swearing at me. 🙄

…the cars need to look good, and currently the 24 hour Le Mans cars look better IMO.

This years Audi R18 – no aero on that, oh wait!…

…and as pretty as a not very pretty thing! 😀

Isn’t the drag coefficient of an F1 something awful? Doesn’t exactly play into the eco-weenie ideals they are claiming with the engines power trains

Well, they do want to go round corners quickly as well, so that’s a bit of a straw man. Personally I think it’s pretty impressive that they are already using a third less fuel than they were a couple of years ago. I don’t think for a minute that anybody involved is really motivated by concern for the planet but I think it’s reasonable to claim that what they’re doing is going to really help road cars be a lot more efficient in the next few years.

Porsche looked better. But of course they have aero, as someone pointed out you can’t put it back in the box, but you can limit the amount of silly little sticky out bits and in doing so make the cars look less fussy.

Personally I think it’s pretty impressive that they are already using a third less fuel than they were a couple of years ago. I don’t think for a minute that anybody involved is really motivated by concern for the planet but I think it’s reasonable to claim that what they’re doing is going to really help road cars be a lot more efficient in the next few years.

The Mercedes “engine” is now something like 50% efficient. A figure that is quite frankly staggering.