F1 2016 (Bound to contain spoilers!)

New qualifying format GUFFAW

speed trap from yesterday doesn’t make good reading for mchonda

…nope – especially when a Manor is a hell of a lot faster!

This year could be more embarrassing than last.

Those speed traps.

2 Hamilton, 337.5km/h
…
9 Rosberg, 328.2km/h

That’s quite a difference. Was Hamilton out on a light fuel load at some point, of is he running a lot less wing, or what? That isn’t driver skill (unless you count the ability to run a lot less wing as skill – and you might – but it doesn’t feel right).

What have the Merc boys been up to? Other than endurance racing.

That’s quite a difference. Was Hamilton out on a light fuel load at some point, of is he running a lot less wing, or what? That isn’t driver skill (unless you count the ability to run a lot less wing as skill – and you might – but it doesn’t feel right).

What have the Merc boys been up to? Other than endurance racing.

That’s the thing with testing, we have no real idea. McHonda could equally be just running slow on purpose to build reliability data on what is essentially a brand new engine design. While I agree that’s a pretty low likelihood this is only the first test, so they might not even be running all the parts they could bolt on. The only thing you can say from testing is quite a few drivers have gone faster than last years pole, so something has improved. But then again it could be tires, accumulated knowledge of engine capabilities, aero, running below required weights (since no scrutineering remember) etc.

speed trap from yesterday doesn’t make good reading for mchonda
…nope – especially when a Manor is a hell of a lot faster!

This year could be more embarrassing than last.

Button probably went through the speed trap deliberately slowly so he can spend the rest of the testing season getting his excuses for another poor years performance ready.

How can it take a team of highly skilled professional mechanics more than 6 hours to fix a coolant leak? Haven’t they heard of Radweld?

Interesting first test all in, some of the mileage that was put down (not just Merc) was pretty impressive, I wonder what will happen to the lap times in the second test as the teams start to work on performance, there does seem to be a significant improvement already.

Heard (YouTube) a very funny and telling expression of difference in the attitude of LH vs NR yesterday, posed the question “What 3 words would you hope will describe your season by the end of it?”

NR answer – I only need one word, Flabbergasted
LH answer – Drivers World Champion

Nico just doesn’t have that belief does he?

Nico just doesn’t have that belief ability does he?

FTFY. I think he’s quick enough but doesn’t have the mindset to win over a season – pressure, incidents, wheel to wheel contests all seem to affect him more than Lewis.

Wonder if merc will bother to put on the ultra softs and do a low fuel run with super Mario mode on the engine. That lap time could really demoralise the ‘competition’

its hard to have belief when you keep getting beat

Not a pop at Nico but the results point to LH being the better driver.

I wonder if Merc will extend Nico’s contract if he’s a way behind Lewis by mid-season.

Would make sense to look to the future with young talent (for post Hamilton), or put in a proper No.2 to work as a rear-gunner that won’t take points away from your No.1 driver.

Would make sense to look to the future with young talent (for post Hamilton), or put in a proper No.2 to work as a rear-gunner that won’t take points away from your No.1 driver.

they’ve been able to have the luxury of 2 “main” drivers due to their domination but if ferrari can get between them they may not have that option this year and one of them will have to play 2’nd fiddle. A good start is a must ! Don’t fancy the guy who has to make the “let lewis pass” call or the “let Britney through” ! 😆

Ignore that. I has the dumb today.
🙂

Oh I agree totally, Lewis is simply better (even more so under pressure) and has proved it time and time again. But the difference in their responses, for me, goes to show that Nico has not got a cat in hells chance of ever getting to that level.

goes to show that Nico has not got a cat in hells chance of ever getting to that level.

I wouldn’t say that definitely, but it will need a serious conversation with the mirror and on the basis his attitude has been the same for quite a few years you are probably right.

I assumed that Nico was the number 2 rear gunner in reality. I know they say the drivers are both equal, but does anyone really believe that if any of the rest of the field look like they will mount a serious threat?

Channel 4 has started doing a few stings for the F1. The Chain is heavily featured…. 😀

Delay for new qualifying format – F1 management doing what F1 management does best. You’d have thought they’d have thought this through before announcing it…

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/123000

f1 still run by muppets ..

So we’re back testing again.

Honda have their final 2016 engine in the car and Alonso is about 0.5sec off the fastest time of the day so far (albeit on Soft tyres).

Are things looking up?

Alonso is about 0.5sec off the fastest time of the day

which was set on mediums with alonso running softs

edit: now 1.1 secs off rosburg on mediums

seem to be running some radio control for alonso 😉

…McHonda now 2.5 seconds off Merc – on the same soft tyre!

seem to be running some radio control for alonso

They’re streaming Smooth FM to keep him calm!

So Merc have just put the soft tyre on and set the quickest time on that compound so far in the 2 tests, no surprise there then lol

Klunk – Member

edit: now 1.1 secs off rosburg on mediums

Where can you see the times they’ve set on each tyre? (Or did it just happen to come up on Autosport’s feed?)

Fastest lap on Ultra Softs last week was a 1:22.810 by Vettel – Rosberg has done a 1:23.022 on his first run on Softs. They think the ultra-softs are 1.2 seconds quicker than the softs.

I think the bookies will stop taking bets on Lewis and Rosberg before the season starts!

(Or did it just happen to come up on Autosport’s feed?)

the autosport feed has a colour indicator to show which tyre was used for the time.

the-muffin-man – Member

Fastest lap on Ultra Softs last week was a 1:22.810 by Vettel – Rosberg has done a 1:23.022 on his first run on Softs. They think the ultra-softs are 1.2 seconds quicker than the softs.

I think the bookies will stop taking bets on Lewis and Rosberg before the season starts!

Klunk – Member

the autosport feed has a colour indicator to show which tyre was used for the time.

Thanks but sorry that’s not what I meant. For example today Rosberg has been out on the medium & soft, but since the soft is faster, the timing boards only show the time for that.
Wondered if there was a way of seeing the time for the (slower) medium as well.

Fastest lap on Ultra Softs last week was a 1:22.810 by Vettel – Rosberg has done a 1:23.022 on his first run on Softs. They think the ultra-softs are 1.2 seconds quicker than the softs.

anyone know if it’s a new engine or the one they ragged to death last week.

s duct for the mercs

it’s an odd one with mercedes, are they sandbagging ? shouldn’t you really be going all out to reveal the short comings in the car, or will lots of laps at 90% reveal the same ?

They’re streaming Smooth FM to keep him calm!

seems like they played something he didn’t like as he’s parked his car at the pit lane exit in protest. !

15mins left, a whole host of people of softs, but Alonso is still 3rd fastest today.

Anyones guess then whether they’ve improved.

Anyones guess then whether they’ve improved.

They were the 2nd fastest of all the cars running the soft tyre – only Merc were faster (but by 1.7s). What fuel loads the other teams were running is just a guess though.

A century of laps for the Macca today – some things are clearly going a lot better. They’re not all that slow either.

That’s a step change – no great affection for them (well – Ron) but it’s better for the sport if they’re in the mix.

mchonda are making a lot of noise, looking forward to Alonso putting the mp-31 through its paces

Me neither – I’d always been more a Williams fan, but then I’m also a big fan of Button, and I’ve got to be honest, I’ve also warmed a lot to Alonso recently.

Raikkonen doing laps with the new head protection. looks a bit of a mock up really

Testing the ‘halo’ this morning – probably won’t be too bad if blended into a car designed for it…

Damn – too slow! 😀