2015 Pre-season Testing

[FoxHound]

Anyway I would like to see a free battle from the very first race.

Has there been any evidence to the contrary in 2014?

[PlatinumZealot]

Rosberg ignored orders as early as Bahrain. It was the fourth race of the season and Hamilton was on a high wave of 2 wins in a row. Rosberg had to do something to end it, and so he turned up his engine. I do not condemn him. I would do it too.

[TAG]

There are orders and data and things that the pit can see that the driver just doesn't have the bandwidth to consider during a race. But in the end, drivers matter, in times like Monza when the data and engineers say to save tires and attempt an overtake at the closing stages of the race, and the driver goes and overtakes within two laps of reviving that "recommendation".

Sometimes the pit gets it wrong, so I would always defer to the driver POV.

[djos]

So is this the pre-season testing topic or the Lewis vs Britney topic?

[ParkerArt]

So is this the pre-season testing topic or the Lewis vs Britney topic?

It's Technical Forum. It's obviously a topic about whether losing the WDC or losing the girlfriend is more damaging to the fragile psyche of a F1 racer.

Things known from Testing;
[*]Mercedes might as well be given the WCC now
[*]The WDC is going to either Hamilton of Rosberg
[*]Red Bull is either going to be 2nd or 4th for the first leg of the season, depending on how Renault's token strategy
[*]McLaren Honda have a mountain to climb

Remaining Question from Testing;
[*]Why Hamilton did 1000 fewer kilometers driving than Rosberg
[*]Lotus vs Force India race pace
[*]Manor making the grid in Australia
[*]Whether Williams or Ferrari have more Qualifying pace
[*]Will Sauber be challenging Toro Roso to be back of the mid-pack or first of the back-markers
[*]Can McLaren see the checkered flag in the first fly-away races without being 2+ laps down
[*]Alonso

We aren't going to get many/any answers until the season begins so I guess we can argue whether Hamilton's hair style is, in any way, related to his mental stability?

[Manoah2u]

So is this the pre-season testing topic or the Lewis vs Britney topic?

It's Technical Forum. It's obviously a topic about whether losing the WDC or losing the girlfriend is more damaging to the fragile psyche of a F1 racer.

Things known from Testing;
[*]Mercedes might as well be given the WCC now
[*]The WDC is going to either Hamilton of Rosberg
[*]Red Bull is either going to be 2nd or 4th for the first leg of the season, depending on how Renault's token strategy
[*]McLaren Honda have a mountain to climb

Remaining Question from Testing;
[*]Why Hamilton did 1000 fewer kilometers driving than Rosberg
[*]Lotus vs Force India race pace
[*]Manor making the grid in Australia
[*]Whether Williams or Ferrari have more Qualifying pace
[*]Will Sauber be challenging Toro Roso to be back of the mid-pack or first of the back-markers
[*]Can McLaren see the checkered flag in the first fly-away races without being 2+ laps down
[*]Alonso

We aren't going to get many/any answers until the season begins so I guess we can argue whether Hamilton's hair style is, in any way, related to his mental stability?

Definate post of the day =D>

[iotar__]

It's Technical Forum. It's obviously a topic about whether losing the WDC or losing the girlfriend is more damaging to the fragile psyche of a F1 racer.
Things known from Testing;
[*]Mercedes might as well be given the WCC now
[*]The WDC is going to either Hamilton of Rosberg
[*]Red Bull is either going to be 2nd or 4th for the first leg of the season, depending on how Renault's token strategy
[*]McLaren Honda have a mountain to climb

Remaining Question from Testing;
[*]Why Hamilton did 1000 fewer kilometers driving than Rosberg
[*]Lotus vs Force India race pace
[*]Manor making the grid in Australia
[*]Whether Williams or Ferrari have more Qualifying pace
[*]Will Sauber be challenging Toro Roso to be back of the mid-pack or first of the back-markers
[*]Can McLaren see the checkered flag in the first fly-away races without being 2+ laps down
[*]Alonso
We aren't going to get many/any answers until the season begins so I guess we can argue whether Hamilton's hair style is, in any way, related to his mental stability?

Your fault for waving technical flag to add value to your own post so:
1. Several obvious ones and therefore redundant about Merc Ham/Rosb McL, Manor etc.
2. "Red Bull is either going to be 2nd or 4th for the first leg of the season, depending on how Renault's token strategy"
This one doesn't make sense, why not third and why their own token strategy will decide it? Other teams don't exist and don't have token strategies? Not based on material world = not technical.

3. "Why Hamilton did 1000 fewer kilometres driving than Rosberg"? Unless you can't count or check facts you can answer it yourself or is it already excuses and conspiracies time? I suggest starting with flu for more technical approach.

4 "Lotus vs Force India race pace." a) why against Lotus? Should be against every other team. b) Why race pace only? Are you saying you know Lotus vs FI situation in terms of qualifying pace, how?

5 "Whether Williams or Ferrari have more Qualifying pace" Comparable would be my answer based on tests. Again: is race pace known but qualifying unknown? I would change it for: who will be the second best: Williams, Red Bull or Ferrari?
6. Alonso what?

I'll add my own: 1. can McLaren be in the group behind Merc at some stage? 2. Will this season affect their chances in 2016?

[ParkerArt]

Your fault for waving technical flag to add value to your own post so:
1. Several obvious ones and therefore redundant about Merc Ham/Rosb McL, Manor etc.
2. "Red Bull is either going to be 2nd or 4th for the first leg of the season, depending on how Renault's token strategy"
This one doesn't make sense, why not third and why their own token strategy will decide it? Other teams don't exist and don't have token strategies? Not based on material world = not technical.

3. "Why Hamilton did 1000 fewer kilometres driving than Rosberg"? Unless you can't count or check facts you can answer it yourself or is it already excuses and conspiracies time? I suggest starting with flu for more technical approach.

4 "Lotus vs Force India race pace." a) why against Lotus? Should be against every other team. b) Why race pace only? Are you saying you know Lotus vs FI situation in terms of qualifying pace, how?

5 "Whether Williams or Ferrari have more Qualifying pace" Comparable would be my answer based on tests. Again: is race pace known but qualifying unknown? I would change it for: who will be the second best: Williams, Red Bull or Ferrari?
6. Alonso what?

I'll add my own: 1. can McLaren be in the group behind Merc at some stage? 2. Will this season affect their chances in 2016?

2) Everything I can see and find seems to point to Ferrari and Williams being close. The long run pace could be seen as saying that the tire wear on the Ferrari (when on Mediums) is lower than the Williams but the Mercedes engine is still has more race pace than the Ferrari. When talking about RBR and the Renault PU, if they hold of on introduction tokens as to allow Mario Illien more time to optimize the heads and combustion, they will lack the straight line speed to hold off Williams and Ferrari for lap after lap. As such, I believe that either Red Bull will have the pace to stay ahead of both the Ferraris and Williams or the Red Bulls will be caught and passed in DRS zones.

3) I simply do not know. Rosberg did more constant speed aero loading and did more long runs. It could be that Hamilton doesn't like testing, he could have been bummed from his relationship ending but it doesn't really matter. Hamilton just did less mileage. It probably won't effect racing because of the un-representative conditions but it could be an attitude quirk.

4) Mercedes engines. Assuming similar aero performance, the engines should be the difference between Lotus and FI compared to Sauber and Toro Roso. When just talking about Lotus and Force India, aero seems to be better on the Lotus while chassis/tire performance seems to be better on the FI. With the more aggressive 2015 rubber, tire management should be more important than last year. I feel that Lotus should qualify better but could be held up long first stint from Force India.

5) From #2, it's looking like Red Bull, Williams and Ferrari for 2-4. My belief is that Red Bull are either going to beat both or neither. Between Williams and Ferrari, I feel that it's too variable but will bet 5 Internet Karma Points that before Spain, the WCC will look like Mercedes, Williams, Ferrari and Red Bull, provided that Renault don't use many tokens before Australia or any big updates before the European leg of the season.

6) No one knows when he is going to be able to get back in the car. Hopefully it's for Malaysia but no one from the team is telling.

7) Completely possible that McLaren can salvage the situation but it's going to be amazing if they can do it before the season starts. They could stay on a race pace in either Barcelona 1 or Barcelona 2 for more than 5 laps without needing cool down laps. That would seem to show a MGU-H harvesting deficiency and/or overheating. The engine hasn't shown any significant reliability over a race distance at racing speed; however, the aero and chassis look good but no one knows what their tire wear is like because they haven't done the laps.

For 2016, I feel that this year the only thing that matters is that Honda can match Ferrari and Renault by the end of this season. If it was my team, I would be focusing only on performance updates for next season and working around reliability this season. Give the team the best possible start for 2016. They need to get an engine that is better than Ferrari and Renault as soon as possible and McLaren need to get on top of their aero and reliability so they can take 2nd in the WCC before trying to go after Mercedes.

[FrukostScones]

found on twitter:

[NathanOlder]

Where was their accident ? down into turn 5 ? Looks like Nasr chopped back in too early like Susie said he did from those pics

[ParkerArt]

Where was their accident ? down into turn 5 ? Looks like Nasr chopped back in too early like Susie said he did from those pics

Yeah, T5.

Depending on who you ask, Nasr either dove inside on a hot lap or Wolff turned in on him for a late apex on a slow lap.

[henra]

Definate post of the day =D>

For me too!!
That 's about the best Management Summary of the last 94 pages one could conceive .

[Manoah2u]

found on twitter:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-3PrPEVEAAlhgP.jpg:large

susie doing a maldonado?

[jato]

Why does everyone assume it is Susie's fault just because she is a development/test driver and a woman? You can see that her car is already placed almost as far on the edge of the circuit as possible which tells me that there is plenty of room for Nasr if he wanted to pass her. Looked like inept attempt from Nasr IMO because if Susie was taking a late apex there looks to be still plenty of room for Nasr to pass safely without causing a collision.

[djos]

Why does everyone assume it is Susie's fault just because she is a development/test driver and a woman? You can see that her car is already placed almost as far on the edge of the circuit as possible which tells me that there is plenty of room for Nasr if he wanted to pass her. Looked like inept attempt from Nasr IMO because if Susie was taking a late apex there looks to be still plenty of room for Nasr to pass safely without causing a collision.

I have to agree, she might not be up to F1 driver skill levels but this accident looks to be 100% Nasr's fault!