2018 pre-season testing thread

Post here all non technical related topics about Formula One. This includes race results, discussions, testing analysis etc. TV coverage and other personal questions should be in Off topic chat.
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Gerhardsa
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

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I doubt Merc will have the problems to the same degree they had last year.
That car was blisteringly quick, but they suffered a lot due to their suspension being outlawed. Imagine how they would have stomped everyone if their suspension was not banned. (same with Red Bull)
I suspect that is mainly what made the car a "diva" because the way the tires were being worked was different after the suspension ban.

I am sure they solved most of the problem (if not all of it) with this years design. In any case, we see a lot of teams chewing up the rears from pictures at testing.

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Vasconia
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

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Jambier wrote:
08 Mar 2018, 11:26
r101 wrote:
08 Mar 2018, 11:23
From www.motorsport.com live test day 3 page, taken from Gary Anderson:

Adjusted times
1 Red Bull 1m18.347s
2 Mercedes 1m18.750s
3 Renault 1m18.792s
4 Ferrari 1m18.891s
5 Williams 1m19.449s
6 Haas 1m19.737s (suspect lower fuel than some)
7 McLaren 1m20.206s
8 Sauber 1m20.218s (probably lower fuel than most)
9 Force India 1m20.455s
10 Toro Rosso 1m20.623s (identical to the adjusted time from day 1)
What does this mean?
Maybe RB will smash the rest of the field... :mrgreen:

Those times are useless, no one believes Renault can be that fast.

r101
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

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Hulk has just taken best Soft time with 1:19.412

Mansell89
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

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Hulks time on the softs today looks really strong.

Interestingly although McLaren have been going quicker on the softest tyres, Vandoorne did a 9 lap stint so it appears he can maintain the softer compound longer perhaps?

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NathanOlder
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

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Hulk faster than Mclaren 1.18.684
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Restomaniac
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

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Hmm...Both the Renault and McLaren have posted 1m18...'s on a slower track than yesterday on the HS's. Either RedBull and Mercedes were sandbagging or this season is about to get GOOOOOD!!!!!

Anthropolyte
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

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Restomaniac wrote:
08 Mar 2018, 12:22
Hmm...Both the Renault and McLaren have posted 1m18...'s on a slower track than yesterday on the HS's. Either RedBull and Mercedes were sandbagging or this season is about to get GOOOOOD!!!!!
Slower track... but softer tyres. Renault and McLaren are both running hypersofts.

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NathanOlder
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

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So were Red Bull yesterday werent they ?
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Anthropolyte
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

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NathanOlder wrote:
08 Mar 2018, 12:26
So were Red Bull yesterday werent they ?
Yep. And Danny posted a time pretty similar to Renault and McLaren.

Restomaniac
Restomaniac
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

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Anthropolyte wrote:
08 Mar 2018, 12:27
NathanOlder wrote:
08 Mar 2018, 12:26
So were Red Bull yesterday werent they ?
Yep. And Danny posted a time pretty similar to Renault and McLaren.
On a faster track(Yesterday).......That's my point. Same tyres but it's far colder today

TwanV
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

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not sure about that , the average laptimes now are faster than they were yesterday at 13:00; the track is also starting to rubbber in so it's quite hard to say. In any way I'm quite sure that the difference between today and yesterday isn't 0.6s on the hypersofts. Still a good effort though from Renault, quite a surprise.
Last edited by TwanV on 08 Mar 2018, 12:34, edited 3 times in total.

McHonda
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

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Dan did a 18 dead so still over half a second in hand. Good to see McLaren around the much praised Renault though after a tricky few days.

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iotar__
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

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gibells wrote:
08 Mar 2018, 11:48
It strikes me that Mercedes have the same problem as they had last year. In that the softer compounds are just useless for them because they blister too quickly. And, for whatever reason, by keeping their design principle the same this year, they will be stuck with another diva. Red Bull and Ferrari look dangerous to me.

I just can't wait for all this speculation to end...
- Not Bottas and his tyre photo again :x . "Softer compounds useless because of blisters" for a team that had what (made up number) 80% of pole positions and remarkably kept most of those? Softer compounds = tyres used 95% of the time last season.

- I don't know about RB but it was Ferrari that adjusted their design http://www.crash.net/f1/news/889949/1/f ... 018-f1-car Binotto:
"If we take stock of what we did last year, in low-speed tracks we always did well while in circuits where the speed was higher we were suffering a little bit more. So aerodynamic development was sought in that respect and the car was conceived in that way in order to have homogeneous, uniform performance all season.

...Ferrari has moved towards the longer wheelbase design favoured by Mercedes last season, adding much of the Italian squad’s development efforts were focused on the bodywork around the sidepods and in producing a narrower rear-end package.

"When it comes to performance, these are all contributions that aim to improve the aerodynamics of the car. They try to improve the drag level in general while improving the overall efficiency of the car.
This also covers nicely all the shouting about Ferrari's huge engine disadvantage based on specific track balance.

- Diva was the term conned after Hamilton's Monaco failure. "No excuses this time for Bottas" Hamilton that is.

Restomaniac
Restomaniac
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

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McHonda wrote:
08 Mar 2018, 12:32
Dan did a 18 dead so still over half a second in hand. Good to see McLaren around the much praised Renault though after a tricky few days.
That's still a hell of a lot closer than some thought. Which is why I said I hoped they weren't sandbagging yesterday.

Restomaniac
Restomaniac
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

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Boom and there goes that idea. :lol:

Impressive time by Vettel that. It kind of confirms the 1m16.. on HS thinking.
Last edited by Restomaniac on 08 Mar 2018, 12:39, edited 1 time in total.