F1 2016 pre-season testing

[Big Mangalhit]

Last year Merc only did Softs and it was enough to be faster than anybody in SS and if I recall correctly it was quite a difference. Barcelona has been a good track for the team.

[Morteza]

What is wrong with Kimis car? Any news?

Roberto Chinchero reports that Raikkonen's earlier stoppage was caused by a gearbox failure, specifically that the Finn was stuck in eighth gear.

[FLuidd]

Judging by the stints I have gathered from the first week of testing and today in Barcelona :

Mercedes are around 0.2 seconds faster than Ferrari on this track.

Sector times suggests that Mercedes is performing better on straights and low speed corners , while Ferrari is the fastest in high speed corners.

We got a championship on our hands boys.

Allison did a great job.

[danielk]

Fastest lap - Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m 28.270s (lap 54) was Barcelona 2015 during the race,

Autosport say this about his laptimes:

Three to go for Hamilton on his race simulation, and he's now in the high 1m27s on this stint. His last lap - 1m27.8s, is the slowest on this run on brand new mediums, with his fastest being a 1m27.0s on his first flying lap.

I know track temperatures are different amongst many other variables, but this would seem to indicate that Mercedes are quite a bit faster than they were at Spanish GP last year.

[snowy]

First Barcelona Test Race Simulation
Hamilton (M) 1:29.0 1:28.3 1:28.8 1:28.9 1:28.7 1:29.2 1:29.4 1:29.3 1:29.4 1:29.5 1:30.6 1:29.4 1:29.3 1:29.4 1:30.2 1:30.4 1:32.0 1:30.7 1:30.6 1:30.8
Hamilton (M) 1:28.7 1:27.8 1:27.7 1:27.4 1:28.0 1:27.9 1:27.5 1:27.4 1:27.8 1:27.9 1:27.8 1:28.5 1:32.2 1:33.1 1:27.6 1:27.7 1:27.9 1:28.4 1:28.2 1:28.2 1:29.1
Hamilton (M) 1:27.4 1:26.2 1:27.7 1:27.3 1:27.9 1:27.2 1:27.6 1:27.6 1:28.3 1:28.0 1:31.0 1:27.8 1:29.2 1:30.0 1:34.0

Second Barcelona Test Race Simulation
Hamilton (S) 1:30.0 1:30.0 1:30.1 1:30.3 1:30.7 1:31.9 1:32.8
Hamilton (M) 1:33.7 1:29.0 1:29.4 1:30.1 1:29.6 1:30.5 1:29.5 1:29.6 1:29.7 1:29.8 1:29.3 1:29.8 1:29.6 1:30.1 1:30.0 1:29.9 1:29.8 1:30.1 1:30.4
Hamilton (M) 1:28.7 1:28.2 1:28.3 1:29.5 1:28.9 1:28.7 1:30.0 1:30.4 1:28.3 1:28.5 1:28.8 1:29.5 1:29.4 1:29.5 1:31.2
Hamilton (M) 1:27.0 1:27.2 1:27.2 1:27.1 1:27.1 1:27.2 1:27.2 1:27.0 1:27.4 1:27.2 1:27.5 1:27.4 1:27.4 1:27.4 1:27.6 1:27.4 1:27.5 1:27.8 1:28.4 1:28.8

[KingHamilton01]

Nearly 80 Laps for McLaren now, 100 Lap's and that will be a decent day's work!

[godlameroso]

That's flipping fast, I wasn't expecting them to be able to do low 27's race laps.

[Just_a_fan]

Those Hamilton times are a driver driving to a time given to him by his engineer. They're too consistent to have any element of pushing from the driver. I'm sure they give good tyre deg data etc to the engineers but they don't tell us much, sadly.

[outsid3r]

Ferrari is back out. A big issue with the gearbox would have caused a longer delay I imagine? Surely, they didn't just bolt on a new one and let Kim out without some proper investigation?

[godlameroso]

Alonso breaks into the 24's not too shabby.

[basti313]

Hamilton (M) 1:27.0 1:27.2 1:27.2 1:27.1 1:27.1 1:27.2 1:27.2 1:27.0 1:27.4 1:27.2 1:27.5 1:27.4 1:27.4 1:27.4 1:27.6 1:27.4 1:27.5 1:27.8 1:28.4 1:28.8

Omg...this is not looking good.
In the "prediction threads" people were telling it is unfounded, when I said, Merc will also gain a second over the winter. But looking at this data now...they gained even more.

[namao]

Hamilton (M) 1:27.0 1:27.2 1:27.2 1:27.1 1:27.1 1:27.2 1:27.2 1:27.0 1:27.4 1:27.2 1:27.5 1:27.4 1:27.4 1:27.4 1:27.6 1:27.4 1:27.5 1:27.8 1:28.4 1:28.8

Omg...this is not looking good.
In the "prediction threads" people were telling it is unfounded, when I said, Merc will also gain a second over the winter. But looking at this data now...they gained even more.

Let's wait to Melbourne. We don't know fuel, heights, setups...

[Rhodium]

Hamilton (M) 1:27.0 1:27.2 1:27.2 1:27.1 1:27.1 1:27.2 1:27.2 1:27.0 1:27.4 1:27.2 1:27.5 1:27.4 1:27.4 1:27.4 1:27.6 1:27.4 1:27.5 1:27.8 1:28.4 1:28.8

Omg...this is not looking good.
In the "prediction threads" people were telling it is unfounded, when I said, Merc will also gain a second over the winter. But looking at this data now...they gained even more.

i'm ok,

it's just... amazing work on this car, again.

[godlameroso]

Those Hamilton times are a driver driving to a time given to him by his engineer. They're too consistent to have any element of pushing from the driver. I'm sure they give good tyre deg data etc to the engineers but they don't tell us much, sadly.

I disagree, clearly there's more in the tires, but you have to consider that they can only carry ~140 liters of fuel, and they have to drive to a delta because the degradation of the tires, and the limited fuel supply + the performance of the car lock it to that pace for a race distance. The things that can influence that delta is the performance of the chassis, or the efficiency of the engine.

Nearly all teams are locked to ~1:30 lap time, that is the target time, they never consistently drive more than a few seconds above or below that until the fuel level comes down, or the driver managed to save fuel and has tires to burn.

Look at Hamilton's stint, starting off around 1:30 on the soft, 1:30-1:29 during the first stint, then as the fuel goes down and he has fresh tires, the time goes down, slowly increasing the performance once his engineers see that he can make race distance. I wouldn't say it's definitive, but I am impressed by how fast he went on that last stint.

[F1NAC]

McLaren "only" 1.7 sec off from Merc on softs