F1 2016 pre-season testing

[PhillipM]

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

They'll be lower than that come race day.

[Ferraripilot]

I'm going to guess and say I do not believe McLaren-Honda are running their fully update power unit specification yet. By the end of the week I believe we may have a better picture of how much the progressed over the winter, but I expect them be 1+ behind MB. While better than last year, it remains an eternity. They'll get there.

[j2004p]

I'm going to guess and say I do not believe McLaren-Honda are running their fully update power unit specification yet. By the end of the week I believe we may have a better picture of how much the progressed over the winter, but I expect them be 1+ behind MB. While better than last year, it remains an eternity. They'll get there.

On that note, anyone seen the speed trap times for the day so far?

[cliffgamerz]

Mclaren have not done their qualy run yet that time was set in one of 6 or 7 lap stints.

[godlameroso]

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

They'll be lower than that come race day.

I don't, for one, they will have to use at least one hard compound in the race, Pirelli always specifies 2 of the harder compound for the race and you have to use at least one.

[snowy]

It's a shame Ferrari and the others don't appear to be running race simulations at the moment. It really doesn't give us anything to gauge Mercedes performance on, however we do know exactly how much fuel Mercedes were using, a race distance worth.

[godlameroso]

I'm going to guess and say I do not believe McLaren-Honda are running their fully update power unit specification yet. By the end of the week I believe we may have a better picture of how much the progressed over the winter, but I expect them be 1+ behind MB. While better than last year, it remains an eternity. They'll get there.

If they cut it to less than a second per lap they won't get lapped in races any more.

[Just_a_fan]

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.

Yes, but we don't know whether the target time he's driving to is bang on the money or if they have a bit in hand. Maybe the car can get half a second per lap more from the tyres than that stint shows. We just don't know yet. It shows they can do what they've done but not whether they can do more and by how much. There's no doubt that it's good so far.

I'm guessing that Mercedes are really trying to figure the tyres, especially with the revised pressures. Others might be doing that too, but Mercedes have the benefit of a head start in overall performance anyway, of course, so they can concentrate on it. If they nail that then the early season could be more one sided than of late.

[basti313]

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

They'll be lower than that come race day.

I don't, for one, they will have to use at least one hard compound in the race, Pirelli always specifies 2 of the harder compound for the race and you have to use at least one.

Yes, sure. But if it is close at the end of the race (I do not believe it will be close...) and one Merc is on Softs, we will see high 26's in the race. This is a gain of laptime no one would have expected.

[PhillipM]

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

They'll be lower than that come race day.

I don't, for one, they will have to use at least one hard compound in the race, Pirelli always specifies 2 of the harder compound for the race and you have to use at least one.

Supersofts, softs and mediums for the race is it not?

[dot235]

Let's tractor all the way!

[godlameroso]

They'll be lower than that come race day.

I don't, for one, they will have to use at least one hard compound in the race, Pirelli always specifies 2 of the harder compound for the race and you have to use at least one.

Supersofts, softs and mediums for the race is it not?

Soft, medium, and hard for the race. If it's not, I think we won't see the hard compound in any race this year because historically Barcelona is one of the hardest circuits on tires. Especially during the race when it's considerably warmer, along with Malaysia and Suzuka, no other circuit really needs the hard tire. From the looks of it, the medium appears to be quite consistent. For the hard tire to be worth it, it needs to be as fast as the medium tire, but harder to get the lap time, as in you have to be very aggressive with it otherwise it won't come up to temperature or stay there.

[PhillipM]

I'll still expect to see 1.27's on the medium unless nobody pushes the Mercs at all. I won't be surprised at a few dips in the 1.26's if pushing.

[namao]

[GM7]

Winter-Test : global conclusion (day 5).



I remove the Sauber (2015) and Celis.