2021 Pre-season testing. Bahrain 12-14 March

[NathanOlder]

Another thought, Could the Mercedes token usage be something so special but so easy to copy, they have kept it hidden until Bahrain GP.

You could say 'other teams have spent their tokens so cant copy it'. But this is not true as the tokens will only be spent when they enter the first race?

If you were a team that spent the tokens on rear suspension, then saw Mercedes silver bullet, and thought 'actually, scrap the suspension, bolt on last years, we need to copy what Mercedes have done'

So Mercedes have decided to hide it until its too late?!

Just a thought, and highly unlikely I know, but an idea nonetheless.

[dans79]

People have to start accepting that perhaps Mercedes has been caught napping + didn't think other teams would manage to claw back substantially all of the lost rear downforce over winter.

I'm pretty sure I remember Merc saying they believed, they had clawed back everything before the end of last season.

More importantly it's next to impossible for them to go from being clearly the best car in the field, to barely beating Williams. Not with how little the rules changed anyway.

[cheeRS]

Is that in bahrain, or back in silverstone?

Bahrain I believe. Tuesday is what I heard.

Still wondering what Allison was talking about when he said it will be obvious what they spent their tokens on when you see it.

I think hoping for new pieces for filming day is wishful thinking, given 100km limit (Merc usually likes to pound round to evaluate new parts) and 2021's restricted testing/budget cap (why would you hide when it's unlikely teams will be able to replicate due to token system/limited scope for development this season given the eventual focus on 2022). It's the equivalent of Merc waiting for Melbourne to unleash an untested W10 Spec II - which we know they didn't do as they brought the Spec II car during the second week of 2019 testing as they needed the track time to ensure proper correlation / set-up.

People have to start accepting that perhaps Mercedes has been caught napping + didn't think other teams would manage to claw back substantially all of the lost rear downforce over winter.

Given the statements Wolff made about ending W11 development super early last to work on the w12, and the high end chassis dyno they use 24/7, that seems really unlikely. If it wasn’t for the gearbox issue on day 1 which severely reduced testing mileage, Merc would have been right up there with mileage. Instead people are calling Merc’s demise because of a broken gearbox and LH spinning twice.

If there was ever a team in history to be NOT caught napping, it’s Merc.

[Morteza]

Wouter must be happy for Gasly

[zibby43]

People have to start accepting that perhaps Mercedes has been caught napping + didn't think other teams would manage to claw back substantially all of the lost rear downforce over winter.

People that accept that are going to be in for a disappointment on March 27th.

Surprised that no one has mentioned where testing is taking place this year: Bahrain. It’s not a traditional Merc powerhouse circuit, which Barcelona is the epitome of.

Ferrari have owned Merc here, as recently as 2019 (and the W10 was dominant). But for both Ferraris hitting trouble in that race, it would’ve been a Ferrari win.

Anyway, I come away from this testing similar to any other year, Merc and Red Bull are the leaders in the club house, and that’s about it.

[zibby43]

Another thought, Could the Mercedes token usage be something so special but so easy to copy, they have kept it hidden until Bahrain GP.

The token thing is confounding me. Allison said it would become apparent where they were spent with time.

Still waiting for that lol.

In terms of exterior aero surfaces, Mercedes will have a decent upgrade for Bahrain. That’s their opening race MO every year.

[Just_a_fan]

Could be smart tactics indeed whilst only three days of regular testing. Big disadvantage ar the 'filming' tyres and low km running..

They can see whether a new item increases down force and where the aero balance sits, even on filming tyres. The lack of km just means each change will only get a lap or two to gather data.

[Just_a_fan]

Still wondering what Allison was talking about when he said it will be obvious what they spent their tokens on when you see it.

Hmmm, obvious you say...

[Manoah2u]

People have to start accepting that perhaps Mercedes has been caught napping + didn't think other teams would manage to claw back substantially all of the lost rear downforce over winter.

People that accept that are going to be in for a disappointment on March 27th.

Surprised that no one has mentioned where testing is taking place this year: Bahrain. It’s not a traditional Merc powerhouse circuit, which Barcelona is the epitome of.

Ferrari have owned Merc here, as recently as 2019 (and the W10 was dominant). But for both Ferraris hitting trouble in that race, it would’ve been a Ferrari win.

Anyway, I come away from this testing similar to any other year, Merc and Red Bull are the leaders in the club house, and that’s about it.

church.

[lio007]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ewc9uiAXMAQ ... name=large

Wouter must be happy for Gasly
https://twitter.com/LightsOutF1Blog/sta ... 66561?s=19

Wow...only 117 for Seb. Tough to start like that in a new team.

[Atticus]

Here is the timing data from today's test as requested.
I reformatted the timestamps slightly so that the whole thing is a bit more readable.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Hey, this was very useful for me in the past two days.

Is this in the works for today's final day as well?

[mkay]

Shovlin

We've made a bit of progress with the balance on higher fuel and the car was more predictable but we can see from the data we've collected over the last few days that on race pace, we're not as quick as Red Bull," Shovlin said.

"The lower fuel work was a more confusing picture, we didn't gain enough and we need to go and look at our approach as far too many cars were ahead of us on pace today.

"We've had issues in recent years with pace in winter testing and managed to make good progress before the first race but we may have our work cut out this time.

"We've not got long before we're back here for the race so we've planned a programme of work to try and understand some of our issues and will be leaving no stone unturned in our efforts to find some more speed over the next 10 days."

Andrew Shovlin pretty much confirms Merc pace (or lack thereof) is somewhat genuine. I do wonder what the heck they did over the 2nd half of 2020, having stopped development of the 2020 car earlier than every other team?!

The Merc 2020 to 2021 transition is potentially McLaren 2012 to 2013 levels of bad.

[NathanOlder]

Shovlin

We've made a bit of progress with the balance on higher fuel and the car was more predictable but we can see from the data we've collected over the last few days that on race pace, we're not as quick as Red Bull," Shovlin said.

"The lower fuel work was a more confusing picture, we didn't gain enough and we need to go and look at our approach as far too many cars were ahead of us on pace today.

"We've had issues in recent years with pace in winter testing and managed to make good progress before the first race but we may have our work cut out this time.

"We've not got long before we're back here for the race so we've planned a programme of work to try and understand some of our issues and will be leaving no stone unturned in our efforts to find some more speed over the next 10 days."

Andrew Shovlin pretty much confirms Merc pace (or lack thereof) is somewhat genuine. I do wonder what the heck they did over the 2nd half of 2020, having stopped development of the 2020 car earlier than every other team?!

The Merc 2020 to 2021 transition is potentially McLaren 2012 to 2013 levels of bad.

I just have a feeling that Shovelin is indeed saying our car here can't beat the RB16b. But we won't be bringing this car to Bahrain in 2 weeks time.

[101FlyingDutchman]

I don’t understand people’s reaction. Are you really believing that Merc won’t be at the front, when they have the highest apex speed on every single corner on this track. You must be smoking something very strong. Whenever I’ve seen Valtteri today at the wheel, the car looked pretty darned composed, traditionally they run with a boat load of fuel for all their work. To read anything into testing, you have to take into consideration that their apex speed is amongst the highest even at high fuel loads. That will tell you EVERYTHING you need to know for now

[Oehrly]

I have now updated yesterday's timing data document to contain the data from all three days.
Here's the link again: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

For day 3, there's about three minutes of missing data shortly before the break (minute 49 to 52). The data may have errors there. Also, the total lap counts may be wrong for some drivers because of this. Sorry for that.