2012 Testing - Barcelona 2: 1 - 4 March

[elf341]

Is anybody aware of the track-side observations of the cars?

I am concerned about whether Lotus is going to be a problem for Mercedes.

[f1316]

Oh please I am a Mercedes fan myself. BTW it is unimaginably stupid to say that they were trying to degrade their tyres.

They were checking TYRE degradation over various fuel-loads,setups & checking out which causes better times overall -> To push in the 1st Lap or Not. They are changing setups & fuel loads & getting Data. They are not TRYING to degrade their tyres. YOU DONT FIND A SWEET SPOT BY TRYING TO DEGRADE TYRES.

Nobody is TESTING TYRE DEGRADATION like that & nobody tests like that. On a normal sting you get DATA which helps you to understand it.

It does not matter what Webber was testing. This is UNHEARD of. I have never seen this last year. No team has even MANAGED to do a 16 lap run with loosing only 1s. This is EXTRA-ORDINARY. ABSOLUTELY OUT OF THIS WORLD.

Like I just said, Massa's 16th lap is FASTER than his first, so...

[Ferraripilot]

Okay Nico's last run was a 12 Lap Run.He lost 2.4s.

Massa has lost 2.1 over a 10 lap Run. Times are fairly similar. Nico is probably slightly lighter.

But none of them are anywhere near Webber's 16 lap which is loosing 1s.

Nico's times above seemed to level off. His last and first time were within half a second.

1.27.537 & 1.29.961.


That is 2.4 odd seconds not half a second Dren.

This is GROSS violation. You guys are picking & choosing times to suit people.

Nico's 1st Lap which was 1.27.537 was omitted & the stint was shown from 1-30's... Ridiculous really. I am Mercedes fan but what is there to manipulate date to suit us??

The average lap time is the metric that counts over a stint. Remember that

[Mestrades]

Everything points to another disappointing year by Mercedes. It may be that the fuel loads are diferents, but in all the stints? They have to test with low levels of fuel also once!. The point is that no stint by Mercedes is better than Red Bull has done.

[blokkie]

snip

chill ... get rid of the cafeine maybe ?

I was saying that under diffirent setups they where checking the tyer degradation ( like already explained - see quote in previous post from Brown ) and it's not correct to compare stints between one team and another because you don't know the purpose of that particular stint.

[dren]

Everything I've read from trackside observers, ones who are usually on point and who I respect, have said Mercedes looks much better this year. They are putting them behind Mclaren and Red Bull who both look neck and neck. Mercedes is echoing the same thing. The team made a good step and will likely be podium contenders.

[Gerhard Berger]

Ferrari is not having a good day at the office. A lot of instalation laps and the only covererd 60 odd laps today. Also Mclaren en Lotus are having issues. So of the topteams only Mercedes and Red Bull are stable. Ferrari en McLaren still having issues on the last test week. This is all playing in the hands of Red Bull again. Ferrari is still making wholesale changes on the last test days. They losing an awful lot of track time because of that. Quite because Alonso think they only understand 20% of the car.

72 1:27.993 -3.329
73 1:28.101 +0.108
74 1:28.259 +0.158
75 1:28.461 +0.202
76 1:28.333 -0.128
77 1:28.305 -0.028
78 1:28.277 -0.028
79 1:28.309 +0.032
80 1:28.299 -0.01
81 1:28.352 +0.053
82 1:28.583 +0.231
83 1:31.451 +2.868
84 1:28.496 -2.955
85 1:28.861 +0.365
86 1:28.919 +0.058
87 1:29.041 +0.122

This is quite troubling for the rest of the field.

Ferrari are testing the new floor and diffuser from Byrne.

Thats is just wrong. Alonso feels that they only understand 20% of the car, why are you changing components. This is really not a good sign, if take that route you will end up like ducati in MotoGP. A floor is a fundamentale component on the car. Look at Red Bull there are just focusing on car setup, thats what you are supposed to do in the last test session. They cannot have a base setup if there changing thinks on a daily base.

I think it will be:

Red Bull: Really sollid.

Mercedes/McLaren: Think they are really close.

Ferrari: A lot to sort out and a lot of catching up to do.

Alonso made the 20% comment after the first test in Jerez.

The Byrne floor is part of the final update to the car, it was known about since Christmas time. Perhaps we would have tested it earlier but it takes time to test in the wind tunnel and manufacture.

Alonso says they will be using Melbourne FP1 as an additional test session. I think it is no secret that we are behind since the car is so new, and we had problems with deforming aerodynamic parts in the first test. But then again, we looked good at this stage last year, and were working on setup, and look where that got us.

[banibhusan]

So Massa did 12 laps while losing just .9 sec (lap 83-94). Will someone bother to say it's out of the world and outstanding and all that?

[dren]

The average lap time is the metric that counts over a stint. Remember that

Yes, correct. Mercedes doesn't look too bad.

[Schurcedes]

Rosberg's latest stint has been super consistent, not more than 5 tenths between fastest and slowest laps.

[kooleracer]

So Massa did 12 laps while losing just .9 sec (lap 83-94). Will someone bother to say it's out of the world and outstanding and all that?

outstanding felipe, Smedley:'You are faster then Alonso' !

[dren]

So Massa did 12 laps while losing just .9 sec (lap 83-94). Will someone bother to say it's out of the world and outstanding and all that?

Wait...hold up...stop the testing, everyone should give the championship to Ferrari and concentrate on 2013 now.

[Mestrades]

Last Rosberg stint. It looks better than the last one in terms of tyre degradation =D>

1:29.271 (115)
1:29.144 (116)
1:29.116 (117)
1:29.061 (118)
1:29.033 (119)
1:33.924 (120)
1:29.429 (121)
1:29.581 (122)
1:29.420 (123)
1:29.567 (124)

10 laps in a very consistent pace. He could have continued
RED FLAG! ---!

[Mr.S]

So Massa did 12 laps while losing just .9 sec (lap 83-94). Will someone bother to say it's out of the world and outstanding and all that?

Well it was Very Solid. But the opening lap was quite slow. So the real time was actually 1.2-1.3s+ atleast.

In this 2nd lap he went 2-3 tenths faster unlike Webber who lost 1 or 2 tenths in his 1st lap.

Nevertheless that was a VERY good stint. But that was 12 laps of Hard Tyre. The Hard tyre should last 15-20 Laps atleast. But Solid Improvement from Jerez.

[Trocola]

Mclaren days are back: only 58 laps. Last test was so good (100+ laps per day) to be true


Trocola