2014 Testing - Jerez 28-31 Jan

[Alexgtt]

Interesting day and definitely boost to Mercedes and to lesser extent Ferrari.

Can anyone tell me the ambient temps for last years test at Jerez?

I'm mightily impressed with the Mercedes engine reliability straight out the box. Was kind of expected but this is a great success so far. When you think of the calibration work yet to be done with all those power unit systems for full integration and suitability to the track, added to the not ideal tyre availability at the moment, these cars could possibly only be 2-3 seconds off last seasons cars and I'd imagine by seasons end they could be far quicker.

[danielk]

Interesting day and definitely boost to Mercedes and to lesser extent Ferrari.

Can anyone tell me the ambient temps for last years test at Jerez?

I'm mightily impressed with the Mercedes engine reliability straight out the box. Was kind of expected but this is a great success so far. When you think of the calibration work yet to be done with all those power unit systems for full integration and suitability to the track, added to the not ideal tyre availability at the moment, these cars could possibly only be 2-3 seconds off last seasons cars and I'd imagine by seasons end they could be far quicker.

agree, except for there is a possibility Force India's Merc engine went pop. if thats the case they are the first manufacturer to have an engine failure.

..............

[kooleracer]

Mercedes had a good day, a lot of data from the 4 teams. According to paddock rumors they were ahead and know they are even making more progress. Also Ferrari is looking good, but they haven't managed a long run so far. Renault will scratching their heads about the 2 test days so far. Mercedes has got some useful feedback from Rosberg about the drive ability of the power-unit, so the engineers at Brackley can start making improvements for the next test in Bahrain.

[kooleracer]

Interesting day and definitely boost to Mercedes and to lesser extent Ferrari.

Can anyone tell me the ambient temps for last years test at Jerez?

I'm mightily impressed with the Mercedes engine reliability straight out the box. Was kind of expected but this is a great success so far. When you think of the calibration work yet to be done with all those power unit systems for full integration and suitability to the track, added to the not ideal tyre availability at the moment, these cars could possibly only be 2-3 seconds off last seasons cars and I'd imagine by seasons end they could be far quicker.

agree, except for there is a possibility Force India's Merc engine went pop. if thats the case they are the first manufacturer to have an engine failure.

..............

Maybe Force India made it go pop because of insufficient cooling who knows.

[dans79]

Maybe Force India made it go pop because of insufficient cooling who knows.

Or it was just Perez still trying to show he is better than Button.

[f1316]

I think it was always a fair bet that Mercedes (the team) might be able to do a lot of running straight out of the box - given that they'd already done some at Silverstone before they turned up. You would imagine this would have allowed them to already run through some of the gremlins (front wings aside).

And 50(ish) laps each for the Ferrari-engined cars is perfectly respectable too; don't forget there are 4 cars running the Merc engine and only 2 (so far) with the Ferrari, so overall lap count was always likely to be higher for them (twice as high is fairly predictable...)

[iotar__]

It is me or Newey is complaining more than previous years, yesterday was complaining about the noses and how dangerous could it be and today are news reporting that he is complaining about the new batteries. It feels to me he is not as comfortable as previous years.

Newey didn't wake up yesterday and realise that low noses are ugly and "dangerous". Seconds after new rules were announced big brains of F1 knew how it would look like. That was the time for discussions not first day of testing, of course he may be just stating his opinion. The same way C. Horner realised today new engines are expensive and it's got nothing to do with planned cost policing.

I see McLaren are up to their old tricks running unrealistic set up in Jerez and getting fastest times .

[Dreameagl]

It looks like the majority of the drivers are struggling to get to grips with the amount of torque these new engines are producing, which begs the question.. how much can the teams be learning from an aero point of view if the cars aren't being driven anywhere near to their potential yet?

Are they allowed electronic driver aids again this year? ABS and ASR?[/quote]

Not had those for years.[/quote]

My understanding this year is - The rear brakes are now fly by wire and are allowed to be controlled electronically. Whilst this isn't ABS or ASR it can change between how much the MGUK harvests and the brakes apply pressure to the discs. To slow the car down. I believe the control has to be performed using the FIA ECU.
Here's the regulation
11.7 Rear brake control system :
The pressure in the rear braking circuit may be provided by a powered control system provided that:
a) The driver brake pedal is connected to a hydraulic master cylinder that generates a pressure source that can be applied to the rear braking circuit if the powered system is disabled.
b) The powered system is controlled by the control electronics described in Article 8.2

I did wonder if switching between pads and MGUK could be used to create an ABS.

Although this would then be illegal

11.5 Brake pressure modulation:
11.5.1 No braking system may be designed to prevent wheels from locking when the driver applies pressure to the brake pedal.[/quote]
Thanks. I thought I remembered something about electronic break control.
Back to the main point, if they are struggling to get to grips with the torque, throttle control might be a higher valued skill again. Unlike the days of driver aids, where the pedal was either "on" or "off" and the driver aids did the rest.

[cooken]

Trying to sell some real estate on the sidepod maybe?

Anyone know if the cars have been running full revs/boost/recovery/etc.. at this point? I assumed they would be ramping up the ERS usage slowly, but some teams must have just gone for it with full power by now?

[danielk]

Trying to sell some real estate on the sidepod maybe?

Anyone know if the cars have been running full revs/boost/recovery/etc.. at this point? I assumed they would be ramping up the ERS usage slowly, but some teams must have just gone for it with full power by now?

Im doubting any of the teams are running the engines at full pelt at the moment. may happen on day 4 of the test maybe. I think majority of teams are still doing systems checks and want to make sure they have a car to run with over the next 2 days. Maybe on the final day they will start turning the engine up to give all the systems a good beating.

Right now I expect they want reliability and mileage.

I think i saw a comment from Toto Wolf saying the engines at the moment are not what they will sound like in a couple of months time as right now they arent at max power

[mikeerfol]

[media]https://twitter.com/KevinMagnussen/stat ... 0046057472[/media]

[Faustino]

It is me or Newey is complaining more than previous years, yesterday was complaining about the noses and how dangerous could it be and today are news reporting that he is complaining about the new batteries. It feels to me he is not as comfortable as previous years.

Newey didn't wake up yesterday and realise that low noses are ugly and "dangerous". Seconds after new rules were announced big brains of F1 knew how it would look like. That was the time for discussions not first day of testing, of course he may be just stating his opinion. The same way C. Horner realised today new engines are expensive and it's got nothing to do with planned cost policing.

I see McLaren are up to their old tricks running unrealistic set up in Jerez and getting fastest times .

Makes sense, they're putting themselves in the shop window for a big sponsor so topping the times and getting the news headlines can do no harm in that sense.

[Redragon]

It is me or Newey is complaining more than previous years, yesterday was complaining about the noses and how dangerous could it be and today are news reporting that he is complaining about the new batteries. It feels to me he is not as comfortable as previous years.

Newey didn't wake up yesterday and realise that low noses are ugly and "dangerous". Seconds after new rules were announced big brains of F1 knew how it would look like. That was the time for discussions not first day of testing, of course he may be just stating his opinion. The same way C. Horner realised today new engines are expensive and it's got nothing to do with planned cost policing.

I see McLaren are up to their old tricks running unrealistic set up in Jerez and getting fastest times .

What I mean is, last year as soon as Redbull had problems with the tyres started a campaign of statements about their security until they manage to change to 2012 spec, that suited them. Now they are having problems with their batteries and already are pointing out how dangerous it is.

I am not against Redbull as it is quiet impresive what they have done on the last 5 or 6 years but when they win it is all about "us" "us" "us" when things are not going on their way, as last year, they start to blame others not taking responsabilities, hope the battery problem it is fix and there is a fair play, but if not, I see ahead another year of political bollocks blaming others until they get what they want.

[JesperA]

What I mean is, last year as soon as Redbull had problems with the tyres started a campaign of statements about their security until they manage to change to 2012 spec, that suited them. Now they are having problems with their batteries and already are pointing out how dangerous it is.

Last years tires was ridiculous, not only Red Bull though so, i remember Martin Brundle constantly blaming the tires, he was mildly upset one race with over 3 tire failures where there was no carcass left on the rim at all, they just "exploded", the internet is full of articles flaming the tires, even Pirelli was upset by the bad press, Paul Hembery was pretty irritating saying something like "this is what they asked for us and we gave it to them" every time people asked him about the tires.

Can you remember any other season with so much insane tire failures, virtually explosion of the tires. Red Bull was right, when both Hamilton and Massa had impressive failures at Silverstone last year at the backstreight at 300km/h. Perez had a tire explosion at 300km/h in another race, and in the very same race Vergnes tire let go and almost hit Kimi in the face, the result of a tire in the face we can only speculate how bloody the outcome would be. There was virtually no race last year without a huge tire failure.

So yeah, Red Bull pressed FIA and others pretty hard for a tire change but they where 100% right and alot of people agreed with them

[dans79]

I am not against Redbull as it is quiet impresive what they have done on the last 5 or 6 years but when they win it is all about "us" "us" "us" when things are not going on their way, as last year, they start to blame others not taking responsibilities, hope the battery problem it is fix and there is a fair play, but if not, I see ahead another year of political bollocks blaming others until they get what they want.

to be fair most F1 teams work this way, but the last few years RBR are the most obnoxious about it.