Pre-Season Winter testing : 2014 Season

[Quintessentially]

Medium and hard tyres suggest dry running took place

 

[sushifiesta]

The sun came out around lunchtime and they decided that a morning's worth of wet running was enough.

 

[Incubus]

I've never heard of an entire track being artificially (i.e by methods other than natural rubber and oil deposits or weather conditions) altered to accomodate teams before. Gotta be a first.
And it's something I find a bit worrying on a long-term point of view. Whatever next?

 

[mjo]

There was a wet-weather test at Abu Dhabi a few years ago.

We should bear in mind that the tyres used were special 'winter' tyres to accommodate the low temperatures.

 

[RasputinLives]

Williams always seem to look good in early tests don't they? Here's hoping they don't go backwards as usual.

Oh and if the new McLaren turns out to be good are we giving Martin Whitmarsh the credit? *runs away quickly*

 

[The Artist.....]

RasputinLives

Of course we won't be giving Whitmarsh the credit- I mean, after all on this site, he has been the metaphorical whipping boy for all the ills of the earth! I wonder who will to blame if Button consistently beats Magnusson this season!

 

[Quintessentially]

The McLaren is a beautiful car. Everything from the colour scheme to the bodywork is just fantastic. Hopefully JB can drive it fast eh

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/25949765

 

[RasputinLives]

He drove it quite fast in 2011

 

[Il_leone]

Is there a problem with the Renault engine powered cars as only 6 laps has been completed by teams using Renault engines ? and it might be some hope for the chasing pack that Vettel did not get any decent running as the car kept having niggling problems

 

[Incubus]

Red Bull have had "niggling problems" every year in the early days of testing though haven't they?

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

He drove it quite fast in 2011

He couldn't have, it didn't exist then.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Protests coming for McLaren.
http://grandprix247.com/2014/01/30/...addock/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

More info on McLaren suspension wings.
http://racermag.kinja.com/f1-analys...@travis?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

 

[The Artist.....]

If Red Bull or Ferrari have the gall to protest this, it will be the height of hypocrisy.... After all, haven't Red Bull been creating flexi wings designed to meet the tests whilst not passing the regulations, and of course there was Ferrari with their flexi floor, and the "5mm tolerance" for their barge boards in 1999 (which was an interpretation of the rules that has not been accepted before or since)... Still, maybe Mercedes could protest, with their illegal tyre tests and their rather dodgy camera mounting position....

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone!!!

 

[LifeW12]

F1 teams must have forgotten what wet weather "racing" is, they didn't do any last year of course

(yeah some prac and Q was, but no car used wets at any stage in a race last year)

 

[sushifiesta]

Of course they'll protest it - if it's an advantage the teams would prefer to have McLaren do the work to remove it than for them to do the work to implement it. It would be a significant change as well.

 

[sobriety]

Hopefully the FiAs recent 'letter of the rules' approach will prevail, apparently McLaren had it Ok'ed by them last summer...

 

[Incubus]

Of course the main reason for any team in history to have ever protested another car's legality is to buy themselves time (relative to the team they're protesting against) to develop their own version in case it's declared legal, isn't it?

 

[sobriety]

Or to find out how it was done, so they could copy it!

 

[Incubus]

Yes, at least Nigel and Mike in 2007 had the nous to by-pass the middle men didn't they?

 

[sushifiesta]

Two and a half hours in to day three and Red Bull haven't made an appearance yet after barely completing any laps during the first two days.