Pre-Season Winter testing : 2014 Season

[Blog Zbod]

It looks like the engine homologation is going ahead today as planned. The ironic thing is that the engine configuration is the one that Renault wanted.

When the gods want to punish you, they answer your prayers.

 

[sushifiesta]

A little hint from Mercedes that they will be going for lap times with the super soft tyre tomorrow:
https://twitter.com/mercedesamgf1/status/439459758475837440

Their fastest times in the last test were set on soft (rather than super soft) tyres so we could potentially be seeing times within half a second of the 2013 pole time.

 

[Il_leone]

Is it true that Honda are setting up base in Milton Keynes which is actually on the door step of Red Bull . This is gathering rumours given Honda will have to make engines available to all other teams after 2015.

Now Red Bull 's engine deal goes until 2016, what is the deal with Toro Rosso having just got the two teams to use the same engines? Last time Red Bull got out of their Ferrari deal by stating it was with Red Bull Corporation not Red Bull F1 team

 

[Mephistopheles]

As I understand it the two team are ran completely separately and why Toro Rosso wanted to get out of a Ferrari contract and enter a Renault one is beyond my comprehension also now that both teams are locked into Renault they can hardly use the corporation argument as this would actually weaken their stand point for trying to get out of a contract now that both teams are running Renault engines, maybe they will just have to wait until the end of 2016 to blow Renault off..

 

[sushifiesta]

Red Bull are "stuck" with Renault for the foreseeable future, at least as long as Newey is there I would wager. The odds of Ferrari, Mercedes, or Honda (who are very strongly aligned with McLaren) giving an engine to their strongest rival are very slim. It's also still way too early to be talking about ditching the Renault engine, far far too early. It might take them half a season, or even a season, to get there but the Renault package will definitely be competitive eventually - it could even end up as the best power train.

 

[Mephistopheles]

If they've to the money let them spend it that's what I say, spending money creates jobs growth and prosperity it's an all round good thing, people shouldn't be discouraging it they should be promoting it...

 

[Incubus]

Has anybody got any sort of info on the sort of lap times achieved by those who managed something along the lines of race simulations?
There hasn't been an awful lot of info around this winter about the long-run pace of those who managed them.

Which is a shame. After all, they're a better indication of the pecking order than fastest laps on short stints I should think.

 

[sushifiesta]

They seem to be running in roughly the 1m39s to the 1m42s when they are doing race simulations. I don't have any data but on Ted's notebook he said the Force India's long runs were looking as competitive as Ferrari's.

Another difficult day for Mercedes today as they decided to change the engine this morning and have not been out the pits yet (the engine had been used since the start of the Bahrain test and done almost 2700 km). Meanwhile, Marussia is leading the lap count for today so far!

 

[pirateplunder]

Found it interesting that Mercedes didn't even bother with an installation lap after changing the engine just straight into three laps that put nico third. Sure they'd lost a chunk of time but that's confidence which compares starkly to most of the other teams.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Homologation does affect what and when engine upgrades take place; all the teams have to agree to allow them. However, despite them being rivals it seems unlikely that Renault will not be able to address their problems, it will just be policed to ensure that they gain no power advantage.

 

[Tuscan1969]

Frankly I cannot believe just how badly Renault and especially Red Bull are doing at present (particularly today!).

I am sure the potential is in the car and the engine will be fine eventually....but this must be a huge shock to them both after 4 years of relatively little trouble.

Still there are no points for testing.

 

[pirateplunder]

Was just thinking have red bull sat with the engine running to simulate a grid start? I remember a number of teams doing so earlier in testing. If not and given their overheating issues I can see them starting from the pits for test first few races

 

[Bill Boddy]

Is Christian Horner Brian Rix in disguise?

 

[Bushi]

Is it true that Honda are setting up base in Milton Keynes which is actually on the door step of Red Bull . This is gathering rumours given Honda will have to make engines available to all other teams after 2015.

Now Red Bull 's engine deal goes until 2016, what is the deal with Toro Rosso having just got the two teams to use the same engines? Last time Red Bull got out of their Ferrari deal by stating it was with Red Bull Corporation not Red Bull F1 team

Red Bull have contract till 2016 with Renault, however they can get out if the performance isn't there. In some way the same contract Seb has with Red Bull if they can't give him a (championship) winning car.

Got to be the worst day of testing for RB this winter with only 1 lap today.

 

[Kewee]

Part of the lap was on the back of a truck too wasn't it ?

 

[teabagyokel]

Kewee - Most probably, the 10th in a row has never looked further away has it?

(Oh, and great commitment to still be up, btw!)

 

[Il_leone]

Bushi sushifiesta Mephistopheles

Red Bull did sign a 5 year deal with Renault I can't remember until when

Honda are suppose to make engines available to other teams from 2016 - minus Mercedes and Ferrari obviously and looking atthe grid the only team who can afford their engines are Red Bull seeing

Lotus just signed a deal with Renault until 2018 and I would think it would be an expensive one to break or get Honda to pay off Renault in that sense

Williams have got Mercedes and seems happy with the engines as long as Toto appears to still have influence being a shareholder and his missus driving for them and managing Bottas and they are supposedly on a long term deal. However the team has good relations with Honda and certainly could not rule out. However will they be forced into picking a Japanese driver or a world class driver who HOnda expect to be made No1 like last time

Marussia seems to be associated with Ferrari through Bianchi

Sauber/ Caterham realistically both would only have Honda engines if they field a japanese driver ....Kobayashi (???) who was a Toyota driver not sure if there will be any divided loyalties for his past association

Force India - they've pulled the wool over Mercedes about their money issues to secure a long term deal and apparently fielding Juncella helps as reserve driver

Toro Rosso purpose of Renault engines would be obviously to get a better comparison with Red Bull the difference in competitiveness based on the chassis

------------------------------

So this will be intriguing

 

[Il_leone]

Some silly rumours that Vettel threw a tantrum and told the team it was pointless to carry on on day one of this week has been denied

 

[Il_leone]

I spoke to soon Red Bull did not do a lap !

 

[Kewee]

The outlook probably couldn't be worse for Red Bull. Vettel has failed to complete a single lap in testing at Bahrain, an even worse result than their miserable time at the first test in Jerez, after which they said they needed to make the most of Bahrain. Christain Horner is now saying he doesn't know when they will be able to get on top of their reliability problems. To make matters worse for them, the first four GP's are away races, they won't be back near their factory until May for the Spanish GP. Very very difficult for any team to get on top of major issues when they are so far from their factories. Oh Dear!!!!!!!