Pre-Season 2016 Car Launches and Testing.

[snowy]

The Super-soft lasts about one and a half laps round Barcelona and the Ultra-soft two thirds. There's not a lot of point testing them unless you want your car to look really quick for a very short time.

Mercedes stated that they were only going to use the soft and the mediums and they have been as good as their word.
I'd have run the hard too if it were me but they're not as wile as I is...

 

[Titch]

What on earth is the point of the Ultra-softs ?

 

[sushifiesta]

For tracks like Monaco where tyre degradation is much lower than at Barcelona. I think with the new tyre rules the idea is kind of to have a qualifying tyre - something that will give you blistering pace for a few laps and get you a good grid position but not be so useful during the race. So at each race weekend Pirelli will take a 3rd compound which will generally be one softer than the "option" compound used at that GP in 2015.

Kind of frustrating that Mercedes just aren't bothering going for times whatsoever, although there's no real reason for them to of course. Rosberg is the slowest driver overall at the moment, a second behind Manor and Haas!

 

[RasputinLives]

The qualifying tyre would have been a great tactical add and interesting to watch....if we'd stayed on the same format of quali. Now it'll never get used.

 

[sushifiesta]

I don't see why the new qualifying format will change things, it's still all about having the fastest lap time and that's what the softest/"qualifying" tyre will give you. Maybe drivers will be reluctant to use it in Q2 because then if they get to Q3 they'd have to race on it.

 

[RasputinLives]

As far as I'm aware the rules still state you have to be on track at all times and ultrasofts won't last that long. Plus if it's 90 seconds knock out no one would have the chance to bung them on to respond anyways.

Seems to me the new format will be about consistent fast laps rather than a one off flyer which ultra soft won't give

 

[snowy]

Vettel Race Simulation updated:
Vettel (S) OUT 1:29.2 1:29.8 1:30.1 1:30.3 1:30.5
Vettel (M) OUT 1:29.1 1:29.4 1:29.3 1:29.5 1:29.6 1:29.9 1:31.2 1:30.0 1:32.3 1:30.7 1:30.5 1:31.2 1:30.9 1:30.8 1:31.1 1:31.3 1:31.5 1:31.9 1:31.6
Vettel (M) OUT 1:28.3 1:28.7 1:28.6 1:28.6 1:28.8 1:28.9 1.29.1 1.28.9 1.30.0 1:28.7 1:28.9 1:29.2 1:29.2 1:29.5 1:29.4 1.29.3 1.31.1 1.29.9
Vettel (M) OUT 1:27.5 1:27.5 1:28.3 1:29.2 1:28.3 1:28.4 1:28.7 1:28.4 1:28.6 1:28.3 1.28.9 1.28.9 1.28.2 1.28.2 1.28.3 End of Simulation

 

[olegg]

Race simulation:
Hamilton: S - M - M - M (61 laps)
Rosberg: S - M - M - M (59 laps)
Raikkonen: S - M - M - H (55 laps)
Vettel: S - M - M - M (50 laps)

Total race simulation time for 50 laps:
Driver - Total - Average
Hamilton - 01:14:28 - 01:29,4
Rosberg - 01:14:48 - 01:29,8
Raikkkonen - 01:14:20 - 01:29,2
Vettel - 01:14:40 - 01:29,6

 

[soccerman17]

As far as I'm aware the rules still state you have to be on track at all times and ultrasofts won't last that long. Plus if it's 90 seconds knock out no one would have the chance to bung them on to respond anyways.

Seems to me the new format will be about consistent fast laps rather than a one off flyer which ultra soft won't give

I don't think that's the case. The driver with the slowest time is knocked out every 90 seconds, but times don't reset every 90. So if you put in a lap fast enough at the beginning you won't need to go back out on track at all until the next session.

 

[RasputinLives]

But tactically you'll need to stay out there because if your time suddenly tumbles you Don't have enough time to get out and response.

Which I think is the point of the new format.

 

[sushifiesta]

Does anyone else feel like we've learnt absolutely nothing from testing that couldn't have been predicted beforehand? Usually there's at least one standout story but as far as we can tell the status quo has been maintained and 2016 will be starting just where 2015 left off. Only a couple of weeks until we get some proper action though, hopefully the Melbourne weekend will bring a few surprises instead!

 

[Il_leone]

I hope today's time by Button was not a reflection on the car seeing it was on the ultra soft and only 1 tenth faster than Palmer on a super soft

 

[Bill Boddy]

The ultra soft turned out to be a damp squib for everyone, it isn't suited to Barcelona.

 

[The Artist.....]

I don't think that's the case. The driver with the slowest time is knocked out every 90 seconds, but times don't reset every 90. So if you put in a lap fast enough at the beginning you won't need to go back out on track at all until the next session.

The early articles about the new qualifying was that cars had to be on track all session... If the FIA are going to go forward with this, they need to be very clear to fans about the regulations!

 

[The Artist.....]

Il_leone

My view of where the rankings were following testing is as follows

1. Mercedes
2. Ferrari and Williams
4. Red Bull
5. Force India and Toro Rosso
7. Haas, Sauber, Renault and McLaren
11. Manor

Of course, I could be completely wrong ..

 

[sushifiesta]

I think Williams will be behind Ferrari and Force India/Toro Rosso will start the season close to Red Bull. Could be quite a tight battle for 3rd between those 4 teams initially (personally I'm not convinced that Williams will manage to be as/more competitive than 2015). Possibly Force India were the ones going for times a bit more than the others in testing and could be at the back of that pack, And Haas/Sauber behind Renault/McLaren maybe, if not straight away then pretty quickly.

 

[sushifiesta]

Incidentally I did my pre-season testing championship thing again where I award the teams points based on their rank in terms of fastest times and laps completed on each day. Points awarded are 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-0 for both laps and time separately, then multiplied by the day of testing it was so that the last days are weighted more heavily than the first days. I'll just stick the results here rather than making a thread for it:

​

The idea is more to give a representation of how well testing has gone for each team more than how competitive they will be when the season starts, although the two are somewhat correlated.

 

[Il_leone]

well according to corrected times on the BBC
Mclaren were 2 seconds slower than Ferrari and Mercedes on the fastest lap

Formula 1 testing: Sebastian Vettel set to chase down Mercedes

 

[olegg]

Table for comparision:

 

[teabagyokel]

Be interesting to see how an SHH strategy with a missing pit could go.