Ruslan
Podium Finisher
Hey Bradman, good to have you on the forum. I had heard from Lyria/Angellica/Angel that you had joined. Welcome.
Pre-Season 2018-2019 Winter testing and car launches
Hey Bradman, good to have you on the forum. I had heard from Lyria/Angellica/Angel that you had joined. Welcome.
Ruslan
Podium Finisher
It is sort of my impression that Ferrari has the edge right now. But.....it is still a couple of weeks to Australia and then there is the season long development battle. Mercedes won the development battle last season. If they start the season behind Ferrari (which I suspect is the case), then it will be an even more interesting and dramatic development battle. Could be an interesting season.
olegg
Race Winner
BradMan
Rookie
This writer thinks so too...
https://www.crash.net/f1/feature/914720/1/f1-testing-analysis-predicting-pecking-order
Yes, I also think Ferrari edges it... at the moment. It was'nt like this for 5 years. Can they keep up with the development race during the season. Hope so
Ruslan
Podium Finisher
Fastest times (by team) over the last two weeks of testing:
Ferrari (Vettel): 1:16.221 day 8
Mercedes (Hamilton): 1:16.224 day 8
Renault (Hulkenberg): 1:16.843 day 8
Toro Rosso (Albon): 1:16.882 day 7
McLaren (Sainz): 1:16.913 day 8
Haas (Grosjean): 1:17.076 day 8
Red Bull (Gasly): 1:17.091 day 7
Alfa (Raikkonen): 1:17.239 day 8
RP (Stroll): 1:17.556 (2/3) day 7
Williams (Russell): 1.18.130 day 7
Questions:
1. Is this the real speed for Ferrari?
2. Is this the real speed for Mercedes?
3. Where is Red Bull these last two days? (Verstappen did a 1.:17.709 on C3 (softs) on day 8)?
4. Is the fight for the best of the rest between four teams?
5. Do Alfa and Team Stroll measure up?
6. Will Williams be last all season?
Ferrari (Vettel): 1:16.221 day 8
Mercedes (Hamilton): 1:16.224 day 8
Renault (Hulkenberg): 1:16.843 day 8
Toro Rosso (Albon): 1:16.882 day 7
McLaren (Sainz): 1:16.913 day 8
Haas (Grosjean): 1:17.076 day 8
Red Bull (Gasly): 1:17.091 day 7
Alfa (Raikkonen): 1:17.239 day 8
RP (Stroll): 1:17.556 (2/3) day 7
Williams (Russell): 1.18.130 day 7
Questions:
1. Is this the real speed for Ferrari?
2. Is this the real speed for Mercedes?
3. Where is Red Bull these last two days? (Verstappen did a 1.:17.709 on C3 (softs) on day 8)?
4. Is the fight for the best of the rest between four teams?
5. Do Alfa and Team Stroll measure up?
6. Will Williams be last all season?
Ruslan
Podium Finisher
Well, they lost the development fight last season (although some of it was about what FIA would allow and would not allow)...and they had reliability problems in the second half of the season....and they had driver performance issues.....and they had several major driver errors. So, have they fixed all these problems this year? We are talking about Ferrari, mind you.
All teams want more speed and better reliability, I wouldn't read too much into that to be honest.
Questions:
1. Is this the real speed for Ferrari?
2. Is this the real speed for Mercedes?
3. Where is Red Bull these last two days? (Verstappen did a 1.:17.709 on C3 (softs) on day 8)?
4. Is the fight for the best of the rest between four teams?
5. Do Alfa and Team Stroll measure up?
6. Will Williams be last all season?
1. & 2 Somehow I doubt it.
3. Probably not their real speed either.
4. Could be an interesting fight with more than four teams actually.
5. Alfa maybe, Stroll not so sure
6. Most likely sadly
I agree with sentiment expressed, however fact is, malfunction of a kind Ferrari experienced yesterday was on scope which could not be resolved quickly, thus they dropped couple of hours of testing. Imagine something like that happening in couple of races, and a season could be over for a driver. In specualtive terms, if a component (sensor, or similar) went dark, reliability of the supplier is then an issue, and finding this out so late has not calming effect.
Hamilton: Ferrari had more time to develop 2019 car
What is he up to? Old himself? Hamilton almost always when he is not at the top finds problem away from him. He has done it with Rosberg as well. Rosberg ahead of him meant he had either superior setup, ot team was favoring Rosberg, and litany went on.
This was only testing, and he ended up only fraction of the second behind Vettel (you know the same Vettel who doesn't know how to drive), and that's enough for Mr. Lewis to complain that Mercedes had less time to work on the car. Sheees...
What is he up to? Old himself? Hamilton almost always when he is not at the top finds problem away from him. He has done it with Rosberg as well. Rosberg ahead of him meant he had either superior setup, ot team was favoring Rosberg, and litany went on.
This was only testing, and he ended up only fraction of the second behind Vettel (you know the same Vettel who doesn't know how to drive), and that's enough for Mr. Lewis to complain that Mercedes had less time to work on the car. Sheees...
I truly don't believe teams "sandbag" during testing. This comes around every year and with the limited amount of testing there is these days it makes absolutely no sense for teams to do it.
They will all have their different programs, run schedules, fuel loads etc but they need to test the car in a variety of conditions, fuel loads and low and high downforce aero settings. If the driver has never experienced what the car feels like on the edge then he will have no confidence in pushing it there when the time comes to do that ultra low fuel, low aero, go for it qually lap.
They will all have their different programs, run schedules, fuel loads etc but they need to test the car in a variety of conditions, fuel loads and low and high downforce aero settings. If the driver has never experienced what the car feels like on the edge then he will have no confidence in pushing it there when the time comes to do that ultra low fuel, low aero, go for it qually lap.
Interestingly enough I've once heard a William's man express similar sentiment about weekend testing. Total waste of time with no gains in anything worthwhile, said he.
As a believer in testing on track (if for nothing but to correlate track data to simulator, dyno, etc.), if they don't test, then whole car will be developed by some nameless Ph.D on his laptop?
As a believer in testing on track (if for nothing but to correlate track data to simulator, dyno, etc.), if they don't test, then whole car will be developed by some nameless Ph.D on his laptop?
Vettel did his fastedst lap at 11:34 whilst Hamilton did his at 16:13, I wonder what Vettel could have done if he had still been driving then.
F1Brits_90
World Champion
this is very nice of Pirelli to do my job for me saved me some time 
& also karun chandok has had a go at fuel corrected times which makes for interesting reading but as we all know the questions stop in Austraila. but what we do know unfortunately Williams might as well be on the back row now. espically as the only team not get in the 1:17s
& also karun chandok has had a go at fuel corrected times which makes for interesting reading but as we all know the questions stop in Austraila. but what we do know unfortunately Williams might as well be on the back row now. espically as the only team not get in the 1:17s I thought about it and concluded that he was too tired by then for me to expect miracles. Besides, plan was to execute a very long run, fast lap not being really of any foremost priority.
Ruslan
Podium Finisher
Well, Hamilton said he was on low tanks. As Vettel's and Leclerc's times were close, makes me suspect they were also running in some form of qualifying trim (at least in a similar set up).
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