I would like to complement The Pits on his post a very fair assessment of what testing is all about I personally take very little notice of the times posted even so it is blatantly obvious by the end of the three testing sessions before the first race which team are really struggling and which team have got it covered.
Can testing tell us anything about next season?
- Thread starter Greenlantern101
- Start date
Jerez and Catalunya average combined times SBF adjusted, predicting the Melbourne qually positions are below.
Pedro and Alonso have now been merged and the slowest TBC Farce India driver has been obmitted. And as Razia didn't get a drive his SBF is unchanged.
Pedro and Alonso have now been merged and the slowest TBC Farce India driver has been obmitted. And as Razia didn't get a drive his SBF is unchanged.
BTW if you are looking for combined times as I do. Avoid crash.net it is full of errors. I have had to redo that table because of them.
I love the fact that Di Resta can't even beat his team mate when he doesn't have one!
RasputinLives ; obviously di Resta has had to carry all the sandbags... Bound to be slow then isn't he..?!! 
Ok the final results are in. All 3 tests have been averaged. The 2010-2012 Sand BaggingFactor has been applied....
Drum roll........
I can now announce the starting grid in Melbourne will be as follows.
Oh yes and I think its only fair to warn you that if this turns out to be spot on I will need everyone to refer to me as 'his amazingness'
Drum roll........
I can now announce the starting grid in Melbourne will be as follows.
Oh yes and I think its only fair to warn you that if this turns out to be spot on I will need everyone to refer to me as 'his amazingness'
I shall be comparing this to Gary Anderson's predicted grid here: http://cliptheapex.com/threads/2013...fying-race-discussion.6018/page-2#post-183690
Blog Zbod
Podium Finisher
Today's Autosport Plus newsletter speaks to RBR's sandbagging. They speculate that Vettel has been motoring around with substantially more fuel than the other frontrunners, upwards of 70 kilos. And they obviously aren't letting down the façade off-circuit as there have been quotes from both Vettel and Webber in recent days poor-mouthing their state of development: "Well, we didn't get as much accomplished as we'd hoped...", "I'm afraid we didn't tick all the boxes, ...", yadda, yadda, yadda. But Autosport caution that, thanks to the disinte-Pirellis, a warmer circuit could stand the pecking order on its head.
Both of them have van der Garde last by some way, no surprise there then! 
Interesting that both Greenlantern101 and Anderson's grid orders are quite similar. I think they'll be somewhat close but some factors will have skewed them, for example who did what simulations and not to metion the drivers who drove later on in the tests had the advantage of a rubbered in track. So forth and etc.
Interesting that both Greenlantern101 and Anderson's grid orders are quite similar. I think they'll be somewhat close but some factors will have skewed them, for example who did what simulations and not to metion the drivers who drove later on in the tests had the advantage of a rubbered in track. So forth and etc.
snowy
Champion Elect
I'm not so sure Red Bull will be that competitive in Australia. usually in winter testing they complete countless laps, long runs and race simulations. This winter their testing has been sporadic and have completed just one race simulation. It is not like them. As for sandbagging, everyone knows they test with 70kg of fuel and both Vettel and Webber made excursions off track in Barcelona, so they have been wringing the cars neck on occasion.
I'm thinking their development program from last season must have taken something out of them. I am also thinking Mercedes abandoning development mid season has made the same sort of difference it made back in 2009...
The Renault engine has also had a major set back this year in respect of their engine mapping. Renault/Lotus have shrugged it off but Red Bull have always been successful in exploiting that area. If they too were expecting that step forward who knows what damage that could have done.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105739
I'm thinking their development program from last season must have taken something out of them. I am also thinking Mercedes abandoning development mid season has made the same sort of difference it made back in 2009...
The Renault engine has also had a major set back this year in respect of their engine mapping. Renault/Lotus have shrugged it off but Red Bull have always been successful in exploiting that area. If they too were expecting that step forward who knows what damage that could have done.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105739
So the results of the qually dont exactly tie up with the sand bagging analysis. Only 3 correct 
But to be fair it was a wet qually and certainly some drivers were out of position based on race pace.
Anyway here it is.
But to be fair it was a wet qually and certainly some drivers were out of position based on race pace.
Anyway here it is.
It's a real shame that the conditions were such that your theory can't really be tested. Good effort though, Greenlantern101, and thanks for the hard work.
Kamui-FastestChefInTheWorld
Points Scorer
If qualy is dry in Malaysia, that will still be ok for analysis, I think. I doubt too many teams will have any significant upgrades to change the order.
Kamui-FastestChefInTheWorld good point I will punch in the numbers. 
snowy
Champion Elect
Testing was far harder to read this year than previous. The only thing I was fairly certain of, was that Mercedes weren't show-boating. The difference between single lap pace and race pace made everything so hazy, and come the first race the correlation between the two was still disordered. I hate Pirelli tyres and their whole attitude to F1! It is perverse and insipid. 
In answer to the question that is the topic of this thread:
"Can testing tell us anything about next season?"
Well, yes. Everybody seems to say no, which I feel is a bit of a copout. This weekend did not deliver a great amount of suprises and our learnings from testing pointed very much to the state of affairs this last weekend in Australia.
I'm going to ignore anyone next year who says, "but it's only testing and it really tells us nothing".
"Can testing tell us anything about next season?"
Well, yes. Everybody seems to say no, which I feel is a bit of a copout. This weekend did not deliver a great amount of suprises and our learnings from testing pointed very much to the state of affairs this last weekend in Australia.
I'm going to ignore anyone next year who says, "but it's only testing and it really tells us nothing".
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