Pre-Season Testing Has Started

[Bill Boddy]

The car looks to be pretty well OK externally but it could easily be that a car failure caused the accident. Or not as the case may be.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Anyone who says they can see positives in McLarens performances so far must be the worlds biggest wishful thinker. They have a huge ammount of work to do.

That doesn't mean they will be massively offf the pace come Australia but to challenge for the top six requires them to have a flawless final test and to challenge for a podium, a minor miracle.

 

[teabagyokel]

Vettel was interviewed and apparently said it was at slow speed, which suggests that the car may have failed. Especially since Alonso has a near-faultless record when it comes to driver error for a long time now.

 

[sushifiesta]

Updated comparison to qualifying last year (sorted by difference between qualifying in Barcelona 2014, and the fastest time set in testing in Barcelona 2015):

Mercedes still haven't come close to showing their hand (the fastest Mercedes time was set on Medium tyres, which are 2s slower than the supersofts). McLaren were the only team not able to set a 1m24s lap time at the test.

 

[olegg]

Combine results of Barcelona test for teams:

N – Team– Engine– Best Time– Laps
1 – Mercedes – Mercedes – 01:24,321 – 446
2 – Red Bull – Renault – 01:24,574 – 418
3 – Toro Rosso – Renault – 01:24,739 – 411
4 – Williams – Mercedes – 01:24,672 – 407
5 – Lotus – Mercedes – 01:24,067 – 361
6 – Ferrari – Ferrari – 01:24,584 – 345
7 – Sauber – Ferrari – 01:24,956 – 318
8 – Force India – Mercedes – 01:24,702 – 304
9 – McLaren – Honda – 01:25,961 – 124

 

[olegg]

Combine results of Barcelona test for engines:

N – Engine– Laps
1 – Mercedes – 1518
2 – Renault – 829
3 – Ferrari – 663
4 – Honda – 124

 

[cider_and_toast]

It's strange how the fastest testing laps are in almost the reverse order of the actual pace of teams at the end of last season.

 

[Il_leone]

Mclaren have not got a title sponsor right ? I certainly would not be convinced in sponsoring them at the moment even though they have two world champions and their past history in F1... Ron's going have to do a lot of convincing to someone to back them

They are way behind their main challengers... at this rate even Sauber will beat them

 

[olegg]

Combine results of Barcelona test for drivers:

N – Driver – Team – Engine – Best Time – Laps
1 – Grosjean – Lotus – Mercedes – 1:24,067 – 111
2 – Rosberg– Mercedes – Mercedes – 1:24,321 – 197
3 – Maldonado– Lotus – Mercedes – 1:24,348 – 173
4 – Ricciardo – Red Bull – Renault – 1:24,574 – 202
5 – Raikkonen – Ferrari – Ferrari – 1:24,584 – 164
6 – Massa– Williams – Mercedes – 1:24,672 – 143
7 – Perez– Force India – Mercedes – 1:24,702 – 155
8 – Verstappen – Toro Rosso – Renault – 1:24,739 – 223
9 – Hamilton– Mercedes – Mercedes – 1:24,923 – 201
10 – Kvyat– Red Bull – Renault – 1:24,941 – 216
11 – Nasr– Sauber – Ferrari – 1:24,956 – 152
12 – Bottas– Williams – Mercedes – 1:25,345 – 178
13 –Sainz Jr– Toro Rosso – Renault – 1:25,604 – 188
14 – Alonso– McLaren – Honda – 1:25,961 – 79
15 – Palmer– Lotus – Mercedes – 1:26,280 – 77
16 – Vettel– Ferrari – Ferrari – 1:26,312 – 181
17 – Ericsson – Sauber – Ferrari – 1:26,340 – 166
18 – Hulkenberg – Force India – Mercedes – 1:26,591 – 36
19 – Wehrlein – Force India – Mercedes – 1:27,333 – 113
20 – Button – McLaren – Honda – 1:28,182 – 45
21 – Wehrlein – Mercedes – Mercedes – 1:28,489 – 48
22 – Wolff – Williams – Mercedes – 1:28,906 – 86

 

[Brogan]

Nico Rosberg insists he was not too impressed with his performance in Formula 1 testing on Sunday that appeared to send an ominous message about the pace of Mercedes.

The German produced a best effort of 1m24.321s on medium tyres, which was just 0.254 seconds slower than Romain Grosjean's fastest time of the day on super softs.

But with there being up to two seconds per lap difference in the performance of the super soft and the medium, it showed that Mercedes could have gone much quicker if it had tried the softer tyre compounds.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/117778

 

[cider_and_toast]

I smell bovine poop from Mr Rosberg.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Unsinn, Scheiße,

 

[Mephistopheles]

Vettel was interviewed and apparently said it was at slow speed,

Lets be honest a slow speed crash is the only type of crash the McLaren is capable of at the moment....

 

[Mephistopheles]

Hey Ron you've really brought McLaren on leaps and bounds since you shafted Whitmarsh, well done you....

 

[Kewee]

If Alonso has suffered a concussion as stated he may not be allowed to drive in the final test. Considering it starts later this week he may be in a stand down period. That would be a further setback for McLaren and a huge setback for Alonso.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Concussion is the current medical hot patato at the moment. Its raised concerns in Rugby and Football in the UK.

 

[Kewee]

In New Zealand the stand down period for a concussed rugby player is three weeks. If Alonso has had a significant concussion I would be surprised if he receives a clearance, not only for his own safety but also for the safety of the other drivers. There were evidently very real concerns about him which was why he was airlifted to hospital.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Absolutely not the start that anyone would have wanted.

 

[Kewee]

Definitely not. Sad for McLaren after all the effort put in by technicians in Japan as well as those at McLaren and obviously sad for Alonso. Can't help feeling the entire team could do with a break, lets hope the final test starting Thursday brings better things for them.

 

[The Pits]

To be honest, alonso has hardly done any driving in the first two tests, not sure how much he would miss at the third.