My thoughts:
1. Last year someone on this forum was doing a deeply, objective and most of all pertinent analysis based on the times the teams had achieved in all winter test sessions.
It was a pertinent one coz his predictions were incredible accurate, at least for the first 4-5 races.
Anybody knows him? Coz this year it seems he forgot us …
2.The fact that Vettel was moaning about the lack of consistency of 2013 tyres must not be neglected, coz tyre management will be crucial this year.
As a proof that he means business is a statement from Eric Boullier who said in AMus that the most important thing, regarding Pirelli`s 2013 tyres, is to have a better race pace rather than qualy pace, quote: “
… there is a bigger difference between the performance on a fast lap and the long runs and the order from qualifying will change fast in the race too … and also another aspect is that, quote: “ …
we expect from the tyres in the first race, a different behavior than the test here”
Source:
http://translate.google.ro/translate?sl ... 40948.html
This statement was confirmed from times achieved in the penultimate BN test day, when the weather was cold and there was in average some 4 sec. delta time from the first stint lap, compared to the last BN day, when the weather was much hotter and there was just 2 sec. on average …
3. Last year after the cold winter test sessions, Lotus has had the best tyre management and this trend was almost for the entire year, but what was very interesting was the fact that they have had the best degradation in the hottest races.
In contrast, last year Mercedes was having tyre problems right from the beginning aka. winter tests and this issue was all year long.
Now the question is : could we see a Lotus resemblance from last year taking into account this year tyre degradation from Mercedes and notice that the tyres are even softer than 2012 one?
4. This rather good tyre degradation from Mercedes was due to the bespoken interlink suspension or just the fact that this year Pirelli has a wider tyre window operation?
5. Someone was posting the top speeds from the last BN test. It was very interesting to know also the best sector times, in order to see how is good in high speed corners and how is in mechanical grip area.
6. Many observers did notice that Merc had gain 2 sec. on average per lap from the last winter test and others said that can`t be true in this short amount of time from the last year race.
I think they missed to recognize that in 2012 Merc. lost some 0,7 to a full sec. due to their endless problems with DDRS, tyre degradation, poorer interlink setup suspension and wrong exhaust Coanda reiteration.
Now with all the problems ironed out and with a time gain from let`s say 1-1,2 sec. per lap, which is a normal one taking into account that the W04 project begun last year about this time around, that will explain why all of a sudden their results are 2 sec. better from last year tests.
7. At least one thing is certain: the fact that the car has clear signs of being better than last year.
This is confirmed by all the observers and the proof is that the car has better times and better degradation in all condition, whether is rain or not, whether is cold or not so cold and whether has not much juice inside.
This tells us that there are some progresses from both DF and suspension interlink unit and this thoughts are backed from the staff statements.
Some question marks (and unfortunately the crucial ones) regarding their race pace and tyre management and most of all in hotter days will remain unanswered till Malaysia.
But so far so good …
8. My truly belief, this year is all about which team is gonna have the fastest car and most of all a reliable one right from the beginning, coz it will have a big boost and a decisive one, taking into account that all the big teams should shift their resources till summer towards 2014 car.
