2014 Testing - Bahrain 19-22 Feb

[Javert]

It seems Mercedes can get heat in the tires very quickly.
But degradation is ok?

[Helios]

With 15 laps on the soft tyre I shall think so.

[motobaleno]

Mercedes power unit is on road cars also amazing, all my mercedes cars in my family could go 200.000km without problems.

So the rumors that mercedes are 100bhp stronger than ferrari and merc was the truth after all.

the evidence don't say this.
you see the power on the top speed and top speed of ferrari is not lower (actually a bit higher according to AMuS) than merc
while actually renault is 35 kph down (possibily because they can't use mgu-k)...
evidence (of course totally partial, so far) talk about traction

[prince]

With 15 laps on the soft tyre I shall think so.

It is still too early to understand how to keep the tyres in optimum temperature window, without last year's downforce levels. More torque, less downforce means it would be hard to maintain tyre life. As the season progresses, we would see who has better tyre management car.

[darkmninya]

Guys what tyres actually come to bahrain?

Im guessing pirreli will built such hard tyres, we will only see 1 stopps

[Unc1eM0nty]

Interesting to hear on last night's "ask crofty" on Sky, he said that because cars no longer hit the limiter on straights they just keep accelerating for the whole length, they're reaching some crazy speeds.

The Mercs are what 35km per hour up on the Ferrari & Renault cars ? that can't be engine power HP alone, I guess the Merc's are the only one's to crank everything up to 100% so far.

[iHpled]

Race sim Nico.

Γύρος 0: Γύρος Εξόδου
Γύρος 1: Γύρος εκκίνησης (μαλακή γόμα) > soft tyre
Γύρος 2: 1.39.087
Γύρος 3: 1.39.2
Γύρος 4: 1:39.8
Γύρος 5: 1:41.3
Γύρος 6: 1:40.4
Γύρος 7: 1:40.6
Γύρος 8: 1:40.5
Γύρος 9: 1:41.2
Γύρος 10: 1:43.4 (τον προεπέρασε ο Raikkonen στην πίστα) > found Kimi
Γύρος 11: 1:42.1
Γύρος 12: 1:42.2
Γύρος 13: 1:42.5
Γύρος 14: 1:42.5
Γύρος 15: Pit (μαλακή γόμα) > soft tyre
Γύρος 16: Γύρος εξόδου >outlap
Γύρος 17: 1:38.716
Γύρος 18: 1:39.678
Γύρος 19: 1:39.767
Γύρος 20: 1:39.923
Γύρος 21: 1:39.853
Γύρος 22: 1:40.904
Γύρος 23: 1:40.394
Γύρος 24: 1:40.026
Γύρος 25: 1:40.418
Γύρος 26: 1:40.749
Γύρος 27: 1:41.334
Γύρος 28: 1:41.613
Γύρος 29: 1:41.842
Γύρος 30: Pit (μεσαία γόμα) > medium compound
Γύρος 31: Γύρος εξόδου >outlap
Γύρος 32: 1:46.233
Γύρος 33: 1:39.779
Γύρος 34: 1:39.829
Γύρος 35: 1:39.808
Γύρος 36: 1:39.816
Γύρος 37: 1:39.867
Γύρος 38: 1:40.681
Γύρος 39: 1:40.411
Γύρος 40: 1:40.240
Γύρος 41: 1:57.323
Γύρος 42: 2:03.0
Γύρος 43: Κόκκινη σημαία (γύρος εισόδου) > red flag, inlap
Γύρος 44: Γύρος εξόδου >outlap
Γύρος 45: 1:41.031
Γύρος 46: 1:39.597
Γύρος 47: 1:39.992
Γύρος 48: 1:40.933
Γύρος 49: 1:40.874
Γύρος 50: 1:40.484
Γύρος 51: 1:40.918
Γύρος 52: 1:42.353
Γύρος 53: 1:42.172
Γύρος 54: 1:41.841
Γύρος 55: 1:42.243
Γύρος 56: 1:42.446
Γύρος 57: Γύρος εισόδου > inlap http://www.msfree.gr/ms.php?id=31538

[Vanja #66]

Interesting to hear on last night's "ask crofty" on Sky, he said that because cars no longer hit the limiter on straights they just keep accelerating for the whole length, they're reaching some crazy speeds.

The Mercs are what 35km per hour up on the Ferrari & Renault cars ? that can't be engine power HP alone, I guess the Merc's are the only one's to crank everything up to 100% so far.

Alonso hit 336 kph according to AMuS and that was top speed for the day (Thursday)...

[basti313]

It seems Mercedes can get heat in the tires very quickly.
But degradation is ok?

They are loosing 2, maybe 3sec of pace during the stint. Looking at the laptimes of last years Bahrain GP (Vet on P1 and Ros in traffic) they were doing absolutely constant lap times during each stint. In other races they were also not loosing 2sec of pace during the stint...not even in Spain or Canada.
For me this looks like huge tire degradation...

[Blanchimont]

Here's a comparison of Rosberg's race sim with the race of Vettel in 2013. If assuming that Mercedes only used 100kg for this sim and not more than 100kg/h they either had to save some fuel at the end of the simulation or the medium tyres degrade too fast at the end of the sim. Note that the car is about 50kg heavier now at the very end of a race than in 2013.

The fastest 47 laps of Rosberg summed up result in 1:18:53,2h and the fastest 47 laps of Vettel add to 1:18:05,6h.




Edit: Possible weight evolution during race added

[iotar__]

It seems Mercedes can get heat in the tires very quickly.
But degradation is ok?

That's because of their superior downforce . There's some general (not Mercedes) info in Amus about tyres, can't find the link ATM: they run two stops instead of possibly faster three because of fuel, makes it easier to nurse tyres, too; there's a difference between front a rear degradation/temperature, should change with development.

I was sceptical about Mercedes bandwagon but it looks worrying (Button, Alonso). Especially with Ferrari as the only comparison - they just about ran out of excuses, aero F1 now it's about engines, new tunnel, all the personnel bought from other teams, no Newey genius we don't have a and mid-season tests. They can catch-up of course but why aren't they in front now and not Mercedes? Maybe they can figure out some earlier tests if they're behind, Renault/RB/Ferrari that's some lobbying strength.

All neutrals should mourn Renault problems now - I blame Red Bull for being so cheap they should have thrown some of Ecclestone extra money at them.

[Vanja #66]

Or maybe, just maybe, and I think I'm being hilarious here - Ferrari have a different program than Mercedes and they aren't pushing it yet? Is that even remotely possible?

[JimClarkFan]

Or maybe, just maybe, and I think I'm being hilarious here - Ferrari have a different program than Mercedes and they aren't pushing it yet? Is that even remotely possible?

Possible, but why not just strap on your best aero package and get at least a baseline of info? Some people are saying that Ferrari have a whole new rear end to come.... idk

[Vanja #66]

Possible, but why not just strap on your best aero package and get at least a baseline of info? Some people are saying that Ferrari have a whole new rear end to come.... idk

Domenicalli said some time ago they'll bring a whole new aeropackage to next test - nosejob, wings, all the bits here and there... As to why not bring it now - there's no point. Leave yourself a bit more time to finish the job properly, and chances are you'll have a lot less to fix later...

[mclaren_mircea]

What is happening with Button? For most than an hour he didn't come out in the Mclaren? Problems?