2014 Testing - Bahrain 27 Feb - 2 Mar

[langwadt]

Thanks LookBackTime for posting that video, Peter's work has been excellent.

Very interesting observations about the gear ratios, I wonder how fast they are going there. In the Caterham telemetry pic, which is from 2012 supposedly, their car was going about 307-308 km/h at the end of that straight (after the 10 corner). That would be really long ratios for the Force India if he really was going at 5th gear at the end of the straight. Maybe they decided to "use" only 7 gears, and keep the 8th for DRS especially at Monza or Spa?

Lets not forget teams get a chance to change ratios once this season, perhaps they plan to take advantage of this and gear for a lower top speed for now planning to change this when they have a better understanding of things before Spa in august

or some of the teams expect that they will run the engine higher up in rpm when they get all the gremlins sorted out as the season gets under way

[Artur Craft]

Updated graphs now with Vettel's 2013 race and the 2014 testing sims of Rosberg, Bottas and Magnussen.

Rosberg race sim last week faced much cooler temperature, iirc. If so, it doesn't compare properly with Bottas', nevermind Vettel's race pace as on April temperature is much higher in Bahrain

All this did is delude people, to some small extent imho.

[acosmichippo]

Or McLaren were heavy on fuel, or running lower power, or etc etc

Why would being heavy on fuel/running low power result in a steep lap time decline?

Out of curiosity I plotted the deltas against a trendline:



First I wonder if the runs were done at the same time of day. Second, maybe MAG made a mistake around lap 9 like a brake lockup or something causing a flatspot. Bottom line is there's all kinds of info we don't have from just the lap times.

[Helios]

Hamilton's lost the car at the exit of T3. The last thing you need these days...

[kimoraikkonen]

hamilton broken

[Gaara]

Great video from highlights.

FOM highlights =D>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt32U8B4UW8

[ChrisF1]

Couldn't see any damage as such, all bits looked attached on Sky Sports.

[Andres125sx]

No IMO

This is testing, and testing new engines. When you have a new car with new PU you need to learn about them, and that include to learn what are the weak points, what will be the first part to fail, so they have to run the car until something breaks. That does not mean they have reliability problems, they´re just learning where they need to focus the development

Well I just read an article where Nico says:

"I managed to do a couple of good laps, but in the afternoon we had a few reliability problems," he explained.
"It just shows everyone is fully on the limit.
"OK we're looking a little better on reliability than some others, but even we're on the limit and having problems.
"To get everything ready and bullet proof for Melbourne is really tough.
"I'm optimistic, but confident? Speed doesn't help if you don't get to the end of the race.
"Everything needs to fit together; we're not there yet and there's just a few days left. I hope we're ready for Melbourne; it's going to be close."

...

"We're in a decent position starting off now, but I don't feel we're that far ahead. Everyone has problems and we do too."

That assertment about they´re looking a little better on reliability than some others is what I was talking about...

How do you test reliability?
Doing a lot of laps to see what´s the weakest point of the car (what will break first) and how to improve it, and that´s what they´re doing

But even if you consider this as a reliability problem... then how would you call the problems of the rest of teams who also suffer problems but doing a lot less laps?

Even if you consider this as a reliability problem, they´re the team doing more laps before suffering reliability problems, so by comparison they´re the most reliable team right now

At least that´s the way I see it

[Blackout]

Interesting
AUTOSPORT Live ‏@autosportlive 33 Sek.
For reference, Vergne's Toro Rosso currently tops the start/finish line speed trap at 299km/h

But can't find top speed chart of the first testing days

[mrluke]

Ferrari recorded 336km/h in the 1st bahrain test.

[Blackout]

I know, I posted those top speeds (309 for Alonso, in fact, and 330 for a Merc engined car). But those werent start-finish line top speeds AFAIR.

[Mr.G]

But even if you consider this as a reliability problem... then how would you call the problems of the rest of teams who also suffer problems but doing a lot less laps?

Even if you consider this as a reliability problem, they´re the team doing more laps before suffering reliability problems, so by comparison they´re the most reliable team right now

At least that´s the way I see it

At first I agree they looks good and did most km. Well regarding to the rest. All of mentioned are reliability problems, but in different terms. Renault has BIG problems on fundamental base. Some teams have long runs reliability problems, other have different problems, etc...

For me from the top teams Ferrari looks good or even better in comparison with Mercedes in terms of reliability. They have had some issues but nothing major and not too often. They surly have some minor, but don't making them stop the car much.

[dragosmp]

It would be interesting to know weather the top speeds posted were in race or in qualifying mode. I think last year there was a very significant difference between the two modes; time-wise the best race lap was just below 1:37 while the pole was 1:32:something, maybe top speed is affected the same way?

[MadMatt]

Sorry for the simple question but why do they need to pull out the red flag when a car is stopped? Its not a rally stage ffs there is room to move the car out of the way, on a truck, and back to the pits?

[acosmichippo]

Two Stints with Medium

Magnussen Bottas
Tyre Medium Tyre Medium
Lap 1 140,5 s Lap 1 138,3 s
Lap 2 141,5 s Lap 2 139,3 s
Lap 3 141,9 s Lap 3 140,1 s
Lap 4 142,0 s Lap 4 140,3 s
Lap 5 142,0 s Lap 5 140,1 s
Lap 6 142,0 s Lap 6 140,0 s
Lap 7 141,8 s Lap 7 140,0 s
Lap 8 142,7 s Lap 8 140,1 s
Lap 9 143,7 s Lap 9 140,1 s
Lap 10 143,4 s Lap 10 140,3 s
Lap 11 143,1 s Lap 11 140,6 s
Lap 12 143,1 s Lap 12 140,8 s
Lap 13 143,5 s Lap 13 140,6 s
Lap 14 143,7 s Lap 14 141,0 s
Lap 15 144,1 s Lap 15 140,9 s
Lap 16 144,3 s Lap 16 141,3 s
Lap 17 145,0 s Lap 17 141,6 s
Lap 18 145,2 s Lap 18 141,8 s
Lap 19 145,8 s Lap 19 142,4 s
Lap 20 146,4 s Lap 20 143,5 s
Lap 21 146,6 s Lap 21 143,9 s
Lap 22 145,5 s
DesvPad 1,67 DesvPad 1,61

Is the MP4/29 a Tyre Eater???

I wonder if this video showing Kevins lockups at turn 9 helps explain what's going on here.

Peter Windsor - Driving styles through Bahrain's Turn 9

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBlbHmHZHYw