2015 Pre-season Testing

[TAG]

With the exception of McHonda, did anyone expect anything less than we saw from the teams? Of course everyone is going to make a step forward, that's what they had the entirety of last year to develop and the engine manufacturers all that the same amount of time to develop their engines.

So we knew that there would be progress across the board, the driver comments confirm that they're happier with this year's cars so I believe them. The real happiness though will have to wait till Melbourne though, and we know that too.

Now who thinks the same discussions about time we had in Jerez we'll all be repeated in Catalunya? It's just the constant that is F1 fandom, let the people have their fun, let the people have their hopes!

[Harsha]

do any one has idea about what Tyre pressure range (PSI) the teams run since 2014

[turbof1]

I'm going to make it clear and simple: No worshiping of any driver, or talk how great he is, or any talk related to a driver's awesomeness. That'll only lead into a topic decending to chaos. The testing thread was to follow the test closely at Jerez, and the upcoming other 2 test periods, not to give your prayers to Alonso in the hope he doesn't slap you with his 6 (or was it 7?) tenths.

I'll have to call in the plumbers now to unclog this thread of its fanboyism. A lot of posts have been removed, a big thanks to all the people who do insist that we have to be very careful with assuming anything. My apologies also go to them for removing their posts, which was unfortunaly necessary to get back to a more or less clean start for the next test.

Aesto made a brilliant comment about all of this a few pages back:

Anyone posting in this thread should have to pass a Captcha asking you to write ''I shall not attempt to make inferences about car performance based on testing times'' 25 times.

Every single year people who have, you know, watched F1 for more than one season, caution against it, every single year other people ignore them and plow right ahead

fawe4 then nailed it perfectly:

We may as well close this topic then. I mean, its testing, what more can you talk about except lap times, problems and speculations.

I'm a moderator of the people, friends. I listen to what you have to say and I'm going to take that last advise by heart: locked until 19/02. Until then!

[turbof1]

GPR-A approached me with the question if the topic could be reopened to post a relevant piece of information about testing. I'll go with that as long as the discussion stays with the data and information relevant to the test. Any more discussion about who is the best driver and it's locked again.

With that out of the way: reopened!

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Autosport: F1 testing analysis: Jerez speed traps expose Mercedes advantage

SPEED TRAP FIGURES
Jerez F1 test, February 1-4

1 Felipe Massa (Williams-Mercedes) 307.6 km/h
2 Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 307.6 km/h
3 Pastor Maldonado (Lotus-Mercedes) 306.8 km/h
4 Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso-Renault) 303.3 km/h
5 Marcus Ericsson (Sauber-Ferrari) 303.3 km/h
6 Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) 300.8 km/h
7 Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull-Renault) 294.2 km/h
8 Jenson Button (McLaren-Honda) 277.6 km/h

Note: Speed trap figures are from end of back straight on Jerez.

It is hard to deduce any conclusion out of it, but still makes an interesting reading. Generally, whole of last year, Merc was not the fastest on the speed traps, including Spa and Monza as they wanted to run the car with best possible downforce levels. In this test too, they didn't really chased headline time and Aldo Costa was found making comment that, most part of this testing, they were full on fuel load. Interestingly, neither did Williams chased headline times, but the speed trap is being topped by Merc engined cars.

[Moose]

Autosport: F1 testing analysis: Jerez speed traps expose Mercedes advantage

SPEED TRAP FIGURES
Jerez F1 test, February 1-4

1 Felipe Massa (Williams-Mercedes) 307.6 km/h
2 Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 307.6 km/h
3 Pastor Maldonado (Lotus-Mercedes) 306.8 km/h
4 Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso-Renault) 303.3 km/h
5 Marcus Ericsson (Sauber-Ferrari) 303.3 km/h
6 Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) 300.8 km/h
7 Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull-Renault) 294.2 km/h
8 Jenson Button (McLaren-Honda) 277.6 km/h

Note: Speed trap figures are from end of back straight on Jerez.

It is hard to deduce any conclusion out of it, but still makes an interesting reading. Generally, whole of last year, Merc was not the fastest on the speed traps, including Spa and Monza as they wanted to run the car with best possible downforce levels. In this test too, they didn't really chased headline time and Aldo Costa was found making comment that, most part of this testing, they were full on fuel load. Interestingly, neither did Williams chased headline times, but the speed trap is being topped by Merc engined cars.

The other thing that's clear is just how down on power McLaren were running their engine.

[hollus]

Few cars, few times, would have run a hot lap with new soft tires and max engine settings. Top speed in Jerez is likely far from terminal velocity. Furthermore, you don't test in Jerez with a set-up geared towards the best lap time in Jerez. Evocative, but far from conclusive...

[Overdriving]

Autosport: F1 testing analysis: Jerez speed traps expose Mercedes advantage

SPEED TRAP FIGURES
Jerez F1 test, February 1-4

1 Felipe Massa (Williams-Mercedes) 307.6 km/h
2 Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 307.6 km/h
3 Pastor Maldonado (Lotus-Mercedes) 306.8 km/h
4 Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso-Renault) 303.3 km/h
5 Marcus Ericsson (Sauber-Ferrari) 303.3 km/h
6 Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) 300.8 km/h
7 Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull-Renault) 294.2 km/h
8 Jenson Button (McLaren-Honda) 277.6 km/h

Note: Speed trap figures are from end of back straight on Jerez.

It is hard to deduce any conclusion out of it, but still makes an interesting reading. Generally, whole of last year, Merc was not the fastest on the speed traps, including Spa and Monza as they wanted to run the car with best possible downforce levels. In this test too, they didn't really chased headline time and Aldo Costa was found making comment that, most part of this testing, they were full on fuel load. Interestingly, neither did Williams chased headline times, but the speed trap is being topped by Merc engined cars.

As I already said in the Ferrari's thread, Mercedes engined cars' top speed is exactly the same as it was last year in Jerez: Massa was the one who topped Jerez last year too, with exactly the same top speed: 307.6 km/h. Renault- and Ferrari-powered cars' top speeds are closer to Mercedes's now than it was last year.

[turbof1]

It's difficult to make anything out of these numbers.

If we assume that Mercedes is telling the truth and really did run with full fuel tanks all the time, then we also know this is not their real top speed. However, I also doubt Renault and Ferrari have shown their true speed either.

What we by no extent know is the drag parameter. We alteast know all the cars are running more downforce compared to last year, drag will probably also have gone up a bit. But that's it, Mercedes could had been running a high downforce setting and Ferrari a low one, or vice versa.

I heard somewhere that Ferrari or Renault (really can't remember) would be glad to reduce the gap to 40-50 horsepower. Assuming they do, maybe we can translate that to the real top speed difference?

[Juzh]

Well, we know renault had issued a statement saying an ERS problem was known to be present in jerez spec PUs, but will be fixed in time for barcelona. Top speeds there will be much more relevant.

Code: Select all

Toro Rosso and Red Bull covered a combined 2,400km over the four days, with only one concern arising in the form of small metallic shaft related to the Renault ERS water pump. Renault described it as a "stupid part" which would be changed for Barcelona, allowing them to now concentrate on performance.
"With our targets generally hit, we can look forward to the next test in Barcelona," he added. "We want to move more to the performance aspect of the power unit in this test and run in a specification closer to that we will run in Melbourne, of course still keeping a very close eye on reliability."

On the other hand, who's to say merc ran anywhere near full power? Differences could as well be the same when everyone sets it to the max.

[Jonnycraig]

On the other hand, who's to say merc ran anywhere near full power?

Of course they will have. They might be outrageously confident in their new engine but they will still not pass up 1/3rd of pre-season testing cruising around with the engine turned down. Whether they've run it at full power on fumes for a sector or two is a more reasonable question, but then all the top teams claim they haven't yet.

Personally I would be amazed if everyone (besides McLaren perhaps) hadn't run a full qualifying spec couple of sectors in Jerez before aborting.

[Juzh]

On the other hand, who's to say merc ran anywhere near full power?

Of course they will have.

Of course As if you had it confirmed 100%. Speculation all round. Merc never used strat 1 in during races in 2014 and if I remember correctly they never did qualy runs in jerez. Couple that to massa saying 2015 PU in jerez actually felt underpowered compared to 2014 and you can make a strong point they never touched max settings.

http://youtu.be/CbSBOhzSaCA?t=2m3s

[NathanOlder]

On the other hand, who's to say merc ran anywhere near full power?

Of course they will have.

Of course As if you had it confirmed 100%. Speculation all round. Merc never used strat 1 in during races in 2014

Merc never used strat 1 As if you had it confirmed 100%. Speculation all round.


(Dont let him pull up a quote where Paddy, Toto or Niki confirm this [-o< )

[Juzh]

Merc never used strat 1 As if you had it confirmed 100%. Speculation all round.

I've got onboards from all races in 2014 and can say with confidence they in fact didn't. Even speed trap data from some races suggests they didn't. Brazil for example, even with slipstream some cars were unable to surpass their quali speed trap. Ok, I admit, I don't have it 100% (obviously), same as Jonny.

[Phil]

I'm not sure what you guys are debating about really. In some form or another, I would expect Mercedes to be testing the limits of their engine within the car. That they may not have done this during the races, because they never needed to, is logical, although I wonder how much using the "overtaking button" enhances the mapping relative to how much power is available to them, irrespective what strat mode they were using at the time.

What is clear is that full engine power does not equal best lap time. They could be testing all kinds of engine modes in a way that is it less obvious to other teams during the test.