2015 Pre-season Testing

[motobaleno]

massa 1.24.687 on medium

[Mr Brooksy]

Anyone able to tell us how many laps Massa did on that 1:24:687 run? It's killing me now knowing where to get more precise info on run lap times, lengths and compounds....

[Neno]

1:23:500 Massa. Medium again. So there is really realistic possibility we get on supersoft times like 1:22:500

EDIT: he was on softs.

[Morteza]

1:23:500 Massa. Medium again. So there is really realistic possibility we get on supersoft times like 1:22:500

He was using soft tires.

[tomazy]

Anyone able to tell us how many laps Massa did on that 1:24:687 run? It's killing me now knowing where to get more precise info on run lap times, lengths and compounds....

Massa did a 3 timed lap run.

You can see live lap count, tire compaund used and if the driver is in the pit or on the track here:
http://www.f1today.net/en/live/2015/02/ ... -catalunya

[motobaleno]

massa 1.23.5 on soft

[Mr Brooksy]

Anyone able to tell us how many laps Massa did on that 1:24:687 run? It's killing me now knowing where to get more precise info on run lap times, lengths and compounds....

Massa did a 3 timed lap run.

You can see live lap count, tire compaund used and if the driver is in the pit or on the track here:
http://www.f1today.net/en/live/2015/02/ ... -catalunya

Hugely appreciated!

[motobaleno]

the two runs by massa were near in time: track pretty much in same conditions...so with the present temperature the gap between medium ans soft seems around 1 s...

[ChrisF1]

Has the midday rain interruption washed away any of the rubber laid down, or was it just a little sprinkling of rain?

[Juzh]

What Hamilton says about the tyres should be taken with a grain of salt

Why exactly? He went to great lengths explaining how medium tyres were utter s**t in these temps and conditions.

he doesn't like any of them

What?

nor does he like testing.

Relevance?

If you want a meanlingfull discussion, please be respectful and stop tearing apart the stuff i wrote.

Here is the article i refer to:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/117764

"My first impression of the tyres is not spectacular, but maybe when we get to hotter conditions it will be better."

My point being, like Hamilton suggests, they are not getting the tyres to work properly because of the low temperatures. More to your point: he doesn't specifically state that he dislikes the mediums only, you may provide a source to that statement. So because the tyres are not in there normal environment, I personally do not think 2sec delta between SS and M is realistic.

I'm not tearing anything. Just asking for your argumentation in ordered manner.
Mercedes ran only medium and hard at that test. I still see no reason why SS 2s delta is not reasonable. Soft today is almost exactly 1s faster than medium on massa's car. Bad conditions affect all tire range, not just SS or just M.

[godlameroso]

Diminishing returns, yeah they have more grip than the soft but I doubt you could crank out a fast lap on the SS pushing all the way, you'd overheat the lefts by sector 3 then lose time. At least the soft tire can give you two or three laps flat out before it starts disintegrating. Theoretically the SS should be two seconds faster than the mediums but in practical application I'd say it's about one and a half seconds.

[rich1701]

Are Pirelli providing Melbourne spec tyres for testing? So far they have been using tyres that warm up quickly for the cold conditions. In which case how they are performing is somewhat acedemic at this stage.

[thomin]

They probably have performance marks, but little else. Honda rushed into this. I am not surprised at their issues. Honda didn't start PU development the same time all of the other teams did. They were a bit late. And who's to say that this newest issue wasn't an issue with the mechanics installing the unit? Either way, I'll be surprised if they finish the first race unless we see some improvement the next few days.

Honda definitely started a lot later than the others, but they also had one year more time, including the chance to hear what McLaren had to say about the Mercedes engine. I'm therefore really surprised about the magnitude of their issues. Maybe they did a last ditch redesign along the lines of the Mercedes engine when it was unveiled last year, but even then I'd be surprised.

Even if Honda gets the engine part right by the first GP, McLaren lost a lot of valuable time to learn about their new car. At the same time, McLaren being the only Honda team also means a lot less data for Honda to work with, even before all the issues. So while I hope that Honda will eventually be up there, I think their real potential might not be seen until late in the season or even 2016.

[AnthonyG]

From a strategic point of view, under current regulations, you better design an engine to be powerfull rather than reliable.
Competitors and the FIA will more easely allow you to improve the reliability rather than the power.

[dren]

One year more time is relative to when Honda started vs. the competition, so you can't say they definitively had one more year to design their PU. What you can say is that the other teams all had one full year's worth of races to run and tune their PUs.

Honda was caught off guard by how much F1 had progressed the last time they entered in the late 90s. Perhaps the same thing happened again. Reliability is so much better than it used to be.