2015 Pre-season Testing

[Vasconia]

What Boullier has said makes sense for me. I think they have serious problems with reliability and they will need a few races to make enough mileage to fully understand those problems and achieve to make the engine work at 100%. With the first big development planned for Barcelona they should be competitive again.

If they are going to need 3-4 races to make PU work, they`re going to blow few PUs while they sort out everything and from the middle of the season they`ll be penalised for using more than 4 PUs. It will be a vicious circle, sorting reliability will lead to penalties, starting from back row is going to be eventful and will put more strain on the PU, less points translates into less money and smaller budget for the next year. Also Ferrari/Mercedes/Renault won`t sit down and wait for Honda.

As it has mentioned, not all problems means that you have to change the PU. Anyway, the more problems they have the bigger change of changing it. People really want to see McLaren winning this year but I think they have to fix a lot of thing before they are truly competitive. 2016 will be the year.

[henra]

Seriously though, wherever Ferrari may be this year one of the highlights of the season for me will be to find out if Kimi is faster than Seb! Either way, there's bound to be fireworks and a few locked F1T threads..

I wouldn't be too surprised if they turned out quite evenly matched. They are both fast if the car suits them and slow if it doesn't. Since it seems they prefer pretty similar traits of a car i don't expect a too drastic gap between both.
Time will tell.
Plus I agree to what CBeck said. Fernando is great at driving undrivable cars. That's where he outshines probably everyone else in the field. In a well drivable car he will not be able to shine in a similar way, cue his time with Lewis @McLaren.
Anyway, back to testing....

[Just_a_fan]

As it has mentioned, not all problems means that you have to change the PU. Anyway, the more problems they have the bigger change of changing it. People really want to see McLaren winning this year but I think they have to fix a lot of thing before they are truly competitive. 2016 will be the year.

It will be interesting to see whether next year's car is a development of this one or a new design again. In the last few years McLaren have brought a totally new car to each start of season test where others have usually had an evolutionary approach. If this car proves to be quick by the end of this season I'd like to see them evolve it next year. I doubt they will, however. They need to look to their history - their better cars have usually been developed versions of a previous one, not a brand new design.

[Vasconia]

As it has mentioned, not all problems means that you have to change the PU. Anyway, the more problems they have the bigger change of changing it. People really want to see McLaren winning this year but I think they have to fix a lot of thing before they are truly competitive. 2016 will be the year.

It will be interesting to see whether next year's car is a development of this one or a new design again. In the last few years McLaren have brought a totally new car to each start of season test where others have usually had an evolutionary approach. If this car proves to be quick by the end of this season I'd like to see them evolve it next year. I doubt they will, however. They need to look to their history - their better cars have usually been developed versions of a previous one, not a brand new design.

Absolutely right. I think that this car has a great potential. So they need to be patient, solve all the realiability problems and develope it in order to achieve an excellent basic point for the next season.

[iotar__]

If alonso was drivng that Ferrari u can subtract six teths from the times too..

I really do not believe that - not this Ferrari - this one seems driveable for all pilots, not just Fred.

So it's "only Alonso could drive 2014 Ferrari but anyone can 2015" now? How would that work?
1. I thought that was the other drivers with ultra specific car requirements that by simple logic make them undeliverable for others not FA. Nevermind that those requirements (or excuses) worked backwards from performance, weren't confirmed by technical personnel and judging by number of elements that didn't suit (front, end, numerous different tyres, wheel base, diffusors = basically anything) cars that suit some drivers don't exist in real life.
2. Why would a car that is easier to drive, if that's what you mean, make huge driver advantage at Ferrari last season significantly smaller with 2015 car (as theoretical as it is)?

Anyway, it looks like this at the moment with all ifs and buts implied. For McLaren and Force India there's no basis for even casual estimations; Red Bull is somewhere behind Ferrari but I can't tell where and mostly based on name; "-" is some unit, maybe tenth:
Merc - - - - - Williams - - Ferrari - (Red Bull) - - - - - - - Toro Rosso - Lotus - - Sauber.

[CevertF1]

I think Fernando is wishing he'd stayed at Ferrari right now. The start of the season is looking bleak for McLaren fans.

[f1316]

Plus I agree to what CBeck said. Fernando is great at driving undrivable cars. That's where he outshines probably everyone else in the field. In a well drivable car he will not be able to shine in a similar way, cue his time with Lewis @McLaren.
Anyway, back to testing....

When they scored exactly the same amount of points

I'm sure no one wants to get into a driver debate though, just wanted to state that fact. As you say, back to testing

[Felipe 92]

@Autosport : McLaren had a sensor problem, which required the engine to be taken out, hence the delay

[Manoah2u]

@Autosport : McLaren had a sensor problem, which required the engine to be taken out, hence the delay

again, the sensory issues with Mclaren. wasn't their first issue also a sensor problem? You'd think Mclaren better get a different supplier by now.

[Juzh]

@Autosport : McLaren had a sensor problem, which required the engine to be taken out, hence the delay

again, the sensory issues with Mclaren. wasn't their first issue also a sensor problem? You'd think Mclaren better get a different supplier by now.

Or maybe, you know, it's an entirely different sensor from an entirely different supplier, doing entirely different job?

[Felipe 92]

@Autosport : McLaren had a sensor problem, which required the engine to be taken out, hence the delay

again, the sensory issues with Mclaren. wasn't their first issue also a sensor problem? You'd think Mclaren better get a different supplier by now.

Or maybe, you know, it's an entirely different sensor from an entirely different supplier, doing entirely different job?

Or maybe, McLaren applied technologies made that faulty sensor
http://mclarenelectronics.com/Products/ ... ue/Sensors

[NathanOlder]

Wish testing would give out points on the last day, just for the constructors. 10pts down to 1pt. Would be qualy runs for the last hour maybe. Oh we can dream. Still, is only 13 days to qualifying.

I have it like this

Merc.....0.7 Williams, Ferarri....... 0.3 Red Bull........... 0.5 Sauber, Force India, Lotus........ 0.3 Toro Rosso......... 2.5 Manor...... Mclaren in the garage.

[Juzh]

Or maybe, McLaren applied technologies made that faulty sensor
http://mclarenelectronics.com/Products/ ... ue/Sensors

Or maybe, that. In which case they'd be in a pretty awkward position if they needed to change "supplier".

[Manoah2u]

Or maybe, McLaren applied technologies made that faulty sensor
http://mclarenelectronics.com/Products/ ... ue/Sensors

Or maybe, that. In which case they'd be in a pretty awkward position if they needed to change "supplier".

well since they constantly have been running into these very similar issues, it might not be a bad idea to be honest.
i remember they had to take the engine out before because of another sensor issue a couple of tests ago.

[Blackout]

If we assume a car in race mode is still ~6 seconds slower than qualy mode and that the medium tires are 2 seconds slower than the super-soft, RIC should be able to do a 1:22.0 in qualy with the super-soft.