2017 F1 general testing thread

[PhillipM]

But, Mr. Anderson, he's running softs at Barcelona which is a high deg circuit for tyres of that compound - and he's locking up, which shows pushing. That in mind, it ain't too bad.

And it's cold, on wide tyres, so at the pace they're running it could just be the temperature dropping off.

[snowy]

"11:55 Looking at Bottas's previous run on softs, which included 16 timed laps, it doesn't look like tyre degradation is particularly under control. Taking his first laptime, a 1m23.4s, then factoring in fuel-load reduction on each subsequent lap, you can work out what the tyre degradation is. After 16 flying laps, he's a total 17.45s slower than he would be with the tyre degradation removed. So that's just under 1.1s per lap lost on average. Some of that could be in set-up or the way he's driving, but that doesn't come close to low-degradation to my mind.
Gary Anderson"


But, Mr. Anderson, he's running softs at Barcelona which is a high deg circuit for tyres of that compound - and he's locking up, which shows pushing. That in mind, it ain't too bad.

Even then, the real point is: is it quicker to push or quicker to conserve? So long as it's quicker to push, then it doesn't matter if there's some drop off (probably better for # of stops etc.)

I usually have a lot of time for Gary but I am sensing he is not as agile as he once was...

[FW17]

"11:55 Looking at Bottas's previous run on softs, which included 16 timed laps, it doesn't look like tyre degradation is particularly under control. Taking his first laptime, a 1m23.4s, then factoring in fuel-load reduction on each subsequent lap, you can work out what the tyre degradation is. After 16 flying laps, he's a total 17.45s slower than he would be with the tyre degradation removed. So that's just under 1.1s per lap lost on average. Some of that could be in set-up or the way he's driving, but that doesn't come close to low-degradation to my mind.
Gary Anderson"


But, Mr. Anderson, he's running softs at Barcelona which is a high deg circuit for tyres of that compound - and he's locking up, which shows pushing. That in mind, it ain't too bad.

Even then, the real point is: is it quicker to push or quicker to conserve? So long as it's quicker to push, then it doesn't matter if there's some drop off (probably better for # of stops etc.)

What is a high deg circuit? The tyre is to be designed for this as well.

The brief to Pirelli was that laptimes is to come down with fuel load, not for teams to choose a delta

[Juzh]

If the top speeds reported at f1.today are accurate we are about to see massive times. Vettel is doing 1.22,791 at a top speed of 279.7km/h. That´s insane if you consider 2016 times ( all around 1.22 ) were with top speeds well above 330km/h.

So teams are setting serious times while coasting down the straights. I am curious where we will end up today, knowing that teams are not even thinking about going quick.

2017 might become very cool again =D>

What makes you think they are coasting? Considering the additional drag this year, is 330km/h likely? I think not...

Just wanted to highlight the gap in performance they create vs. 2016 specs. Achieving the same lap time with an almost 20% deficit in top speeds is quite an achievement. Given the additional cornering speed (which makes them quicker at the straights as well) and increased PU Power (which helps to run different gear ratios) i would rather think about top speeds in the 320km/h region at best lap time level. I believe they will hit these speeds for sure.

If we see this year´s Formula One cars struggling to hit the 300km/h barrier at almost every track i would be very astonished and disappointed. Imagine Monza or Mexico at 310 km/h opposed to 370 km/h on the long straights. Not going to happen...

Who knows where this trap is positioned. It's 100% not the same speed trap where cars were clocking 330+ last year. Vettel's 280,5 kmh is low even for a start/finish line speed trap (290+ last year). I also don't believe cars are cruising to such an extent. Ludicrious assumption.

[flat out]

Diesel wrote:

ForMuLaOne wrote:
If the top speeds reported at f1.today are accurate we are about to see massive times. Vettel is doing 1.22,791 at a top speed of 279.7km/h. That´s insane if you consider 2016 times ( all around 1.22 ) were with top speeds well above 330km/h.

So teams are setting serious times while coasting down the straights. I am curious where we will end up today, knowing that teams are not even thinking about going quick.

2017 might become very cool again =D>



What makes you think they are coasting? Considering the additional drag this year, is 330km/h likely? I think not...



They are likely to have more power, as well as more speed out of the corners. So to be 50km/h back today would suggest they are not pushing.

Teams tend not to show their performance hand in the first test, either. It seems that coasting could be a reasonable choice of word.

Maybe the measurement point is the start-/finish line? That would fit to the top speeds from previous years:


Can't imagine they are going 50kph slower than last year.

[ForMuLaOne]

The morning session results

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C5q7x_6XEAEgd66.jpg

Ah now i see..Alonso did one lap at the speed of light, 82 seconds quicker than anyone Well any hydraulic system would freak out, imagine the inertia. True reason for finishing the tests after the first lap might be his neck though...

[mwillems]

What makes you think they are coasting? Considering the additional drag this year, is 330km/h likely? I think not...

Just wanted to highlight the gap in performance they create vs. 2016 specs. Achieving the same lap time with an almost 20% deficit in top speeds is quite an achievement. Given the additional cornering speed (which makes them quicker at the straights as well) and increased PU Power (which helps to run different gear ratios) i would rather think about top speeds in the 320km/h region at best lap time level. I believe they will hit these speeds for sure.

If we see this year´s Formula One cars struggling to hit the 300km/h barrier at almost every track i would be very astonished and disappointed. Imagine Monza or Mexico at 310 km/h opposed to 370 km/h on the long straights. Not going to happen...

Who knows where this trap is positioned. It's 100% not the same speed trap where cars were clocking 330+ last year. Vettel's 280,5 kmh is low even for a start/finish line speed trap (290+ last year). I also don't believe cars are cruising to such an extent. Ludicrious assumption.

Teams rarely push their cars on the first test, let alone the first day. The cars are faster onto the straights and in theory will have more horespower. There will be more drag than last year, but potentially it will be more efficient drag too. Why is it "ludicrous" to think that they might not be anywhere near top speed?

If it is "ludicrous" to think the cars are cruising, then the five seconds that we were promised (and the teams think they will deliver) seem to have vanished into thin air.

The cars will be multiple seconds quicker than they are now. Not just by race time but probably by the end of the week. So in F1 terms, is this not cruising?

[godlameroso]

Red Bull and McLaren with 1st day teething troubles, let's hope they get it sorted. Last I heard the engine is going back in the McLaren, what about the RB13?

1:24's on long runs? 2010 times on a quarter tank. Seems I was more or less right about the lap times. But it's early days, I may have been conservative and we see 1:17's

[dren]

Is Gary Anderson a comedian?

[mwillems]

McLaren to be back sometime after lunch.
https://twitter.com/McLarenF1/status/836194003251040257

[GPR-A duplicate2]

But, Mr. Anderson, he's running softs at Barcelona which is a high deg circuit for tyres of that compound - and he's locking up, which shows pushing. That in mind, it ain't too bad.

And it's cold, on wide tyres, so at the pace they're running it could just be the temperature dropping off.

Plus,
1. There was hardly any rubber laid when Bottas started his long stint.
2. These are new tyres that need to be understood for the new car.
3. They are also experimenting with their Suspension.
4. They have barely setup the car for a race simulation.
5. And.... he was doing 1m23.4s; 1m23.1s; 1m23.5s; 1m24.0s; 1m23.8s; 1m24.8s; 1m24.3s; 1m24.2s; 1m24.5s; 1m24.1s; 1m24.3s; 1m24.3s; 1m24.5s; 1m24.4s; 1m24.3s; 1m24.5s;

So....?

[f1316]

"11:55 Looking at Bottas's previous run on softs, which included 16 timed laps, it doesn't look like tyre degradation is particularly under control. Taking his first laptime, a 1m23.4s, then factoring in fuel-load reduction on each subsequent lap, you can work out what the tyre degradation is. After 16 flying laps, he's a total 17.45s slower than he would be with the tyre degradation removed. So that's just under 1.1s per lap lost on average. Some of that could be in set-up or the way he's driving, but that doesn't come close to low-degradation to my mind.
Gary Anderson"


But, Mr. Anderson, he's running softs at Barcelona which is a high deg circuit for tyres of that compound - and he's locking up, which shows pushing. That in mind, it ain't too bad.

Even then, the real point is: is it quicker to push or quicker to conserve? So long as it's quicker to push, then it doesn't matter if there's some drop off (probably better for # of stops etc.)

What is a high deg circuit? The tyre is to be designed for this as well.

The brief to Pirelli was that laptimes is to come down with fuel load, not for teams to choose a delta

Historically it's tended to be mediums and hards at Barcelona; I know with the third compound they've added the soft - and they tried it in 2013 (with massive deg, btw) - but the soft is not usually the optimum tyre for Barcelona (because it's a high deg circuit )

[Juzh]

Teams rarely push their cars on the first test, let alone the first day. The cars are faster onto the straights and in theory will have more horespower. There will be more drag than last year, but potentially it will be more efficient drag too. Why is it "ludicrous" to think that they might not be anywhere near top speed?

If it is "ludicrous" to think the cars are cruising, then the five seconds that we were promised (and the teams think they will deliver) seem to have vanished into thin air.

Yes, yes, yes, they don't push, as if we didn't hear that a million times by now. But they're also not coasting 50-60 kmh slower either. It's 2 extremes, none of which I'm believing at the moment. This speed trap is either bogus and can only be used to compare cars that are testing right now, or the only other possible alternative - it's at the start/finish line.

[Anthropolyte]

I'm thinking that Mercedes and Ferrari were just aiming for consistent times this morning, as someone else suspected... Ferrari were on medium tyres all morning, with Mercedes running softs, and very similar times for both across the board. I wonder if we'll see some changes from both this afternoon.

[godlameroso]

Back to green, hope to see the RB13 and MCL32 out there at some point