2017 F1 general testing thread

[bonjon1979]

From Autosport:
Bottas’s latest stint on the soft tyres, 21 laps in total in the second block of this race simulation. It concluded with a slower pitstop, but he’s back out there now.

1m58.755s OUT; 1m23.582s PB; 1m24.760s; 1m25.217s; 1m25.309s; 1m25.641s; 1m26.182s; 1m25.867s; 1m25.993s; 1m26.938s; 1m26.395s; 1m26.064s; 1m25.762s; 1m26.678s; 1m26.748s; 1m26.510s; 1m26.774s; 1m26.859s; 1m27.139s; 1m27.248s; 1m49.171 IN.

This is his penultimate stint. How do this compares with last year racing sims?
I still see a lot of degradation in laptimes, maybe what has improved is thermal degradation(destroying the tires) when pushing the tyres hard.

Are you sure that's right? They look like last years times.

That's what Autosport wrote alright, i'm hoping they know how what their doing.

And yes, seems slow honestly.

Not really. Go back and look at last years times, in the summer they were 1.30 for most of the race. And significantly faster than last year in winter testing where average was around 4 seconds a lap slower.

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/ ... 3/race-sim


These cars are supposed to be 5 seconds faster than 2015 and around 2-3 seconds quicker than 2016. I'd say we're in line with this apart from the fact that this car is only a day and a half old. It'll be significantly quicker once they learn more about setup and tyres.

[PhillipM]

Got it straight from the live stream. I expected something closer to 1:24s as well.

Well, he set his PB of 1m22.9 in that stint, didn't he? Those aren't even close.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

21:09 Bottas’s third and final stint in his race simulation, 24 laps on the soft tyre.

2m19.722s OUT; 1m22.986s; 1m27.769s; 1m25.527s; 1m25.346s; 1m25.810s; 1m25.712s; 1m25.358s; 1m25.212s; 1m25.412s; 1m30.788 IN (no change); 1m49.142 OUT; 1m25.241s; 1m25.020s; 1m25.661s; 1m25.859s; 1m25.455s; 1m25.212s; 1m25.502s; 1m25.204s; 1m26.884s; 1m26.907s;1m26.581s; 1m27.754 IN.

21:04 I spent a lot of Bottas's race run watching from trackside, and it looked...messy. He had quite a bit of understeer early on when the car was heavy, and it was moving around on him in the corners. The contrast with watching Raikkonen in the Ferrari was huge, although of course Ferrari has been working on a different programme this afternoon. But the car was doing everything Raikkonen would want, and he can attack the apex really well.

[Phil]

Edit <snip>

lol, I got beaten by seconds. I'm getting my coat now. Nice one GPR-A.

[Ferraripilot]

Mercedes back to being tough on tires again?

[Quantum]

Wow.. this is impressive.

21:03 Verstappen’s 12-lap stint on the soft tyres.

OUT; 1m22.200s PB; 1m23.974s; 1m23.883s; 1m23.720s; 1m24.381s; 1m23.903s; 1m24.175s; 1m24.313s; 1m24.386s; 1m23.772s; 1m24.003s; 1m24.255s; 1m29.380 IN.

I can't see how this is impressive. The soft tyre life should be good for 12 laps, and the variance from his best lap to his penultimate lap was 2 seconds. We also don't know which part of the race sim he is on, very likely a latter stage.
Pretty normal in context, nothing eye opening.

[FrukostScones]

that W08 def. went overfueled and maybe even overballasted into that sim.
GA says: it looked messy. as he is always wrong. Merc looks good.

[Quantum]

I know it's just Gary.... but

I spent a lot of Bottas's race run watching from trackside, and it looked...messy. He had quite a bit of understeer early on when the car was heavy, and it was moving around on him in the corners. The contrast with watching Raikkonen in the Ferrari was huge, although of course Ferrari has been working on a different programme this afternoon. But the car was doing everything Raikkonen would want, and he can attack the apex really well.

And

Bottas’s third and final stint in his race simulation, 24 laps on the soft tyre.

2m19.722s OUT; 1m22.986s; 1m27.769s; 1m25.527s; 1m25.346s; 1m25.810s; 1m25.712s; 1m25.358s; 1m25.212s; 1m25.412s; 1m30.788 IN (no change); 1m49.142 OUT; 1m25.241s; 1m25.020s; 1m25.661s; 1m25.859s; 1m25.455s; 1m25.212s; 1m25.502s; 1m25.204s; 1m26.884s; 1m26.907s;1m26.581s; 1m27.754 IN.

Makes no sense when he was doing the same times for the first part of his race sim.

[dren]

that W08 def. went overfueled and maybe even overballasted into that sim.
GA says: it looked messy. as he is always wrong. Merc looks good.

In the same Autosport feed:

Bottas able to rotate the rear of the Mercedes as he wants into the corner before the chicane, very controllable and sign of a responsive and usable car. Able to attack the corner but not over rotate. He's a bit more circumspect next time round as needs to bear in mind tyre life.

[kooleracer]

Wow.. this is impressive.

21:03 Verstappen’s 12-lap stint on the soft tyres.

OUT; 1m22.200s PB; 1m23.974s; 1m23.883s; 1m23.720s; 1m24.381s; 1m23.903s; 1m24.175s; 1m24.313s; 1m24.386s; 1m23.772s; 1m24.003s; 1m24.255s; 1m29.380 IN.

I can't see how this is impressive. The soft tyre life should be good for 12 laps, and the variance from his best lap to his penultimate lap was 2 seconds. We also don't know which part of the race sim he is on, very likely a latter stage.
Pretty normal in context, nothing eye opening.

When Lewis first joined his race sim was also messy compared to Nico. I think Bottas needs to adjust to this car. Do we have times of Lewis's race sim from the morning?

[turbof1]

that W08 def. went overfueled and maybe even overballasted into that sim.
GA says: it looked messy. as he is always wrong. Merc looks good.

In the same Autosport feed:

Bottas able to rotate the rear of the Mercedes as he wants into the corner before the chicane, very controllable and sign of a responsive and usable car. Able to attack the corner but not over rotate. He's a bit more circumspect next time round as needs to bear in mind tyre life.

And as usual testing is not giving any clues of the pecking order. What a surprise.

[Anthropolyte]

Vandoorne back out for installation lap. Please work...

[dren]

that W08 def. went overfueled and maybe even overballasted into that sim.
GA says: it looked messy. as he is always wrong. Merc looks good.

In the same Autosport feed:

Bottas able to rotate the rear of the Mercedes as he wants into the corner before the chicane, very controllable and sign of a responsive and usable car. Able to attack the corner but not over rotate. He's a bit more circumspect next time round as needs to bear in mind tyre life.

And as usual testing is not giving any clues of the pecking order. What a surprise.

No joke. I will usually look for what drivers say about how the other cars appear to handle on track. Heidfeld used to be good at that.

[FrukostScones]

I know it's just Gary.... but

I spent a lot of Bottas's race run watching from trackside, and it looked...messy. He had quite a bit of understeer early on when the car was heavy, and it was moving around on him in the corners. The contrast with watching Raikkonen in the Ferrari was huge, although of course Ferrari has been working on a different programme this afternoon. But the car was doing everything Raikkonen would want, and he can attack the apex really well.

And

Bottas’s third and final stint in his race simulation, 24 laps on the soft tyre.

2m19.722s OUT; 1m22.986s; 1m27.769s; 1m25.527s; 1m25.346s; 1m25.810s; 1m25.712s; 1m25.358s; 1m25.212s; 1m25.412s; 1m30.788 IN (no change); 1m49.142 OUT; 1m25.241s; 1m25.020s; 1m25.661s; 1m25.859s; 1m25.455s; 1m25.212s; 1m25.502s; 1m25.204s; 1m26.884s; 1m26.907s;1m26.581s; 1m27.754 IN.

Makes no sense when he was doing the same times for the first part of his race sim.

makes sense only for Merc. #sandbagging.

[Big Mangalhit]

So hamilton was consistently faster than Bottas.
Bottas looked heavy and uncontrolled.
Is it possible that Mercedes run two race simulations with Ham doing two simulations of final stints and Bottas doing two simulations of early stints? That way they would throw people off?

Also: "There's a bit of chat between the Mercedes pit wall (which consists of one man updating the board) and the garage. The board has now been switched to counting up, rather than down, and tells us he is 48 laps into his run now." The board is strange which could mean the mix in stints to confuse other teams?? To much of a stretch?