2017 F1 general testing thread

[Juzh]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s59VEPVw7No

Laptime 1.22.000 give or take 0.04s.

[TAG]

My impression is that he's understeering a lot.

There's several corners (all around 4th gear) in which he's having to have 2 or 3 bites at the cherry to get the front end to turn in.

To my eyes the under-steer is marginal, maybe even dialled in.

Agreed, turn 9 is the only one that seems to have required more input or corrected input so not sure where the understeering lot comment is coming from.

[Restomaniac]

My impression is that he's understeering a lot.

There's several corners (all around 4th gear) in which he's having to have 2 or 3 bites at the cherry to get the front end to turn in.

To my eyes the under-steer is marginal, maybe even dialled in.

Agreed, turn 9 is the only one that seems to have required more input or corrected input so not sure where the understeering lot comment is coming from.

Looks nice and calm.
Certainly not 'hanging on' that's for sure.

[bhall II]

these look pretty decent.

Lewis Hamilton’s third stint, 24 laps on soft tyres.

OUT; 1m22.216s PB; 1m22.720s; 1m22.909s; 1m23.538s; 1m23.392s; 1m23.218s; 1m24.635s; 1m23.137s; 1m23.438s; 1m23.252s; 1m23.733s; 1m23.778s; 1m23.727s; 1m23.679s; 1m23.682s; 1m23.791s; 1m23.602s; 1m23.822s; 1m24.078s; 1m24.027s; 1m24.337s; 1m24.837s; IN.

Consistently two seconds a lap quicker than Valtteri was doing yesterday...

Mercedes has found 2 seconds a lap in just one day.

That's what aeromapping looks like. Consistent speed dictated by the engineers. Bottas did the same, just at a different pace.

[Schuttelberg]

Reading in a few places that Seb seems to have found his mojo again with these breed of cars! Experts suggest it suits his 'natural driving style' much more. I mean, don't all drivers love as much grip and downforce as possible? What makes Vettel unique then? Genuinely confused.

[dren]

Reading in a few places that Seb seems to have found his mojo again with these breed of cars! Experts suggest it suits his 'natural driving style' much more. I mean, don't all drivers love as much grip and downforce as possible? What makes Vettel unique then? Genuinely confused.

Depends on where you read it.

[henra]

To my eyes the under-steer is marginal, maybe even dialled in.

To my eyes it is somewhere in between. In fast corners Front End looks good with exact following of steering inputs.
In the slow ones it looks OK but not really great. For a lap that seems not exactly to be pushing (keeping rather clear of the curbs) that tells me that based on the past Merc drivability they have a little work on the Front End left in order to achieve the level of perfection of the past years. Still complaining on a high level though.
Rear End looks very stable.

[dans79]

Reading in a few places that Seb seems to have found his mojo again with these breed of cars! Experts suggest it suits his 'natural driving style' much more. I mean, don't all drivers love as much grip and downforce as possible? What makes Vettel unique then? Genuinely confused.

Vettel seems to be happier with more rear grip, or in other words a car that understeers. Contrast that to Hamilton who likes oversteer.

[henra]

I mean, don't all drivers love as much grip and downforce as possible? What makes Vettel unique then? Genuinely confused.

It is probably rather the other way round. Seb loses disproportionally with cars that are not glued to the track. In the last years where the cars had significantly less downforce he never found a driving style that was really fast and let the tyres stay in the window. He often made them overcook in the races. The tyre/car combination favored drivers that found their lap time by late braking (Lewis) and early straightening the car and accelerating early out of the turns rather than fast sweeping turning which overloaded and overheated the tyres due to cars sliding too much.

[FrukostScones]

Reading in a few places that Seb seems to have found his mojo again with these breed of cars! Experts suggest it suits his 'natural driving style' much more. I mean, don't all drivers love as much grip and downforce as possible? What makes Vettel unique then? Genuinely confused.

Vettel seems to be happier with more rear grip, or in other words a car that understeers. Contrast that to Hamilton who likes oversteer.

he surely loves understeer like this Enzo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNVrMZX2kms

[Quantum]

he surely loves understeer like this Enzo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNVrMZX2kms

Brutha can't drive

To my eyes the under-steer is marginal, maybe even dialled in.

To my eyes it is somewhere in between. In fast corners Front End looks good with exact following of steering inputs.
In the slow ones it looks OK but not really great. For a lap that seems not exactly to be pushing (keeping rather clear of the curbs) that tells me that based on the past Merc drivability they have a little work on the Front End left in order to achieve the level of perfection of the past years. Still complaining on a high level though.
Rear End looks very stable.

I think we are agreeing here. Dialled in understeer makes the front scrabble for grip before the rears, making the rear more stable.

[WaikeCU]

My impression is that he's understeering a lot.

There's several corners (all around 4th gear) in which he's having to have 2 or 3 bites at the cherry to get the front end to turn in.

To my eyes the under-steer is marginal, maybe even dialled in.

Agreed, turn 9 is the only one that seems to have required more input or corrected input so not sure where the understeering lot comment is coming from.

What about a tiny bit of nervousness approaching the corners? I feel the car is a little bit nervous on entry.

[Mansell89]

Are McLaren running at low power? Is there any hope

[TAG]

To my eyes the under-steer is marginal, maybe even dialled in.

Agreed, turn 9 is the only one that seems to have required more input or corrected input so not sure where the understeering lot comment is coming from.

What about a tiny bit of nervousness approaching the corners? I feel the car is a little bit nervous on entry.

That's where laps from other teams and drivers would come in handy. All things being equal I'd rather come into the test season with clear indication of where to go to make progress than not to have a clue of where to go next to gain speed. That's why it's always funny to see the comments and comparisons of speed and performance during every winter test.

Barcelona with good weather like this is the perfect winter testing ground, hope we're as lucky the following week.

[santos]

Are McLaren running at low power? Is there any hope

They must... If they put it in full power, that engine would make a mushroom cloud.