2017 F1 general testing thread

[Moose]

I wish people would get over this term "sand bagging".

It's not that teams are deliberately going out and running slow. Instead, it's that it's not useful to test "how fast can we go round Barcelona on low fuel and the fastest tires". They have limited time to run their program, and there are much more important things to do.

[iotar__]

- It's hardly sandbagging when everyone knows about it and the purpose is to draw attention, it's not bluffing when it's obvious.

- https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/top- ... er-881230/ "Top three F1 teams could be 1.5s clear" Force India claimed something similar, A. shocking development, B. who cares, cars look 'exciting' and are quicker, the rest is meaningless. Until the first races when everyone notices obvious consequences of new F1.
- Instead of addressing the situation Brawn is fighting shark fins and lamenting DRS . The important stuff.

[Rikhart]

But they ARE clearly going slow, just today we had the front runner taking his foot off the pedal before the finish line...

[dans79]

I mentioned it in the Mercedes team thread, I have a feeling Mercedes's car although insanely fast is too complex for it's own good. There are too many different flow structures interacting and makes developing parts difficult because of the knock on effect such a complex car has. They may start the season well, but may face difficulties developing the car as the year progresses, where teams that have a more straightforward design may have a bigger scope so we could see the tables turned mid season when teams start bringing in their rafts of upgrades.

Did you forget what the cars looked like prior to 2009?

[edu2703]

But they ARE clearly going slow, just today we had the front runner taking his foot off the pedal before the finish line...

But there are controversies. Vettel may have made some mistake in the last few corners or he was pushing so hard that the tires were already worn out before completing his lap making him lose time.

I still do not believe that Vettel slowed down on purpose for no apparent reason. There is a reason, and definitely does not seem to be 'to not impress the rivals'.

[zac510]

Whether he did it intentionally or not, everyone has stood up and said "Ferrari.. whoa.."

Hopefully F1.com will release an onboad of this lap

[godlameroso]

I mentioned it in the Mercedes team thread, I have a feeling Mercedes's car although insanely fast is too complex for it's own good. There are too many different flow structures interacting and makes developing parts difficult because of the knock on effect such a complex car has. They may start the season well, but may face difficulties developing the car as the year progresses, where teams that have a more straightforward design may have a bigger scope so we could see the tables turned mid season when teams start bringing in their rafts of upgrades.

Did you forget what the cars looked like prior to 2009?

2008 is old news, there was still Windows XP in those days. CFD, and wind tunnel validations have come on leaps and bounds, 2008 technology is sticks and stones by comparison.

[giantfan10]

But they ARE clearly going slow, just today we had the front runner taking his foot off the pedal before the finish line...

But there are controversies. Vettel may have made some mistake in the last few corners or he was pushing so hard that the tires were already worn out before completing his lap making him lose time.

I still do not believe that Vettel slowed down on purpose for no apparent reason. There is a reason, and definitely does not seem to be 'to not impress the rivals'.

EVERY single news source says that vettel slowed down on the final straights for several laps both with the soft tire and the unltrasoft tire...JamesallenonF1 even went a step further to say a team in the paddock that was recording the sound of the Ferrari claimed that Vettel was deliberately slowing down in the final sector to mask the true speed of the car.
you are the only person claiming Vettel made mistakes in the final corner lap after lap.
just accept that the Ferrari is fast. Are they faster than Mercedes? who knows

[Gerhardsa]

I mentioned it in the Mercedes team thread, I have a feeling Mercedes's car although insanely fast is too complex for it's own good. There are too many different flow structures interacting and makes developing parts difficult because of the knock on effect such a complex car has.

Meanwhile, Williams is the opposite. The car is performing very well, especially in longs stints. Better than expected for many. But when you look at the car, the first question you ask is: How?

The Williams FW40 is virtually the FW38 (Last year's car) adapted to new rules. If we removed the 't' wings, the FW40 would take the title of 'Most undeveloped F1 car of 2017'. F1 Fanatics says Williams is the team who most improved their lap times compared to 2016 (4.2s) and again you ask: How?

I don't think the 'T' wings have a big impact on the performance of car. But if Williams perform very well in Melbourne, all teams will pay attention on the car. If something is improving performance, it's very well hidden.

That's pretty easy to answer really.

Who over the last 2 seasons have had the car that was the most "slippery" through the air (ala super low drag)? ...Williams.

Now that the regs changed and more downforce is available via bigger floor, bigger FW, lower flatter Rearwing, diffuser, shark fin, barge boards.... why change the basic chassis design that was centered around super low drag? You will gain the DF in any case through the new rules.

So now they still have the basic low drag chassis, but the addition of the high DF the new rules give.
Pretty clever if you ask me.
So one could almost say "Williams started designing their 2017 car in 2015 season and raced it "

[GPR-A duplicate2]

I mentioned it in the Mercedes team thread, I have a feeling Mercedes's car although insanely fast is too complex for it's own good. There are too many different flow structures interacting and makes developing parts difficult because of the knock on effect such a complex car has.

Meanwhile, Williams is the opposite. The car is performing very well, especially in longs stints. Better than expected for many. But when you look at the car, the first question you ask is: How?

The Williams FW40 is virtually the FW38 (Last year's car) adapted to new rules. If we removed the 't' wings, the FW40 would take the title of 'Most undeveloped F1 car of 2017'. F1 Fanatics says Williams is the team who most improved their lap times compared to 2016 (4.2s) and again you ask: How?

I don't think the 'T' wings have a big impact on the performance of car. But if Williams perform very well in Melbourne, all teams will pay attention on the car. If something is improving performance, it's very well hidden.

You can pretty much take the FW38, add these aero elements into it and you get enhanced times. Wider Tires (5 kg extra though, but compensates far more with grip), Bigger diffuser, lower and wider rear wing, Barge Board (plus more body work), wider front wing AND that extra horse power from Mercedes. It is really that simple. I would say, the FW38 would have been much faster with these elements than FW40, minus the extra weight increased for 2017 and the 5 kg extra fuel weight.

A lot of people argued if changing the length, width and weight of the car is necessary. When you see so much of open space on the floor, side pod onwards, you wonder what was the need for changing the width of the car. If you see how tight the tail has become, you wonder what was the need to elongate the car. Aero change was fine, but the dimension and weight change was unnecessary. FW40 explains it better.

[Vasconia]

But they ARE clearly going slow, just today we had the front runner taking his foot off the pedal before the finish line...

But there are controversies. Vettel may have made some mistake in the last few corners or he was pushing so hard that the tires were already worn out before completing his lap making him lose time.

I still do not believe that Vettel slowed down on purpose for no apparent reason. There is a reason, and definitely does not seem to be 'to not impress the rivals'.

To slow down at certain parts of the track has been a traditional way to hide your true pace, though other teams can estimate it.

[dans79]

2008 is old news, there was still Windows XP in those days. CFD, and wind tunnel validations have come on leaps and bounds, 2008 technology is sticks and stones by comparison.

So is a lot of other stuff in F1, that doesn't make it any less valid!

[ripper]

Raikkonen is lapping with S-duct closed

[Vasconia]

Only 1 lap for Kimi so far.

On the other hand Stroll and Ericsson are working hard with more than 12 laps each one.

[FW17]

https://twitter.com/Gianludale27/status ... 6947795968