2018 pre-season testing thread

[godlameroso]

"No superhard for Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton hasn't done a run on superhards, it was on hard. We still have to get used to the new colour scheme and all the new compounds Pirelli has come up with, apologies."

Always the same...

Pirelli never said anyone will use Superhards in race.....

It was put in as fail safe in case teams start adding more and more downforce over the season and start chewing tyres and need to go up one compound.

Not sure what the hate is with everyone against Pirelli, one season tires last too long other season everyone saying tyres are falling apart.

Well this year Pirelli said here have every compound you want and go at it.

I still say teams should have been given a complete free choice at every race track. Give them any 2 side by side compounds they wanted (HS-US, US-SS, etc) and go at it.

Want to go for a 3 stop race (risky but faster) and then get the highest starting position? Go for it.
Want to do a 1 stop (safer but slower)but start further back? Go for it.
That would mix it up nicely as teams decide if they want starting position or less pitstops.

That'll happen in China and we'll all celebrate.

[dans79]

Fuel effects can still obfuscate these times, these cars don't need 105kg of fuel to complete 66 laps, and if we go by last year Mercedes certainly doesn't. By my estimates you need between 70-90kg of fuel for these engines to do 66 laps. For ships and giggles, Barcelona is 70% full throttle, @ 27.66g/s average 82 seconds per lap max fuel flow rate means 104.78kg over 66 laps. Again I don't think they need that much to do the race, but for arguments sake let's say Ferrari is using the full 105kg for their 66 laps, Red Bull are slightly overfilled, while Mercedes uses 78kg they plan to use in the race. Could explain the discrepancy, not saying this is definitive but it's a distinct possibility that could confound the true pace.

For more ships, fuel effect is roughly 1 second for every 35kg of fuel.

If anyone is over fueled, I'd go with Mercedes doing it, because they have a history of doing it.

[MtthsMlw]

AMuS:

GPS data show Mercedes clearly ahead
Vettel was 1.172 seconds faster than Kevin Magnussen in the HaasF1 customer Ferrari. Nevertheless, there was no cheering in the factory in Maranello. Rather the opposite. Team boss Maurizio Arrivabene and technical director Mattia Binotto stepped out of the Ferrari garage during the lunch break with a worried face.

While Vettel struggled his way through a wall of autograph and selfie hunters into the motorhome, Binotto set off for HaasF1 to find out how much fuel Magnussen was using in his US Ferrari? According to calculations by the competition, there was not much more residual gasoline in the Ferrari tank. If that's true, you'd have to worry in Maranello.

Vettel's best time was put into perspective by scoring it on the softest rubber compound Hypersoft. Magnussen had supersoft tires on his car. According to Pirelli calculations, the two-step difference in rubber is approximately one second. This means that the Ferrari, adjusted for tyres, would have been only a tenth faster than its American counterpart. Too little, if you want to win the world championship against Mercedes

Mercedes officially regards the balance of power as a neck-and-neck race between Red Bull, Ferrari and himself. One does not want to take away the illusion from the fans that it could come to an end of the silver dominance. That would be bad for business.

But the truth looks a little different. Renault's GPS analysis gives Mercedes a clear lead over Red Bull. So at least three tenths. Ferrari is only third and the red cars seem to lose evenly over all corners.

This is also proven by the first Longrun comparisons. Valtteri Bottas was on average almost one second faster than Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel in his Grand Prix distance. All other teams are at least 1.6 seconds behind. That would be last year's picture.

Responding to the observations of the competition, Mercedes also had to admit that they are one step ahead. More clearly than last year, but not as dramatic as 2015 and 2016, and at the moment Red Bull is more on the bill than Ferrari.

[Restomaniac]

Pirelli never said anyone will use Superhards in race.....

It was put in as fail safe in case teams start adding more and more downforce over the season and start chewing tyres and need to go up one compound.

Not sure what the hate is with everyone against Pirelli, one season tires last too long other season everyone saying tyres are falling apart.

Well this year Pirelli said here have every compound you want and go at it.

I still say teams should have been given a complete free choice at every race track. Give them any 2 side by side compounds they wanted (HS-US, US-SS, etc) and go at it.

Want to go for a 3 stop race (risky but faster) and then get the highest starting position? Go for it.
Want to do a 1 stop (safer but slower)but start further back? Go for it.
That would mix it up nicely as teams decide if they want starting position or less pitstops.

That'll happen in China and we'll all celebrate.

I thought Pirelli were still dictating what tyres teams can use? I'm talking about a complete blank slate.
McLaren using HS-US, Mercedes using S-M, etc.

[Zynerji]

We won't know until qualifying in Australia, but they are all there or thereabouts. Even then, we will have to wait until the Euro season to get into the real-spec cars which may change the order drastically if it is super close.

2018 has all of the ingredients of an Instant Classic. I am more excited about this year than any other in the last 20!

[GoranF1]

AMuS:

GPS data show Mercedes clearly ahead
Vettel was 1.172 seconds faster than Kevin Magnussen in the HaasF1 customer Ferrari. Nevertheless, there was no cheering in the factory in Maranello. Rather the opposite. Team boss Maurizio Arrivabene and technical director Mattia Binotto stepped out of the Ferrari garage during the lunch break with a worried face.

While Vettel struggled his way through a wall of autograph and selfie hunters into the motorhome, Binotto set off for HaasF1 to find out how much fuel Magnussen was using in his US Ferrari? According to calculations by the competition, there was not much more residual gasoline in the Ferrari tank. If that's true, you'd have to worry in Maranello.

Vettel's best time was put into perspective by scoring it on the softest rubber compound Hypersoft. Magnussen had supersoft tires on his car. According to Pirelli calculations, the two-step difference in rubber is approximately one second. This means that the Ferrari, adjusted for tyres, would have been only a tenth faster than its American counterpart. Too little, if you want to win the world championship against Mercedes

Mercedes officially regards the balance of power as a neck-and-neck race between Red Bull, Ferrari and himself. One does not want to take away the illusion from the fans that it could come to an end of the silver dominance. That would be bad for business.

But the truth looks a little different. Renault's GPS analysis gives Mercedes a clear lead over Red Bull. So at least three tenths. Ferrari is only third and the red cars seem to lose evenly over all corners.

This is also proven by the first Longrun comparisons. Valtteri Bottas was on average almost one second faster than Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel in his Grand Prix distance. All other teams are at least 1.6 seconds behind. That would be last year's picture.

Responding to the observations of the competition, Mercedes also had to admit that they are one step ahead. More clearly than last year, but not as dramatic as 2015 and 2016, and at the moment Red Bull is more on the bill than Ferrari.

It doesnt say anything about others?

[MtthsMlw]

It doesnt say anything about others?

No it doesn't but you could translate this article. It's an analysis of the first test.

[Vanja #66]

Dear God, that article is a joke. Any article putting Haas on par with factory team must have been written under influence from Ferrari oil fumes, or more likely some 'shrooms.

[MtthsMlw]

Dear God, that article is a joke. Any article putting Haas on par with factory team must have been written under influence from Ferrari oil fumes, or more likely some 'shrooms.

Yeah they're acting like the 1:17,182 is the fastest time Ferrari could achieve.

[F1ern]

Yea right Ferrari's head engineer running to Haas to ask why are you so fast? I am sure it happened.

[GoranF1]

Lauda, Wolf, Allison, Marko and Renault all said Ferrari a litkle bit behind the leaders, not journalist

[GM7]

Relative to hypersoft:
ultrasoft +1s
supersoft +1.2s
soft + 1.4s
medium +1.6s

Source:
amus https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... f-an-kopf/

Thx ! Ted said the same thing in his notebook yesterday night, the gap between the soft tyres is very small !

Global conclusion after day 7 : (Really impressed by Haas BTW)

[Morteza]

[Chene_Mostert]

IF I was Marko and Renault I would be more worried about being upstaged by Toro Rosso Honda.

[dren]

James Allen said Haas was looking respectable yesterday. He's been trackside watching cars and talking with the teams. He said Mercedes is ahead with Red Bull close, and Ferrari a little behind. Then Renault. That was before today. It seems to match up.