F1 2019 Pre-Season Testing Thread

[the EDGE]

The Sky deal will kill F1's UK audience stone dead. Several million people watched a few years ago, Sky get a few hundred thousand now. Heck, More people watch Channel 4's 2018 Canadian GP highlight show than watched it live on Sky! A really sad state of affairs. Cheers Bernie, you little ****.

What deal are you referring to , as Sky have had F1 for 8 seasons this year. I think the Sky coverage is worth the money. £40 a month, and that includes all the Football, Cricket, Golf, F1 and plenty more.

Last year Now Tv (sky’s streaming service in the U.K.) offered the F1 season for £150. I Hope they will do something similar this year

I didn’t take up the offer as it was still cheaper to pay £11.99 for a week pass to sky sports for the 11 races the had exclusivity too, but

They also sent me a free set-top box for completing a survey which was very nice of them, previously I used to use their web app through my laptop on plugged into the tv

The only downside is Now Tv only stream in 720p, and of course the poor commentry team we have to put up with in comparison to the C4 team who I’m really going to miss this year

[ESPImperium]

If anyone that thinks that F1 testing is a thing of beauty and glamour they need their head felt. Sky did it in 2012 for the last BCN test that year and it was mind numbingly boring and full of filler, its hard on the commentary team as well as well the team in the pit lane/paddock doing the interviews. If i remember, there was a string of red flag events with there only being a handful of laps done by a few cars in that period.

I will watch it, in the background, as it will be inane for the most part.

As i see it, this is to take on the streamers who for the past two years pre season tests were all over YouTube and Twitch. New technology from the past two years has finally disrupted the traditional media and the coverage of the tests. Its new media that i think that F1 and Liberty will have to adopt, with new technology. If anyone here has watched the WWE/F in recent years, they launched the WWE Network where you pay $9.99 a month and you get access to the media library for old Pay Per Views, Raw/Smackdown and WCW/ECW matches not to mention NXT and Take Over events, as well as access to the present storylines. I think that Liberty needs to spend a vast, vast wedge of money on getting their own servers, their own broadcast HQ and media facility.

They need to do a tiered access, starting at $£€4.99 a month, this gives you access to Practice and Qualifying Highlights, and the live race with access to any mid week/weekend off shows, limit the stream to 720p/60. Then they need a $£€12.99 a month that gives you all the above, but with live Practice and Qualifying and F2/F3 added, any exclusive interviews with greats of the sport and up to 10 races a month in the Race Archive with a tech spec of 1080p/60. And the final tier would be a $£€25.99 would be the same as the second tier, but with unlimited access to the F1 Race Archive with races on demand and access to exclusive documentaries on old teams/drivers/seasons, the tech spec would be 4K/60 where available. At a later date they could go for other motorsport series rights, as WWE have done with 4 or 5 UK/German based promotions. WEC or FE on a F1 Network?

Sorry for getting way off topic, but F1 are really about a decade behind in technology evolution on the media front. If F1 had the same 1.2m eyes as the WWE have watching its exclusive Video On Demand stuff, it would be around £12m if they were based in the UK, the guys at Liberty wouldn't turn down an estimated £144m from the UK. I personally think that a F1 VOD service and traditional media rights can live together. It's the only area that will see F1 grow, and Liberty actually get growth from the investment. And if the teams were getting more money at the end of it all, i don't see why they wouldn't vote for it.

[Phil]

The Sky deal will kill F1's UK audience stone dead. Several million people watched a few years ago, Sky get a few hundred thousand now. Heck, More people watch Channel 4's 2018 Canadian GP highlight show than watched it live on Sky! A really sad state of affairs. Cheers Bernie, you little ****.

What deal are you referring to , as Sky have had F1 for 8 seasons this year. I think the Sky coverage is worth the money. £40 a month, and that includes all the Football, Cricket, Golf, F1 and plenty more.

Seems like there are 3 times as many people who are not willing to spend additional costs to watch something they'd rather consume on free TV.

Personally, I'd stop watching F1 before I get Sky coverage. I don't care for any other sport (other than F1), so the £480 a year is overblown. Perhaps if I cared for Football as many people do, I'd get Sky, but most people I know (outside the UK) that are into football have zero interest in F1.

There's no argument against the quality broadcast Sky does - but if people are actually willing to pay for that marginally better content than what Channel4 or the BBC offered before them is highly unlikely. The numbers obviously back this up. At the end of the day, it's damn shame that F1 audience is shrinking, despite the show improving again.

[Capharol]

Thank you. I am more interested with times. Of course I like to see and listen cars too.

Timing isn't essential on These testing days, it's just banging in laps as many as you can (with a few fast laps, but Nothing to get hyped on), see how the engine is holding up and see if the parts work as they should have.
at Australian GP there you will see the real cars, with the right parts but in General the same engine as they had in BCN

[godlameroso]

You can tell a lot on the long runs, you can't tell where they'll qualify however. If you want to know what qualifying is, look for the race simulation, take the fastest lap and subtract 3 seconds. Long runs tell a lot about the relative performance, Mercedes proved to be the best car yet again, and they had the best pace during winter testing. Ferrari were very close and had actually gotten ahead in the development battle until Mercedes put their upgrades on the car and got marginally ahead again. Red Bull was clearly close in race trim, but it wasn't obvious how bad the qualifying and "party mode" deficit was. It wasn't obvious that Mercedes and Ferrari could whip out "qualifying mode" laps at a much greater frequency than the Renault engine was capable of.

So the Red Bulls would fall behind during the 1st quarter of the race, enough for them(Ferrari and Mercedes) to comfortably gap them, then they could control the pace race each other, and hope that the chassis was good enough to hold off the Red Bulls. It worked for them until the Red Bull got the curved diffuser to work properly, it also helped that they had fresh power units.

In any case the long runs give away the game, focus on those. The cars don't hide their true race pace, just their maximum one lap pace.

[_cerber1]

Where can I see the GPS data, speed in turn, sector time?

[GPR-A]

The cooler temperatures of Barcelona would skew the tire performance, which is such a big factor in the overall performance of a car. Some teams starts understanding the problem through the first few races, which changes the pecking order.

Pirelli is bringing new construction tires (supposedly with lesser tread, akin to the ones used in Spain, France and Britain in 2018) and the changes to the aero of the car is going to create a mirage for teams.

Mid-field pecking order is going to change track after track as teams start understanding the tires and their cars in relation to the tires better. The gulf between mid-field and the front runners would once again grow larger.

Once again, Mercedes and Ferrari would go pounding around the track collecting mileage. It would be interesting to see the "radical" drive shaft that Ferrari is introducing and how it impacts the car. With that, there is also the talk of Ferrari elongating their wheelbase. With the increase in fuel allowance, teams are trying to accommodate the extra size and there are rumors of Red Bull also looking at increasing the wheel base. Teams that would increase the wheel base, are also going to increase in weight, which we first saw in Mercedes' case in 2017. Unless, they find smart ideas to reduce the weight of the other components.

It would be interesting to see how the RBR and Honda partnership start.

[NathanOlder]

The Sky deal will kill F1's UK audience stone dead. Several million people watched a few years ago, Sky get a few hundred thousand now. Heck, More people watch Channel 4's 2018 Canadian GP highlight show than watched it live on Sky! A really sad state of affairs. Cheers Bernie, you little ****.

What deal are you referring to , as Sky have had F1 for 8 seasons this year. I think the Sky coverage is worth the money. £40 a month, and that includes all the Football, Cricket, Golf, F1 and plenty more.

Seems like there are 3 times as many people who are not willing to spend additional costs to watch something they'd rather consume on free TV.

Personally, I'd stop watching F1 before I get Sky coverage. I don't care for any other sport (other than F1), so the £480 a year is overblown. Perhaps if I cared for Football as many people do, I'd get Sky, but most people I know (outside the UK) that are into football have zero interest in F1.

It seems nearly everyone I know is into EITHER football or motorsport, I guess I'm one of the rare cases of liking both, and thats exactly why I find SkySports good value for money.

From March through to October my weekends consist of

Sat morning playing golf, home for F1 practice and Qualy, watch Premier league football and in the evening watching live golf from the states.

Sunday is the same without playing golf on the morning. I also have BT sport so that again covers all football including champions league, and most importantly MotoGP. The last few years FIM and FOM have been really good and not had any races at the same time on the same day, so I manage to see everything live including Moto2, Moto3, F2 & GP3 (occasionly i record some where im on a golf course)
It also means there is top tier racing cars or bikes almost every weekend of the year! add to that the football every weekend, then throw in the likes of the Mosconi Cup, Darts World Championship, Ryder Cup, The Ashes and it quickly becomes good value.

Basically all I'm getting at is, for me, the whole Sky Sports thing is worth every penny, and add to that I can't stand Coulthard and Sky Sports F1 have many more hours than any free to air channel has EVER had and the content is of better quality simply due to the fact Sky Spend more money on it.

So now Sky are showing some live testing again like they did some years ago, is only more value for money. So I hope the first test is nice dry and sunny as we can all get to watch it live

[Just_a_fan]

What deal are you referring to , as Sky have had F1 for 8 seasons this year. I think the Sky coverage is worth the money. £40 a month, and that includes all the Football, Cricket, Golf, F1 and plenty more.

They had a shared deal with C4 for a while but now are exclusive except for the British GP which C4 will be allowed to show live.

£40 a month to watch 2 F1 races isn't good value in my opinion. I'm not interested in football, golf etc. Whilst I wouldn't mind a bit of cricket, I don't have the time to watch enough to make it worthwhile - I don't watch that much TV these days even with all of the stuff available on FreeView. Having even more channels of stuff I won't watch isn't a great deal, it seems to me.

[Just_a_fan]

From March through to October my weekends consist of

Sat morning playing golf, home for F1 practice and Qualy, watch Premier league football and in the evening watching live golf from the states.

Sunday is the same without playing golf on the morning. [...]

If you watch that much TV then I can see how it works well for you.

If I tried to watch that much TV at the weekends, SWMBO would throw a fit!

[NathanOlder]

From March through to October my weekends consist of

Sat morning playing golf, home for F1 practice and Qualy, watch Premier league football and in the evening watching live golf from the states.

Sunday is the same without playing golf on the morning. [...]

If you watch that much TV then I can see how it works well for you.

If I tried to watch that much TV at the weekends, SWMBO would throw a fit!

Its all about commitment I have a 3yr old and a 9 month old baby that doesnt sleep at night, my good lady wife or SWMBO as you put it lol has missed a fair bit of F1 last year, but hopefully we can both enjoy all the races this year. Its all about planning the days right so you are out with the kids when nothing good is on SkySportsF1.

Even if you only watch motorsport, would you not watch the F2 , GP3 and the occasional Porsche Cup and Ferrari Challenge? Also the Race of Champions is on SkyF1 each year.

Over the year on SkySPorts F1 alone, I will see
21 F1 races,
21 F1 Qualifying sessions,
63 F1 Practice sessions,
24 F2 Races,
12 F2 Qualifying sessions,
16 F3 Races,
I dont worry about watching the F3 qualifying.

So with Just that 1 Channel this year, I will watch

157 live sessions (61 of those are races), some of the practice sessions will be on SkyGo where I am at work, but most at home.

So for a motorsport Fan , I still see it as good value. I loved seeing all the Gp3 and Gp2 and seeing the likes of Hamilton and Co coming up through. When the drivers get to F1 like Leclerc, I have already been watching him win title after title and seeing what he is like first hand. Not just looking at results like most people do and then make predictions about how good people are before even seeing them in action.

[Shakeman]

Where can I see the GPS data, speed in turn, sector time?

There used to be a Russian? site that aggregated real time test timings, lap deltas the whole caboodle but it was shut down a couple of years ago. It was great because you could see the tyre degradation in the long run times which was interesting info, a superb site.

Liberty Media are missing a trick not making the data available to 3rd parties and engaging techie fans who live and breath this stuff.

[Shakeman]

If you get good value from Pay TV then it's the obvious choice but ultimately Pay TV will kill F1 as the audience figures for Sky F1 are a fraction of the Terrestrial broadcasts. It's no wonder teams are struggling to get sponsors and when they do sponsors want to pay a whole lot less than they ever have.

F1 is competing as a platform for advertisers and reducing your global reach to small Pay TV audiences is a self defeating strategy in an age when an influencer on Instagram will get more eyes on your brand than a whole season of Pay TV F1.

[NathanOlder]

Where can I see the GPS data, speed in turn, sector time?

There used to be a Russian? site that aggregated real time test timings, lap deltas the whole caboodle but it was shut down a couple of years ago. It was great because you could see the tyre degradation in the long run times which was interesting info, a superb site.

Yeah I remember that one, testtimes.co?? . A slovenian or slovakian site or something like that. Was really good though. Was sooooo disappointed a few years ago when it disappeared

[GPR-A]

Where can I see the GPS data, speed in turn, sector time?

There used to be a Russian? site that aggregated real time test timings, lap deltas the whole caboodle but it was shut down a couple of years ago. It was great because you could see the tyre degradation in the long run times which was interesting info, a superb site.

Yeah I remember that one, testtimes.co?? . A slovenian or slovakian site or something like that. Was really good though. Was sooooo disappointed a few years ago when it disappeared

f1tests.co.cc. We saw that last in 2012. Still sitting in my browser's Favorites links.