Robert Kubica is leaving winter testing downbeat, having seen his schedule on Friday being cut short by excessive wear on car parts for which the team did not have spares.
Ferrari are not "dominating" just because they are choosing to do laps at a quicker pace right now.
Yesterday there have been problems with the GPS. Today it works. Teams say, it is extremly difficult to read laptimes, because everybody is on a different program.
Karun Chandhok wrote: I've been out watching all the way from Turn 1 to Turn 9 this morning.
The Ferrari looks very good and stable in the change of direction and the rear end in particular seems planted.
The Mercedes still seems better on the kerbs, at T7 for example and their traction is still excellent. Lewis also seems the most comfortable to have just a tiny lift through the ultra fast T9 despite carrying a decent fuel load.
The Honda’s gearshifts and engine note seem audibly much smoother than last year and I’m sure Gasly’s on a decent fuel load as he’s just pounding round and round with the Red Bull looking very consistent and balanced. That traditional strong front end in the medium/slow speed corners continues to be a characteristic and you can see how deep Gasly can go on the brakes into T1 and T4.
Of the midfield cars, the Alfa continues to impress as a consistently balanced car and looks particularly good in the medium speed corners.
It's not about the pace, it's more than even them are surprised with it. Better than in simulation, with big smiles in all the team.
Again, it doesn't mean they are dominating and we do not have enough race sims to make a call yet.Jambier wrote: ↑19 Feb 2019, 12:54It's not about the pace, it's more than even them are surprised with it. Better than in simulation, with big smiles in all the team.
But indeed that do not mean that Mercedes may be at same pace, but for now Ferrari shows the best form
Finally some proper observations! Thanks for postingPhil wrote: ↑19 Feb 2019, 12:53Quote by Karun on the Autosport livefeed;
Karun Chandhok wrote: I've been out watching all the way from Turn 1 to Turn 9 this morning.
The Ferrari looks very good and stable in the change of direction and the rear end in particular seems planted.
The Mercedes still seems better on the kerbs, at T7 for example and their traction is still excellent. Lewis also seems the most comfortable to have just a tiny lift through the ultra fast T9 despite carrying a decent fuel load.
The Honda’s gearshifts and engine note seem audibly much smoother than last year and I’m sure Gasly’s on a decent fuel load as he’s just pounding round and round with the Red Bull looking very consistent and balanced. That traditional strong front end in the medium/slow speed corners continues to be a characteristic and you can see how deep Gasly can go on the brakes into T1 and T4.
Of the midfield cars, the Alfa continues to impress as a consistently balanced car and looks particularly good in the medium speed corners.
These notes are the most interesting ones. Still I want to read his impressions about the McLaren.Phil wrote: ↑19 Feb 2019, 12:53Quote by Karun on the Autosport livefeed;
Karun Chandhok wrote: I've been out watching all the way from Turn 1 to Turn 9 this morning.
The Ferrari looks very good and stable in the change of direction and the rear end in particular seems planted.
The Mercedes still seems better on the kerbs, at T7 for example and their traction is still excellent. Lewis also seems the most comfortable to have just a tiny lift through the ultra fast T9 despite carrying a decent fuel load.
The Honda’s gearshifts and engine note seem audibly much smoother than last year and I’m sure Gasly’s on a decent fuel load as he’s just pounding round and round with the Red Bull looking very consistent and balanced. That traditional strong front end in the medium/slow speed corners continues to be a characteristic and you can see how deep Gasly can go on the brakes into T1 and T4.
Of the midfield cars, the Alfa continues to impress as a consistently balanced car and looks particularly good in the medium speed corners.
You don't win any points for dominating testing. It's how the Ferrari performs in qualifying and race trim against the Mercedes that counts. It's not that often that testing shows a truly dominate car before the season starts.
It's better to have a DRS failure like that during testing so they can discover what the fault is, and fix itRenault keep having awful winter testing. So now it will be very complicating for the rest of testing
In the race sims you can because the fuel level is given.e30ernest wrote: ↑19 Feb 2019, 07:02I don't think you can judge their real pace through their lap times even then. There's no telling what suspension/aero setup they have going at any single time.godlameroso wrote: ↑19 Feb 2019, 04:31We need to wait for long runs, a race sim, or something along those lines. The pace of the cars can vary as much as 6 seconds from slowest race pace to fastest quali run. In the race sims they will gain 3 seconds as the car burns fuel. So if you know the cars are filled to the brim, you take the lap time and subtract 6 seconds and you get roughly what the car is capable of at full tilt. Alternately you can find a short run, maybe 5 laps with low fuel, and you'll know that the ultimate pace is more or less around 3 seconds faster. The tricky thing is that they can fuel anywhere in between, and no team shows their real hand in testing, even in the qualifying sims, they'll use a harder tire to qualify on, or lift somewhere in the lap to mask their pace.
Right now most teams are checking that the real aero is matching their virtual numbers, systems checks, trying things out. We won't see any work on performance until tomorrow.
I was thinking less roll in the cornersLM10 wrote: ↑19 Feb 2019, 11:50What exactly do you mean by gravitational pull in the corners?illario wrote: ↑19 Feb 2019, 11:46With all the respect i dont want to offend anyones intellect. Speaking from my gut, it seems that Ferrari has less gravitational pull in the corners, I’m thinking this is because its cleaner and lighter on the top. I also had this counterintuitive feeling which i cant explain, I’m thinking with DRS open it will gain more than others.
