F1 2019 Pre-Season Testing Thread

[SiLo]

Easiest way to tell if your wind tunnel results are accurate or not. 60% models must be a real pain for teams.

[dans79]

What's the point of sandbagging? Does it make the other teams decide to slack on their development?

two reasons off the top of my head why you might want to sandbag.

1. You have something on your car that offers a substantial performance advantage that the other teams haven't picked up on. If you light up the time sheets your car is going to be put under a microscope to try and determine how you did it. If you take it easy, the other teams might not pick up on it till the season starts. That means you will be several races into the season before they can get it on their cars.

2. You have something on your car that offers a substantial performance advantage that the other teams haven't picked up on, that might get protested or banned. Just like above, if you can delay when the other teams start copying it, you can build a lead in the early part of the season.


Just look at last year, Mercedes knew Ferrari was doing something different with the ERS early in the season, but they didn't get an update to their system till post Spa.

[Sierra117]

yes, of course it depends to whom (or is it who?) you're behind of but that isnt a dramatic drop.

"depends on whom" sounds better, although, the structure of the sentence is a bit off, so best to just rephrase - "it depends on who is in front of you"

"Whom" in this case. Simple test: if you can change it to "him" then it's whom, if you can change it to "he" then it's who. I'm behind him so it's "whom I am behind". He is behind me so it's "who is behind me". A bit of reshuffling is required when using this method.

"Whom" when referring to the object of a verb, "who" when referring to the subject of a sentence.

Sorry everyone.

Ah yes, well put. I was initially trying to put the "he" vs "him" trick but I couldn't phrase it properly, ironically lol.

That Williams looked great with the flow-viz lol.

[Morteza]

[Jambier]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dz3YoAdXgAMkvDP.jpg

Is that mandatory for teams to run "development" tyres ?
They lose some precious time with it

[digitalrurouni]

So that Toro Rosso time was faster than last year's fastest test lap time yes? If that's the case things are really looking good for the junior Red Bull team.

[GPR-A]

So that Toro Rosso time was faster than last year's fastest test lap time yes? If that's the case things are really looking good for the junior Red Bull team.

Not entirely surprising. In the last part of 2018, Honda made a significant step of half a second on their PU and have brought another upgraded version. Pirelli mentioned that, this year the Barcelona circuit has become slightly faster than last year. With all the cars on the grid looking good on track as mostly everyone has reclaimed the lost downforce, even if this year's TR chassis is a match to last year's launch car, then you have the numbers! Last year's best winter testing time for TR was 1m18.363 on Hypersofts.

If that is where TR stands, imagine the potential performance of the leaders, Mercedes/Ferrari and Red Bull! Mercedes' best winter testing time was 1m18.400 on UltraSofts. In the Spanish GP, Hamilton got pole with 1m16.173 on SuperSofts!

[digitalrurouni]

So that Toro Rosso time was faster than last year's fastest test lap time yes? If that's the case things are really looking good for the junior Red Bull team.

Not entirely surprising. In the last part of 2018, Honda made a significant step of half a second on their PU and have brought another upgraded version. Pirelli mentioned that, this year the Barcelona circuit has become slightly faster than last year. With all the cars on the grid looking good on track as mostly everyone has reclaimed the lost downforce, even if this year's TR chassis is a match to last year's launch car, then you have the numbers! Last year's best winter testing time for TR was 1m18.363 on Hypersofts.

If that is where TR stands, imagine the potential performance of the leaders, Mercedes/Ferrari and Red Bull!

Right. I recall that about the Honda having made a step in the last part of 2018 but it never really translated to on-track performance for one reason or the other. So it was a bit of a surprise to see Honda powered cars doing so well. I can't wait for the teams to turn up their cars next week during testing!

[F1T]

Kvyat goes fastest for Toro Rosso on third day at Barcelona

Daniil Kvyat can be happy with his second day in the STR14. He rounded off an extremely productive day for Toro Rosso by going fastest on the softest C5 Pirelli tyres, just 15 minutes from the end of the session.

[McMika98]

Dont understand why people are suprised. This is after all Redbull chassis from last year which was very competitive. They could go under 1:17 by the looks of things. Midfield is very competitive now.

[godlameroso]

Toro Rosso qualified with a 1:18.4, they're .7 seconds faster than they were last year. Last year's super soft is in between C3 and C4, and isn't featured this year, so hard to say if there is a .7 difference between last years SS and this year's C5. Worse comes to worse they're no slower than last year if we account for compound and track improvement. Best case scenario, the field has bunched up, which I can't say is a bad thing, although passing will still be nigh impossible on some tracks, and way too easy on others.

[Seanspeed]

So that Toro Rosso time was faster than last year's fastest test lap time yes? If that's the case things are really looking good for the junior Red Bull team.

Not quite.

Raikkonen had a 1:17.221 on the final day last year. On hypersofts. For reference, Alonso/Mclaren did a 1:17.784 the same day(also on hypers), again indicating the faster teams aren't really pushing near the limits at all in testing. So kind of hard to get a 'reference' in terms of the fastest time sheet.

[djones]

182 laps for Mercedes yet the two slowest times (lets forget Williams for now).

I don't ever remember them doing this many laps in a day, but equally don't remember them being so slow in testing. Sure they never seemed to show their true speed, but this seems very extreme.

It would be good to see pictures of the staff and if they are smiling or unhappy.

[godlameroso]

Subtract ~4 seconds and you'll know what they can do full tilt.

[TwanV]

Most interesting to me is the delta between VET and VER. Of course much uncertainty there but RB tried a lot of different set ups so I wouldn't be surprised if there is some overlap with Ferrari's program today. 4 tenths sounds reasonably accurate taking into account all the whisperings around the paddock these last days.

I agree too that Mercs form is a mystery. Also Hamilton isn't particularly bold about their car feeling "different". But those guys are the undisputed masters of smoke and mirrors of course so I'll guess we just have to wait and see till next week.