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.
This seem to be the fastest lap on C2, yes?11:58
Nearly into the final hour, and Leclerc records a new personal best of 1m 17.253s, the third quickest of the morning.
Will that have the Scuderia's rivals quaking in the their racing boots? Well yes actually, when you consider he was on the C2 tyres...
I expect you are right here. Two versions would be my bet. They have always talked a lot about this compromised problem they have with some tracks. It is the ultimate solution as long as it doesn't break any rules. Also mind bendingly expensive but Merc have very deep pockets, no doubt.GrandAxe wrote: ↑28 Feb 2019, 13:35Mercedes claim to have had balance problems in week one don't seem to add up when you consider that they were actually running two variations of front suspension - one normal height and having some rake, the other quite high and running the car parallel to the track.
This leaves a few questions such as; on which of the suspension types they had balance issues, on which corners the problems occurred and so on. Clearly, both those suspension configurations wouldn't have behaved the same.
All the while, Mercedes also had the opposite car concept to the one they were running quietly getting a tan in an autoclave somewhere in England. The car from last week also ran a gamut of aero tests, not just tyre and suspension. Why, if it's carrying an aero concept they'd probably never need?
It would seem that from the onset, they deliberately set out to test both car concepts and last weeks car was far from a mule.
I'm going to make a bold bet. Mercedes is going to use at least three car concepts across this season in order to match the characteristics of the various tracks as much as possible. I'll wager that last weeks car and its high downforce wing will pop up on street circuits; in Monaco, Baku and Singapore. This weeks car might be used at lower downforce/ high speed circuits like spa and Monza. What d'you guys think?
Maybe I'm wrong (will neither be the first or last time), and this is a revolutionary idea, but the cars are constantly evolving and I just don't see how you can constantly evolve multiple cars without hindering the development of all of them.GrandAxe wrote: ↑28 Feb 2019, 13:35I'm going to make a bold bet. Mercedes is going to use at least three car concepts across this season in order to match the characteristics of the various tracks as much as possible. I'll wager that last weeks car and its high downforce wing will pop up on street circuits; in Monaco, Baku and Singapore. This weeks car might be used at lower downforce/ high speed circuits like spa and Monza. What d'you guys think?
When you consider the travails of Williams this season, the gap between the lower and top teams seems quite vulgar. Williams couldn't even get just their single aero concept finished in time for the first days of the test.Alexgtt wrote: ↑28 Feb 2019, 13:42I expect you are right here. Two versions would be my bet. They have always talked a lot about this compromised problem they have with some tracks. It is the ultimate solution as long as it doesn't break any rules. Also mind bendingly expensive but Merc have very deep pockets, no doubt.GrandAxe wrote: ↑28 Feb 2019, 13:35Mercedes claim to have had balance problems in week one don't seem to add up when you consider that they were actually running two variations of front suspension - one normal height and having some rake, the other quite high and running the car parallel to the track.
This leaves a few questions such as; on which of the suspension types they had balance issues, on which corners the problems occurred and so on. Clearly, both those suspension configurations wouldn't have behaved the same.
All the while, Mercedes also had the opposite car concept to the one they were running quietly getting a tan in an autoclave somewhere in England. The car from last week also ran a gamut of aero tests, not just tyre and suspension. Why, if it's carrying an aero concept they'd probably never need?
It would seem that from the onset, they deliberately set out to test both car concepts and last weeks car was far from a mule.
I'm going to make a bold bet. Mercedes is going to use at least three car concepts across this season in order to match the characteristics of the various tracks as much as possible. I'll wager that last weeks car and its high downforce wing will pop up on street circuits; in Monaco, Baku and Singapore. This weeks car might be used at lower downforce/ high speed circuits like spa and Monza. What d'you guys think?
No, they will know very well which version of the car to bring to which track. Two concept development programmes.Wynters wrote: ↑28 Feb 2019, 13:45Maybe I'm wrong (will neither be the first or last time), and this is a revolutionary idea, but the cars are constantly evolving and I just don't see how you can constantly evolve multiple cars without hindering the development of all of them.GrandAxe wrote: ↑28 Feb 2019, 13:35I'm going to make a bold bet. Mercedes is going to use at least three car concepts across this season in order to match the characteristics of the various tracks as much as possible. I'll wager that last weeks car and its high downforce wing will pop up on street circuits; in Monaco, Baku and Singapore. This weeks car might be used at lower downforce/ high speed circuits like spa and Monza. What d'you guys think?
Do you bring four cars to each weekend and halve the Practice time each will get, just so you can check that evolutionary developments work on each car? Which car do you prioritise for the finite wind tunnel usage? Or do you focus exclusively on your general concept and only put resources into the outlier concept on the relevant weekends? In which case, would anyone feel confident if their team turned up to Monaco with the car they used during the first test, months before? Or the car that's been evolving every minute since then? And bear in mind that all the other teams are making their main car faster whilst Mercedes are spending time on their outlier-spec. It just seems to have limited benefits compared to the costs required.
True, it would be more difficult to maintain 2+ concepts. But it is telling that they have successfully produced two aero and two suspension concepts in the same period as the other top teams (Ferrari and Red Bull, as well as others with deep pockets e.g. McLaren) have been able to produce just one of each.Wynters wrote: ↑28 Feb 2019, 13:45Maybe I'm wrong (will neither be the first or last time), and this is a revolutionary idea, but the cars are constantly evolving and I just don't see how you can constantly evolve multiple cars without hindering the development of all of them.GrandAxe wrote: ↑28 Feb 2019, 13:35I'm going to make a bold bet. Mercedes is going to use at least three car concepts across this season in order to match the characteristics of the various tracks as much as possible. I'll wager that last weeks car and its high downforce wing will pop up on street circuits; in Monaco, Baku and Singapore. This weeks car might be used at lower downforce/ high speed circuits like spa and Monza. What d'you guys think?
Do you bring four cars to each weekend and halve the Practice time each will get, just so you can check that evolutionary developments work on each car? Which car do you prioritise for the finite wind tunnel usage? Or do you focus exclusively on your general concept and only put resources into the outlier concept on the relevant weekends? In which case, would anyone feel confident if their team turned up to Monaco with the car they used during the first test, months before? Or the car that's been evolving every minute since then? And bear in mind that all the other teams are making their main car faster whilst Mercedes are spending time on their outlier-spec. It just seems to have limited benefits compared to the costs required.
Its not only that it is extremely costly to develope several different concepts but that you need to develop them. This is way too much even for Mercedes.
Which could have come at the expense of refining one concept or the other. Maybe they also kept developing while they already produced one set of parts to get the car going on track while they could develop further. It could very well be is that the current car is nothing more than a further developed version of last week's.GrandAxe wrote: ↑28 Feb 2019, 14:00True, it would be more difficult to maintain 2+ concepts. But it is telling that they have successfully produced two aero and two suspension concepts in the same period as the other top teams (Ferrari and Red Bull, as well as others with deep pockets e.g. McLaren) have been able to produce just one of each.Wynters wrote: ↑28 Feb 2019, 13:45Maybe I'm wrong (will neither be the first or last time), and this is a revolutionary idea, but the cars are constantly evolving and I just don't see how you can constantly evolve multiple cars without hindering the development of all of them.GrandAxe wrote: ↑28 Feb 2019, 13:35I'm going to make a bold bet. Mercedes is going to use at least three car concepts across this season in order to match the characteristics of the various tracks as much as possible. I'll wager that last weeks car and its high downforce wing will pop up on street circuits; in Monaco, Baku and Singapore. This weeks car might be used at lower downforce/ high speed circuits like spa and Monza. What d'you guys think?
Do you bring four cars to each weekend and halve the Practice time each will get, just so you can check that evolutionary developments work on each car? Which car do you prioritise for the finite wind tunnel usage? Or do you focus exclusively on your general concept and only put resources into the outlier concept on the relevant weekends? In which case, would anyone feel confident if their team turned up to Monaco with the car they used during the first test, months before? Or the car that's been evolving every minute since then? And bear in mind that all the other teams are making their main car faster whilst Mercedes are spending time on their outlier-spec. It just seems to have limited benefits compared to the costs required.
