F1 2019 Pre-Season Testing Thread

[Capharol]

Toto has claimed Ferrari are ahead. They are. Last year he said they were ahead and they were. Last the Ferrari was the better car but Ferrari dropped the ball during the season allowing Mercedes to win.

Toto knows well enough that Ferrari need to drop the ball again for Mercedes to win this year. He is being honest, as is Hamilton when he says Ferrari are up to half a second ahead.

Ferrari are being dishonest to say that Mercedes are very close to them. Everyone can see that the Ferrari is currently the car to beat.

The only thing stopping a Ferrari / Vettel double title win this year is Ferrari (and perhaps Leclerc). Mercedes are unlikely to close the gap unless Ferrari mess up like last year.

We haven't run a single race weekend lap, much less a qualifying or a race yet, and you're sitting here declaring exactly what the situation is. You're saying Mercedes are being honest and Ferrari are dishonest - based on? Your own personal reading of testing times? Where we dont have most of the information we'd need to do an accurate apples to apples comparison? I mean, we can go through a race weekend and even after two 90 minute sessions, one 60 minute session, and one 20 minute qualifying session, all with very dedicated running and preparation for that specific track and with somewhat predictable routines and we still wont know what the real picture looks like. Mercedes and Ferrari are often hiding a full second or more all the way up til then and it becomes a matter of who was holding back the most for when it really matters.

Both Mercedes and Ferrari are still holding back on performance. To what degree we dont know, but that's going to be what determines where the real gap is once things actually matter. If you want to call the order based on Q1 results, feel free, but I think anybody being rational is going to just wait til Q3 so we can actually see.

Thank you, finally someone who thinks alike, after 8 days of testing we can only GUESS wh is on top, till Australia is still a little while to go, much can change in the mean time and THAT'S why they do testing. these Laptimes are INDICATORS but nothing more, and even after Australia things can and will change.... every track is different

[Jozsusz]

And Vettel every time cracks under pressure and can't drive in traffic.

He did fine when winning his four World Driver Championships.

But discussion of the merits of various drivers is drifting beyond the scope of the thread, i.e. Testing.

Nope. Watch the races. He still crashed a lot of time.

[turbof1]

And Vettel every time cracks under pressure and can't drive in traffic.

He did fine when winning his four World Driver Championships.

But discussion of the merits of various drivers is drifting beyond the scope of the thread, i.e. Testing.

Nope. Watch the races. He still crashed a lot of time.

Yes because it is beyond the scope of this thread. That's final.

[dans79]

That's a nice C4 time from Hamilton considering things are starting to cool off.

[Phil]

Hamilton with a 1m16.628s on the C4 tire. That's pretty good I think.

@dans79; yep.

[mkay]

Toto has claimed Ferrari are ahead. They are. Last year he said they were ahead and they were. Last the Ferrari was the better car but Ferrari dropped the ball during the season allowing Mercedes to win.

Toto knows well enough that Ferrari need to drop the ball again for Mercedes to win this year. He is being honest, as is Hamilton when he says Ferrari are up to half a second ahead.

Ferrari are being dishonest to say that Mercedes are very close to them. Everyone can see that the Ferrari is currently the car to beat.

The only thing stopping a Ferrari / Vettel double title win this year is Ferrari (and perhaps Leclerc). Mercedes are unlikely to close the gap unless Ferrari mess up like last year.

We haven't run a single race weekend lap, much less a qualifying or a race yet, and you're sitting here declaring exactly what the situation is. You're saying Mercedes are being honest and Ferrari are dishonest - based on? Your own personal reading of testing times? Where we dont have most of the information we'd need to do an accurate apples to apples comparison? I mean, we can go through a race weekend and even after two 90 minute sessions, one 60 minute session, and one 20 minute qualifying session, all with very dedicated running and preparation for that specific track and with somewhat predictable routines and we still wont know what the real picture looks like. Mercedes and Ferrari are often hiding a full second or more all the way up til then and it becomes a matter of who was holding back the most for when it really matters.

Both Mercedes and Ferrari are still holding back on performance. To what degree we dont know, but that's going to be what determines where the real gap is once things actually matter. If you want to call the order based on Q1 results, feel free, but I think anybody being rational is going to just wait til Q3 so we can actually see.

Thank you, finally someone who thinks alike, after 8 days of testing we can only GUESS wh is on top, till Australia is still a little while to go, much can change in the mean time and THAT'S why they do testing. these Laptimes are INDICATORS but nothing more, and even after Australia things can and will change.... every track is different

It's pretty clear from long runs or even performance laps that Ferrari is ahead. By how much, we don't know yet. Could be a few tenths, could be half a second.

[NathanOlder]

was it C4, as autosport got it wrong earlier with Vettel

[SiLo]

I think Merc have done really well to get the media on the Ferrari hype train without letting on that it will actually be very close again.

[Morteza]

was it C4, as autosport got it wrong earlier with Vettel

Andrew Benson from BBC also says C4.

[dans79]

was it C4, as autosport got it wrong earlier with Vettel

Autosport was pretty sure has they called it as he left the pits.

09:41 Hulkenberg's next fast lap is a 1m18.234s. Everyone else is on long runs, although Hamilton has just headed back out on another set of C4s.

[dans79]

I think Merc have done really well to get the media on the Ferrari hype train without letting on that it will actually be very close again.

I think it will be a lot closer in AUS than some want it to be. Merc might even be ahead, after all Ferrari has had twice as much time to work with the package that's most likely to race in AUS.

[SiLo]

I think Merc have done really well to get the media on the Ferrari hype train without letting on that it will actually be very close again.

I think it will be a lot closer in AUS than some want it to be. Merc might even be ahead, after all Ferrari has had twice as much time to work with the package that's most likely to race in AUS.

It wont be twice as much time to work with it, it will be an extra week or two for a development path that is months old. The only difference is, Mercedes have done 4 days and thousands of KMs of testing on the actual car with theirs.

[santos]

Nah, Merc and Hamilton won't give up.
And Vettel every time cracks under pressure and can't drive in traffic.

Abu Dhabi 2012
Brasil 2012

[NathanOlder]

Almost a dead heat at the front

[siskue2005]

And Lewis in C5 did 1.16.224 just +0.003 from Vettel's time
and he was 2 tenths off Vettel just in S1