F1 2019 Pre-Season Testing Thread

[motobaleno]

By far, they have the best chassis on the grid. Newey has also claimed that, their aero philosophy is completely flexible and they can simply bolt a Ferrari style front wing and the car works just fine. Melbourne can't come sooner.

excuse me I'm not native english...but this was ironic or what?

[Just_a_fan]

Is Alpha Romeo expecting to start outside of top 10? Why else would you start a race (sim) on C2? With Midfield bunched up, there could be a possibility.

It's Alfa! Not Alpha. They've only been around in motorsport for a little over 100 years, not like those newcomers Ferrari. You'd think motorsport fans would know how to spell their name! Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!




Sorry, you're not the only one but I snapped. Sorry I feel better now. Won't happen again. Time for a pint methinks...

[F1T]

Ferrari fastest and Hamilton close as testing ends

The fastest time of the morning wasn't improved upon in the afternoon, even though reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton came within 3 thousandths of the Ferrari pace setter.

[Andres125sx]

I must apologize beforehand, but I didn´t follow any testing but now I´m curious... but 140 pages are too much of a read.

May someone provide a short summary of the feelings for each team? At least the top ones. From the last threee pages I´ve just read it looks like Mercedes is again looking pretty strong, and RBR, despite Marko statements, seems to be far from them. McLaren look good surprisingly. Is this correct?

[turbof1]

Is Alpha Romeo expecting to start outside of top 10? Why else would you start a race (sim) on C2? With Midfield bunched up, there could be a possibility.

It's Alfa! Not Alpha. They've only been around in motorsport for a little over 100 years, not like those newcomers Ferrari. You'd think motorsport fans would know how to spell their name! Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!




Sorry, you're not the only one but I snapped. Sorry I feel better now. Won't happen again. Time for a pint methinks...

There we have it, ladies and gentlemen. Passion

[Capharol]

I must apologize beforehand, but I didn´t follow any testing but now I´m curious... but 140 pages are too much of a read.

May someone provide a short summary of the feelings for each team? At least the top ones. From the last threee pages I´ve just read it looks like Mercedes is again looking pretty strong, and RBR, despite Marko statements, seems to be far from them. McLaren look good surprisingly. Is this correct?

I'll try it to tell you it from my perspectiv, so all is objectiv and my own opinion:
Ferrari - Very good pace, especcially long run, short runs did look very strong aswell, both drivers very very strong
Mercedes - Long runs were very good aswell, they did a lot of sandbagging during the other testing days but HAM showed they can match Ferrari short run pace, HAM strong, Bottas was looking good but, in my opinion, not much improvement to last year.
Red Bull - was looking very good on 6 days of the 8, yesterday Gasly, again my opinion, screwed up badly for the whole team so that Verstappen only could do 29 laps today, Honda engine was very reliable and showed good pace in the speed traps
Renault - looked good aswell and for me are the 4th team on the grid, they still miss a bit of power, and will need to keep improving to stay that way, midfield teams are very close to eachother
ToroRosso - had a good pace and speed, car seems to be working very well, Albon and Kvyat are doing really well in the car, they're long run pace looked good aswell and are for me the 5th team on the grid although this will be depending on track and conditions because i guess the midfield will be even closer then last year
Alfa Romeo - looked strong aswell and can be some kind of suprise this year, strong long run and short run place, you can say they benefit from the expierence Räikkönnen has brought in, they will fight with TR and Renault.
McLaren - not really sure where they stand, the engine (renault) seems to be good, not sure if they have the aero package to be a real midfield-contender, maybe they can suprise me.

the others i can't really tell because i didn't had them really on my screen the only thing i can be sure of is ..... Willliams will be last.

Again this is my personl opinion

[LM10]

End of day timings

https://i.imgur.com/r9zafFI.jpg

It's a pity this table is a bit confusing. Instead of putting the fastest sector speeds of the whole day, they should put up the speeds which were achieved in these fastest laps seen on this table.
For example, Vettel's 307 was his fastest speed in second sector overall, but it was not the speed he did when clocking his fastest time of the day with 28.221 in second sector. He was slower and the same goes for the speed trap of the first sector. He was slower than 287. I'm not sure about the last sector, though, unluckily I couldn't pay much attention when watching live timing.

Comparing the times of Mercedes (especially Hamilton's) with Vettel's, it's visible that Vettel seemed to have pushed more in the first sectors, thus losing out in S3 on the sensible C5s whereas it seems Hamilton has done the opposite. Bit of a different approach. However, that's just one of many possible explanations. We don't really know.

Also, looking at the second sector of Hülkenberg, he was just 2 tenths down on Hamilton's time, but with much less speed. Normally you would expect the Renault to be in a higher engine mode to kind of match the times of the top cars. So, by just looking at the speed traps we might assume that Hülkenberg was on a less potent engine mode, but I don't think so. That's why it's a bit tricky to compare speed traps and make assumptions about engine modes.

In short, as always, analysing suggesting test performances is nice and exciting, but should be taken with a grain of salt.

[RZS10]

Laps by driver/team/engine

[Shakeman]

In short, as always, analysing suggesting test performances is nice and exciting, but should be taken with a grain of salt.

We never know where the cars are after the first race either. Melbourne is never a good guide to absolute pace either through the track characteristics or teams still not understanding their car's setups well enough. This race usually has more RNG in the results than most.

I usually say it's not until the 3rd race where we can see the trend forming and which teams have produced the best early season car then it's game on for the development race and who can unlock something big...

I'll probably only see one live race this years which sucks.

[godlameroso]

At the end of testing I can confidently say what I saw in the first two days was pretty much on the money. Ferrari and Mercedes ahead as usual, but closer than before. McLaren has improved a good amount, but so have others. The rules did nothing to slow the cars down at all. The field has gotten closer in general, but Red Bull is just as far behind as they were at the end of last year.

[the EDGE]

At the end of testing I can confidently say what I saw in the first two days was pretty much on the money. Ferrari and Mercedes ahead as usual, but closer than before. McLaren has improved a good amount, but so have others. The rules did nothing to slow the cars down at all. The field has gotten closer in general, but Red Bull is just as far behind as they were at the end of last year.

All true, its looking like it could be the closest season ever at the front and the middle which will be very much welcomed. But the big question is what upgrades will the teams be able bring to Melbourne and who still has the most power left to extra.

My money is that the latter is Mercedes but we have seen their upgrade, so maybe Ferrari have some bits to bolt on

I'm not going to make any wild and crazy predictions beyond that because I really do think it will be to close to call ... But the next 2 weeks could turn out to possibly be the longest of my life while I wait to find out the answers

Well maybe 1... Midfield drivers are going to earn their money this year

[Morteza]

[zibby43]

Marc has some of the most reasonable and technically sound video analysis out there. Highly recommend subscribing.

[FittingMechanics]

For McLaren fans
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D0lsujYXgAEKMos.png

Thank you very much. I'll copy your post to McLaren team thread. Hope you don't mind.

[dans79]

Shades of ABU Qualifying last year.

Comparing the times of Mercedes (especially Hamilton's) with Vettel's, it's visible that Vettel seemed to have pushed more in the first sectors, thus losing out in S3 on the sensible C5s whereas it seems Hamilton has done the opposite. Bit of a different approach. However, that's just one of many possible explanations. We don't really know.