F1 2019 Pre-Season Testing Thread

[ferkan]

which shows how good that Merc is in the slower corners, and thats backed up by the fact (someone here mentioned) his S3 time was half a second faster than last years pole time!

Or he has less fuel which will manifest itself in much better S3 time. Personally, Ferrari looks much "lazier" then Merc in this short run, which is either fundamental to car, or much more likely - they are running with more fuel.

[Juzh]

which shows how good that Merc is in the slower corners, and thats backed up by the fact (someone here mentioned) his S3 time was half a second faster than last years pole time!

Not like this just popped up out of thin air. Merc were already very good in slow corners last year in the second half of the season, this just seems a natural progression.

[GPR-A]

which shows how good that Merc is in the slower corners, and thats backed up by the fact (someone here mentioned) his S3 time was half a second faster than last years pole time!

I said that. It's not half a second, but yeah, 4th tenths faster than last year's pole time in S3.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27807&p=819108#p819108

[GPR-A]

which shows how good that Merc is in the slower corners, and thats backed up by the fact (someone here mentioned) his S3 time was half a second faster than last years pole time!

Or he has less fuel which will manifest itself in much better S3 time. Personally, Ferrari looks much "lazier" then Merc in this short run, which is either fundamental to car, or much more likely - they are running with more fuel.

It is universally proven, beyond doubts, that Ferrari is half a second per lap (or may be more) faster than Mercedes. So, all these small things shouldn't matter to the big picture. Forza Ferrari!

[ferkan]

which shows how good that Merc is in the slower corners, and thats backed up by the fact (someone here mentioned) his S3 time was half a second faster than last years pole time!

Or he has less fuel which will manifest itself in much better S3 time. Personally, Ferrari looks much "lazier" then Merc in this short run, which is either fundamental to car, or much more likely - they are running with more fuel.

It is universally proven, beyond doubts, that Ferrari is half a second per lap (or may be more) faster than Mercedes. So, all these small things shouldn't matter to the big picture. Forza Ferrari!

Just telling what I am seeing in onboards video. Hamtilon looks to be more on the edge through entire lap, had quite a few snaps mid corner with corrections, while Vettel's Ferrari looks"lazier" with much less input and corrections required. In S1 and S2 fuel difference won't be closely visible as in S3.

[Phil]

It wasn't Vettels fastest run on the C5 tire that people should be analyzing to death, they should be analyzing his slightly slower run on the C3 tire that raised eyebrows and puts the Ferrari fuel and tire corrected above the C5 runs.

[NathanOlder]

which shows how good that Merc is in the slower corners, and thats backed up by the fact (someone here mentioned) his S3 time was half a second faster than last years pole time!

Or he has less fuel which will manifest itself in much better S3 time. Personally, Ferrari looks much "lazier" then Merc in this short run, which is either fundamental to car, or much more likely - they are running with more fuel.

Comparing it to the 2018 pole time, he 100% didn't have less fuel. its not like Lewis made time up on a heavy Ferrari, he made time up on a 2018 Merc with minimum fuel, and Engine setting set to Max

[siskue2005]

Or he has less fuel which will manifest itself in much better S3 time. Personally, Ferrari looks much "lazier" then Merc in this short run, which is either fundamental to car, or much more likely - they are running with more fuel.

It is universally proven, beyond doubts, that Ferrari is half a second per lap (or may be more) faster than Mercedes. So, all these small things shouldn't matter to the big picture. Forza Ferrari!

Just telling what I am seeing in onboards video. Hamtilon looks to be more on the edge through entire lap, had quite a few snaps mid corner with corrections, while Vettel's Ferrari looks"lazier" with much less input and corrections required. In S1 and S2 fuel difference won't be closely visible as in S3.

Any source or verifiable way to substantiate your claim here?

[yelistener]

The fuel load argument doesn't makse sense. If the fuel load difference gave Lewis a 0.4s advantage in S3, you're basically saying Vettel, with significantly higher fuel load, still beat Lewis in S1 & 2. (Yes Vettel was already ahead of Lewis before Lewis' mistake at turn 7). That's impossible.

[JonoNic]

which shows how good that Merc is in the slower corners, and thats backed up by the fact (someone here mentioned) his S3 time was half a second faster than last years pole time!

Should we reinvestigate the rumour of Mercedes rear-wheel steering?

[ferkan]

It is universally proven, beyond doubts, that Ferrari is half a second per lap (or may be more) faster than Mercedes. So, all these small things shouldn't matter to the big picture. Forza Ferrari!

Just telling what I am seeing in onboards video. Hamtilon looks to be more on the edge through entire lap, had quite a few snaps mid corner with corrections, while Vettel's Ferrari looks"lazier" with much less input and corrections required. In S1 and S2 fuel difference won't be closely visible as in S3.

Any source or verifiable way to substantiate your claim here?

AMUS wrote it few days ago, I think source was Renault engineer who said they see who has more fuel with how car acts in S3. Obviously there will be slower cars in S3 with same amount of fuel (Ferrari might be too), but S1 and S2 has much less sudden changes of direction and are much more flowing (long corners + straights), that way your momentum will be much less effected by fuel you are carrying.

[Phil]

Fuel is one factor, power-mode the other. I think what many people had been suspecting, is that the C5 runs were probably done with a lower power-mode (with less fuel) compared to other slower runs where an evidently higher power-mode was used (although with more fuel and also a different tire). This masks the true pace somewhat.

Even so, as already said - I think the teams have a very good idea on where everyone stands, since they have way more information and tools to analyze the performance of their competitors and also get a closer approximation on power used. In the end, it's not a 100%, but probably much closer than all the calculations being thrown around here to make sense of the times.

Other factors include;

- the track temperatures at these tests were rather low
- these cars are still work in progress
- by the time they will actually race here, the cars will have gone through multiple updates and a much better understanding on how to set them up
- Melbourne and the first couple of races are very different tracks with different characteristics, different demands to the car and driver.
- Therefore; being fast on one track will not equal being fast on an entire different track.
- Qualifying/one-lap-pace is yet another thing entirely with the special maximum power modes that may compensate one flaw or another. Extracting the pace from the tires is also another thing too.

[restless]

To me it seems Vettel was not pushing to-the-max in last sector

[nacho]

On Vettel's fastest lap he takes wide lines and doesn't touch the apex in the 1st half of the lap, whether it is to save tires for the last part or not I don't know.

[siskue2005]

On Vettel's fastest lap he takes wide lines and doesn't touch the apex in the 1st half of the lap, whether it is to save tires for the last part or not I don't know.

Why would someone need to save tyre on the last proper corner of a single lap run?