F1 2020 Pre-Season Testing Thread

[Wass85]

After a years development the car they had in Abu Dhabi probably could have done that, this years Spanish pole will sub 1:14.5

Doubt it. Their 2019 Abu Dhabi car barely qualified faster than it did in 2018 1.34.779(2019) vs 1.34.794(2018). It's probably not a representative circuit. 15.4 last year, we know they claim they're .3 faster from the engine + .3 from the chassis? Best case scenario is 14.8. I think they'll be hard pressed to break into the 14's. Red Bull will be within .2 of Mercedes.

Yes but we’re not talking about Abu Dhabi where different track characteristics came into play, we’re talking Barcelona where they were quicker than the year before

1.15.4 last year -0.5 for the 2019 season development -0.5 for winter development means this years pole will be 1.14.4 at worst

Personally I think quicker 1.14.0 to 1.14.2

1.14? Think that may be a bit optimistic myself.

[godlameroso]

After a years development the car they had in Abu Dhabi probably could have done that, this years Spanish pole will sub 1:14.5

Doubt it. Their 2019 Abu Dhabi car barely qualified faster than it did in 2018 1.34.779(2019) vs 1.34.794(2018). It's probably not a representative circuit. 15.4 last year, we know they claim they're .3 faster from the engine + .3 from the chassis? Best case scenario is 14.8. I think they'll be hard pressed to break into the 14's. Red Bull will be within .2 of Mercedes.

Yes but we’re not talking about Abu Dhabi where different track characteristics came into play, we’re talking Barcelona where they were quicker than the year before

1.15.4 last year -0.5 for the 2019 season development -0.5 for winter development means this years pole will be 1.14.4 at worst

Personally I think quicker 1.14.0 to 1.14.2

Impossible that they're that fast. Tricky to say for sure the year on year improvement because from 2017 to 2018 Barcelona was resurfaced which improved lap times by just over 2 second per lap, and again in 2019 it was resurfaced once more. 2020 is the 2019 resurfacing with 1 year of racing and use, as the circuit does get a fair bit of use throughout the year.

Let's make some assumptions because I like being an a** on Sundays. Hamilton's 2017 pole lap of 19.1 is really a 16.6 16.7 if the asphalt were correct. Which means they gained roughly .5 seconds over 2017 in 2018. Then with a re-asphalted 2019 Bottas went .7 seconds faster, how much of that .7 is down to the car and how much of that is down to repaved tarmac? How much of that is down to difference in tires? Let's say the improvement year on year was roughly half a second. If we improve last year's time by another ~.5 seconds we arrive at 14.9.

We know that they were carrying at least 30kg of fuel when Bottas set his fastest lap. 30kg of fuel is ~7-8 tenths, so high 14's at best.

[the EDGE]

Doubt it. Their 2019 Abu Dhabi car barely qualified faster than it did in 2018 1.34.779(2019) vs 1.34.794(2018). It's probably not a representative circuit. 15.4 last year, we know they claim they're .3 faster from the engine + .3 from the chassis? Best case scenario is 14.8. I think they'll be hard pressed to break into the 14's. Red Bull will be within .2 of Mercedes.

Yes but we’re not talking about Abu Dhabi where different track characteristics came into play, we’re talking Barcelona where they were quicker than the year before

1.15.4 last year -0.5 for the 2019 season development -0.5 for winter development means this years pole will be 1.14.4 at worst

Personally I think quicker 1.14.0 to 1.14.2

Impossible that they're that fast. Tricky to say for sure the year on year improvement because from 2017 to 2018 Barcelona was resurfaced which improved lap times by just over 2 second per lap, and again in 2019 it was resurfaced once more. 2020 is the 2019 resurfacing with 1 year of racing and use, as the circuit does get a fair bit of use throughout the year.

Let's make some assumptions because I like being an a** on Sundays. Hamilton's 2017 pole lap of 19.1 is really a 16.6 16.7 if the asphalt were correct. Which means they gained roughly .5 seconds over 2017 in 2018. Then with a re-asphalted 2019 Bottas went .7 seconds faster, how much of that .7 is down to the car and how much of that is down to repaved tarmac? How much of that is down to difference in tires? Let's say the improvement year on year was roughly half a second. If we improve last year's time by another ~.5 seconds we arrive at 14.9.

We know that they were carrying at least 30kg of fuel when Bottas set his fastest lap. 30kg of fuel is ~7-8 tenths, so high 14's at best.

Your assuming Bottas engine was set to quali mode, I doubt it. Merc have never run quali mode in testing or practise

[etusch]

Yes but we’re not talking about Abu Dhabi where different track characteristics came into play, we’re talking Barcelona where they were quicker than the year before

1.15.4 last year -0.5 for the 2019 season development -0.5 for winter development means this years pole will be 1.14.4 at worst

Personally I think quicker 1.14.0 to 1.14.2

Impossible that they're that fast. Tricky to say for sure the year on year improvement because from 2017 to 2018 Barcelona was resurfaced which improved lap times by just over 2 second per lap, and again in 2019 it was resurfaced once more. 2020 is the 2019 resurfacing with 1 year of racing and use, as the circuit does get a fair bit of use throughout the year.

Let's make some assumptions because I like being an a** on Sundays. Hamilton's 2017 pole lap of 19.1 is really a 16.6 16.7 if the asphalt were correct. Which means they gained roughly .5 seconds over 2017 in 2018. Then with a re-asphalted 2019 Bottas went .7 seconds faster, how much of that .7 is down to the car and how much of that is down to repaved tarmac? How much of that is down to difference in tires? Let's say the improvement year on year was roughly half a second. If we improve last year's time by another ~.5 seconds we arrive at 14.9.

We know that they were carrying at least 30kg of fuel when Bottas set his fastest lap. 30kg of fuel is ~7-8 tenths, so high 14's at best.

Your assuming Bottas engine was set to quali mode, I doubt it. Merc have never run quali mode in testing or practise

How do you know they don't use it ? I think they are testing everything they have but just in a different way to hide what they are doing

[LM10]

Mercedes has another .6 to .7 if they turned the engine up. So I have their car capable of 14.9-15.1 if they let loose. RB16 15.1-15.3, Ferrari 15.3, RP 15.9, MCL35 16.1-16.2

After a years development the car they had in Abu Dhabi probably could have done that, this years Spanish pole will sub 1:14.5

Doubt it. Their 2019 Abu Dhabi car barely qualified faster than it did in 2018 1.34.779(2019) vs 1.34.794(2018). It's probably not a representative circuit. 15.4 last year, we know they claim they're .3 faster from the engine + .3 from the chassis? Best case scenario is 14.8. I think they'll be hard pressed to break into the 14's. Red Bull will be within .2 of Mercedes.

Haven't heard how much faster they're gonna be from the chassis, but from the engine it's suggested to be 2 tenths because of more power and 1 tenth because of slimmer packaging which the new engine enabled.

[Juzh]

Impossible that they're that fast. Tricky to say for sure the year on year improvement because from 2017 to 2018 Barcelona was resurfaced which improved lap times by just over 2 second per lap, and again in 2019 it was resurfaced once more. 2020 is the 2019 resurfacing with 1 year of racing and use, as the circuit does get a fair bit of use throughout the year.

Let's make some assumptions because I like being an a** on Sundays. Hamilton's 2017 pole lap of 19.1 is really a 16.6 16.7 if the asphalt were correct. Which means they gained roughly .5 seconds over 2017 in 2018. Then with a re-asphalted 2019 Bottas went .7 seconds faster, how much of that .7 is down to the car and how much of that is down to repaved tarmac? How much of that is down to difference in tires? Let's say the improvement year on year was roughly half a second. If we improve last year's time by another ~.5 seconds we arrive at 14.9.

We know that they were carrying at least 30kg of fuel when Bottas set his fastest lap. 30kg of fuel is ~7-8 tenths, so high 14's at best.

Your assuming Bottas engine was set to quali mode, I doubt it. Merc have never run quali mode in testing or practise

How do you know they don't use it ? I think they are testing everything they have but just in a different way to hide what they are doing

They do use it, but not on their "quali sims", that would be showing too much. I did a crude analysis of bottas' 1.15.7 lap compared to his pole lap last year 1.15.4 and found out he lost around 0.9s on the straights. W10 was already a very draggy car so it's unlikely W11 would have even more drag.

With PU improvements this year I'd speculate they're holding back at least 1s of laptime on the engine front.

[etusch]

In fact I don't believe that they are so much developed on the engine side.

[Zynerji]

No offense, but hiding true pace doesn't make sense. So what if you hang a 1:13.7?

What help is that to the other teams watching?

If I recall, Brawn was 1 sec faster than anyone in 2009 testing. Can anyone tell me how that hurt them?

[SmallSoldier]

No offense, but hiding true pace doesn't make sense. So what if you hang a 1:13.7?

What help is that to the other teams watching?

If I recall, Brawn was 1 sec faster than anyone in 2009 testing. Can anyone tell me how that hurt them?

I don’t think it’s a matter of “hiding” their pace... Simply put, during the first week there is no need to push the engines since they are not going for outright performance... In order to understand the new car, what is working and what isn’t, how it reacts to different settings (ride height, suspension dampening, differential settings, etc.) they don’t need to do so with powerful engine settings... Furthermore, in order to understand how those changes have an effect on the car, it is more important to have a consistent lap time, you don’t get that consistency going at the limit... In addition to all the above, they are also testing the durability of new parts, with the teams trying to shave as much weight as possible from their cars / parts some of them could be close to their stress limits and the only way to find that out is with as much mileage as possible... Why risk losing precious run time in order to push the cars into performance runs?

Next week we should be able to see more runs that are closer to actual performance, the teams will bring their new parts on the first couple of days and will probably try to see what they can get from the best setup on the last day.


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[godlameroso]

Your assuming Bottas engine was set to quali mode, I doubt it. Merc have never run quali mode in testing or practise

How do you know they don't use it ? I think they are testing everything they have but just in a different way to hide what they are doing

They do use it, but not on their "quali sims", that would be showing too much. I did a crude analysis of bottas' 1.15.7 lap compared to his pole lap last year 1.15.4 and found out he lost around 0.9s on the straights. W10 was already a very draggy car so it's unlikely W11 would have even more drag.

With PU improvements this year I'd speculate they're holding back at least 1s of laptime on the engine front.

I recall James Allison saying that the slimmer body work means the car has similar drag levels to last year despite having more downforce. So 15.7 minus .9 would put them at 14.8 ish.

[Wass85]

No offense, but hiding true pace doesn't make sense. So what if you hang a 1:13.7?

What help is that to the other teams watching?

If I recall, Brawn was 1 sec faster than anyone in 2009 testing. Can anyone tell me how that hurt them?

I used to think that but then it dawned on me.

If you put in a stonking lap and show the others that they have no hope then they will just give up on that season from the get go and put all their development in to next season.

It is much better to dangle the carrot and at least give them a shred of hope, make them believe that this year could be their year.

[Zynerji]

No offense, but hiding true pace doesn't make sense. So what if you hang a 1:13.7?

What help is that to the other teams watching?

If I recall, Brawn was 1 sec faster than anyone in 2009 testing. Can anyone tell me how that hurt them?

I used to think that but then it dawned on me.

If you put in a stonking lap and show the others that they have no hope then they will just give up on that season from the get go and put all their development in to next season.

It is much better to dangle the carrot and at least give them a shred of hope, make them believe that this year could be their year.

... but if your far enough ahead to cause that reaction, you can do the same with developing for next season.

[Wass85]

No offense, but hiding true pace doesn't make sense. So what if you hang a 1:13.7?

What help is that to the other teams watching?

If I recall, Brawn was 1 sec faster than anyone in 2009 testing. Can anyone tell me how that hurt them?

I used to think that but then it dawned on me.

If you put in a stonking lap and show the others that they have no hope then they will just give up on that season from the get go and put all their development in to next season.

It is much better to dangle the carrot and at least give them a shred of hope, make them believe that this year could be their year.

... but if your far enough ahead to cause that reaction, you can do the same with developing for next season.

But why give your rivals the chance to get a head start and such.

Why in somehow accidently influence a rule change or something else that may end your dominance?

[Zynerji]

Why lie when the truth literally changes nothing?

[w1Y]

His point is that if you make them think they have a shot they will put a level of focus on this year while you shift more resources to next year knowing you can turn the wick up on the current car to keep them out of reach.

I dont think that is the case btw