2017 F1 general testing thread

[Anthropolyte]

Didnt MCL do 100km on there filming day on the weekend?

All teams are allowed up to 100km, on demonstration tyres. No word on whether McLaren used that whole distance, and it's likely the PU was turned down for the run to avoid any potential damage. So not really an indication of real-world performance.

[Logie]

Not interested in performance figures and im guessing there is none anyway More thinking along the lines the engine had a decent run in, cooled, reheated and problem found. I be more concerned if it was a brand new engine that got an oil leak.

[FW17]

Bottas finished his 16-round stint on the soft rubber. The times in detail: Outlap - 1: 23.4 - 1: 23.1 - 1: 23.5 - 1: 24.0 - 1: 23.8 - 1: 24.8 - 1: 24.3 - 1: 24.2 - 1: 24.5 - 1: 24.1 - 1: 24.3 - 1: 24.3 - 1: 24.5 - 1: 24.4 - 1: 24.3 - 1: 24.5 - Inlap.

Was that the brief to Pirelli? The times are similar to delta running of the last few years

I thought the tyres were to hold up so drivers could reduce the laptimes as the fuel load go down.

[RZS10]

probably aiming for constant laptimes to gather (comparable) data

[i70q7m7ghw]

If the top speeds reported at f1.today are accurate we are about to see massive times. Vettel is doing 1.22,791 at a top speed of 279.7km/h. That´s insane if you consider 2016 times ( all around 1.22 ) were with top speeds well above 330km/h.

So teams are setting serious times while coasting down the straights. I am curious where we will end up today, knowing that teams are not even thinking about going quick.

2017 might become very cool again =D>

What makes you think they are coasting? Considering the additional drag this year, is 330km/h likely? I think not...

[ironrose]

Bottas finished his 16-round stint on the soft rubber. The times in detail: Outlap - 1: 23.4 - 1: 23.1 - 1: 23.5 - 1: 24.0 - 1: 23.8 - 1: 24.8 - 1: 24.3 - 1: 24.2 - 1: 24.5 - 1: 24.1 - 1: 24.3 - 1: 24.3 - 1: 24.5 - 1: 24.4 - 1: 24.3 - 1: 24.5 - Inlap.

Was that the brief to Pirelli? The times are similar to delta running of the last few years

I thought the tyres were to hold up so drivers could reduce the laptimes as the fuel load go down.

I dont think they are running the cars in full anger ... just gathering data and I am sure at the end of the stint they would be able to estimate how much life is left in the tyres.. #Earlydays

[f1316]

Will be interesting to see if Hamilton does similar length runs to Bottas; whilst we won't know for sure what fuel they're both running /how much each is pushing, interesting to see how quickly Bottas can go right out of the box vs. a known benchmark.

[Giblet]

Did Vettel have the aero rakes on when he set the time/top speed?

I know the cars are draggier, but 50km/h less seems too high.

[mwillems]

If the top speeds reported at f1.today are accurate we are about to see massive times. Vettel is doing 1.22,791 at a top speed of 279.7km/h. That´s insane if you consider 2016 times ( all around 1.22 ) were with top speeds well above 330km/h.

So teams are setting serious times while coasting down the straights. I am curious where we will end up today, knowing that teams are not even thinking about going quick.

2017 might become very cool again =D>

What makes you think they are coasting? Considering the additional drag this year, is 330km/h likely? I think not...

They are likely to have more power, as well as more speed out of the corners. So to be 50km/h back today would suggest they are not pushing.

Teams tend not to show their performance hand in the first test, either. It seems that coasting could be a reasonable choice of word.

[Phil]

That's why they go testing. I seem to recall those Mercedes motors having a few issues even towards the end of the year during a race last year
And no, no dyno in the world correctly simulates loadings and forces of the car on track, if it did they wouldn't need testing.

Again:

There are 3 Mercedes powered teams.
There are 3 Renault powered teams.
There are 3 Ferrari powered teams.
There is 1 Honda powered team.

And that singular team running the Honda engine isn't even a factory team. It is effectively two teams; McLaren and Honda. McLaren needs a working PU in order to see if their aero is working and to gather data. Honda depends that the car runs, so that they can test and see how their PU unit is functioning inside that package. This is not happening when the car is inside the garage for most of the day and effectively, both are sitting there not gathering any data at all.

If Mercedes, Renault or a Ferrari powered team had a fault, they would at least still see some data due to the other cars outthere running their PU. When a fault happens to McLaren-Honda, it's just all the more costly.

[ironrose]

If the top speeds reported at f1.today are accurate we are about to see massive times. Vettel is doing 1.22,791 at a top speed of 279.7km/h. That´s insane if you consider 2016 times ( all around 1.22 ) were with top speeds well above 330km/h.

So teams are setting serious times while coasting down the straights. I am curious where we will end up today, knowing that teams are not even thinking about going quick.

2017 might become very cool again =D>

Slower on the straights .. faster through the corners

[f1316]

Bottas finished his 16-round stint on the soft rubber. The times in detail: Outlap - 1: 23.4 - 1: 23.1 - 1: 23.5 - 1: 24.0 - 1: 23.8 - 1: 24.8 - 1: 24.3 - 1: 24.2 - 1: 24.5 - 1: 24.1 - 1: 24.3 - 1: 24.3 - 1: 24.5 - 1: 24.4 - 1: 24.3 - 1: 24.5 - Inlap.

Was that the brief to Pirelli? The times are similar to delta running of the last few years

I thought the tyres were to hold up so drivers could reduce the laptimes as the fuel load go down.

But this could be with Bottas pushing flat out throughout - whereas before he would have been preserving the tyres and not pushing in order to retain this kind of lap time.

We don't really know, I guess.

[FW17]

I dont think they are running the cars in full anger ... just gathering data and I am sure at the end of the stint they would be able to estimate how much life is left in the tyres.. #Earlydays

Maybe

But I don't trust Pirelli to have put its back into it.

[ironrose]

Did Vettel have the aero rakes on when he set the time/top speed?

I know the cars are draggier, but 50km/h less seems too high.

Taps not opened yet .. first day of testing.

[Gerhardsa]

I doubt they will be 50kph down from last year....with or without DRS (Also, we don't know if they are deploying DRS or not on those laps, )so take these times with a pinch of salt.
I doubt anyone will show their colors before the 2nd test, hell, maybe even qualy in Aus, so we just don't know what the speeds will be (except if some team insider wants to shed some light on that.)