F1 2020 Pre-Season Testing Thread

[DChemTech]

Hamilton went quickest with a 1.16.976 on the C2 Tyre, and was at the start of a 14 lap stint!!!!
And the car looked easy to drive and smooth

This season is done. Merc quite far ahead and RBR is distant second. Ferrari is almost a no show. Alpha, Alfa, Haas and Renault are all pissed off with the Mercedes W10 in the Pink. Good show from Williams and McLaren so far.

If Mercedes reaches the finish flag as fast as you reach conclusions, it's certainly season done
Yes, Mercedes seems to be consistent. But we haven't seen a proper analysis of lap times/compound corrections etc. between teams (and even then, Ferrari looked better pre-season last year in those rankings than it did during). There's 5 days of testing to go before we can really say who looks best - and then a couple of races before we really really know.

[wunderkind]

Hamilton went quickest with a 1.16.976 on the C2 Tyre, and was at the start of a 14 lap stint!!!!

laptimes doesn't mean anything

Yes and no. But lap-time matters in this case because it's the first day of testing and its an ominous sign that the Mercedes, in the hands of Hamilton, can do such a quick lap at the start of a 14-lap stint. Mercedes never run their cars underweight for hero lap-times. The car looks good, very good.

[matt_b]

Lewis went purple, purple by quite a margin them backed off in sector 3, they're trying to hide their pace but we can all see the smiles.

[LM10]

Not if conditions are much faster than they were in qualifying last season.

Which they aren't as an F1 car is optimized to work better in warmer conditions.

That just isn't always the case.

Well, you're right. Temperatures aren't the only factor of course and cooler temperatures might even be better. But even if we count out track conditions due to temperature, it's really obvious that Williams is much faster now. Russel's time was a second faster than in qualifying last year, both done on C3s. And that's first day of testing vs. race weekend when it really counts.

[waynes]

first day of testing and already with the "season is done" posts

cant wait for tomorrows action now

[Jambier]

Hamilton went quickest with a 1.16.976 on the C2 Tyre, and was at the start of a 14 lap stint!!!!

laptimes doesn't mean anything

Yes and no. But lap-time matters in this case because it's the first day of testing and its an ominous sign that the Mercedes, in the hands of Hamilton, can do such a quick lap at the start of a 14-lap stint. Mercedes never run their cars underweight for hero lap-times. The car looks good, very good.

I agree.
This Mercedes seems really fast!

But for once, Red Bull is very strong, many laps today, good laptimes, at least we may have a fight between those 2 [-o<

[bluechris]

Ferrari will not repeat the same mistake like last year testing where they did show their cards

[GPR-A]

Ferrari will not repeat the same mistake like last year testing where they did show their cards

Well, their garage was full of drilling, cutting and fixing through the morning. That is never a good sign. It seems like the winter rumors did indeed have some weight on them.

[wickedz50]

Ferrari will not repeat the same mistake like last year testing where they did show their cards

I hope you are right my friend,

[Juzh]

speed traps so far. Not really sure who is "."

[Phil]

Ferrari will not repeat the same mistake like last year testing where they did show their cards

What mistake? There were none. Testing is testing. The teams aren't there for our benefit. They are there to test their car, correlation, performance, the lot. That includes performance runs. What masks the picture to us outsiders is we don't know under which conditions they are doing the laps. Engine mapping, fuel load, etc.

The faster the lap times, the more we can assume that they are pushing limits because it's harder to mask fast lap times because there's only so light you can drive on the given tire (given we know how fast they were going last year on the same tires and how fast they were doing qualifying in hotter conditions). So representative or not, they are out there collecting data for themselves and it is giving us some insight.

Knowing under which circumstance a lap time happens is also helpful - i.e. a fast lap time followed by 7 laps and we can conclude that the car has at least fuel for 7 laps in the tank when doing that quick lap.

[Wass85]

Lewis went purple, purple by quite a margin them backed off in sector 3, they're trying to hide their pace but we can all see the smiles.

Did he back off or make a mistake, what is his optimal laptime?

[F1T]

Hamilton ahead on first test day as teams rack up mileage

The first day of 2020 pre-season testing has come to an end with Lewis Hamilton easily setting the fastest time. Throughout the day, there were remarkably few problems, leading to lots of running.

[jumpingfish]

Morning and afternoon times

[matt_b]

Lewis went purple, purple by quite a margin them backed off in sector 3, they're trying to hide their pace but we can all see the smiles.

Did he back off or make a mistake, what is his optimal laptime?

Backed off according to the live feed happened around twenty past four, not sure what the optimal would be on that run need go through the sectors.