2017 F1 general testing thread

[edu2703]

Red Bull needs to hope for Renault to fix the engine problems until Melbourne. The race simulation points out they are behind Williams (Yes! You read right).

For those who don't know, all teams that use Renault engines are running on 'safe mode'. Renault fears for failures when the engine is at full power. They promised to deliver an update in Melbourne, but it's not known whether it will fix all the problems.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Ferrari still understeers in slow corners. Need to tune that

Correct. That is what I observed. Almost every corner, Kimi was missing the apex, whereas the Merc was riding all the curbs deeply. When Kimi says, he could have gone even faster, that means he was holding up some speed. But if he was not full bonkers, then why was he missing the apex? It should in fact be easier for him to touch the curbs and take deeper lines at turns, rather than taking wider lines, the way he was riding. Classic signs of understeer. Is that inherent of car's design?

Bottas Vs Kimi (2017 best laps compared)


This is a screen capture at Turn 5, where he was going the widest.

[adrianjordan]

I really wanted them to release the onboard footage of each car during their fastest lap.

They're just waiting for Mclaren to complete a fast lap first (joking of course)

[Wass85]

The Ferrari looks much lighter to me on that comparison video, clear as daylight.

[giantfan10]

Ferrari still understeers in slow corners. Need to tune that

Correct. That is what I observed. Almost every corner, Kimi was missing the apex, whereas the Merc was riding all the curbs deeply. When Kimi says, he could have gone even faster, that means he was holding up some speed. But if he was not full bonkers, then why was he missing the apex? It should in fact be easier for him to touch the curbs and take deeper lines at turns, rather than taking wider lines, the way he was riding. Classic signs of understeer. Is that inherent of car's design?

Bottas Vs Kimi (2017 best laps compared)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtg5ULj5-L8

This is a screen capture at Turn 5, where he was going the widest.
https://s13.postimg.org/skhp7mgnr/botvskimi.png

looks to me like that was the line that he decided to take versus understeer....look at the steering angle .. the car is going exactly where he is pointing it.

[giantfan10]

So after rewatching the video neither car hit the apex at turn 5 and every single apex that kimi missed so did the mercedes albeit to a lesser extent. I believe i counted 3 apices that he did not ride the curb on. this has the same smell of a previous post that the poster claimed that mercedes ALWAYS test with 30-40 more kilos of fuel so ferrari is always faster.
Australia cannot come fast enough regardless of the outcome. reading all the "expert analysis" on testing gets old pretty quickly

[Chuckjr]

I have not seen a Ferrari that stable since 2004. Just buckets of wow.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Some very subtle differences...

I have tried to get a screen capture at a point when both cars are deepest on the curb. This picture is the last turn before the straight. (captured at different point and merged, as Kimi was leading Bottas at that point).

Observe that, Kimi turns IN early to hit the apex (blue square area is visible in the bottm picture) and exits OUT late (blue circle in top picture, difference in distance to object).
Relatively, Bottas turns IN late (blue square area that is visible in Kim's shot, is not visible), but manages to hit the exit OUT curb early (blue circle in top picture, difference in distance to object).
Clearly, that Merc can enter a corner late and exit it early!

[SectorOne]

The Ferrari looks much lighter to me on that comparison video, clear as daylight.

That´s the impression i get as well. Ferrari looks like it´s running on fumes.

[Wass85]

The Ferrari looks much lighter to me on that comparison video, clear as daylight.

That´s the impression i get as well. Ferrari looks like it´s running on fumes.

Even so, I've never seen a car with so much traction and accelleration. This car will be mighty of the line just wait and see.

[mika vs michael]

To me it seems Ferrari is a lot more planted and with less steering wheel fighting than most recent years but still looks lighter than the Merc. I predict fastest Ferrari will be 0.3 to 0.5s behind the fastest Merc depending on the track...Let's wait and see. If Ferrari shows up in Melbourne and is only .250-.300 slower than Merc in qualifying then it's game on...for the championship...Let's hope it's a lot closer. Forza Ferrari!!!

[Shakeman]

Look how much time Bottas scrubs off in the last chicane, it looks like he freewheels through it.

[matt_s]

So after rewatching the video neither car hit the apex at turn 5 and every single apex that kimi missed so did the mercedes albeit to a lesser extent. I believe i counted 3 apices that he did not ride the curb on. this has the same smell of a previous post that the poster claimed that mercedes ALWAYS test with 30-40 more kilos of fuel so ferrari is always faster.
Australia cannot come fast enough regardless of the outcome. reading all the "expert analysis" on testing gets old pretty quickly

Are you referring to this post of mine?

Based on the last couple of years, it seems (from testing relative to Aus qual) that Merc have generally run with 30-40Kg more fuel than Ferrari in testing.

That would put them pretty close on pace.

If so, then you have completely missed the point of what I said.

What has happened in previous seasons is that the relative pace of the cars when comparing testing lap times to to those for qualifying in Australia is that either Mercedes have bolted on 1s per lap of performance upgrades, or they were seemingly carrying about 1s per lap more fuel during performance runs*. Cross referencing the pace they showed for race simulation lead people to believe that Merc were probably running about 2/3 full and Ferrari about 1/3 full.

The postulation that "That would put them pretty close on pace" is not supposed to be rubbishing Ferrari's pace, but rather to be a positive thing - Hopefully, when it comes to qualifying and race pace, things really are very close. That' what I'm hoping for, at least!

* The other possibility is that they have some extra engine modes that are not available to other Merc customer teams - though this had been repeatedly denied.

[SiLo]

Most telling is that Kimi lifted through turn Campsa, Bottas didn't and the Merc looked like it was heavier on fuel too.

[ClarkBT11]

Bottas's fastest testing time was 19.310 - 60 kg fuel (speculation) 10 kg fuel = 0.3 seconds x 6 = 1.8 seconds 19.310 - 1.8 = 17.510 potential fastest lap

Thanks to Mark4211 we know bottas was in strat 2 on his fastest lap which is Mercedes quali mode.