FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[What's Burning?]

Can you believe it? Our first taste of the season comes in the flavor of Jerez. Weather looks good with sunny and not too cool testing all four days. I'm sure the cars will get to put a lot of mileage on. Salud to the first "official" even in the 2015 season.

[CookinFlat6]

Cant wait. Theres gonna be tons and tons of technical detail to digest - Merc updates, Williams consolidation, Ferrari change in direction, RBR Renault update and packaging, Lotus new engine integration, and ofcourse the main course

What Honda have brought to the party

[Hammer278]

Can't wait to see Ferrari kick some a$$.

[RyRy]

Can't wait to see Ferrari kick some a$$.

Oh the sarcasm lol

[What's Burning?]

I'm going to go try find the Jerez times for last year, just to have as a comparison.

GPUpdate Mercedes' executive director (technical) Paddy Lowe says that the squad has found performance in "a number of areas" with its evolutionary F1 W06 Hybrid.

The car with which the squad will defend its world titles was shaken down at an icy Silverstone on Thursday afternoon and will make its public debut at Jerez on Sunday, with Nico Rosberg at the wheel.

Lowe reckons that Mercedes has made progress despite the comparatively static nature of the regulations.

"There is a lot of novelty on this car, absolutely," Lowe told 'told the official Formula 1 website. "We have found performance in a number of areas.

"Overall it is an evolution of last year's car because the rules aren't too different, but here or there we've been able to make minor revolutions. Aside from the nose, which has been one of our big topics for our winter aero programme, people looking at the car won't see enormous differences. Underneath though, there is a lot of change.

"We needed to achieve that because our competitors will have done the same. You only have to look at your old cars to realise how quickly things can age in Formula 1. That's the nature of innovation and development. So you have to keep pushing in every single area - and sometimes we surprise ourselves."

[What's Burning?]

Jerez test, Day One timesheet:
1. Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:27.104, 31 laps.
2. Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:27.820, 18 laps.
3. Bottas, Williams, 1:30.082, 7 laps.
4. Perez, Force India, 1.33:161, 11 laps.
5. Vergne, Toro Rosso, 1:36.530, 15 laps.
6. Gutierrez, Sauber, 1:42.257, 7 laps.
7. Vettel, Red Bull, No time, 3 laps.
8. Ericsson, Caterham, No time, 1 lap.
McLaren didn't complete a lap.

Jerez test, Day Two timesheet:
1. Button, McLaren, 1:24.165, 43 laps.
2. Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:24.812, 47 laps
3. Bottas, Williams, 1:25.344; 35 laps.
4. Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:25.588, 97 laps.
5. Perez, Force India, 1:28.376, 37 laps.
6. Gutierrez, Sauber, 1:33.270, 53 laps.
7. Ericsson, Caterham, 1:37.975, 11 laps.
8. Vettel, Red Bull, 1:38.320, 8 laps.
Toro Rosso didn't complete a lap.

Jerez test, Day Three timesheet:
1. Kevin Magnussen, McLaren, 1:23.276, 52 laps.
2. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1:23.700, 47 laps.
3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:23.952, 62 laps.
4. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:25.030, 40 laps.
5. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 1:25.495, 58 laps.
6. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1:26.096, 17 laps.
7. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso, 1:29.915, 30 laps.
8. Adrian Sutil, Sauber, 1:30.161, 34 laps.
9. Robin Frijns, Caterham, No time, 10 laps.
10. Max Chilton, Marussia, No time, 5 laps.
11. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, No time, 3 laps.

Jerez test, Day Four timesheet:
1. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1:28.229, 86 laps.
2. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 1:29.145, 115 laps.
3. Daniel Juncadella, Force India, 1:29.457, 81 laps.
4. Kevin Magnussen, McLaren, 1:30.806, 110 laps.
5. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:30.822, 41 laps.
6. Jules Bianchi, Marussia, 1:32.222, 25 laps.
7. Adrian Sutil, Sauber, 1:36.571, 69 laps.
8. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:36.951, 91 laps.
9. Kamui Kobayashi, Caterham, 1:43.193, 54 laps.
10. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1:44.016, 9 laps.
11. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1:45.374, 7 laps.

2013 combined lap times for comparison.

1. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari-Ferrari 1min 17.879secs 227 laps (3)
2. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Lotus-Renault 1min 18.148secs 122 laps (4)
3. Jules Bianchi France Force India-Mercedes 1min 18.175secs 56 laps (4)
4. Romain Grosjean France Lotus-Renault 1min 18.218secs 149 laps (2)
5. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 1min 18.565secs 198 laps (4)
6. Esteban Gutierrez Mexico Sauber-Ferrari 1min 18.669secs 252 laps (4)
7. Jean-Eric Vergne France Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1min 18.760secs 177 laps (4)
8. Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes-Mercedes 1min 18.766secs 159 laps (3)
9. Jenson Button Britain McLaren-Mercedes 1min 18.861secs 120 laps (1)
10. Lewis Hamilton Britain Mercedes-Mercedes 1min 18.905secs 160 laps (4)
11. Sergio Perez Mexico McLaren-Mercedes 1min 18.944secs 178 laps (4)
12. Paul di Resta Britain Force India-Mercedes 1min 19.003secs 240 laps (2)
13. Daniel Ricciardo Australia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1min 19.134secs 129 laps (2)
14. James Rossiter Britain Force India-Mercedes 1min 19.303secs 61 laps (3)
15. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 1min 19.338secs 174 laps (2)
16. Nico Hulkenberg Germany Sauber-Ferrari 1min 19.502secs 178 laps (2)
17. Valtteri Bottas Finland Williams-Renault* 1min 19.851secs 177 laps (4)
18. Pedro de la Rosa Spain Ferrari-Ferrari 1min 20.316secs 50 laps (4)
19. Pastor Maldonado Venezuela Williams-Renault* 1min 20.693secs 129 laps (2)
20. Charles Pic France Caterham-Renault 1min 21.105secs 166 laps (4)
21. Giedo van der Garde Holland Caterham-Renault 1min 21.219secs 152 laps (1)
22. Luiz Razia Brazil Marussia -Cosworth 1min 21.226secs 112 laps (4)
23. Max Chilton Britain Marussia -Cosworth 1min 21.269secs 107 laps (3)

[CookinFlat6]

Interestingly, the difference between the 1st and 6th fastest time on each day was as follows
day 1 - 15 secs
day 2 - 9 secs
day 3 - 3 secs
day 4 - 4 secs

If we consider the first 2 days as pure shakedowns, then this time around that 3 second delta net net could be a good gauge of who has big problems, as they should all put in representative fast laps as early as day 2 to get a reference. Of course we know that last year Ferrari and Mclaren ran light at the start whilst the other Merc teams appeared to rotate different engine mode tests around its customers

We would expect the difference in times to average 3 seconds each day as this second year is an evolution.

So first 2 days Honda within 3 secs of top time or not??

If they are I would say that is a massive statement of intent

[What's Burning?]

we'd be able to get at a mean time if you factor in times to say only cars having done greater than 40 laps in that day, and taking the average time and then being within + or -1.5 seconds from that.

[Jabberwocky]

I think honda will have some teething problems for this test so not really comparable.

I am not sure I expect that much from Ferrari this year (sorry sagi) but it depends if all the comings and going will have destabilised the engineering team.

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk

[racechick]

Can't wait for this!!!
Visiting a friend in Val D 'Isere on Monday and staying over to ski onTuesday! not good timing! Still I can keep in touch and will see Lewis on Wed...well I guess I won't see him because it won't be on BBC or French TV I guess? Will be following online.

[sagi58]

...I am not sure I expect that much from Ferrari this year (sorry sagi) but it depends if all the comings and going will have destabilised the engineering team.

No apologies necessary!!

Personally, I'm expecting improvement. Period.
I would imagine the comings and goings of these last few weeks won't have changed
the car itself overly much, as the design would have been in the works long ago.
Besides, Allison is one important constant...

[LiamCatterson]

I'd take a grain of salt over the first batch of tests but it will be amazing to know our babies are back out on track

[CookinFlat6]

Everyone says that the test is 'only testing' etc etc, but last year and therefore this year in particular more teams were actually using the rare track testing opp to track test. and track testings main benefit is the ability to actually produce a real life reference to how all the sim and drawing board and models stack up. Ferrari last year appeared to forget the scarcity of track testing and spent the test trying to disguise their shocking inability to drive at speed for more than a lap or so at a time.

This time around I doubt anyone will be that concerned about the sandbagging etc, instead opting to use the time to actually test, record data and create reference data point planes etc.
Which would then mean that we will see each team go as fast as they can at some point in the first 2 days, which would then allow us to see who is in trouble etc. the first test doesnt tell us whos gonna win 2015 or come second etc, but we can see who has screwed the pooch, or who has put aesthetics above performance etc

i doubt very much that Ferrari will spend much time on a satellite based telemetry system that disguises the cars lap times and prevents everyone from working out how fast (ok, ok, last year was actually how slow) their car is because they want to keep 'secrets'

maybe Red Bull - but they are pretty much out on a limb and completely full of bull sh!t anyways

[Hammer278]

i doubt very much that Ferrari will spend much time on a satellite based telemetry system that disguises the cars lap times and prevents everyone from working out how fast (ok, ok, last year was actually how slow) their car is because they want to keep 'secrets'

This gets me everytime....I still remember the original author confidently explaining his part and being so sure, and the whole time I was just thinking WTF is he on?

[racechick]

Looking good so far. In just one hour Rosberg is 2.1 seconds faster than any time from theJerez test last year!! He's also over 2 secs faster than the closest car Ricciardo.

Update. vettel is now the second fastest car.

Update2 Ros berg has now gone faster than any testing time from all last years tests. He's on his 10th flying lap on medium tyres with hardly any drop off.