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[stonemonkey]

I searched around yesterday for footage and there doesn't seem to be any but the consensus of opinion I came across seemed to say it was a rookie error from Nasr. She was on an out lap, he was on a fast lap.

Just had a look on youtube and all there is is some stupid videos claiming to be the incident but aren't and the ones with stills of the aftermath and those terrible synthesised voices (or mibby they jist cannae speak right)

[CookinFlat6]

By the accounts of those there as well as the drivers it's obvious it was Nasrs fault, his argument is that Williams should have radioed Susie to say he was approaching her so she could pull off the track completely instead of driving at out lap speed

However I'm sure the boycotters will blame Susie anyway

[RyRy]

By the way Mercedes are going about testing not giving a damn about lap times and clearly not pushing, just focusing on long runs and testing certain upgrades is scary.

I'm guessing they're going to dominate even more this season... more than last.

[ang4f1]

http://www1.skysports.com/live-blog/124 ... y-two-live
Lewis back in the car this afternoon. Precautionary move by Merc to keep Nico's neck in good condition.
Nico has driven 323 laps in the two tests up to now, Lewis 219 laps when he got in the car today.

[Hammer278]

By the way Mercedes are going about testing not giving a damn about lap times and clearly not pushing, just focusing on long runs and testing certain upgrades is scary.

I'm guessing they're going to dominate even more this season... more than last.

I thought they did the same thing last year....only when we got to the end of Barcelona testing did they start topping time sheets.

Though I almost want them to arrive at Melbourne with a mediocre car (2014 spec) and qualify on the 2nd row and finish just outside the podium.....let the haters celebrate and get overjoyed, and then bring the 2015 machine and engine and lap 3 seconds quicker from the 2nd race onwards.

[RyRy]

By the way Mercedes are going about testing not giving a damn about lap times and clearly not pushing, just focusing on long runs and testing certain upgrades is scary.

I'm guessing they're going to dominate even more this season... more than last.

I thought they did the same thing last year....only when we got to the end of Barcelona testing did they start topping time sheets.

Though I almost want them to arrive at Melbourne with a mediocre car (2014 spec) and qualify on the 2nd row and finish just outside the podium.....let the haters celebrate and get overjoyed, and then bring the 2015 machine and engine and lap 3 seconds quicker from the 2nd race onwards.

Well in Jerez last year Mercedes did the most laps but not really by that much more than Ferrari and yet Ferrari looked like the ones to watch along with McLaren followed by Mercedes and Williams and to an extent Force India looked pretty good.

As for Bahrain over the first two days Force India looked impressive and I think it was the second day McLaren looked stupidly fast, but then day 3 and 4 Mercedes showed they were a lot faster.

We got to the second test at Bahrain and Force India topped the timing sheets for the first two days, Ferrari still looked pretty strong but Mercedes looked like they had lost the pace although they were still focusing on long runs. Over the last two days it actually looked like Williams were going to be the ones who would win the championship followed very closely by Mercedes and then a relatively big gap back to Ferrari, McLaren and then Force India.

Over the whole test, it looked like the top 3 cars would be Williams > Mercedes > Ferrari but yet in the actual season it was Mercedes > Red Bull > Williams > Ferrari. (Remove the bad strategy and equalize the drivers and Williams should have been 2nd in the championship. They had the pace but were all over the place with where the came. It was hurt a lot by Massa being taken out and retiring a fair few times and leaving the hard work for their number 2 driver to pick up)

Jerez is always a no go in terms of who's looking best the only thing you can take from Jerez is reliability and who puts in the most laps.

[RyRy]

Based on long runs it looks like Mercedes are 1.5 to 2 seconds faster than the Red Bulls on the same tyres... and appear to be 1.5 seconds faster than Ferrari on same tyres in long runs.

McLaren Honda appear to be 2.5 seconds behind Mercedes on long runs.

Remember, for the total lap count today you must add Hamilton & Rosberg together. They've done 140+ laps so far, where as Red Bull have only done 120 so far.

EDIT: Hamilton just threw in a 1:24.923 on used medium tyres, all of the times above him (4 cars within 0.349 of him) set their times on softs and supersofts... Mercedes are comfortably able to do a 1:24 flat today.

[CookinFlat6]

Agreed Ry, Merc havent put on their aero and performance kit for testing yet - they would break out the softer tyres for that - if we assume those that used the softest tyres didnt waste thm by doing heavy long runs, then Merc look even quicker at this stage of their typical testing routine than they did last year.

Depending on the gains from the perfomance kit, we could be looking at a delta of 4+ seconds assuming everyone is following a similar routine to last year

The way I see it is that Merc have not made any obvious fubars, and therefore if everything is ok with their planned reliability upgrades, then I can see anyone has brought anything that even decreases the gap. Honda could become ominous, but not till well into the season methinks

The fun could be limited to seeing if Lotus can pull something out and challenge Williams at some stage, when we consider Lotus will benefit from some of the running of the other 3 Merc teams whereas the other teams have an extra set of data at most

Could be time to try and catch the bookies napping by buying Lotus and selling Ferrari/RBR relative progress

[LiamCatterson]

Ferrari have now shown that they really have become amongst the fastest and that it wasnt just glory runs in Jerez. Seeing how narrowly beaten Kimi was by the Lotus its obvious the Lotus was doing the old trick of running very light to impress sponsors, just like Sauber.

For Ferrari to be that close to those show boating teams must mean they are at least much improved from last year and back in the fight. Gonna be a great year to be a Ferrari fan

You can say that again. Although the biggest loser is Fernando Alonso...I am laughing at him...

Except Alonso in his McLaren is faster today than Kimis Ferrari, Perhaps Ferrari are now doing longer runs and need more fuel in the car

That is Kimi. We all know Kimi is the new Felipe...

[RyRy]

Agreed Ry, Merc havent put on their aero and performance kit for testing yet - they would break out the softer tyres for that - if we assume those that used the softest tyres didnt waste thm by doing heavy long runs, then Merc look even quicker at this stage of their typical testing routine than they did last year.

Depending on the gains from the perfomance kit, we could be looking at a delta of 4+ seconds assuming everyone is following a similar routine to last year

The way I see it is that Merc have not made any obvious fubars, and therefore if everything is ok with their planned reliability upgrades, then I can see anyone has brought anything that even decreases the gap. Honda could become ominous, but not till well into the season methinks

The fun could be limited to seeing if Lotus can pull something out and challenge Williams at some stage, when we consider Lotus will benefit from some of the running of the other 3 Merc teams whereas the other teams have an extra set of data at most

Could be time to try and catch the bookies napping by buying Lotus and selling Ferrari/RBR relative progress

Red Bull, Ferrari & Williams used Softs which shows the Mercedes engine is up with the Renault and Ferrari's ones. Force India used super softs and then Hamilton used Mediums, they think between the Mediums and the Super Softs there is well over 1 second gain, which puts Hamilton at a 1:23.9 or lower.

[racechick]

Here's some comments from Lewis about testing so far. things going well. . They haven't tried for a time yet. Only thing he's not completely happy with is the tyres, can't get them working properly but it could get better with warmer weather.

http://www.mercedesamgf1.com/en/news/20 ... ay-report/

[RyRy]

It looks like Mercedes are playing around with Ferrari.

Rosberg keeps showing he could go faster, he's on old medium tyres that have a big flat spot. Vettel just came out on the soft tyre and did a flying lap of 1:26.454 to put him second, with Carlos Sainz Jr also on softs putting hot laps in ding 1:25.684 kind of laps.

Now Rosberg who's still on those medium used flat spotted tyres suddenly goes from doing his consistent 1:28's lap times and throws in a 1:26.798 which is his current personal best and then throws in another lap that is 0.016 faster than before; Which is only 0.3 away from Ferrari.

I so badly want to see each team show their hand, I wanna see who's doing PR stunts and who's fast!

[Hammer278]

I want to see Merc carry on this lame duck performance in speed and then hopefully kill everyone come qualifying Melbourne.

[CookinFlat6]

Im glad Alonso is alright, at least McLaren know they have a driver who can push a car beyond its limits instead of driving miss daisy around in her comfort zone

Hope the fonz jumps right back in the car

[racechick]

Rosberg set an impressive 1m . 23.341 and he's on mediums. Which is effectively 1.8 faster than Grisjean who has the fastest time but is on super softs.

Comment from Autosport live.....
" 16:22 Just to quantify how good that Rosberg lap is - Pirelli says the super-soft is 1.5s-2s quicker than the medium.."