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[spankyham]

Man that's obscene.^

Laps by PU for Jerez:

Mercedes - 875
Ferrari - 444
Renault - 151

I know times mean nothing, but Merc ended up slowest of the 4 Merc powered cars

[Hammer278]

No need to risk running on high power and jeopardizing the test when you have 3 other PUs relaying information to HQ.

[Nin-Chin]

Autosport saying the merc is very stable. Can't read it but it says trackside verdict: Mercedes rises. But will need subscription.

It's still way too early to make any judgements on the form of the current F1 field. But, as SAM TREMAYNE witnessed trackside, there's one team that appears to be ahead of the rest

The first four days of a pre-season test schedule dominated by the biggest rule changes in recent history is no time to bet the house on any team or driver. But as a percentage play, it would be hard to overlook Mercedes.

Watching trackside at Jerez, at a sodden Turns 1 and 2, the W05 comes to the fore. The car's margin over the rest of the field is incredibly fine but, in its benign attitude through treacherous conditions, its balance and relative lack of understeer, it does just about exist.

[CookinFlat6]

And for the second day in a row, with teams trying to complete their programs the Torro Rosso goes out and immediately stops on track causing a red flag and preventing teams from their last runs

Torro Rosso running spoiling tactics on Red Bulls competition? Nah, probably TR are looking to give RBR a spanking this year. Imagine STR became the senior team due to Newey having to redesign his car, STR could score double the RBR points just by finishing a few times

[Jabberwocky]

Back in 2013, Maldonado said during testing that that was the best car Williams had built and.....

That is just PR at work.

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[spankyham]

No need to risk running on high power and jeopardizing the test when you have 3 other PUs relaying information to HQ.

Being the only team that ran a full race sim we can be sure Mercedes were running full race power and mappings

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[Jabberwocky]

No need to risk running on high power and jeopardizing the test when you have 3 other PUs relaying information to HQ.

Being the only team that ran a full race sim we can be sure Mercedes were running full race power and mappings

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Why damage your own test procedure when you can get another team to run the engine in a more dangerous mode. If the engine pops you have the data and your full day of testing

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[spankyham]

No need to risk running on high power and jeopardizing the test when you have 3 other PUs relaying information to HQ.

Being the only team that ran a full race sim we can be sure Mercedes were running full race power and mappings

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Why damage your own test procedure when you can get another team to run the engine in a more dangerous mode. If the engine pops you have the data and your full day of testing

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A race sim is meaningless without running at race power. For starters you wouldn't know your real fuel consumption and that is critical this year.

I have high confidence they ran expected power and race mappings during the sim. Probably peaking around 12.5k revs. So only Mercedes can say they know they can complete a race with the 100kg fuel limit. But we can also be fairly sure we have seen the Mercedes at full race power. We don't know that for the other teams. A confident move by Mercedes I guess.



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[What's Burning?]

Boy we talk a lot of crap here, but it's fun. The reality is we don't know WFT anyone is really doing. The most we can gather however is reliability, number of laps and who's having a hard time even putting the car out on the track. We'll know 3/4 ths of the story on Saturday March 15th.

[Jabberwocky]

So they would of used a race setup, not a balls to the wall qualifying engine map producing full danger power

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[spankyham]

So they would of used a race setup, not a balls to the wall qualifying engine map producing full danger power

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Correct. It would be race power/mappings used during the sim.

[sagi58]

Nope... more like Red Bull who conveniently involved Pirelli!!

Right...I don't think other teams would just lie down and let Redbull run the show, they had enough of that from Ferrari in the 2000s.

Pirelli might have been pressured by Redbull but the Silverstone GP was a farce and something had to be done. And Pirelli acted, there was no way anyone was getting into an F1 car again with the same spec tyres as Silverstone. If it disadvantaged a few teams, too bad. The tyres were too dangerous.

You don't think it's strange that a tire company doesn't test its compounds BEFORE sending their
product to market/customers?
It didn't seem strange that there tires were fine until Red Bull couldn't get them to work for them?
It didn't seem unfair to the teams who were able to design their car around the "initial" tires?
The only way for Pirelli to change their tires and still come out smelling like roses was for them
to ""find"" a problem with the tires and claim that they only had the best interest of the drivers
and their teams in mind! Yeah... uh-huh... Whatever!!

F1 2013 – Did Pirelli break the rules and modify tyres without consent?
Spanish newspaper Marca claims that Pirelli broke the rules ahead of the British Grand Prix by modifying the tyres without the consent of the teams or FIA.

Reporter Marco Canseco said “At worst, it jeopardised the lives of the drivers,” who also claims that a Kevlar material was included into the internal steel belt.

Paul Hembery of Pirelli denies the changes and said ”I can assure you that the tyres (at Silverstone) were the same construction as the ones used in Barcelona.”

Sure, it's a "conspiracy" theory, if you like; but, Ferrari wasn't the only team fighting
against that change in composition. Nor was Alonso the only driver to recognize the
impact on the season:

Will Pirelli be allowed to bring new tires without consent of Formula One teams?...
Pirelli's plan to introduce Kevlar-belted rear tires for the British GP could still be blocked by the Formula One teams, despite the company announcing yesterday that it was “set to” make the change.

Pirelli may be a little optimistic, because any change of tire specification still requires unanimous consent from the teams, and that has not yet been forthcoming.

Agreement is required, because Pirelli has not played the safety card, which trumps the usual arrangement and requires no agreement from the teams...

...One might assume that Pirelli does not want to resort to formally declaring that its current tires are unsafe in order to force the change through. Indeed, Paul Hembery has repeatedly made it clear Pirelli is more worried from a PR point of view about how a tread delamination looks on TV.

There is also the question of whether a loss of tread can be justified as a safety issue, when in fact it has allowed drivers to continue safely when as opposed to losing control due to a complete tire failure.

Even Hembery admitted in Monaco that the delaminating tires could actually be viewed as safer, given that they allow drivers to continue.

“It doesn't deflate, that's certainly true,” he said. “That is an aspect. Visually from a tiremaker's point of view, it's not great. Some of the damage we've seen this year more than likely would have caused a deflation, as we've seen in previous seasons, so that is debatable. It just looks really poor, so we have to change.”

Others in the pit lane support the view that the current tires are better.

“The safest mode of failure with a cut tire is what they have,” one team insider told this writer. “Or you can have a puncture that deflates rapidly and then explodes. The safest thing they can do is basically make this construction not delaminate. That's just a bonding issue between the tread and the casing, that's the bottom line.

“They found out that last year's tires have the better bond, because the bond between Kevlar and rubber is a lot easier to get right than it is between steel and rubber. For them, it's let's go back to Kevlar, and then the tread won't come off. But you'll get punctures.”

That last bit about Pirelli's "bonding issue" suggests (to me) that it was a matter of not having
chosen/tested/developed the right sort of ""glue"" for everything to stay together.

Simplistic? Probably!! Wrong? Who knows, without definitive proof?

[What's Burning?]

That's what they were testing with Mercedes.

[spankyham]

Things I get after the first round of testing. (as I see it )
1 ) Pathetic power drop. I'll put this into perspective, cars are about 6 seconds per lap slower. We see that from the time sheets and multiple drivers have confirmed this anecdotally). Even worse this years cars are over 10 seconds per laps slower than about 10 years ago.
2 ) Renault, one of the engine manufacturers has completely missed the boat. I don't think this will be recoverable by the first race without assistance from the FiA - which they will get.
3 ) The cars/engines sound cr4p - you can try and dress this pig up any way you like, it makes no difference, they sound rubbish.
4 ) Red Bull are in serious trouble. They have cocked up this years car and they won't fully recover by the start of the season.
5 ) Mag impressed
6 ) What really counts at this part of the season is laps completed and Merc are at the head of the list
7 ) Ferrari, Mercedes, Williams, McLaren and Force India have ticks in the "successful first test" box and are in the "identified contenders" list
8 ) McLaren's wishbone wing will be challenged, passed and copied but it's not a show-stopper must-have item
9 ) Cooling hasn't really been tested yet
10) F1 donks have been demasculated - no grunt or growl

[What's Burning?]

Hulkenberg is glad Ricciardo got the seat at Red Bull.