FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[McLaren Fan]

I would recommend this week's Autosport to any Formula One fan. The preview for the new season is fantastic, with a write up on all the teams, drivers, news, and winter testing results. Indeed, they've worked out a table to show which team and drivers were fastest over the season. When you consider it's only £3 it's really worth getting.

To summarise the table, it shows that Ferrari and McLaren are virtually neck and neck, Ferrari having a slight edge through Raikkonen. The midfield is very densely packed and looks a reasonable distance behind Ferrari and McLaren. Out of them, Williams seem to edge it. At the back of the midfield pack is Toyota, in fact, Force India could be just ahead of them. A fair distance behind that section are Honda and even further back are Super Aguri.

[7UpJordan]

I like Autosport, dad used to get it everyweek from 1994 onwards and I love the Jim Bamber comics in the letters section.

[McLaren Fan]

Just reading now about the teams, here's how they rank them in terms of speed and how much they have improved or gone backwards:

Ferrari: + .247%
McLaren: - .38%
Williams: + .614%
Renault: + .442%
Torro Rosso: + 1.057%
Red Bull: + .268%
BMW: - .35%
Toyota: - .217%
Force India: + 1.855%
Honda: - .359%
Super Aguri: - .92%

If Torro Rosso are more or less equal with Red Bull, that shows their current car can't be much of improvement given that TR are using RB's 2007 car. It is also grim reading for BMW who have not just fallen victim to their own car being not as good as they thought, but by the other teams (like Williams, TR, RB, Renault) making improvements. Force India look to have progressed very well. Toyota and Honda, oh dear. How can they get any worse?!

[Jensonb]

Just reading now about the teams, here's how they rank them in terms of speed and how much they have improved or gone backwards:

Ferrari: + .247%
McLaren: - .38%
Williams: + .614%
Renault: + .442%
Torro Rosso: + 1.057%
Red Bull: + .268%
BMW: - .35%
Toyota: - .217%
Force India: + 1.855%
Honda: - .359%
Super Aguri: - .92%

If Torro Rosso are more or less equal with Red Bull, that shows their current car can't be much of improvement given that TR are using RB's 2007 car. It is also grim reading for BMW who have not just fallen victim to their own car being not as good as they thought, but by the other teams (like Williams, TR, RB, Renault) making improvements. Force India look to have progressed very well. Toyota and Honda, oh dear. How can they get any worse?!

They'll find a way

[Lem]

Always nice to see Williams with the frontrunners, here's hoping they can 'do a BMW'.

Looks grim for Honda, doesn't it. I can see a more progressive improvement than last year though, although that wont be too hard in all honesty.

[deMuRe]

Looking forward to reading it, their pre season and post season analysis in comprehensive, if you can ignore the British Bias...

[darwin dali]

Just reading now about the teams, here's how they rank them in terms of speed and how much they have improved or gone backwards:

Ferrari: + .247%
McLaren: - .38%
Williams: + .614%
Renault: + .442%
Torro Rosso: + 1.057%
Red Bull: + .268%
BMW: - .35%
Toyota: - .217%
Force India: + 1.855%
Honda: - .359%
Super Aguri: - .92%

+0.24%?
-0.38%?

Those numbers don't look right - that's virtually nothing. Explain?

[McLaren Fan]

Just reading now about the teams, here's how they rank them in terms of speed and how much they have improved or gone backwards:

Ferrari: + .247%
McLaren: - .38%
Williams: + .614%
Renault: + .442%
Torro Rosso: + 1.057%
Red Bull: + .268%
BMW: - .35%
Toyota: - .217%
Force India: + 1.855%
Honda: - .359%
Super Aguri: - .92%

+0.24%?
-0.38%?

Those numbers don't look right - that's virtually nothing. Explain?

I'm not completely sure what you mean, but I should probably have said before hand that the figures only include tests which more than one team has participated, so Ferrari's testing on their own isn't factored into the equation, which would reduce the percentage slightly. The figures are also averages, so don't reflect the true performance of a team which has been, say, sandbagging for the most part, but occasionally putting in the odd fast lap. Finally, we don't have a clue as to the fuel loads of the cars. For all we know the Ferrari could be running on fumes, which could obviously make them seem faster. I hope that helps.

[darwin dali]

Just reading now about the teams, here's how they rank them in terms of speed and how much they have improved or gone backwards:

Ferrari: + .247%
McLaren: - .38%
Williams: + .614%
Renault: + .442%
Torro Rosso: + 1.057%
Red Bull: + .268%
BMW: - .35%
Toyota: - .217%
Force India: + 1.855%
Honda: - .359%
Super Aguri: - .92%

+0.24%?
-0.38%?

Those numbers don't look right - that's virtually nothing. Explain?

I'm not completely sure what you mean, but I should probably have said before hand that the figures only include tests which more than one team has participated, so Ferrari's testing on their own isn't factored into the equation, which would reduce the percentage slightly. The figures are also averages, so don't reflect the true performance of a team which has been, say, sandbagging for the most part, but occasionally putting in the odd fast lap. Finally, we don't have a clue as to the fuel loads of the cars. For all we know the Ferrari could be running on fumes, which could obviously make them seem faster. I hope that helps.

it just seems so tiny. 0.247% is a fraction of a percent of improvement? Let's assume a team's lap time on a hypothetical circuit was 80 seconds last year. An improvement of 0.247% would translate in a lap time improvement of 0.198 seconds. Really? After all this work during the off season and all the millions spent, it's less than 2 tenths of improvement?

[bud]

2 tenths is a huge improvement though in F1 even down to Karting

[umair_theheadliner]

thats a good way to earn money i mean testing never reflect strength of the team.. for example i am a toyota fan so i know only about toyota, they had been waiting for some aerodynamics thats why they were slow at the start.. when they introduced those, they were right up, may be some other team had not introduced something so they were slow, thats why i am waiting for the season to begin and hope u too will

[8-ball]

Testing is never an accurate reflection of a teams strengths as they usually do not run at full capacity. However testing consistent times can be an indicator of how strong a team is. Autosport seems to say that Williams will edge the midfield pack but the BMW consistency tells me that they will be heading the mid pack

[f1ea]

So, in order of IMPROVEMENT it goes something like this:

Force India: + 1.855%
Torro Rosso: + 1.057%
Williams: + .614%
Renault: + .442%
Red Bull: + .268%
Ferrari: + .247%
Toyota: - .217%
BMW: - .35%
Honda: - .359%
McLaren: - .38%
Super Aguri: - .92%

Seems reasonable, except for Mclaren. They are only ahead of Super Auguri in improvement??
Looks like Sutil and Fisichella are doing a great job, as well as Bourdais and Vettel. But the biggest lauds must go to Williams and their drivers.

[Denthúl]

Just reading now about the teams, here's how they rank them in terms of speed and how much they have improved or gone backwards:

Ferrari: + .247%
McLaren: - .38%
Williams: + .614%
Renault: + .442%
Torro Rosso: + 1.057%
Red Bull: + .268%
BMW: - .35%
Toyota: - .217%
Force India: + 1.855%
Honda: - .359%
Super Aguri: - .92%

If Torro Rosso are more or less equal with Red Bull, that shows their current car can't be much of improvement given that TR are using RB's 2007 car. It is also grim reading for BMW who have not just fallen victim to their own car being not as good as they thought, but by the other teams (like Williams, TR, RB, Renault) making improvements. Force India look to have progressed very well. Toyota and Honda, oh dear. How can they get any worse?!

I think the comparison between Toro Rosso and Red Bull will be slightly inaccurate, given the fact that Red Bull are dealing with a new car and will thus have to find out how it works best and how to set it up properly, whereas Toro Rosso have the advantage of having used their car for well over a year already. It will be interesting to see how they perform comparitively at Melbourne. And to be honest, I think Force India will outperform Toyota, Honda and Super Aguri in terms of pace, though they may have significant reliability problems. Well, probably not more reliability problems than the Aguris...

[woody2goody]

Toyota IMO have improved, and are probably ahead of STR.

Nothing to call between BMW, Williams, Renault and Red Bull. Toyota JUST behind. However BMW I think are definitely 3rd. Alonso and a few others seem to think so. He says they always run full tanks in testing.