Thoughts on Barcelona Testing

[Nitrodaze]

If anyone is having doubts that Mercedes are going to be mighty this season, Hamilton's 156 laps has scrubbed any doubts. No other team managed to get to the hundred mark due to gremlins and niggly little issues. The Mercedes seem to have the most reliable car on the grid at the mo. The Ferrari seemed to be showing some frailty with only 69 laps but looking definitely quick. It is early days, we have to see what the next few days unfold.

I suspect Mercedes are going to show the true pace of the car around day 3 or 4. Then we would be able to gauge how close Ferrari really is. I am happy to see the Mclaren looking stronger than last year. Reliability seem to have improved markedly. The Mclaren has racked up more laps than the Ferrari and the Williams and is running solidly two seconds behind the best time of the day. This is bound to be a great start upon which to build on this season for Mclaren.

It is looking like a difficult day for Haas and Renault at the moment with around thirty laps each. Haas has had a tougher day with a failed front wing but seemed fine on pace. The Manor is ahead of the Haas on the timesheet with also more laps at 54. I suppose we could say that Manor has the psychological advantage at this time. It would be fascinating to see Wehrlein duking it with the more experienced Grosjean come Melbourne.
Similarly, the Williams is ahead of the Force India on the timesheet with nearly 30 laps more running. While we cannot tell much on the relative pace of the Force india to the Williams in the hands of the rookie Celis, we can deduce at this point that the Williams seem more reliable at this early stage, which is a plus. It is also interesting to see that the Williams ran an identical time as the Redbull. The Redbull is looking good with its Renault; ahem Tag Heuer engine.

Maybe we shall get an idea of the pecking order by day 3 of the testing. The 2016 season of F1 racing opens in some style.

[Mia 01]

Compared to last years first testing, the most is the same. Except for MacLaren, happy for them.

[Rollo]

McLaren are between 10 and 15km/h slower than Der Silberpfeil. Not much appears to have changed for them... except that its possible that Yasuhisa Arai and Honda may have parted company.

[Storm]

McLaren finishing both cars in the points would be a great thing to begin the year. Don't expect much else.

Its only been 2 days though but we all knew deep inside that Hamilton will win the title again anyway.

[Jag_Warrior]

I'm a Hamilton fan and I can't say that I feel overly confident of that being the case, Storm. But I'm glad that I don't have that level of confidence, because I'm SO looking forward to this season! If Hamilton starts off walking the dog on the field, that's going to make it pretty boring. I'll still watch every race though! :D

[Stan Reid]

It's a little hard to draw any conclusions from these tests because there's always the possibility that someone is sandbagging but it does look like Hass will at least not be the dog of the field and that, hopefully, Manor won't be crowding the 107 percent rule.

[Storm]

Nobody is sandbagging...except Mercedes maybe haha, nobody can afford not to test properly and not go at full pelt.
I'd like to be proved wrong :p:

[AndyL]

According to Eric Boullier yesterday, everyone is sandbagging :)
Not necessarily to fool anyone, but due to the nature of testing. They have a sandbag's worth of extra sensors on the car for starters. Teams will be running different fuel loads. They may be focusing on A-B comparison of parts rather than optimising the performance of tha car around either part A or part B. Just generally working on development rather than set-up. Lots of reasons why most are not truly revealing their potential performance. Probably towards the end of next week we'll see what they can really do.

[steveaki13]

Nobody is sandbagging...except Mercedes maybe haha, nobody can afford not to test properly and not go at full pelt.
I'd like to be proved wrong :p:

Whenever I try and race around a karting track or do a driving day I am always sandbagging. I am not just slow honest:D

[jens]

I haven't deepend too much into testing, but overall... yeah looks like same old same old. Would like to yawn! Predicting F1 has never been as easy as it is now.:D

Mercedes at the front.
Ferrari #2. Unclear, how much behind. It could vary. On some circuits close(ish), on some circuits far off.

Then it becomes more unclear.
I gather that Force India is pretty highly rated. But they are an underfunded team and if you look at history, they usually perform well only for half a year. Red Bull and Williams should be thereabouts as well.

McLaren-Honda, err... yeah, better not talk about them as per usual.:p: Though they should be a bit better obviously, but that's a minor consolation.

Haas actually I have to admit has perhaps exceeded expectations. They are still going to be near the rear end of the field, but could be within striking distance of established teams. Guess the Ferrari help with all the gadgets and car parts has been enormous - otherwise it would be impossible for a new team to start out well.

[AndyL]

Haas actually I have to admit has perhaps exceeded expectations. They are still going to be near the rear end of the field, but could be within striking distance of established teams. Guess the Ferrari help with all the gadgets and car parts has been enormous - otherwise it would be impossible for a new team to start out well.

It's interesting to see things like the little wing on top of the engine cover, that only Haas and Ferrari have and no-one else. Gives a hint of how much Ferrari input there has been into the Haas car.

[Craig O'Brien]

I attended the 4th day in Barcelona. It was a great experience even for me who has been to many GP's. 15 Euros for a day pass what entitles you access to any part of the track apart from the pits. I highly recommend it to anyone.
From what I could tell this season is going to be very close and interesting. Mercedes are very reliable but Ferrari have upped the game again this year in terms of performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1bfYJYYJvA Some of my footage from Thursday.

[Stan Reid]

I attended the 4th day in Barcelona. It was a great experience even for me who has been to many GP's. 15 Euros for a day pass what entitles you access to any part of the track apart from the pits. I highly recommend it to anyone.
From what I could tell this season is going to be very close and interesting. Mercedes are very reliable but Ferrari have upped the game again this year in terms of performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1bfYJYYJvA Some of my footage from Thursday.

Thanks Craig-Nice to hear them with their new "Hollywood" mufflers.

[Stan Reid]

902 Click to enlarge

[Craig O'Brien]

Thanks Craig-Nice to hear them with their new "Hollywood" mufflers.

Definitely louder than last season.

[Nitrodaze]

The Mercedes with its three pipe exhaust have a really cool sound. The races are going to have a better sound effect this season

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/02/24/16/3183900500000578-3461979-Lewis_Hamilton-m-39_1456332375698.jpg

[Jag_Warrior]

I attended the 4th day in Barcelona. It was a great experience even for me who has been to many GP's. 15 Euros for a day pass what entitles you access to any part of the track apart from the pits. I highly recommend it to anyone.
From what I could tell this season is going to be very close and interesting. Mercedes are very reliable but Ferrari have upped the game again this year in terms of performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1bfYJYYJvA Some of my footage from Thursday.

Thank you, sir! :bounce:

[Stan Reid]

Well, day 5 is tomorrow. Maybe they'll have the chicken fences off them by then.

[AndyL]

Someone finally beat Mercedes for laps completed... Sainz clocked up 166 laps today, vs 164 between Hamilton and Rosberg.

[Nitrodaze]

Someone finally beat Mercedes for laps completed... Sainz clocked up 166 laps today, vs 164 between Hamilton and Rosberg.

I think Rosberg clocked 174 in the feb testing sessions.

[steveaki13]

I think Rosberg clocked 174 in the feb testing sessions.

I think Andy meant it was the first day that someone did more laps than Mercedes? Not sure if that is the case. I dont have all the numbers.

[AndyL]

I think Andy meant it was the first day that someone did more laps than Mercedes? Not sure if that is the case. I dont have all the numbers.

That's right, the first time anyone did more laps than Mercedes on a given day. Torro Rosso almost did it with 161 laps on day 3 of the first test, but Mercedes pipped them with 162. Mercedes still have the best overall daily total with 185 laps on day 4 of the first test :eek: No wonder their drivers are only working half days now!

[AndyL]

Hold the back page - the Mercedes has just broken down! Transmission problem according to their twitter feed. 1200 laps of testing and they have finally managed to break the thing. That's more than 18 full race distances by the way.

[driveace]

And Vettel has posted the fastest time of the two weeks testing

[Tazio]

Pretty soon it will be time for Mercedes to unload the sandbags from their rigs :angel:

[airshifter]

Pretty soon it will be time for Mercedes to unload the sandbags from their from their rigs :angel:

You've got it all wrong Tazzy. "Sandbagging" with a direct method such as sandbags would impact balance and mess up testing.

It's probably just a programmed electronic throttle limiter being used! :laugh:

But I hope I'm wrong. It would be great if at least Ferrari could produce a car that would come close to the Mercedes. The Nico vs Lewis battle would be more fun if Sebastian and Kimi could at least on occasion throw some wrenches into things.

[Nitrodaze]

You've got it all wrong Tazzy. "Sandbagging" with a direct method such as sandbags would impact balance and mess up testing.

It's probably just a programmed electronic throttle limiter being used! :laugh:

But I hope I'm wrong. It would be great if at least Ferrari could produce a car that would come close to the Mercedes. The Nico vs Lewis battle would be more fun if Sebastian and Kimi could at least on occasion throw some wrenches into things.

I am sure Tazio's comment was a figure of speech.

[airshifter]

I am sure Tazio's comment was a figure of speech.

I know. I was just poking fun, and hoping that Mercedes ISN'T sandbagging as much as we all know they might be.

[Mia 01]

Mercedes can´t handle the new softer Pirellis as well as the Ferrari, Lewis admitted this himself. We will see.

[Tazio]

:stareup: I still think the smart money is on Mercedes, although it may be closer this year!

[Tazio]

Mercedes can´t handle the new softer Pirellis as well as the Ferrari, Lewis admitted this himself. We will see. During testing both Ferrari, and Mercedes were graining the soft tire due to low temp's