The F1 thread

fretmeister

The Ferrari does look pretty good.

Kimi was very fast late yesterday - faster on the mediums than LH was on the softs. No doubt testing different things, but even so that would not have happened last year.

Fingers crossed for 4 different winners in the first 4 races!

Fretwired

stickyfiddle said:

I realise it's early days but let's be honest - McLaren are buggered. 

No more token restrictions will help, but they're having fundamental problems with the oil system. This isn't some tricky ERS issue, it's simple engineering stuff (for F1-related versions of the word "simple" at least). They only get 4 engines per driver for the year. At this rate they'll start every race from the back of the grid. I get that "it's better to happen in testing than in the race", but when Mercedes and Ferrari are pounding round doing race sims on day 2 it's looking like an impossible mountain to climb. Honda came in a year late after less dev time, but they should be at least to the level that Merc were in 2015 by now, and it doesn't look like they're even close. 

Sad to say, but there's no evidence they're not doing exactly what Williams did in terms of a constant decline with no end in sight. I hope I'm wrong...

At least it looks like Ferrari might've built Vettel a decent car to take it to Lewis this year.

Agreed. Ron's fault. They should have stuck with Mercedes and given Honda more time to develop a race winning engine. Honda are still playing catch-up - I wonder how long the bosses at Honda will put up with this embarrassing situation?

TimmyO

It's a shame for Fernando - when was the last time that a championship-capable driver had multiple seasons in a mid-field car (not including MS and Kimi's 'returns' ) ? 

Fretwired

TimmyO said:

It's a shame for Fernando - when was the last time that a championship-capable driver had multiple seasons in a mid-field car (not including MS and Kimi's 'returns' ) ? 

Agreed. Shame Mercedes didn't have the balls to hire him. Viewing figures would rocket seeing Hamilton and Alonso lock horns on track- Wolff would probably die of a stress related heart attack though .. :-)

Garthy

I can't help but feel that McLaren are hampering Honda significantly. I do not believe that such a legendary engine builder could suddenly forget how to build an engine and get spanked by Renault.

boogieman

Garthy said:

I can't help but feel that McLaren are hampering Honda significantly. I do not believe that such a legendary engine builder could suddenly forget how to build an engine and get spanked by Renault.

The problems have all been engine related though? How is that McLaren's fault? 

TimmyO

Garthy said:

I can't help but feel that McLaren are hampering Honda significantly. I do not believe that such a legendary engine builder could suddenly forget how to build an engine and get spanked by Renault.

stickyfiddle

Alonso has done a 1:23.9 this morning, with aero rakes on, so the car has obviously got some poke when it *is* working. With the same tyres Stroll's best is 1:23.9, so not too far ahead. That said, Ericsson went quicker in the Sauber which is using last years' Ferrari lawnmower engine so who knows..

Hopefully by Melbourne they'll have a good grasp on the problems and at least be quick whenever the car isn't in pieces. 

TimmyO

stickyfiddle said:

Hopefully by Melbourne they'll have a good grasp on the problems and at least be quick whenever the car isn't in pieces. 

During transportation? 

stickyfiddle

TimmyO said:

stickyfiddle said:

Hopefully by Melbourne they'll have a good grasp on the problems and at least be quick whenever the car isn't in pieces. 

During transportation? 

 

Bottas has just gone 1.5s clear of Vettel. Looks like this year's Merc is just as quick and bulletproof as the last one. 

Heartfeltdawn

TimmyO said:

It's a shame for Fernando - when was the last time that a championship-capable driver had multiple seasons in a mid-field car (not including MS and Kimi's 'returns' ) ? 

Jacques Villeneuve. Damon Hill post-Williams had his moment in an Arrows and won in a Jordan (whilst his Jordan teammate Heinz-Harald Frentzen was pushing for the title in 1999). JV on the other hand drove many forms of technologically advanced crap. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Villeneuve#Career_summary

TimmyO

Heartfeltdawn said:

TimmyO said:

It's a shame for Fernando - when was the last time that a championship-capable driver had multiple seasons in a mid-field car (not including MS and Kimi's 'returns' ) ? 

Jacques Villeneuve. Damon Hill post-Williams had his moment in an Arrows and won in a Jordan (whilst his Jordan teammate Heinz-Harald Frentzen was pushing for the title in 1999). JV on the other hand drove many forms of technologically advanced crap. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Villeneuve#Career_summary

nice

Fretwired

Good interview with Brawn ..

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/10782926/sky-sports-exclusive-ross-brawn-ready-to-change-formula-1

holnrew

I can't wait for him to get his teeth into things. He's a good guy. It's such a relief to have Ecclestone out of the picture. The new owners respect the sport and spectacle, and don't see it as a cash cow.

If there's a new circuit introduced which isn't designed by Tilke I will be so happy

stickyfiddle

Honda already have a fix for the oil tank problem, apparently. I'm still keeping fingers crossed but it's just feeling like it's never going to get better  

http://www.mclaren.com/formula1/2017/pre-season-testing/barcelona-test-day-3/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Testing2017

stickyfiddle

And a great interview with Brawn from Day 2's "Ted's Notebook" - almost 30 minutes of calm, measured sanity from the brilliant man who is now in charge of making Formula 1 a great sport to watch. THANK GOD.

Well worth a watch before it gets pulled off youtube. 

Fretwired

stickyfiddle said:

And a good interview with Brawn from Day 2's "Ted's Notebook"

Well worth a watch before it gets pulled off youtube. 

Cough, cough .. it's on the Sky link above when the YouTube link is pulled .. :-)

stickyfiddle

Fretwired said:

stickyfiddle said:

And a good interview with Brawn from Day 2's "Ted's Notebook"

Well worth a watch before it gets pulled off youtube. 

Cough, cough .. it's on the Sky link above when the YouTube link is pulled .. :-)

Ah, so it is. That video doesn't work from the UAE! 

Anyway, wherever you watch it, it's GOOD NEWS!

Garthy

boogieman said:

Garthy said:

I can't help but feel that McLaren are hampering Honda significantly. I do not believe that such a legendary engine builder could suddenly forget how to build an engine and get spanked by Renault.

The problems have all been engine related though? How is that McLaren's fault? 

This is exactly the problem that Renault spoke of in 2014. It is one car where every single bit has to work together. There is no "I build the chassis, you build the engine" even RBR grudgingly came around to that idea after two painful years.

In 2013 Mclaren signed a deal with Honda, while Honda was not a competitor to F1 for 2013 & 2014 there was no reason whatsoever that they could not pound around Montegi to their heart's content with a test mule, it would have been an enormous advantage over the other teams but Mclaren said no, it would be ungentlemanly. How much money does one burn before you think 'screw playing nice'. I personally wouldn't be willing to spend half a billion dollars to be a nice guy finishing last. HAAS did a similar thing in 2015 with unlimited aero testing, with their results working their way back to Ferrari who bankrolled their testing. Red Bull Technologies was set up to get around the resource restrictions, as RBT is not an entry in F1. They circumvent the rules with vast amounts of data & CFD. F1 is called the Piranha Club for a reason.

Secondly, Mclaren have a veto on anyone else using the Honda engine, this is just so stupid it is beyond words. It limits the amount of data they can gather, it limits the ability to rule out chassis problems and finger trouble.

The other thing, and this stuns me beyond belief- Mclaren do not think the rules of thermodynamics apply to them. In 2014 they were the only Merc team to ditch the large water chargecoolers and replace them with smaller air intercoolers. With their budget and Merc engine they should have finished 2nd in the WCC behind Mercedes. They were slaughtered by Williams on half the budget, and were in a tight fight with Force India, a team in perpetual poverty until the summer break. This was then accentuated in 2015 when they built a shrink wrapped car around a very small engine, it is 70% of the size of the next smallest engine, the Renault - despite seeing RBR having significant thermal issues in 2014 they ignored that experience and went one further and for 2015 they were plagued with heat issues. I cannot fathom why a team of 1000 people did not know what Wayne & Kevin with their tuned RS Turbos knew- heat is your biggest enemy in a turbocharged car. Look at all the vents and outlets in a WRC car for example. RBR laughed at Caterham when they turned up in 2014 with a car that looked like a green fridge with massive side pods, Caterham laughed at RBR when the RB10 was on fire, again.

Lastly, if you have a crap chassis, the ERS has to work harder. Mclaren are first on the brakes and last on the power. Trackside viewers have said the Mclaren makes ugly shapes all over the track this week. It is already three seconds off the pace of a Merc that is cruising about. Hamilton on Wednesday looked like he was on the phone to his mum when he set a 1.19, while Alonso looked like he was wrestling a tiger for a 1.22.

Fretwired

Hamilton thinks Ferrari could have the quickest car ... are Mercedes sandbagging?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/39199829