The F1 thread

fretmeister

Cols said:

Hopefully no-one walking about Brackley today trips over a pair of sidepods and says "Hey, does anyone know if these are important or something?"

Best bet is to go to the pubs in Brixworth.

I bet there’ll be some engine guy in there “seriously? Fucking aero people ruining the cooling on my beloved PU! Nobbers, the lot of them.”

Then we’ll know!

Dodge

fretmeister said:

Danish press are reporting that KMAG is first choice to get the spare Haas seat!

Only issue is his current Peugeot contract apparently.

Announced: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/60684180 ;

Cols

Well, that’s good news.  Along with Hulkenberg and Grosjean, Magnussen is a driver who deserved to be in F1 but was eased out because he couldn't bring a fat sack of cash to any prospective team.

TimmyO

Dude Where’s My Sidepod? 

Cols

Other F1 teams:  Behold our aggressive sidepod designs!

Mercedes:  You have sidepods?

stickyfiddle

#Absolutemadmen!! 

LEWIS 12-TIME WDC!! 

stickyfiddle

Almost more importantly, they've also upped the readability of the driver numbers!



I wonder if we'll see a similar change from AM, given the Merc PU architecture clearly allows it. 

fretmeister

The times from this morning look interesting. If merc are still sandbagging….

Cols

fretmeister said:

The times from this morning look interesting. If merc are still sandbagging….

Hamilton's just pootling around collecting data, 5s off the pace.  

Red Bull are already laying the groundwork for a protest,  with Horner saying “The new Mercedes violates the spirit of the regulations. For us, there are some parts that are not legal.”  Which is quite rich, considering Newey (along with every top-flight engineer) excels in looking at the regulations and determining not what the spirit or intent was, but what they permit him to do.

Merc have apparently sought substantial clarification from the FIA prior to turning up with this, so they must feel very confident of its legality.  If, however, they blow everyone into the weeds during testing then I'm sure there'll be pressure for the FIA to move the regulatory goalposts.

So if it's quick, I expect the sandbags will stay on the car until FP3 at the first race.

sinbaadi

"Violates the spirit of the regulations". Aka, we didn't think of it, so nobody else should be allowed to do it.  Aka, Horner's motto, it doesn't benefit us so it should not be allowed.

It looks great, imagine how neatly packaged everything is.

This does, however, serve as a reminder to not pay any attention to any pre season launch images or prop cars that appear in the run up to the actual testing.

stickyfiddle

Cols said:

fretmeister said:

The times from this morning look interesting. If merc are still sandbagging….

Hamilton's just pootling around collecting data, 5s off the pace.  

Red Bull are already laying the groundwork for a protest,  with Horner saying “The new Mercedes violates the spirit of the regulations. For us, there are some parts that are not legal.”  Which is quite rich, considering Newey (along with every top-flight engineer) excels in looking at the regulations and determining not what the spirit or intent was, but what they permit him to do.

Merc have apparently sought substantial clarification from the FIA prior to turning up with this, so they must feel very confident of its legality.  If, however, they blow everyone into the weeds during testing then I'm sure there'll be pressure for the FIA to move the regulatory goalposts.

So if it's quick, I expect the sandbags will stay on the car until FP3 at the first race.

This is the same team as came up with the double diffuser, and built 8 WCC wining cars in a row. AND now led by Allison who designed Schumacher’s winning Ferraris and Alonso’s, the 2013 shoestring budget Lotus, and Ferrari’s only properly quick car in the last decade 

Horner knows full well that on technical regs the spirit is completely irrelevant. But he has to be a dick because that’s basically his job. 

sweepy

Red Bull and their flexible floor fit the Vettel era championships ? Oh Karma is a sweetheart, keep whinging Karen Horner 

the_jaffa

stickyfiddle said:

#Absolutemadmen!! 

LEWIS 12-TIME WDC!! 

What are all the fences etc for behind the wheels? Is it all data logging stuff?

euan

Aero rakes. They are pressure sensors used to try and validate wind tunnel and cfd data 

the_jaffa

Thank you, guessed it was something like that

fretmeister

RB are now denying Horner made the comments about the Merc design.

But the journo he spoke to confirms he did.

Official stance is "no comment"

ha ha!

stickyfiddle

@fretmeister  ;lolz

Merc not that quick so far but I'm guessing checking how well the data correlates with the CFD and tunnel work to give them some confidence before turning the wick up a little. The rumours said tiny sidepods and that this car would be 1s quicker than the Barcelona spec. The first half of that is clearly true; if the second is, then we're looking at an almighty racing car. I'd dearly love to see Merc/Ferrari/Mclaren fighting with RB in fourth scrapping with AT - don't care who wins out of all 6 of them. 

goldtop

Are there any details yet about the (supposed) chemical cooling system that makes this possible?

stickyfiddle

Also, irrespective of who is quick, it's just lovely to have cars that are so distinctive, after 2 years of idiots whinging that it's becoming a spec series... 

fretmeister

"Karen Horner" is now trending on twitter again!!