The F1 thread

Boromedic

Always hard to read isn't it tbh, hopefully it will become clearer by the end of day 3. They'll still all be sandbagging till the first quali session probably anyway.

chillidoggy

Well, if a Williams is at P3, I don’t think we can glean too much from those results.

stickyfiddle

Merc have confirmed "no bouncing" apparently, which suggests they've got a good handle on the whole package. Just have to hope it's quick enough now

Boromedic

chillidoggy said:

Well, if a Williams is at P3, I don’t think we can glean too much from those results.

Exactly!

Brio

Lots of sticky tape on that Mclaren.

chillidoggy

I'm hoping the racing will be closer this time around. If Ferrari and Merc have done their homework, fingers crossed we could be in for some decent battles.

stickyfiddle

Alonso second on the time sheets at close of day 1. I know, ok. I KNOW. 

But.. you know… please??!!?!!!!?!?!!?!?

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

stickyfiddle said:

Alonso second on the time sheets at close of day 1. I know, ok. I KNOW. 

But.. you know… please??!!?!!!!?!?!!?!?

Absolutely! Would love for him to be in a position to fight for podiums again.

Jonathanthomas83

This is the start of my 3rd season of really getting into F1. What is the expectation with testing? Should we read too much into it or are the teams on very specific programmes to find out specific details? Or are the times representative of how they'll start the season? I mean Verstappen has started the way he left off, but I can't imagine Perez or Hamilton being down in 7th and 8th respectively, so it's hard to know what's trying to be achieved. Maybe I'm missing something important, apologies.

Boromedic

The only thing to really take from testing is the reliability or lack of, most teams hold back pace and complete sequences or packages of setup that reveal either their expectations from the wind tunnel and design were right or wrong prior to hitting the track. (Think Merc being surprised at the level of porpoising they suffered last season).

Teams aren't daft, they can see how their competitors drive and also can reliably guess at who has the pace and stability to be at the front, so look for for headline times towards the end of the last session, and then read comments from the teams to work out who has the best pace.

First quali will show the real pace in March

boogieman

Yup, most of all of the teams won’t show their true pace until the first race of the season. They’ll all be sandbagging like crazy up till then to throw the opposition off the scent (or to cover up quite how shit the new car really is). 

Jonathanthomas83

Boromedic said:

The only thing to really take from testing is the reliability or lack of, most teams hold back pace and complete sequences or packages of setup that reveal either their expectations from the wind tunnel and design were right or wrong prior to hitting the track. (Think Merc being surprised at the level of porpoising they suffered last season).

Teams aren't daft, they can see how their competitors drive and also can reliably guess at who has the pace and stability to be at the front, so look for for headline times towards the end of the last session, and then read comments from the teams to work out who has the best pace.

First quali will show the real pace in March

Thank you, that's great, much appreciated.

Boromedic

Jonathanthomas83 said:

Boromedic said:

The only thing to really take from testing is the reliability or lack of, most teams hold back pace and complete sequences or packages of setup that reveal either their expectations from the wind tunnel and design were right or wrong prior to hitting the track. (Think Merc being surprised at the level of porpoising they suffered last season).

Teams aren't daft, they can see how their competitors drive and also can reliably guess at who has the pace and stability to be at the front, so look for for headline times towards the end of the last session, and then read comments from the teams to work out who has the best pace.

First quali will show the real pace in March

Thank you, that's great, much appreciated.

No worries mate

stickyfiddle

Yeah, as above you can’t tell anything about pace but you can spot whether anyone has major issues with their car.

McLaren look like they’re behind the curve. Merc definitely look like they’ve solved the porpoising/bouncing issues from last year, and RB and Ferrari are looking pretty effortless so far. 

But we won’t really know who’s quickest until Q3 

**
And I have no intention of watching all of drive to survive but I friggin love Toto. And Seidl just lapping it up  

https://twitter.com/paulyne777/status/1629173330887716866

Brio

This was fun today

sinbaadi

stickyfiddle said:

Yeah, as above you can’t tell anything about pace but you can spot whether anyone has major issues with their car.

McLaren look like they’re behind the curve. Merc definitely look like they’ve solved the porpoising/bouncing issues from last year, and RB and Ferrari are looking pretty effortless so far. 

But we won’t really know who’s quickest until Q3 

**
And I have no intention of watching all of drive to survive but I friggin love Toto. And Seidl just lapping it up  

https://twitter.com/paulyne777/status/1629173330887716866

I've never wanted to watch drive to survive but that's a brilliant advert for it!!

Cols

McLaren definitely look like they’ve mucked up, but not as fundamentally as Mercedes did last year.  They'll be on catchup until the European races.

In contrast, Aston Martin look like they could really be in the mix.  Rumours are that Vettel might be asked to stand in for Stroll, which I really hope isn’t true.  Apart from the fact that he’s had no prep time and would be soundly beaten by Alonso, it would be terribly unfair on Drugovich after he spent last week pounding round the track.

The past few years have shown that the team which shines in testing doesn’t actually do as well once the flag drops, so maybe it’s not a bad thing that Red Bull look to be comfortably ahead.

RiftAmps

Ted (and some teams) think Aston Martin is the third fastest team. I hope that's the case because I REALLY want to see Alonso fighting for podiums.

stickyfiddle

AM have confirmed it'll be Drugovich for Stroll if he's not fit. I love Seb and would love to see Seb & Alonso racing together but it's the right choice. 

I don't have a clue where AM sits and neither do the pundits. But I hope Alonso is able to fight properly. It'd be marvellous to see him get one more title...

RandallFlagg

Just started Season 5 of Drive To Survive and it's whetting my appetite for the new season. I'm in Malaga at the weekend but hoping to catch the race live on Sunday from a bar somewhere is there is one with Sky Sports on.

A a bit of a George Russell fan, as he's a local hero, I had hoped that Mercedes would have a bit more on Red Bull in pre-season testing but on the face of it they still look a bit behind.