[sun_king]

Originally Posted by Makin Rulesz

Timing at the end of Day 3 testing
<snip>
Mercedes looks to be the car to beat again this year, both in terms of speed and reliability.

[TIFOSI ALERT]

Skeptical there! The Mercs do have the tiniest of margins, but then again it is done on tires a grade softer than the Ferrari each time. So it would be fair to brag that at this time, the Ferrari looks like the stronger package overall. They seem to have got it right finally. Would this be the championship challenger after eight long years?

Waiting for the one lap of glory by Kimi today with Ultra Softs and into the '18s.

[/TIFOSI ALERT]

[jfxavier]

Originally Posted by sun_king

[TIFOSI ALERT]

Skeptical there! The Mercs do have the tiniest of margins, but then again it is done on tires a grade softer than the Ferrari each time. So it would be fair to brag that at this time, the Ferrari looks like the stronger package overall. They seem to have got it right finally. Would this be the championship challenger after eight long years?

Waiting for the one lap of glory by Kimi today with Ultra Softs and into the '18s.

[/TIFOSI ALERT]

I hope that we have a tight championship in hand.

However, the trackside observations suggest a light Ferrari, as opposed to a fairly well fuelled Mercedes/ RedBull. Suggesting a duel between RBR and Ferrari more likely to happen than Ferrari challenging for championship.

Not that I want to dampen anyone's enthusiasm.
Reports so far suggest that Merc. has run away with the championship again.

Personally, I secretly hope that Honda unleashes their monster - come Australia.

[Monolithic]

Originally Posted by sun_king

[TIFOSI ALERT]

Skeptical there! The Mercs do have the tiniest of margins, but then again it is done on tires a grade softer than the Ferrari each time. So it would be fair to brag that at this time, the Ferrari looks like the stronger package overall. They seem to have got it right finally. Would this be the championship challenger after eight long years?

Waiting for the one lap of glory by Kimi today with Ultra Softs and into the '18s.

[/TIFOSI ALERT]

I'm calling it now, KIMI RAIKKONEN 2017 WDC!!!

I want to take these times seriously, but since this is testing I'm skeptical. Last year too Ferrari looked like they were ahead but then Mercedes made a giant leap.

[Hatari]

Interesting first test. Red Bull have ruled themselves out of challenging Mercedes for the initial part of the season! They were the ones everyone had their hopes on to take the fight to the Champions, who looked superb, having found some more horses on the new 2017 PU.

Down to Ferrari now, who have looked good, working well through their program.

Traditionally, Ferrari do chase lap time more than Mercedes at Tests. I expect the latter are sand bagging a bit.

Both teams are clearly ahead of competition.

Disappointing 4 days from Honda, who have come under prepared again. Though, we need to give them the benefit of a new PU layout and a new fuel partner to contend with. It is now a question of how much they had turned down power to ensure they completed their test program. It will come down to raw power again with the increased drag the new cars have. Honda need to bring in people from Merc/Ferrari to get them upto speed on what it takes to crack it in F1 nowadays, to get processes right in the least.

[jfxavier]

Originally Posted by Hatari

Interesting first test. Red Bull have ruled themselves out of challenging Mercedes for the initial part of the season! They were the ones everyone had their hopes on to take the fight to the Champions, who looked superb, having found some more horses on the new 2017 PU.

Down to Ferrari now, who have looked good, working well through their program.

Traditionally, Ferrari do chase lap time more than Mercedes at Tests. I expect the latter are sand bagging a bit.

Both teams are clearly ahead of competition.

Disappointing 4 days from Honda, who have come under prepared again. Though, we need to give them the benefit of a new PU layout and a new fuel partner to contend with. It is now a question of how much they had turned down power to ensure they completed their test program. It will come down to raw power again with the increased drag the new cars have. Honda need to bring in people from Merc/Ferrari to get them upto speed on what it takes to crack it in F1 nowadays, to get processes right in the least.

Here are the data after the 1st test.

Laptimes:



Nothing much to read into.
Probably next test will make the picture clearer.
Ferrari did well last year's testing as well

Speed trap figures:



Again only for ref.
Some of the top contenders must be on light fuel and min. drag setup.

However, here is some analysis done be someone at F1tech. regarding the 2017 Pirelli rubbers.
This looks interesting.



Maybe Pirelli will change the compounds again after the racing starts, if they find the rubbers are too durable.
Again, maybe the teams are yet to turn up the engines to full whack.

[jfxavier]

The second test started with Renault and Honda struggles again, as usual

According to AMuS, Honda PU is behind the leaders by triple digit figures with respect to the peak power.

http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/f...-11840526.html

Eager to see what their AUS spec PU has got to show in terms of reliability and power.
However, note that the time set by Stofel yesterday was on mediums.
From what is understood so far, Honda is facing similar problems as others when starting with TJI. ie. vibrations, high temp. etc.
Hopefully they will get out of this mess soon.

Here are the timings from the first day.



There is a comparison of the wheelbases of different teams done in the italian press.
As you can see below, the Merc is the longest one and RBR went for a short wheelbase.



Will be interesting to see how the cars suit the different tracks.
FYI, the large wheelbase should suit the longer sweeping corners & short wheelbase should be better for rapid change in direction.

[MCR]

Looks like Fernando Alonso is pissed off with Honda. He has said that the entire team is looking to win other than Honda!

Link to New Article : http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/124...ead-of-f1-2017

He has also vowed to not retire until winning one more Championship. Does it mean that he is already discussing with Mercedes or contemplating a return to Ferrari? Only future will tell.

[Hatari]

Originally Posted by MCR

He has also vowed to not retire until winning one more Championship. Does it mean that he is already discussing with Mercedes or contemplating a return to Ferrari? Only future will tell.

This seems the only positive thing in this current mess. Alonso is getting hungrier. Which means easily another 3-4 years at the top. He definitely wouldn't want to leave languishing in the bottom half of the grid.

Mercedes and Ferrari would be highly unlikely though.

[Octane_Power]

Originally Posted by MCR

He has also vowed to not retire until winning one more Championship. Does it mean that he is already discussing with Mercedes or contemplating a return to Ferrari? Only future will tell.

Wow! That's good to hear. It would have been superb if Alonso would have replaced Rosberg. In driving skills, Hamilton and Vettel are good, but Alonso is The Daddy!

Btw, is it possible for a driver to terminate the contract mid-season and join another constructor? How does that work?

-Bhargav

[sun_king]

Originally Posted by Octane_Power

Wow! That's good to hear. It would have been superb if Alonso would have replaced Rosberg. In driving skills, Hamilton and Vettel are good, but Alonso is The Daddy!

Btw, is it possible for a driver to terminate the contract mid-season and join another constructor? How does that work?

-Bhargav

With all due respect, 10 years ago the Daddy was whupped by a rookie in the same machine. Now Daddy is 10 years older while the rookie won three championships with two different teams, Daddy just got 10 years older and his best achievement in the meantime was to use Piquet Jr. to manipulate a race. As much as I hate Hamilton, I'd still side with him on any day to mop the floor with Alonso. In the 11 years that went by after Alonso's last championship, the "good" won 7 championships between them. Not enough data to support your claims sir.

As for drivers leaving from on team to another, it should depend on the driver's contract clauses. Schumacher moved from Jordan to Benetton mid-season, Vettel drove for BMW and STR in 2007 and so on.

[Monolithic]

Originally Posted by sun_king

Not enough data to support your claims sir.

But Daddy did almost win a championship in 2010, 2012. And 2012 was the last time he got a competitive car and that car itself was way behind RBR in performance. Whereas the Rookie got the best car to complement his skill in 2014, '15 and '16. Things changed from 2014 and if only Ferrari was as good as last year back in 2014, Rookie would have felt the heat.

But everything is "could have, would have and should have".

[sun_king]

Originally Posted by Monolithic

But Daddy did almost win a championship in 2010, 2012. And 2012 was the last time he got a competitive car and that car itself was way behind RBR in performance. Whereas the Rookie got the best car to complement his skill in 2014, '15 and '16. Things changed from 2014 and if only Ferrari was as good as last year back in 2014, Rookie would have felt the heat.

But everything is "could have, would have and should have".

2005, Daddy wins his first championship because FIA finally managed to find a way to halt Schumi. And honestly, 2005 was Kimi's season, had it not been for the McLaren's incredible string of mechanical failures, Kimi would have easily won it. The 2005 McLaren in the second half of the season was something of a monster. Kimi in 2005 Japanese GP, classic!

In 2006, Schumi's bad luck in the last two races ensured Alonso's championship. Did Alonso truly win the two championships he has or did his rivals lose those?

Putting it in another way, Alonso had never had a season where he had won more races than his nearest rival. Hey, the "could have, would have and should have" sure is fun.

[jfxavier]

Originally Posted by Octane_Power

Wow! That's good to hear. It would have been superb if Alonso would have replaced Rosberg. In driving skills, Hamilton and Vettel are good, but Alonso is The Daddy!

Btw, is it possible for a driver to terminate the contract mid-season and join another constructor? How does that work?

-Bhargav

Originally Posted by Hatari

This seems the only positive thing in this current mess. Alonso is getting hungrier. Which means easily another 3-4 years at the top. He definitely wouldn't want to leave languishing in the bottom half of the grid.

Mercedes and Ferrari would be highly unlikely though.

Originally Posted by MCR

Looks like Fernando Alonso is pissed off with Honda. He has said that the entire team is looking to win other than Honda!

Link to New Article : http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/124...ead-of-f1-2017

He has also vowed to not retire until winning one more Championship. Does it mean that he is already discussing with Mercedes or contemplating a return to Ferrari? Only future will tell.

It's possible. Depends who will pay the damages.
However, I think Bottas will be happy to play second fiddle to Hamilton, who is likely to win the WDC. They will probably sign both drivers for next year as well. Alonso has a better chance with Ferrari if Kimi retires at the end of this year, though I doubt the Scuderia will be interested in rehiring the guy that ditched them.
McLaren did exactly that though.


For me its more about the cars than the drivers.

Looks like 2017 season will look very similar to 2016 at the front of the grid.

Mercedes and Ferrari ahead of everyone else. Red Bull relatively fallen back from them but will get back up front in the immediate future.

Looking at Vettel’s race simulation, Ferrari should be competitive – all going well.

Williams have built a solid car and Haas is once again poised to be a points scoring midfield team. Renault have improved with their car but there are still question marks over the reliability of the engine. Toro Rosso have struggled in the test, and seem as if suffering more from the Renault engine failures than their own.
Force India is still an unknown quantity.
Sauber will be the backmarkers.
Which brings me to McLaren, my favourite team.
McLaren debacle continues. Looking more like the 2015 version of the saga than 2016, from a distance.

A lot is being made of their recent failures, mostly because it’s easy to attract clicks with catchy headlines. If you are interested, the below links are good where the complete answers given by Fernando during his recent interview is given. It gives a better understanding than the click-bait articles that are churned out based on that interview.
https://badgergp.com/alonso-honda-mclaren-time-attack/
http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/vi...iate_reaction/
Now, about the infamous Honda PU, one can hear lots of rumours. Some say the new engine, which is supposedly a TJI type with Mercedes like split turbocharger is structurally too weak. There are problems with combustion, vibrations and temperatures as per the rumours, possibly started when Hesegawa said that the new engine is lighter, with lower SG & complete re-design from scratch.
The current PU clearly shows lack of actual track testing. Honda has not used test mules for sure. Maybe Honda is constantly trying to make improvements to design until the last moment instead of concentrating on improving what they have built already and in turn that delay leads to lack of testing time for each upgrade putting reliability into question.
Insufficient block stiffness can certainly cause a lot of problems throughout the engine that wouldn't necessarily show up on a normal engine dyno. But with the computerised stress evaluation tools available, it would be a shock if Honda missed it and the block was twisting excessively in the car. The block forms the foundation of not only the ICE but is also a stressed member for the entire rear structure of the car. And that should get Honda’s top bosses attention as it points to a fundamentally flawed development process.

I appreciate Honda´s courage to take on the best in F1 when VW, BMW and Ford etc. are avoiding it themselves while busy in other categories.
Lots of people are wondering why Honda doesn’t take help from Mario Illen (Ilmor). Even if they want to probably after the cooling off time/ gardening leave is over (contractually from Renault) by the time Ilmor had worked their magic, Honda's existing team would probably have solved the issues and moved on to other developments already.
Another question to ask is , does Honda want to win by "buying it" anyway?
Mercedes-Benz bought Ilmor (in its previous incarnation) and subsequently rebadged it as "Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines". It's the pinnacle of “German F1 engineering” based in Brixworth, England.

F1 isn't marketing to Honda in the way it is to Mercedes. It's more than that.
The "Honda way" is trying to solve all the problems without buying in talent/experience/skill from across the F1 engineering pool which basically is in Europe. That is apart from the cultural differences in the two continents. Given enough time and resources, Honda eventually might end up with better solutions than the others, but how long will it take?
Will McLaren and F1 in general with the fast paced style of competition have patience and time for understanding the reasoning and satisfaction of achieving something in the “right/ old fashioned” Honda way?
As for me, I am a bit old fashioned I guess. So I prefer they get it right themselves rather than to bring in a smart European consultant.

[Monolithic]

Originally Posted by sun_king

Putting it in another way, Alonso had never had a season where he had won more races than his nearest rival. Hey, the "could have, would have and should have" sure is fun.

2005 and 2006 are a typical F1 season where the team with the best package won. McLaren had a great car, my all time favourite!, and yet they had reliability problems. Ferrari brought a new car at Catalunya! They could've easily had the two seasons. They brought it onto themselves.

Basically Alonso two championships are a typical F1 championships. Unlike the Mercedes domination or the Ferrari domination of 2002 and 2004.

But I'd have still preferred Kimi WCC in 2003 and 2005. Those two were painful seasons for a Kimi fan.

[deetjohn]

Originally Posted by sun_king

Waiting for the one lap of glory by Kimi today with Ultra Softs and into the '18s.

[/TIFOSI ALERT]

Well! He did it.

1:18.634! On super-soft tyres.

I am going to contain all my excitement though. We know what happened last year don't we?

It will be lovely if we can have a proper fight for the championship with multiple teams in it!