The F1 Thread 2014 Season

Leg-End said:
I remember donkeys years ago someone spinning coming out of pitlane and going straight across the main straight and crashing, something that could have been deadly if the timing was unfortunate. I think it was Berger but I'm not sure, I think his car broke or something but the effect from lighting up stone cold tyres coming out of pitlane would have the same effect.

If they seriously are doing it because of green issues then they are living in cloud cuckoo land, banning tyre warmers whilst ferrying 24 cars and thousands of staff around the world in jumbo jets is the equivilant of farting in a hurricane. I understand why F1 would go greener with hybrid technology because this funnels back into road cars, removing tyre warmers is just change for the sake of it, nothing good can come out of it.
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These new engines are supposed to have massive torque early in the power as well so that won't mix well with cold tyres either.

I dunno though, this ban has been talked about for years and years and never seems to happen.
 
Bahrain testing, judging from Button's latest comments he thinks there is a clearly quicker car out there right now and it ain't the McLaren yet:

"We're still lacking a lot of downforce, I think every team is, but compared to the car that was quicker than us today I think it's an area where we are weak at the moment. But the basic aim for us was to get a good car mechanically and a basic aerodynamic car and hopefully build on that through the season, but as much as we can for the first race.

"Yes, we're in a reasonable position. You'd like to be faster, I think every team except for the Mercedes team would be. When you look at other teams' test days and what they're up to you'd say that we're in reasonable shape."
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Ties in from what trackside photographers are saying and the insiders, Mercedes at this stage is the benchmark. Renault engine teams aren't even allowed to run their engines at 100% and it still breaks..........could be a long season for Lotus, Red Bull etc.
 
Hamilton was .7s faster than Jenson, despite the former being on mediums and latter on softs/ssofts (an additional +0.5 differential which theoretically means the Merc is over a second faster).

LH has mentioned a lack of downforce as well, fwiw. I think everyone on the grid will have that problem without the benefit of EBDs this season.

Code: 
1. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes                 1m34.263s           67
2. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes         1m34.976s  +0.713s  103
3. Felipe Massa          Williams-Mercedes        1m37.066s  +2.803s  60
4. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari           1m37.180s  +2.917s  96
5. Sergio Perez          Force India-Mercedes     1m37.367s  +3.104s  57
6. Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari                  1m37.476s  +3.213s  44
7. Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso-Renault       1m38.974s  +4.711s  57
8. Pastor Maldonado      Lotus-Renault            1m39.642s  +5.379s  26
9. Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-Renault         1m40.781s  +6.518s  28
10. Marcus Ericsson       Caterham-Renault         1m42.130s  +7.867s  98
11. Max Chilton           Marussia-Ferrari         1m46.672s  +12.409s  4
12. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Mercedes        no time             55

Hehe. Red Bull gives you wings.
 
Dante said:
Hamilton was .7s faster than Jenson, despite the former being on mediums and latter on softs/ssofts (an additional +0.5 differential). LH has mentioned a lack of downforce as well, fwiw. I think everyone on the grid will have that problem without the benefit of EBDs this season.
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Was Hamilton on Med..? I read it was softs when he got 1.34:2. Mercedes have performed well despite their odd issues and McLaren have been consistent. However, is it true that mclaren wouldn't have equal information for the merc engines as compared to other engine partners, since they are due to switch engine suppliers next season?
 
The Taurean said:
Was Hamilton on Med..? I read it was softs when he got 1.34:2. Mercedes have performed well despite their odd issues and McLaren have been consistent. However, is it true that mclaren wouldn't have equal information for the merc engines as compared to other engine partners, since they are due to switch engine suppliers next season?
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You're probably right. I thought I'd read mediums somewhere but can't find it now :nervous:.
 
Dante said:
You're probably right. I thought I'd read mediums somewhere but can't find it now :nervous:.
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From what I read, Button was on the mediums.

Think Merc are the team to beat right now, McLaren clearly much better than last year but that's not saying much. Hopefully Red Bull's problems continue :D
 
Here's where I read it:

http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/...ser-auto-ist-noch-eine-baustelle-8087034.html

Hamilton was on softs and Jenson was on supersofts.

According to LH:
"I also have completed no real qualifying run"

Whilst Button is saying:
"We know we are not the quickest. We know we are not slow either"

Which implies that Merc put in that time despite not going balls out compared to the Maclaren.

If you're desperate to place an early bet, it'd have to go on Mercedes.
 
Not been following the testing much be noticing the analysts writing about Red Bull possibly being in big trouble early on here. Are they having big reliability problems so far?
 
Yeah. The Renault engine is a piece of shite, essentially. Red Bull seem to have some extra problems as well.
 
Reading that they have done only about a third of the amount of laps as everyone else has done. Wow, that's pretty bad!
 
iSparky said:
Reading that they have done only about a third of the amount of laps as everyone else has done. Wow, that's pretty bad!
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It's pretty much a disaster for Renault powered teams, they are probably going to head into the first race with less than half the laps of the top teams and thats assuming a decent last test for them. You put the engine aside thats a huge loss on base setup work, reliability, driver style, aero tweaks.

I'm sure it will get better but I'd be amazed if the Renault teams are competitive early season and even if they are they will probably break down a fair bit.
 
Kobayashi was saying the Renault engines were 30km/h down just the other day. Haven't done the maths but they're all getting lapped if that doesn't improve substantially by Melbourne.
 
Ubik said:
Kobayashi was saying the Renault engines were 30km/h down just the other day. Haven't done the maths but they're all getting lapped if that doesn't improve substantially by Melbourne.
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God I hope so :drool:
 
If the first race was tomorrow I don't think a Renault powered car would even finish.
 
Been watching the highlights from the testing days in Bahrain today. Will be interesting to see how Magnussen does in his first race. I know testing is testing, but he has finished with the fastest time of the day twice. Once in Jerez, and once in Bahrain. With half the cars looking more likely to break down than to finish the race, he might place high in Australia. Nice to see McLaren giving him the shot.

Also, just realized Chelsea FC and Sauber F1 are in a partnership. Was profoundly confused when I saw the Chelsea logo on the wall behind Sutil. Seems like an odd partnership to me.
 
Yeah I watched that and thought it was great, especially after seeing Rush recently.
 
Williams have recruited Rob Smedley from Ferrari as part of an overhaul of the team's engineering department.

The 40-year-old, who has become known for his amusing radio communications with Felipe Massa, is to lead Williams's race operations.

Smedley's new role as head of vehicle performance is more senior than his position at Ferrari, who failed in an attempt to persuade him to stay.

Not really a big shock, it was always on the cards after Massa joined them.
 
Sounds like another bad day for Red Bull. 35 laps only. Considering the time they've already lost it is disasterous.
 
I'm not sure they've actually completed a race distance over a single day yet. I'm not even talking about a race-sim, just in terms of pure lap count. They'll probably do 100 laps in each of the three days left now I've said that, but they're well up against it.
 
Renault have requested an extention of two months for the engine homologation:

  1. _64200051_bbcsport%27schieff1writerandrewbenson.jpg

    BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer Andrew Benson:
    "It's fair to say Renault's request for an extension to the engine homologation deadline has stirred up a bit of a hornet's nest. It's a very controversial thing to request, for two reasons - 1) these engine rules are effectively only in F1 because Renault wanted them and threatened to quit if they were not introduced; 2) the manufacturers have already had an extra year to develop the engines, after the initial date for the introduction of hybrid turbos was pushed back from 2013. Renault want an extra two months of development before specs are frozen, by the way. Contrary to what I wrote earlier, unanimity is needed for Renault's request to pass. Apologies for any confusion."
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Probably Red Bull throwing their toys out of the pram because they don't have the dominant car on the grid for once.
 
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