Sky taking about cost caps and speculating that a team will break the cap etc.... They seem to be ignoring the B teams budget that will be used as a collective budget to produce 1 great car and second cheap back marker.
Pre-Season Testing 2020
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Not sure what the point in (seemingly) showing their hand so early is. Is there more to come? Are they attempting to get the others to show their hand? It doesn't seem typical though, unless my memory is failing.
I wonder if they are trying to show other teams the trick steering is a huge advantage so they invest big time in it whereas it's not a huge deal
Plus some new teams, Bercedes, Cercedes, Fiat & Lancia.
I wonder if they are trying to show other teams the trick steering is a huge advantage so they invest big time in it whereas it's not a huge deal
Ha! Maybe.
Mercedes steering has been banned......
....for 2021. What's the point of that? Mercedes favouritism
....for 2021. What's the point of that? Mercedes favouritism
F1 is banning itself out of relevancy, so sure... Go ahead and ban it. Might as well keep travelling the same road.
I mean, who wants to see innovation in F1? Let's just become a spec-series and be done.
My guess is that it's only banned next year as Merc found a loophole and FIA agreed that they would not be braking any rules but FIA decided to ban it in 2021 rules.
I for one want innovation, maybe more relevant to road car innovation but one team gaining an advantage from clever thinking is great. Pity it's a top team...
I just wish more of the innovation could be seen on the cars. There is too much that's hidden. I am sort of surprised Merc didn't put a cowling over the top of the column so it wasn't so obvious!! It's almost like they want to show their design off on day 1 of testing. They will have tested the system for many many hrs on the sim so drivers are well used to it. So they could have kept it under wraps till second test session?
Seems like it's either not worth the effort (I doubt) or it's so difficult/costly to implement others wont bother, especially as it's only allowed in 2020. I am guessing it requires changes to chassis and thus new crash tests.
I'm hoping for at least 1
when the DAS is moved
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when the DAS is moved
That is the fate of any good idea in F1 sadly. If other teams can’t copy it straight away then they complain until it gets banned. Certain teams are very influential.
In short, we can’t have anything nice.
It was actually banned for 2021 in October of last year. So I guess that tells us about when Mercedes were discussing this with the FIA.
I guess it would be tricky to ban now as Mercedes will have invested in it having been told its ok for this year a number of months back. It's kind of even worse now as there's not much point in others now chasing it!
I guess it would be tricky to ban now as Mercedes will have invested in it having been told its ok for this year a number of months back. It's kind of even worse now as there's not much point in others now chasing it!
I’m pretty sure this wouldn’t be the first time an idea has been ok’d with the FIA and then banned a short while later. Especially if it works too well.
If F1 was actually about innovation there wouldn't be any regulations at all. Its about getting the small details right.
The advantage of something like this would be gone by next season as everyone copies it anyway. Its banned because it was always meant to be. This is clearly a worse solution than controlling the same system with a button or automatic sensors. It's a loophole, not some bold new way that all cars should be from now on.
Mercedes get to keep it for this year as a reward for being smart and because its unfair to change regulations a few weeks before the season starts.
The advantage of something like this would be gone by next season as everyone copies it anyway. Its banned because it was always meant to be. This is clearly a worse solution than controlling the same system with a button or automatic sensors. It's a loophole, not some bold new way that all cars should be from now on.
Mercedes get to keep it for this year as a reward for being smart and because its unfair to change regulations a few weeks before the season starts.
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FASTEST LAP TIMES PER TEAM, FIRST PRE-SEASON TEST
1 Mercedes (Valtteri Bottas) 1:15.732 (ultra-soft tyre)
2 Renault (Esteban Ocon) 1:17.102 (soft tyre)
3 Racing Point (Lance Stroll) 1:17.338 (soft)
4 Alpha Tauri (Daniil Kvyat) 1:17.427 (soft)
5 Alfa Romeo (Antonio Giovinazzi) 1:17.469 (soft)
6 Red Bull (Max Verstappen) 1:17.636 (hard)
7 McLaren (Carlos Sainz) 1:17.842 (medium)
8 Ferrari (Sebastian Vettel) 1:18.154 (soft)
9 Williams (George Russel) 1:18.168 (medium)
10 Haas (Romain Grosjean) 1:18.380 (medium)
1 Mercedes (Valtteri Bottas) 1:15.732 (ultra-soft tyre)
2 Renault (Esteban Ocon) 1:17.102 (soft tyre)
3 Racing Point (Lance Stroll) 1:17.338 (soft)
4 Alpha Tauri (Daniil Kvyat) 1:17.427 (soft)
5 Alfa Romeo (Antonio Giovinazzi) 1:17.469 (soft)
6 Red Bull (Max Verstappen) 1:17.636 (hard)
7 McLaren (Carlos Sainz) 1:17.842 (medium)
8 Ferrari (Sebastian Vettel) 1:18.154 (soft)
9 Williams (George Russel) 1:18.168 (medium)
10 Haas (Romain Grosjean) 1:18.380 (medium)
The eye catcher in all of the tests for me was the Red Bull this week. Their direction change and the agility of the car was excellent. It might just lack that tiny bit of mechanical grip/stability that the Merc has but without question looks like the closest to Merc.
That 1:17.6 from Max on the C1 tyre is very, very impressive.
An interesting representation is that McLaren across a couple of different compounds can get within 6-8 tenths of Red Bull, which if representative would be a really good step forward for them. Both McLaren and Red Bull seem to have followed similar patterns in mileage and approach and hence they are the two I keep coming back to for a comparison at the moment.
Test 2 will be very interesting. Will Ferrari either rock up with a “B” car and new nose? Will they turn up the engine and suddenly threaten? Have they had a disaster? Just how fast can Merc go? They usually turn the wick up in test 2. Will Racing Point find themselves ahead of Ferrari and the midfield or will they find that the 2020 cars have rapidly out developed the “Pink W10.”
That 1:17.6 from Max on the C1 tyre is very, very impressive.
An interesting representation is that McLaren across a couple of different compounds can get within 6-8 tenths of Red Bull, which if representative would be a really good step forward for them. Both McLaren and Red Bull seem to have followed similar patterns in mileage and approach and hence they are the two I keep coming back to for a comparison at the moment.
Test 2 will be very interesting. Will Ferrari either rock up with a “B” car and new nose? Will they turn up the engine and suddenly threaten? Have they had a disaster? Just how fast can Merc go? They usually turn the wick up in test 2. Will Racing Point find themselves ahead of Ferrari and the midfield or will they find that the 2020 cars have rapidly out developed the “Pink W10.”
Must say that the pink Merc is putting in some impressive times. OK so it's week 1 of testing and we can't read too much in to it but it is looking like Merc are mighty quick. I hope we see others giving full power, low fuel and super sticky tyres next week. I just hope Merc were running max power, low fuel with the c5 this week and not sandbagging otherwise the rest are doomed.....