Lewis Hamilton has been adding horse meets to beef supply chain.* *Disclaimer: This is a joke. It was really Schumacher.
El_Bando's Pecking order (after 1st test): Mclaren/Ferrari/Lotus - Quick, not yet reliable Red Bull/Sauber - Reliable, not yet quick Mercedes Williams Force India Toro Rosso Caterham Marussia
I think the dark horses are Lotus, Sauber-STR-FI also look stronger than usual. With my casualties being Ferrari-Mercedes-Marussia. Williams and Caterham look okay. Of course Mclaren, Redbull are still up there IMO.
Fastest: McLaren (Sandbagging) IRBR (Sandbagging) Ferrari (Ferrari slightly sadbagging still) Lotus=Sauber (Sauber sandbagging slightly, Lotus are not) Mercedes (Not sandbagging) FI=TR=(Williams) " " Caterham " " Marussia " " Best: IRBR (Reliable and fast) McLaren=Lotus (McL fast but not relibale, Lotus pretty good reliability but not as fast as McL, Ferrari or RB) Ferrari=Sauber (1 very fast, but has major heat problems, Sauber looks good race pace and relibale) Mercedes (Almost as fast as the guys above but, suffering major heat problems) TR (Quick, but they always look quick in testing so maybe again slower than FI and Williams) FI=Williams Caterham Marussia
I think it's Red Bull McLaren=Ferrari (McLaren possibly a bit quicker) Lotus Sauber=Mercedes Force India Toro Rosso Caterham Marussia
Andrew Benson ‏@andrewbensonf1 A little bird says Ferrari have brought back legendary designer Rory Byrne (man behind Schumacher's titles) to head 2014 car programme Interesting....
He designed their floor last year and made a hash of it, so I don't think he is as big of a threat as the media like to make out. It's important to notice but not a game changer.
"Okay guys, I'm the new Ferrari test driver, very funny, next you're going to tell me I won the Euromillions I bet..."
Unfair to criticize him over a bad floor design surely. New regs in 2014 is a different kettle of fish. The car will have mostly his input.
Newey made a hash of the MP4-18, it doesn't make him any less of a threat. Sometimes extreme designs don't work as expected.
Lauda considers IRBR and Seb the fastest of the grid at the moment: http://www.bild.de/sport/motorsport...it-den-top-teams-mithalten-28451532.bild.html Lauda: "The cars are relatively close together, Vettel is in my judgment at the moment the fastest. The car works well, looks reliable. He is currently a bit faster than the rest My joy is that the Mercedes now can compete with the top three teams. "
Some quotes from De La Rosa to Spanish media: "Estoy encantado de estar en Ferrari. No se puede comparar Ferrari y McLaren, los dos quieron lo mejor" "I am delighted to be in Ferrari. You can't compare Ferrari and McLaren, both of them want the best" ''No se donde esta el coche porque para mi ha sido un dia se aprendizaje y de coger datos para compararlos con el simulador'' ''We do not know where the car is [in terms of pace] because for me it has been a day of learning and of collecting data in order to compare with the simulator" ",El simulador deFerrari está menos avanzada que el de Mclaren tanto de hardware y software, pero el F138 es bueno" "Ferrari's simulator is less advanced than Mclaren's, in hardware and software as well, but the F138 is good."
More Benson fail. BBC Sport homepage has a link to "Testing Times for F1 Frontrunners-Chief F1 writer Andrew Benson assesses the performances of leading drivers after four-days testing at Spain's Jerez circuit", despite the Benson name being associated with it, I decided to have a read. On clicking the link, I'm confronted with the story "Testing Times for Lewis Hamilton and F1 Frontrunners" In fact, the article consists of 35 mini paragraphs (yes I counted), and it takes until halfway through the 8th paragraph to mention another driver (Massa), albeit Rosberg gets a passing acknowledgement as Hamilton's team-mate. Hamilton also gets a couple of other paragraphs dedicated to him later on, with the rest being generic, or a reference to stand-out times. Alonso then gets 3 paragraphs at the end. So in an article about the front runners... Name drop count: Hamilton-15; Alonso-5;Massa-4; Button-2; Rosberg-2; Vettel-2; Raikkonen-1; Not Mentioned: Perez, Webber, Grosjean, Total: 31 So in this article dubbed "Testing Times for F1 Frontrunners" nearly 50% of name-drops are for Lewis Hamilton, someone who I think it's safe to say nobody on this forum (and most likely nobody on the F1 Grid) would have down as a serious title contender (which would be my criteria for a 'frontrunner'). If it was British bias, I could handle that as it's a British media outlet, but Button who put in one of the most intriguing lap times of the week, in a car that looks genuinely pacy, gets less than 20% of the mentions. Sure, Hamilton creates interest, but if I wanted to read a Hamilton article I would have clicked on it!
