I've started reading motorsport.com a lot more these days. A lot less knee jerky than most other places. They've got a lot of good technical pieces as well, they brought Matt Somerfield on board recently who does some good stuff.
How embarrassing would it be for Honda to break down on day 1!!! I would imagine today was a very low power run to check systems and not break down in front of the press on the first day. I hope they will look at the data and confirm test bed readings and then wind it up over the next few days.
Whilst on the Honda topic, Benson reckons Button was 2nd fastest through the final "twisty" sector behind Hamilton, but 12-14KPH down on straight line speeds. Reading across many forums, apparently Honda have a new ICE and TurboCharger to test once they get the ERS up to speed- the Turbo-Charger being the bigger of the performance increases, all being well. I'm intrigued to see how they get on that's for sure. I'm also awaiting details on the Ferari PU- not much chat about that on day one as of yet. I'd also just like to add an element of realism- Mercedes very often run choc-full on fuel on day one and their performance today was electric- make no mistake about that. They are the benchmark- I just hope they haven't found too much extra.
That's measured by the speed trap at the end of the main straight though, which only tells half the story. Eg, if Mclaren are only just hitting top speed by the end of the straight, whilst Mercedes hit it halfway along it, then that ~12kph in top speed translates into a massive difference in lap time. On the other hand, it's a pretty long straight so to be within that kind of margin isn't terrible. One of Mclaren's problems last year were having the ERS system capable of deploying at maximum lap after lap, which meant they'd go from 10kph down, to nearer 30 for 3 laps in 4. If they can run consistently at 10kph down, that's a massive boost already.
Manor apparently 6 seconds faster than their best efforts at the Spanish GP last year. The benefit of a Mercedes engine, I guess.
Don't forget they were using a 2014 Ferrari engine last year! Even though 6 sec faster is very impressive. If McHonda can gain half of that it might be a good year.
anyone got a link to the lap times, BBC is to busy posting pictures of lollies and sweets to bother with information.
Anyone else think that Renault looks rather like the Caterham livery, with the dark green looking black in the right light? Doesn't help the Caterham/Team Lotus/Lotus/Renault confusion of the last few years.
From what I've read, that's with 2015s engine with 2016 bits.. They are to bring the 2016 engine next week.. could see that that speed differential drop further? Then again, the speed trap doesn't tell us if they were using DRS or if they were deploying all there ERS and fuel load.. Still, a step in the right direction?
Text and timing here. Good commentaryon motorsport.com too http://beta.autosport.com/live/commentary/id/1866595/formula-1-testing-2016-barcelona-f1-test-day-2
