If they have to use 2015 PU's, then waste of time choosing Honda if they want to get any decent mileage in.
Interesting there's no Mercedes powered representative. Wet running is pretty irrelevant in F1 these days, but potentially it could lead to tyre development that disfavours the torque map, etc of Mercedes. No doubt there'll be a dry test they're represented at though, which is more important.
I dont know if this gives away too much on Haas' Livery design? hope not. bit neutral please log in to view this image
Gianlu D'Alessandro @Gianlu_DAle 50m50 minutes ago 2016 Ferrari (Ferrari 667) according to #Autosprint | #Ferrari please log in to view this image
Well I always thought that by being so open so early with size zero but never having a PU to maximise it, I thought that McLaren might give the game away when other teams follow suit, but with reliable engines! Having said that- it may yet present some of these other teams problems- and on the flip side it might be the thing to catch Mercedes out if they play safe with their dominance and other teams suddenly make a jump. Doubt it though.
This years McHonda rumored to be 223bhp (oddly specific) more that last seasons. Redesigned ers and turbo configuration. That might sound impressive (and could well turn out to be), but truth is, they weren't that number short last season it was just their ers running out down straights, so a lot of that headline number is just from their ers being able to last now, they haven't really "gained" 223bhp, they will just be able to deploy the power they had for longer. Suddenly "oh, we found about 50-60hp by just bolting a bigger turbo on" and "we're probably still 80bhp down on Mercedes and Ferrari" doesn't sound so impressive.
Agree that it sounds more impressive than it likely is- no one would love to see McLaren take the fight to Merc and Ferrari more than me but it is a big ask to make a jump to get level with them. Bookmakers have cut Alonso to 20/1 for the WDC (from 50/1) and Button into 40/1 (from 150/1) across the board today- presumably as a panic reaction to the 223bhp headline story.
If you see a story promising huge improvement from McLaren, the safest thing to do is to assume it's complete bullshit like the previous 50 times.
I agree, McHonda have time and again said they have improved but for it to come to nothing. If it is not true this time Honda will look like complete fools, it would be hugely damaging to their reputation. It was disappointing that Honda did get it so wrong in their first season and then not be able to fix it due to lack of tokens. If they get it wrong this year they have absolutely no excuse. They had all last season to develop reliability and develop fixes for known design errors. 2016 should be the time to implement the fixes and since the FIA mandated the wastegate change dictating a turbo redesign without any tokens they have more than enough tokens to solve their issues. I really hope McHonda have their act together and they can at minimum get into Q3 and have some good battles in race.
Oh, they've improved that's for sure, they got a free pass to redesign their layout so it's far closer to Mercedes at the inlet where all their problems were. the car I'm interested in seeing is how RBR's Tag/Renault PU fares compared to the works Renault.
Pirelli's wet tyre testing has begun. Time to play spot the difference to 2015 cars (although it'll probably all be well hidden under the covers) please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
Although hopefully there's no 2016 in McLarens tester....... please log in to view this image Red Bull have dropped the Renault/Infiniti part at least please log in to view this image
