2017 Pre-Season Testing: Barcelona

On the other hand a company that can master the current PU specs must be held in very high esteem. So for a new company to come in and match or beat an existing PU supplier would give them massive publicity!!!!
Also if a company were to start building a new PU they can test in a mule till they 'enter' F1 officially.
OK so no one in their right mind would invest enough to create a PU from scratch as the regs might change soon.

 

Getting all the systems to work together is a very difficult one but it seems like Honda have reliability issues. It does seem Honda have things very wrong but I dont really understand how they have it so wrong. They have multi years of data and the historic reliability failures to work from.
Just really gob smacked they still have big issues.

 

Yes, its the fact that after at least 3 years development already (allowing for the design time before 2015 when they were building it) they are still so far away its untrue.

They have now gone and completely redesigned it, and got something that is at best no better than what they had before, or at worst, is more unreliable and down on power than what they finished with in 2016! That's just utter failure on every level.

They knew what they had to do to get to the grid in 2015, just like all the manufacturers did before 2014. They just point blank haven't done it right.

 

Looking on the positive side, McLaren may yet beat their own penatly record.

 

Get Norris on the phone now!

 

Not Cheryl Baker?

 

I'm old school!

Or just old. Yeah, old.

 

Can't tell for certain from testing, but my gut feeling is still telling me that Merc is holding back and is still the car to beat.

I also think Red Bull have something left, but might not quite be there. I hope it's going to be a three way fight between Merc, Ferrari and Red Bull. And I'm hoping for a Vettel WDC

 

Hamilton's been a bit slower than Bottas and seemed less happy with the balance of the car. Significant? Who knows at this stage.

 

well according to mr honda the mounting of compressor and turbine has changed to mimic the Mercedes and they were not even sure if it would work due to shaft size and 120,000 revs etc

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/127654

It seems to me its not working and its breaking down.

 

I dunno. I would not rate bottas so if hamilton is not 0.3 to 0.5 seconds ahead of the guy consistently something is wrong.

 

Yeah, me too. Hamilton should be loads faster, I think 0.5 seconds is the minimum I'm expecting. In fact I wouldn't be surprised to see Hamilton on Pole for most of the races, and Bottas back in the pack.

 

I dunno.

I might see a mix up IF there is really a ferrari worth bothering about.

I think if there is... well.... I can see the nice friendly everyone is in the team merc vanish and bottas will be a firm no 2 driver backing Hamilton. Wolff and lauda will not allow a competitive advantage emerge for another team.

IMO raikkonen won't beat vettel in this car in quali.

 

So McLaren have managed a 1:21.3 today with that ****heap of an engine- their must be at least a semblance of pace in that chassis.

 

Looking at these times, I'm actually starting to get a bit optimistic that this could be a cracking season!

Unless Merc offload the concrete that is...

 

What Honda need to do is buy Manor's stock and glue Honda badges over the Mercedes unit.

 

The pit reporters... who claim to have had words with those in the know believe that Redbull and certainly Ferrari have caught up but they think the Merc is still the car to beat and that they haven't come close to unleashing this years car yet.. I hope these so called experts are wrong! If I see a Merc 1-2 at Aus and the rest 10+ seconds behind and it appearing that Merc cruised home, I may take up viewing of extreme sports like watching paint dry!

 

It is one of a number of components Honda can't make work! The others being the rest of the engine and the hybrid system! Generally, they're a bit screwed all round!

 

true. I've lost count of component failure reasons given.

 

Merc have their updated engine and have done quali sims with both drivers, so the only question is what level of fuel they carried? Vettels best sectors and time corrected for the lift puts him on a 18.5, and the suggestion is that on his soft run (which is the most impressive time compared to a Merc) he had at least 10 laps of fuel. So Merc would have to have their engine turned down or be on half tanks to have the advantage they had last year. Judging by the change of direction, the Merc did not have 50Kg of fuel on board.