Muretto Box F.1 ‏@MurettoBoxF1 #F1 According to Gazzetta,Ferrari run a lower downforce setup in Bahrain. Why? To reduce drag, then fuel consumption. Merc is more efficient
http://thejudge13.com/2014/03/04/daily-f1-news-and-comment-tuesday-4th-march-2014/#Marko Watch Speaking to Sevus TV, Herr Helmut admits, “The season opener is coming at least two months too early for us. We are not where we should be”, he added. “This is a very, very serious thing. At the moment we do not know what [time] period we will need to catch up, or whether we will at all.” Whilst it may be a stretch to say the all seeing eye into Red Bull’s F1 operation is compelled by some irresistible force to always speak the truth – like some deranged Jim Carey character – we can be sure the increasingly loveable Helmut does spout what he believes to be the truth. Even if this were a manipulative release from Herr Doktor, he gains nothing by bluffing that Red Bull are in fact behind where they really are. Does anyone think the other teams hearing this are going to relax, give their employees a few extra hours a day off or cease force feeding them energy drinks to increase productivity because the dreaded Bull is mortally wounded? A guest on the Red Bull TV channel, Niki Lauda quips at Marko, “If you started earlier, you’d finish sooner,” a reference to the relentless obsession in continuing to develop the RB9 which dominated all before it during the last 9 races of 2013. Marko was quick to respond, “Can you say that in French The engine comes from Renault The message must go there? . . “ Marko criticises Renault’s approach to testing the engine. He claims the engine, gearbox and ERS components weren’t tested as a whole unit prior to the car hitting the track in Jerez, hence why the vibrations only became noticeable then. “There is the conventional turbo engine, supplemented by the two energy recovery systems . The interaction of these as a single unit is making it difficult to deliver harmonious driving characteristics, “Marko explains. “We are currently struggling with the turbo lag. This is enhanced when the electric power is supplied. So, you step on the gas and only nothing happens. Then suddenly in comes the power and spins up the wheels”. This is a software problem and it means Renault have not even begun to tune the engine because delivering continuous and regular lap times has not been possible. “I think we have a good car,” states Herr Doktor, “especially in the high speed corners because our car was again the quickest. But you need a motor that works. We now need to survive this initial phase.” Both Lauda and Marko are predicting an orgy of failures in Melbourne. The Markop suggests even some of the cars that finish will be in fuel conservation mode at the end of the race and some 5-10 seconds away from the leading lap times. Defiant as always, Herr Doktor tries to wind Niki up by suggesting his analysis could see the Mercedes team beaten by Williams in Melbourne. Lauda is on his ‘A’ game, quickly responding with another jibe. “Our customers are as important as we ourselves, if they win, I can say to my own team… if they can… why not us? This will provide the motivation for us in-house. This is a very constructive competition.” Marko is candid of Vettel’s chances in the up-coming race. “Right now, it would be a success if we reach the finish line because we’ve not done many miles. When half the field retires, then we may grab a few take points.” please log in to view this image
How are the Renault teams going to qualify in Aus? If Red Bull has had its engine turned down in testing, will it survive full power for long enough to put together a qualifying session? Actually, while it will be interesting to see how many cars fail during the race, I wonder how many will fail in quali.
What a load of bollocks!!!! A lap time is a lap time, not matter where you set the reference point! They still have to go through the bits they are slower than all the others to complete a lap. Then again, it is an Italian publication this has come from........ Gotta keep the shareholders happy eh?
Lauda made it very clear that nobody will be sandbagging as the amount of jobs they have on the table is too much TO sandbag. Speed traps show Ferrari are pushing harder than anybody IMO if that's anything to go by.
I don't believe the article but there are rolling lap times, theoretical lap times and actual lap times - so in principle a driver could spend all morning doing the first half a lap at optimum and then coasting the rest and then in the afternoon reverse it. The lap times would look poor but the the theoretical could be stonking. The flip side is that depending on the circuit, they may also have differents set ups which could increase sector performances but wouldn't work over a actual lap!
Not buying the claim about Ferrari lap-times, even if it is plausible. To hide your true pace, you'd have to be slow on the "real" lap leading up to your chosen detection point, and from the moment you got to the same point until the end of the "real" lap. That means for every one genuine lap you attempt you're writing off two laps. Pitting could probably reduce that to 50% of your distance being at below-optimum admittedly, but I still don't see a team wanting to halve the amount of genuine data they get, with pre-season testing as crucial as it is.
Red Bull are the only team I know who actually sandbags, every other team is showing the pace, bar Williams who always go harder in testing.
With hindsight didn't McLaren sandbag back in 2012 testing? They were not particularly quick in testing and then came out with the fastest car for the first three races. I'm hoping it's a similar case this year as they have looked off the pace at least in the last test.
I'd love that to be true, and whilst the lack of reliabilty may have hidden some of their pace I just dont think they are where they need to be.
Listening to Jenson's interviews I get the sense they did not want any 'surprises' with their car like they had last year with the ride height, so it looks like they have built a car with a decent base but one that will need plenty of good development in order to get them where they really want to be. I know they have the innovative rear suspension but perhaps they have gone too conservative after being scared by what happened after they went radical on design last year.
I'm not sure any team was sandbagging as such, but pretty sure many teams will have had testing programs that focused much less on out-and-out speed and more on reliability and understand these new cars. We've probably not seen any team really show their true potential yet.
