Official Pre-season testing thread

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That has to be the biggest anticlimax ever! Hang your heads in shame all those in charge and the FIA!
 
Smithers said:
That has to be the biggest anticlimax ever! Hang your heads in shame all those in charge and the FIA!
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No no. The teams have had plenty of time to get their acts together with the engines etc.

I think it shows how complacent they have become with just the odd rule tinkering. Now they have had to be completely new and innovative, they've screwed themselves!
 
Insight from Gary Anderson - who think Red Bull look the strongest <doh>

Formula 1 testing 2014: Gary Anderson's day one verdict

Only 93 laps were completed today by eight cars. Why have the teams struggled to be ready?

I am a bit confused as to why some of the top teams, for example McLaren, haven't been able to go out at all.

Ferrari managed 31 laps, which was very respectable.

I suspected that if anyone managed more than 20 laps and could do more than four or five in a row, that would be some achievement.

This shows just how complicated it is to get on top of the new 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 power units.

Last year on the first day of the Jerez test, the fastest time was a 1m18.861s. Today, Kimi Raikkonen set the pace with a 1m27.104s. Why are the cars so slow?

We have not seen anything like the full potential of these cars. Nobody will have run with the full electrical power available or the true braking performance needed to charge the battery pack. So there is time to come.

But you might only be talking about two or three seconds this week, so we are looking at a significant drop in lap time.

I'd imagine we might see a 1m24s or at best a 1m23s this week. It seems that the cars could be four or five seconds slower this year but tomorrow will tell us a lot more.

Given the problems, will teams be able to recover ground and get their cars ready for the first race in Australia on March 16?

Yes, they will get a lot sorted out. Will they be reliable in Melbourne? No, because the systems are complicated and nobody will be 100 per cent on top of it.

There will be a lot of crossed fingers on the pitwall because you never know when you are going to hit problems that you haven't yet catered for.

It's hard to predict how many will finish, some will be limping, but while in recent years we have been looking at 18-20 cars making the chequered flag in a normal races, that will be massively reduced early on.

Mercedes was ahead in terms of laps this morning, but then missed the rest of the day after Lewis Hamilton crashed when he lost his front wing. So has Mercedes thrown away what was a very handy head start?

The fundamental car seems to be underneath the team. The reason for the front wing failure has not been revealed and there will be a lot of overtime being done at Brackley tonight with parts coming out overnight.

Ferrari, having stopped on its first lap, completed 14 more laps, so yes Mercedes did lose that initial advantage. But the car still completed more laps than the rest.

Will tomorrow be similar?

Yes, more of the same. Everybody will come in, open the garage door and have no idea what to expect and many will have to work all night.

These cars are all new and even the routines when the car comes into the garage after a run have changed dramatically or are being created new here. It's an incredibly steep learning curve.

If you had to pick one team to be in charge of based on where it is so far, which would it be?

Red Bull. The car only did three laps, but that's about reliability and functionality and it will improve. But the RB10 looks a very logical, well-designed car.

That's very unfortunate for anyone hoping to see F1's dominant team struggle...

Have we learned anything definitive from day one of testing?

There are ugly noses and even uglier noses! It's interesting to see variations in car design in this area so it will be good to see which concept everyone hones in on as things develop. These cars will look very different mid-season compared to now.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/112329
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Newey querying safety of new regs :-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/25931008


As is well put, if he was that concerned, why did he not attend any of the technical group meetings to put forward his concerns, or has he seen designs that he thinks are better than his and has got the hump?

The noses are lower than previous years, but no worse than seen during the mid 00's etc.
 
allsaintchris. said:
Newey querying safety of new regs :-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/25931008


As is well put, if he was that concerned, why did he not attend any of the technical group meetings to put forward his concerns, or has he seen designs that he thinks are better than his and has got the hump?

The noses are lower than previous years, but no worse than seen during the mid 00's etc.
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I think he's more concerned about them aesthetically than anything. They don't look dangerous, and it's the same for everyone performance wise.
 
Believe In Lewis said:
Gary Anderson showing why BBC let him go
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It remains to be seen if McNish is any better though!

allsaintchris. said:
As is well put, if he was that concerned, why did he not attend any of the technical group meetings to put forward his concerns, or has he seen designs that he thinks are better than his and has got the hump?

The noses are lower than previous years, but no worse than seen during the mid 00's etc.
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Yeah, moaning after you've had a perfectly good opportunity for input just makes him sound bitter really. Odd comments to make after a single day of testing too.
 
This is how they should have looked!

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I am amazed by how many teams did actually get out on track. To me it looks like their project management teams were a bit poor. I know that they are continuously testing and finalising designs but it does seem that they should have had an earlier cut off so the guys who actually build the bits and those that put them together could have enough time to test fit everything and check all systems. It seems like some teams turned up with half build cars and have been working flat out over night to put them together for the first time. As per most projects, when time slips it's always the final testing time that gets cut, so when they get to the track they are not ready to just start engine and roll out of garage.

I know they are not allowed to 'test' current or last 2 F1 cars but why can't/don't the teams build a 'rolling' 4 wheel testbed that is not compliant with FIA rules and doesn't use correct rubber but they could at least run the engines, transmissions and all the electric systems.
 
McNish is alright in commentating but his knowledge is somewhat lacking in all areas of F1. I mean the guy convinced half the world that non flashing yellows meant Vettel illegally overtook about 3-4 cars at Brazil 2012 even though it states 'slippery on track' .
 
Actually, the Force India nose is growing on me (*giggity*), in shakey-cam footage you can barely see it.
 
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