Mercedes fairly reliable. Ferrari fairly reliable. A lot of cars petrified to drive in the wet. Not so hot. Redbull over loved.
Sky's Ted's Notebook was interesting today - a bit more analysing with lots of images. It will probably be on youtube later. Here is a screen shot of the Merc - it was there to show Lewis's steering wheel but it seems like the sticker on the side is peeling or is that is a design effect - left hand side towards the bottom, any ideas?
Cars looks to be able to get pretty close. Can't wait to see how that works out during a race weekend. And who isn't a lover of that Ferrari? I mean, just look at it!!!!
It has been reported that while it's much easier to follow closely but they don't get very much slipstream effect on the straights. So looks like DRS is very much needed . It's also being reported that some teams can't run DRS due to porpoising. I guess they all have a lot of things to work on!
Well if the cars can at least not be sliding around as much or overheating so badly, then at least we're taking a step in the right direction finally And I imagine it's going to be some busy times when they get back to the factories to start tackling some of these issues. They really should have allocated more testing for the start of this season imo.
I can't imagine many of the staff having any days off between now and first race, I guess 7 day a week working. As for more testing time I'm not sure. Then now only get 6 days testing and 2 x 100km promotional running max before the first race weekend plus they have the budget caps. I think that this year we might see the budget caps really starting to take effect. I am surprised that Red Bull have such an intricate car after last years battle to develop their car but then again they have 'Alpha T's' budget to play with. They did have almost 2 years to work on the new cars though due to their introduction being delayed - I think. I am hoping that with such limited testing and the budget cap the teams will be more closely matched. Although the new regs will mix things up a fair bit for a while. I am quite liking the idea that teams can't just throw money at an issue to solve it as the cap stops that. With limited tunnel and CFD times it could be great for some teams and terrible for others... Can't wait for the season to start. Oh and for those that like 'edited to created drama tv' Drive to Survive is out 11th March
Btw... I think the separate team threads have worked out great. Can't remember who suggested it, but thumbs up!
Thanks chaps- bit of a risk wasn’t it but also a huge thanks to you all for an open minded approach. Like we said at the time- if it worked out, great- if it didn’t- then we just stick to what we know. Works really well with this new era and so much early development! It will probably evolve in the final third of the season away from more technical stuff and into more racing and drama of the season. It will be useful too though in the team threads to capture some of the interesting stuff that happens in the midfield and back of the grid away from the major narratives- who knows perhaps we will find ourselves talking about a new star like Alonso at Minardi or a Russell at Williams.
Re the bouncing: I initially just thought it was an aero issue that was uncomfortable for the drivers and might be a bit iffy on high speed change of directions. I think there might be a bigger issue here, that is reliability! If the cars are bouncing that much they are going to be damaging their floors and causing undue vibrations that could fatigue parts much quicker than expected or just exceed loading on certain components! I think all the engineers will be working flat out to solve this one as it's not going to be easy to test as they can allow the floors to hit the rolling roads in the tunnel plus they aren't allowed full scale models!! McLaren are claiming that they didn't design the floor to not bounce and it was just a fluke that they are relatively OK - or is that just a bluff so other teams don't try and copy what they can see on McL? If only I could be a fly on the wall at the factories
yeah the gear box damage the redbull suffered is MAYBE a direct result of this. The under floor parts are wearing but it is also that the cars are rising up and settling back down as the side vortices are re-established if you lose down force in a high speed cover you are 100% spearing off and that's why i can call Saudi Arabia a death trap track. All I can think is that people with wide elbows. ahem... we all know who.... will either have a huge puncture as these side floors are sharp no matter what people say Or they will have an utterly undrivable car as they won't have a side floor. I can't wat to see what happens the first times people stick a tyre in the wrong place. both cars will be out imo.
Just dont know. Someone is wrong in terms of downforce here. It's a question of who as there are competing approaches thus far even if a lot of elements are open. Merc had good reliability and came out of last year with best engines. They should not be suddenly slow here. The thing is 60% if rear downforce will be from the floor. That's double what the under floor and diffusers were doing last year. So teams like ferrary seem to be using the body to super power their rear wing secondary beam. The front wings are not not generating hard the power at the front either. The floor is also dominating that. The only I could see were red bull radically different approach to t tray and the slats while merc were interesting and Aston had a double t tray. Aside from that none of us can see the bulk of aero effect right now under the car. Some cars seem more stable than others however so perhaps the stability/lack of porpoising points to the best car in 2022??
What I'd love to see is radically different philosophies that work equally well, or that even out over a season. That would be the dream. Something that makes for a fascinating technical battle and tends away from design convergence in the long term.
Not sure about dominant but I think there will be some cards shuffled. I do want Lewis to get his 8th, this year or next. I want to see Ferrari and McLaren up there. Not Red Bull, that is because of Horner, not because of Max.
