F1 - General discussion and 2017

[Agent_Smith]

I wouldn't be judging Bottas just yet. He's new to the team, and there are multiple factors at play. Is he on a different test schedule to Hamilton? Same tyres? Same fuel loads? Importantly, he's running at different times to Hamilton so track conditions will be different. Will wait until FP1 in Australia to see how he goes vs Hamilton.

 

[caroper]

Bottas is also back out on track in the Mercedes and has just completed his outlap.
Alonso is out in the McLaren-Honda.
And Bottas goes fastest on a 1m21.099s on his first flying lap of this run. He's on soft tyres.

McLaren are not expecting to set any timed laps this morning. The word from the team is that they are simply focused on aero runs.

The battle for P1 resumes with Bottas taking over with a 1:21.099.
This lap might be quicker still...

 

[caroper]

But Alonso has other ideas - he's set his first time of the day and goes third on a 1m23.956s.

 

[caroper]

A timing update after a flurry of activity:

1.	Vettel		Ferrari			SF70-H	1:21.609		38	●	
2.	Bottas		Mercedes		W08	1:21.990	+0.381	35	●	
3.	Stroll		Williams		FW40	1:23.750	+2.141	12	●	
4.	Alonso		McLaren			MCL32	1:23.956	+2.347	18	●	PIT
5.	Kvyat		Toro Rosso		STR12	1:24.190	+2.581	21	●	PIT
6.	Ericsson	Sauber			C36	1:25.174	+3.565	24	●	PIT
7.	Palmer		Renault			RS17	1:25.200	+3.591	12	●	
8.	Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing		RB13	1:30.830	+9.221	14	●	PIT
9.	Grosjean	Haas F1			VF-17	1:31.820	+10.211	6	●	
10.	Celis jr	Force India		VJM10	1:39.293	+17.684	8	●	
11.	Sainz jr	Toro Rosso		STR12	no time			0	●	PIT
12.	Hamilton	Mercedes		W08	no time			0	●	PIT
13.	Massa		Williams		FW40	no time			0	●	PIT
14.	Hülkenberg	Renault			RS17	no time			0	●	PIT

GROSJEAN FIRST FLYING LAP...
It's a 1:26.595 for the Haas driver.
Six cars on track at the moment; Bottas, Vettel, Stroll, Palmer, Grosjean and Ricciardo.

WE HADN'T SEEN CELIS FOR A WHILE
The Force India development driver went out for a quick run just before, but is back in the pits.
Only nine laps so far for him.

 

[Dave]

World champion Nico Rosberg is in the Mercedes garage this morning

Hamilton better check his car for sugar in the tank or iron filings in the oil

 

[caroper]

In encouraging news for Renault, the Red Bull has been a prominent presence on speed trap data around the Circuit de Catalunya so far - pointing to more grunt being generated by the French manufacturer's engine.

Haas seem happy with the early reliability of their new Ferrari-powered challenger and Romain Grosjean, sampling the car for the first time today, now has his first lap time on the board with a 1:26.595.

Bottas and Vettel are both lapping in the 1:23s at the moment as they both work towards 50 laps for the morning.

Neither car has shown any hint of technical fallibility so far, which will please both Mercedes and Ferrari.

Sauber have been near the foot of the timesheets so far this winter - but that last lap from Marcus Ericsson is by far their best so far.

A 1:22.626 vaults the Swede up to third place, 1.5 seconds off the pace.

 

[caroper]

		DRIVER		MAX SPEED	
1.	Vettel		281.2	0
2.	Stroll		281.2	0
3.	Ericsson	279.7	0
4.	Bottas		278.3	0
5.	Palmer		278.3	0
6.	Kvyat		275.5	0
7.	Grosjean	273.4	0
8.	Ricciardo	272.7	0
9.	Alonso		268.6	0
10.	Celis jr	258.9	0

 

[caroper]

Mario Andretti used to say that the ground effect Lotus 79 was painted to the ground. Well, exiting Turn 2 and into Turn 3, where I am watching, both the Mercedes and the Ferrari look like they are painted to the ground. But, to me, Ferrari has used a better undercoat. It really does look good and super consistent.
Gary Anderson

 

[caroper]

Mercedes are keeping their pit crew sharp as well as their drivers today, with a live pitstop completed as Valtteri Bottas came back to the pits to complete his latest run.

And, as you'd expect, it was the slickest of services from the world champions. From the outside, their pre-season preparations so far look to be going just about as perfectly as possible.

 

[mubeend]

Loving these updates. Thank you

 

[caroper]

DRIVER		TEAM	TYRE	TIME
1	Bottas		Mercedes	1m20.107s
2	Vettel		Ferrari		1m21.609s
3	Ericsson	Sauber		1m22.636s
4	Stroll		Williams	1m23.305s
5	Alonso		McLaren		1m23.956s
6	Kvyat		Toro Rosso	1m24.190s
7	Palmer		Renault		1m25.002s
8	Grosjean	Haas		1m25.898s
9	Ricciardo	Red Bull	1m28.332s
10	Celis		Force India	1m39.293s
Hamilton		Mercedes	No time
Sainz			Toro Rosso	No time
Hulkenberg		Renault		No time

And that is quick from the Mercedes! Very quick!

Bottas delivers a 1:20.107 - on soft tyres too! That's 0.8s quicker than Ferrari went yesterday to top the times. That's the fastest time of the test so far, by just over eight-tenths.

Who was it that asked if Bottas was performing?

 

[caroper]

Testing another timing source:

Just under 90 minutes remain in this session.

1. Bottas, Mercedes - 1:21.099 (47 laps) Soft
2. Vettel, Ferrari - 1:21.609 (44) Medium
3. Ericsson, Sauber - 1:22.636 (31) Soft
4. Stroll, Williams 1:23.305 (22) Soft
5. Alonso, McLaren - 1:23.956 (18) Soft
6. Kvyat, Toro Rosso - 1:24.190 (21) Medium
7. Palmer, Renault - 1:25.002 (15) Medium
8. Grosjean, Haas - 1:25.898 (11) Medium
9. Ricciardo, Red Bull - 1:28.332 (17) Soft
10. Celis Jr, Force India - 1:39.293 (12) Supersoft

 

[caroper]

Rosberg watch
Dan Knutson
F1 journalist in Barcelona


The reigning and retired world champion Nico Rosberg has been talking to the TV crews here in the paddock.

“It’s good to be back,” Nico Rosberg said, “first of all to see my racing family, and it is such a massive hype at the moment, so I want to see first-hand as well, see the new cars – they look absolutely monstrous, very, very impressive.

“Everybody is excited – it is great to see the drivers loving it. They need to be gladiators out there because the cars will take them to their physical limits. We might even see drivers losing race wins just because of being [overwhelmed] physically.”

As for Mercedes, Rosberg commented: “I expected the team to be the best this year because the team is awesome. I am not saying that that is the case, we still need to wait and see, but for sure it is going to be a quick car.”

 

[caroper]

Have Mercedes just laid down a marker?

Andrew Benson
BBC Chief F1 writer

Valtteri Bottas' time of 1:20.107 is the fastest of the test so far - beating Kimi Raikkonen's best on Tuesday by 0.853 seconds. Raikkonen's time was set on a short run of only three timed laps and Bottas' was a similar length.

He's come back in, changed tyres and not refuelled, though, so it is clearly still not an out-and-out qualifying run.

That's some food for thought, to say the least.

View attachment 420918
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/live-experi.../3/1/4db35d2b-ea12-4057-9923-d385557ee475.jpg

 

[caroper]

Incredibly, that lap from Bottas is not only 2.7 faster than the quickest time set in testing last year, on tyres which were two sets softer than what the Mercedes was on, but also within 0.2s of the quickest lap ever seen at a race weekend on this configuration of the Circuit de Catalunya.

We've still got a way to go to see the record for the fastest ever lap of Barcelona broken - Alonso's 1:18.4 from 2008 testing - but F1 2017 is certainly delivering on its promise of much faster cars.

 

[caroper]

IMPROVEMENTS
Ericsson is back up to third, Palmer improves by a couple of tenths and Celis is now down to a 1:25.5.

STROLL JOINS IN
The Williams is up to fourth now courtesy of a 1:22.351 lap from Stroll.
Celis improves marginally.

 

[caroper]

AFTER THE FLURRY OF ACTIVITY...
Bottas, Stroll and Ricciardo might still be on track, but they appear to be on longer runs at present.

 

[caroper]

Bottas fastest of all in sector 1...
...and in sector 2...
...and we have our first sub-1m20s lap of the test. Bottas posts a 1m19.838s using super-softs.

 

[caroper]

Picking up the pace...

We'd better do another one of these as times are tumbling all over the place, with improvements for Ericsson, Palmer, Ricciardo and Celis.

So, here goes....

1. Bottas, Mercedes - 1:19.838 (50 laps) Super Soft

2. Vettel, Ferrari - 1:21.609 (44) Medium

3. Ericsson, Sauber - 1:22.326 (34) Soft

4. Ricciardo, Red Bull - 1:22.382 (23) Soft

5. Stroll, Williams 1:23.305 (22) Soft

6. Palmer, Renault - 1:23.387 (21) Medium

7. Alonso, McLaren - 1:23.956 (19) Soft

8. Kvyat, Toro Rosso - 1:24.190 (21) Medium

9. Celis Jr, Force India - 1:25.524 (17) Soft

10. Grosjean, Haas - 1:25.898 (11) Medium

 

[caroper]

On go the supersofts to the Mercedes - and Bottas breaks below 1:20s!

It's a 1:19.838 for Mercedes' new recruit, a lap faster than anything we've ever seen on a race weekend at least at the Circuit de Catalunya. Not an outright record, but it's mighty, mighty impressive.