F1 - General discussion and 2017

[caroper]

CHEQUERED FLAG!
That's the end of the morning session!
No late improvements, but plenty of mileage for the teams.

DRIVER	TEAM	CHASSIS	TIME	DIFF.	#		
1.	Bottas	Mercedes	W08	1:19.705		73	●	
2.	Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	RB13	1:21.153	+1.448	47	●	
3.	Palmer	Renault	RS17	1:21.396	+1.691	49	●	
4.	Vettel	Ferrari	SF70-H	1:21.609	+1.904	69	●	PIT
5.	Ericsson	Sauber	C36	1:21.824	+2.119	53	●	
6.	Stroll	Williams	FW40	1:22.351	+2.646	55	●	
7.	Celis jr	Force India	VJM10	1:23.781	+4.076	39	●	PIT
8.	Alonso	McLaren	MCL32	1:23.832	+4.127	28	●	PIT
9.	Kvyat	Toro Rosso	STR12	1:23.952	+4.247	30	●	
10.	Grosjean	Haas F1	VF-17	1:25.133	+5.428	26	●	PIT
11.	Hülkenberg	Renault	RS17	no time		0	●	PIT
12.	Sainz jr	Toro Rosso	STR12	no time		0	●	PIT
13.	Hamilton	Mercedes	W08	no time		0	●	PIT

	DRIVER	MAX SPEED	AVERAGE SPEED
1.	Stroll	288	0
2.	Vettel	284.9	0
3.	Palmer	283.4	0
4.	Ericsson	282.7	0
5.	Bottas	281.9	0
6.	Ricciardo	280.5	0
7.	Kvyat	279	0
8.	Grosjean	278.3	0
9.	Celis jr	275.5	0
10.	Alonso	268.6	0
11.	Hülkenberg	0	0
12.	Sainz jr	0	0
13.	Hamilton	0	0

OH DEAR!
Just as we were complementing the Williams mileage recovery, Lance Stroll is in the gravel!

STROLL OUT OF THE CAR
We can't quite identify where he's gone off.
Sainz somehow sneaked in a lap after taking over from Kvyat, too.

Stroll appears to have parked the Williams in the gravel. It has just been picked up by CCTV.

The flatbed truck is in attendance.

 

[caroper]

And what an eye-catching morning it has been for F1's reigning triple world champions. Not content with the fastest time of the test on soft tyres, they've also set the benchmark on the supersofts and the ultrasofts as well.

They've certainly earned their lunch.

SUMMARY
Bottas fastest after ultra-soft tyre lap.
Best time of test now stands at 1:19.705.
Palmer spins early in the morning, but recovers to register 50 laps.
Delayed start for Stroll, but the Canadian sets 50 laps before finishing the final few minutes of the morning session in the gravel.

 

[caroper]

It's not completely surprising to see Stroll in the gravel again. Watching him trackside he looks OK, but isn't completely confident in the car and he keeps on fidgeting with it trying to fix the problems that aren't really there. He's correcting when the car will sort itself out, so he needs to relax a little bit and not white knuckle it. You could say he's got too tight a grasp on the steering wheel.
Gary Anderson

 

[Genisys]

That Ferrari seems to be an interesting car. Any times set on the Ultra Soft tyres yet?

 

[caroper]

That Ferrari seems to be an interesting car. Any times set on the Ultra Soft tyres yet?

No. They have only used the mediums so far.

Edit:
if you are referring to the field in general and not just Ferrari then yes.
Bottos set his fastest time on the Ultrasoft, but it was only very slightly better than the Supersoft.

 

[caroper]

GREEN FLAG!
Nobody is in a rush, though. Everybody still in the pits.

SUNNY
AIR TEMPERATURE: 16℃
TRACK TEMPERATURE: 33℃


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C51aNBDXQAEU-yT.jpg

 

[caroper]

Toro Rosso
@ToroRossoSpy

It's @carlosainz in the car this afternoon! Our camera didn't properly film that cheeky pat on the bum courtesy of @RaceMatas ![video]https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/836922680146276352/pu/vid/1280x720/OutOVt0aOBlL8ZSt.mp4[/video]

 

[caroper]

Lewis Hamilton is taking over from Valtteri Bottas for Mercedes, while Carlos Sainz, Nico Hulkenberg and Antonio Giovinazzi are also expected to tag in.

Max Verstappen may also get a run-out for Red Bull.

 

[caroper]

Watching trackside this morning, I don't think the Renault engine is running to its full potential. In all three cars - the Red Bull, Toro Rosso and the works Renault - it sounds a bit quieter and calmer than the other engines - even the Honda. It might just be a characteristic of the engine, but I don't see what that would be as revs still make noise. That suggests there is some more to come from those teams, even just in the power unit department.
Gary Anderson

 

[caroper]

HAMILTON ON TRACK
We were right about Hamilton though!
He's gone out to explore the circuit.

Hamilton's first lap of the day is a relaxed 1m26.504s on softs. He wasn't exactly on it as he came over the start/finish line.

 

[caroper]

We’ve seen lots of teams running with aero rakes on the cars during this test. The airflow at the front and the back of the car has changed dramatically because of the bigger tyres and the front tyre is very important to performance. To understand the airflow, teams mount aluminium machinings on the side of the car. Some have one some have two. They have pitot tubes with a hole in the front and the side. From these you can measure the velocity of the airflow across the area of the rake. From that, you can draw out a map of what the airflow is doing in this area and that allows you to see how you could influence this airflow with the sidepods or bargeboards or other aero components.

They are looking at the airflow off the car surface. It’s a thing that CFD is very good at, that’s what has helped these cars get so sophisticated because you can look at airflow away from a surface, which you can’t do in a windtunnel. The airflow on the surfaces creates the forces but understanding the airflow away from the car allows you to manipulate that airflow better. Teams want to correlate the real world with CFD as closely as they can.

Years ago, when developing in the wind tunnel we were aerodynamically blind, we were going for forces but we didn’t know where they were coming from and how to manipulate things to get more. It was down to your gut reaction. Now, you are hearing teams talk about flow structures, and it’s the flow structures that create a flow regime around the car to allow you to optimise it. The aero rakes give you that information.
Gary Anderson

 

[caroper]

It wasn't a good start to Jolyon Palmer's morning in the RS17, but his session ended in rather more encouraging fashion after he racked up a half-century of laps and the third-quickest time.

Having handed the Renault over to Nico Hulkenberg for the remainder of the day, Palmer spoke to the media a short while ago:

"We’ve made some really good progress in terms of the set-up," he said.

"Sadly, I’ve done two half days so far with another half day in the wet tomorrow, but 51 laps today is ok. Yesterday was a bit compromised, but every time we are in the car we’re learning and it’s showing a bit on performance as well."

 

[caroper]

Watching this morning, the Ferrari looked planted at every corner I went to. The Mercedes when doing quick runs on new tyres also looked pretty good, but when on longer runs or on softer tyres looked a bit fidgety and was moving around a bit. The Mercedes seems to have more understeer than the Ferrari, because it seems to show more front wheel on turn in because of the extra steering lock. So it looks like Ferrari has a better front end, which bodes very well for when it runs the new tyres, because you need a good front end to get the lap time.
Gary Anderson

 

[caroper]

HULKENBERG ON THE BOARD
His first timed effort puts him 10th with a 1:24.886.

IMPROVEMENT FOR HAMILTON
He's down to 1:25.688 now. Nearly ten laps complete already.

 

[caroper]

Circuit BCN-CAT ✔ @Circuitcat_eng
During lunch we have been doing some research.... #F1Testing

Circuit BCN-CAT ✔ @Circuitcat_eng
2007-2017
OFFICIAL RECORD: Raïkkönen 1:21.670 (2008)
BEST TIME QUALY: Barrichello: 1:19.954 (2009)
BEST TIME TEST: Massa 1.18.339 (2008)

 

[caroper]

Five more laps for Alonso. But only five...

 

[caroper]

Carlos Sainz makes a small improvement in the pretty but so far modestly pedestrian Toro Rosso. A lap of 1:24.029 on the mediums is Sainz's best of the test so far.

And Sebastian Vettel, running on the softs for the first time, also makes a leap.
A 1:21.517 for the Ferrari - the best time we've seen so far from the four-time world champion.

 

[caroper]

Final Manor Formula 1 team rescue hopes end as 2017 entry withdrawn
By Jonathan Noble, Dieter Rencken @RacingLines

Manor's hopes of a last-minute rescue deal to return to the Formula 1 grid have evaporated, after the team officially withdrew its entry to the 2017 championship.

Although Manor's parent company, Just Racing Services, ceased trading earlier this year, the company that held the official 2017 entry remained an ongoing concern.

There had been rumours in recent weeks that Chinese investors were trying to put together a rescue deal that could have resurrected the outfit for a late start to the campaign, but that situation now appears to have fallen through.

Autosport has learned that Manor's chief Stephen Fitzpatrick has written to the FIA to notify it officially that his team was withdrawing from the F1 championship.

Without an entry, any interested party that purchased the remaining Manor assets to try to put a squad together would now need to apply as an all-new team - a process that is not only expensive but could take time.

Following Manor's official withdrawal, the FIA is now expected to imminently release the 2017 entry list.

 

[caroper]

This is becoming a theme: an improvement from Fernando Alonso as the Spaniard shaves down his personal best to 1:23.326. It's also McLaren's fastest time of the test so far - but they remain the slowest team on the timesheets after Marcus Ericsson's rapid gain in the Sauber this morning.

1 Bottas Mercedes 1m19.705s
2 Ricciardo Red Bull 1m21.153s
3 Palmer Renault 1m21.396s
4 Vettel Ferrari 1m21.517s
5 Ericsson Sauber 1m21.824s
6 Stroll Williams 1m22.351s
7 Hulkenberg Renault 1m23.137s
8 Alonso McLaren 1m23.326s
9 Celis Force India 1m23.781s
10 Kvyat Toro Rosso 1m23.952s
11 Sainz Toro Rosso 1m24.029s
12 Grosjean Haas 1m25.133s
13 Hamilton Mercedes 1m25.688s

 

[Dave]

I see the Merc shark fin is more than just aerodynamics, some form of exhaust for hot air over the rear wing is included.