F1 - General discussion and 2017

GREEN FLAG!
The final day begins!

SUNNY
AIR TEMPERATURE: 6℃
TRACK TEMPERATURE: 11℃

VERSTAPPEN ON TRACK
Red Bull are straight out of the pits to assess the conditions.
He's on full wet tyres, naturally.

As planned, there's a lot of spray coming from those tyres.
Vandoorne is also on track.
 
The fortunate thing for us is that the weather has been quite nice this week, so teams have had three good days of testing. But keeping the track wet at a track like this with a lot of elevation, particularly up to a corner like Turn 9, is not easy. You need the conditions to be consistent for good wet tyre testing, and this situation isn't going to provide that because you would need the water tankers out on track all day to achieve that. I expect a limited amount of running in these conditions because nobody has lots of bits to spare. It looks like it's going to be a day of testing thrown away for little advantage.

Gary Anderson
 
McLaren
@McLarenF1

Wet tyres on, Stoff heads out for his install lap on the water soaked Barcelona circuit. #F1Testing
 
Splashing through a big puddle on the entry to the pit lane, Max Verstappen parks in Red Bull’s pit box after four laps on Pirelli’s revised full wet tyres.

Vandoorne, Raikkonen and Sauber’s Giovinazzi have completed single installation laps and also returned, with just Kvyat and Hulkenberg on the damp track at the moment.
 
We've seen a lot of complaints about the wet Pirelli tyres in the past. I've been around F1 a long time and I've never known a wet test or session where drivers haven't complained about tyres in the wet, and that's through Goodyear, Pirelli, Bridgestone, Michelin...every supplier. You can never have a tyre that is ideal. It's always been the same and sometimes you just have to accept that this is the way it is.

Gary Anderson
 
We've seen designated wet-tyre days during the winter in recent years, although they've not tended to last for a whole session.

There's been no word if the water tankers will be sent back out again later when the water begins to clear.

Two cars on track now - a Sauber and a McLaren. No, make that three: Grosjean takes the Haas out. This wet test has come alive.

Vandoorne sets a 1:45.039.
 
Regardless of this being a trial of Pirelli's new wet tyres, for Vandoorne, this is a useful chance to log some 'rain' mileage (it's not raining, but you know that) in a Formula 1 car in preparation for his first full season. He's on the board now behind Verstappen, as is Giovinazzi.

MORE IMPROVEMENTS
It's 1:43.403 for Vandoorne currently.
A 1:44.166 for Giovinazzi.

1. Verstappen Red Bull Racing RB13 1:41.706 5 ●
2. Vandoorne McLaren MCL32 1:43.402 +1.696 6 ● PIT
3. Giovinazzi Sauber C36 1:44.166 +2.460 4 ●
 
I see that MyBB is starting to strip the images again.
I wonder if there is some undisclosed limit of what a single person can post in a certain period?
I will continue to post links to the images as I did yesterday.
 
KIMI BACK OUT
He's on the full wet tyres.

No sign of Mercedes yet. Last night Lewis Hamilton said he wasn't particularly looking forward to taking the morning running in the W08: "I heard it’s wet tomorrow, something like that, not particularly looking forward to that. I drove some demonstration wet tyres at Silverstone and they didn’t feel great. And I’m out first unfortunately – I might fake a pulled muscle in the morning and let Valtteri do it!"
 
Raikkonen goes fastest by a tenth from Verstappen with a 1m45.1s.

1. Räikkönen Ferrari SF70-H 1:41.598 4 ●
2. Verstappen Red Bull Racing RB13 1:41.706 +0.108 6 ● PIT
3. Giovinazzi Sauber C36 1:42.940 +1.342 9 ●
4. Vandoorne McLaren MCL32 1:43.402 +1.804 10 ● PIT
 
It's always difficult to judge lap times, but the track must be reasonably wet all the way round because they are running about 20 seconds slower. That is about right to hang in there on wet tures, but once you get below that you need to look at intermediates. And once you get to around eight seconds of a dry time, you need to think about slicks. That's a rule of thumb, because you need to factor in where the track is wet, but that gives you an idea of when you want to use what tyres.

As a team, you rely on the driver to give you feedback as to what conditions are like, and what other people can doing, when it comes to changing tyres. When you get a stuttering and indecisive driver, it can be too late. To do well in those circumstances and take advantage you need to be decisive and stick to that decision.

Gary Anderson
 
It'll be interesting to see what the changeover time for intermediates is. People will have to think about doing it now to get any information. You don't want to fly off the road, but if you don't try it early you will never know and the point of this test is to get meaningful data on the wet and intermediate tyres.

Gary Anderson
 
VERSTAPPEN BACK TO P1
A 1:40.357 for the Red Bull man, who's now back on the wet tyre.
Raikkonen had lowered the benchmark before Verstappen's effort.

1. Verstappen Red Bull Racing RB13 1:40.357 10 ●
2. Räikkönen Ferrari SF70-H 1:40.803 +0.446 8 ●
3. Giovinazzi Sauber C36 1:42.940 +2.583 11 ● PIT
4. Vandoorne McLaren MCL32 1:43.402 +3.045 10 ● PIT
 
626682c1-d2cb-4072-8fc1-ee9eebe5efe2_800.jpg

Here's Raikkonen on one of those laps. Pic: LAT
https://images.scribblelive.com/2017/3/2/626682c1-d2cb-4072-8fc1-ee9eebe5efe2_800.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X