F1 - General discussion and 2017

[caroper]

ALONSO ALIVE AND KICKING
Alonso gets on the time sheets, although it's a rather slow 1:35.717.
Max Verstappen has now arrived at a 1:22.172.

 

[caroper]

A snatched brake for Bottas entering the chicane on his six-lap run at the start of the hour.

 

[caroper]

Eight laps into his day and Max Verstappen is into the 1:22s, although still about a second adrift of a Mercedes which sprinted out of the traps.

Not so much secrecy down in the Red Bull pit box this week - we haven't seen the screens/covers come out yet

McLaren's Fernando Alonso is the only other driver with a timed lap on the board.
Alonso's back in the pits, so nothing major from McLaren yet.

 

[caroper]

Just the four laps for Fernando Alonso so far. A penny for his thoughts on McLaren-Honda's disastrous start to winter testing so far? We won't have long to wait: Fernando will be addressing the press this evening. Should be, erm, interesting.

Personally I expect we will be seeing Jenson Button in the McLaren again this year. He is the reserve Driver and I don't expect Alonso to put up with this for another year.

 

[caroper]

Wehrlein back in the pits in the Sauber, and then on his way again. Grosjean's Haas does an outlap, but returns immediately. Hulkenberg did the same earlier – he's back in the garage.

Wehrlein and Grosjean are back out, but the Sauber's not on track for long as it returns to the pitlane. The German did this yesterday, getting into double digits in lap count without setting a time.

This has been a good stint early doors from Bottas, who is into the high 1m21s on his latest lap.

 

[caroper]

Felipe Massa - he who announced his retirement only seven months ago - completed a mammoth 168 laps on Tuesday, and set fastest time into the bargain. He was under no illusions that Williams were in a position to challenge Mercedes, but he was optimistic enough to talk about possible podiums and said “maybe that is already a great job”.

The veteran’s strongest message, however, was for team-mate Lance Stroll, whose three crashes in two days last week left the team in all sorts of trouble with spare parts, not to mention a damaged chassis. Massa effectively publicly pleaded with the 18-year-old to keep it on the straight and narrow once he takes over after lunch on Wednesday.

“Always when you lose a day it is not great,” Massa said. “Maybe something we did today we could have done last week, but it was not possible. But we managed to do a lot more today. We managed to get some good feelings from the car, we managed to see the car is reliable, which is important. We still have three days in front of us. We haven't got many parts, so we need to try to keep everything we can. It is so easy to go off.”

 

[caroper]

BOTTAS FINISHES SHORT RUN
Valtteri Bottas has just finished a short run on the soft compound. His lap times: 1:23.1, 1:22.5, 1:22.0, 1:21.9 and 1:22.0

Three-quarters of an hour into the second day of testing and just two proper times on the board. Sleep start to Wednesday, but it's a long day. A long week, to be fair. A long fortnight really. You get the idea.

 

[caroper]

SAUBER WITH UPGRADES
Sauber is testing new barge boards today in Barcelona, as the C36 looks to make time on some of its rivals.

 

[caroper]

Pitstop practice at Red Bull this morning includes changing a fifth wheel - the one the driver holds onto...

We'd have loved to have taken a picture from a position where there wasn't a beam blocking most of the view of the steering wheel change, but that's as close as we could get before it was finished. We'll try harder next time.

 

[caroper]

There we go – Massa goes third on a 1m23.135s, Hulkenberg slots into fourth on a 1m25.885s. They both continue at personal-best pace in the opening sector.


Improvements for both Massa (1m22.816s) and Hulkenberg (1m25.389s) as they continue to circulate.

Massa (now down to a 1m22.746s) is on softs whereas Hulkenberg is on medium tyres.

Raikkonen heads back out in the Ferrari. Wonder if it still has half a fence attached to the rear?

 

[caroper]

And Massa has slotted straight into the high 1:22s on the softs as he starts a longer stint, with Nico Hulkenberg joining him on track.

The German driver is on the mediums, and his opener is a modest 1:25.389.

It wasn't the best day for Renault on Day One with not one but two semi breakdowns, so they'll be looking for more reliable running today.

 

[caroper]

MASSA IMPROVES
Massa goes quicker again setting a 1:22.455. He'll be looking to continue his strong day from yesterday, where he finished top of the time sheets.
Raikkonen also gets a timed lap down, a 1:23.686 for the Ferrari.

 

[caroper]

Another close up of probably the most astonishing aero sensor kit we've seen in F1 Testing.

Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari looks a little bit more naked now with aero sensors removed, and he slots into fourth with a 1:22.926.

Felipe Massa, meanwhile, improves to a 1:22.495. Still adrift of Bottas and Verstappen, though.

 

[caroper]

Hulkenberg laps within a tenth of his best yet again, while Raikkonen loses a second on his latest lap. Massa continues to pound round at a 1m22.6s pace.

 

[Agent_Smith]

An Alfa Romeo Quadrifoglio badge on the Fezza?

 

[caroper]

From this angle the Force India 'forehead' nose isn't too visible. The team has taken advantage of the favourable angle for a sponsor logo to appear. © LAT

 

[caroper]

An Alfa Romeo Quadrifoglio badge on the Fezza?

Ferrari have always sported the Alfa Romeo badge on the rear as far as I can recall.
This year it is a bit more obvious but it is not new.
Ferrari strated in F1 with Alfa Romeo Power.

 

[caroper]

Williams and Massa into their first serious run of the day.

It's just a half-day for the Brazilian day before Lance Stroll returns this afternoon. The Canadian endured a troubled two days in the FW40 last week with three spins/crashes severely compromising his and the team's running, so the 18-year-old will be under a little pressure to get through his session without incident.

 

[Agent_Smith]

Ferrari have always sported the Alfa Romeo badge on the rear as far as I can recall.
This year it is a bit more obvious but it is not new.
Ferrari strated in F1 with Alfa Romeo Power.

Ah, so a homage thing. Yeah, it definitely hasn't been as noticeable on the previous cars (or it has but I've just been that unobservant).

 

[caroper]

Hulkenberg and Massa have ended their runs, while Raikkonen continues – although he's now firmly in the 1m24s. Perez is cracking on, and gets on the board with a 1m26.456s.

Sainz is on track! We see the Toro Rosso for the first time today.

Perez improves to a 1m24.897s, so he's just under half a second slower than his old team-mate Hulkenberg.

Verstappen's back on track in the Red Bull.