F1 - General discussion and 2017

[caroper]

That is a view of the McLaren that not many drivers are likely to see this year judging from testing so far

 

[caroper]

Lap count heading into the final 50 minutes of the first half of the day:

1 Bottas (51)
2 Massa (49)
3 Verstappen (34)
4 Hulkenberg (38)
5 Raikkonen (21)
6 Sainz (31)
7 Grosjean (40)
8 Wehrlein (45)
9 Alonso (24)
10 Perez (37)

 

[caroper]

Bottas back in the pits and with 52 laps to his name. We missed him rack up his half century. Presumably as he crossed the line he whipped off his helmet quickly, raised it (and his bat) in salute to grandstand faithful and then cracked on to defend a Yorker.

Cricket.

Massa, Hulkenberg and Alonso are providing the on-track entertainment. Alonso's on his 27th lap and has been running comfortably in the 1m23s on this soft-tyre run.

 

[caroper]

Another big move forward from Williams...

Close but no cigar for Massa! He uses ultra-softs to go less than two tenths slower than Bottas. It's a 1m19.487s. That's his quickest time in testing so far.

 

[caroper]

There's your explanation for Ferrari's earlier troubles: a "fluid systems check".
Scuderia Ferrari
@ScuderiaFerrari

#Kimi7 spent time in garage for fluid systems check. Back on track now. #F1Testing

 

[caroper]

Alonso back in the pits, so it's just Massa and Hulkenberg doing circles with less than 45 minutes to go.

Bottas wants a go at going round again. He's keen to overtake Massa, who has moved past his lap count on this run and hit 53 (and counting).

Bottas has set the fastest middle sector so far on this lap.

Bottas doesn't quite improve, but it's very close – super-softs again, and a 1m19.383s. Mercedes looking strong on day two.

 

[caroper]

Into the pits for Bottas, Massa and Hulkenberg. Bottas appears on the other side, with Raikkonen and Perez already back on track and onto flying laps.

 

[caroper]

Kimi Raikkonen has settled in fourth place behind Max Verstappen with a 1:20.472 on the soft tyres.

 

[caroper]

Two cars on track, not a lot to report. Raikkonen's pumped in a 1m21.1s after a cool-down lap, but that's all. Peres is in the low-1m22s, which is close to his best.

Perez pits. That leaves just Raikkonen on the circuit.


Raikkonen pits. That leaves nobody on the circuit. Obviously. That's how numbers work.

 

[caroper]

Bottas is our saviour on this occasion. There's half an hour left and Mercedes isn't happy to just leave its tally at 56 laps. Still work to be done...
Blimey, Bottas is in the mood today. A 1m19.355s that time – with another fastest middle sector so far. Relentless performance from Mercedes.

It's been a quiet morning in general though, especially compared to yesterday. That could be down to the colder start, which has maybe made teams wait in order to get representative running in.

 

[caroper]

A quick run (we walked) to the window reveals Bottas is out there on ultra-soft tyres. So in theory he should have improved on his 1m19.3s set on super-softs, but fell just short.

 

[caroper]

Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas warn of Ferrari threat to Mercedes
Hamilton predicts "close" start to the season as Ferrari continue to impress and Red Bull also start to show strength in testing

By James Galloway

Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas have warned of the threat Ferrari could pose to Mercedes' Formula 1 supremacy in 2017.

Despite muted expectations surrounding Ferrari in the build-up to pre-season, the team's new SF70-H has proved both reliable and fast so far at Barcelona testing with the car's headline lap times comparable to those set by Mercedes.

F1 testing times are notoriously unreliable indicators of true form owing to the myriad of variables at play, but the form of Ferrari has nonetheless caught the eye of Mercedes' driver pairing.

"I think Ferrari are looking very good - they seem to be consistent and fast," said Bottas.

"We shouldn't underestimate them or Red Bull. We'll need to keep working hard to be in the best shape possible for Melbourne."

Despite Mercedes still posting the fastest time of Test One, Hamilton was quoted as saying on Tuesday that Ferrari were "possibly the favourites" heading towards the season opener.

With Red Bull also beginning to show flashes of strong speed, Hamilton is certain that the pecking order at the top of the timesheet is "close".

"When we left here last week it looked like Ferrari was our closest rivals, today Red Bull look quick," he said.

"It's going to be interesting over the next few days and when we arrive in Australia. The field will be close, that's for sure."

Hamilton was speaking after a start to the second and final test he termed "awkward" after floor damage and a handling imbalance restricted him to less than 50 laps.

However, he expects the W08 to improve the closer its aerodynamic package gets to the specification for the first race in Australia at the end of the month.

"We're on target in terms of the laps that we've done and the mileage, but we're always searching for more performance," added Hamilton.

"I think the car will start to come together this week. There's still bits coming in and we're improving all the time, but I'm confident by Melbourne we'll have the best car we can. We'll have all the upgrade parts, an understanding of the set-up and where we need to put the car to make it fastest."

 

[Dave]

That is a view of the McLaren that not many drivers are likely to see this year judging from testing so far

I disagree, I think many of the cars will see exactly that view... as they come up to lap it

 

[caroper]

A failure to find chunks of time when switching to super-soft/ultra-soft rubber was a bit of a theme last week. That's been put down to a combination of factors.

This new generation of tyre generally seems to be a bit harder across the compounds. There's also a struggle to get them into the optimum working temperature range because it's a bit cold. And as the two softest compounds are not designed to be used at this track performance can fall away.

Regarding that last point, we've often seen personal bests/outright bests in the first sector, but then the overall time not improve.

 

[caroper]

A 50/50 split at the moment. Half the teams are keeping it quiet in the garage, half are logging more laps in the final 20 minutes.

Massa, Raikkonen, Sainz, Grosjean and Wehrlein are the men on track.

....

Pretty sure Toro Rosso and Haas just called in Sainz and Grosjean to make us look stupid.

 

[caroper]

Massa gets even closer to Bottas, a 1:19.420 on his last lap!

Kimi Raikkonen has climbed into the top three on the soft tyre, a lap time of 1:20.406.

1 Bottas Mercedes 1m19.310s
2 Massa Williams 1m19.420s
3 Raikkonen Ferrari 1m20.406s

 

[caroper]

Meanwhile, McLaren look set to end the morning rooted to the bottom of the timesheet.

Just 27 laps in short bursts from Fernando Alonso so far with his 1:23.041 clearly not anywhere near the ballpark of competitiveness both McLaren and Honda desire.

In fairness, the engine clearly hasn't been run at full pelt yet - but the increasing worry is that the team are fast running out of time to do so before the first race.

 

[caroper]

Wehrlein, Perez and Hulkenberg on the circuit with 15 minutes to go. Can any of them improve before we call time on the first half of the day?

Wehrlein's ticked past 50 laps – only Bottas and Massa have completed more mileage this morning than the Sauber driver.

Perez sets a personal best in the first sector, so let's see what the Force India's got in its locker.

Nope, a mistake in the middle sector or backing off or something has ruined that Perez lap, which is considerably off the pace. Hulkenberg's just gone two tenths slower than his own best, so the Renault driver's out there pushing.

 

[caroper]

Interestingly, Eric Boullier rated McLaren's testing performance so far as a '5 out of 10' when asked by Sky F1's David Croft.

Wonder if that might have dropped a mark our two as he looks at the timesheets now...

 

[caroper]

Perez slows down, then goes again – but he's half a second away from improving. He stays 2.7s off the pace, although he's been on the soft tyre. Looks like Force India's firmly part of that big midfield pack again.

Perez is in the pits, leaving Hulkenberg with the track all to himself.

But not for long. Sainz is out for a skid in the Toro Rosso. Let's see what Chilli's got.