F1 - General discussion and 2017

Lapcount with 90 minutes of the morning left:

Hamilton (43)
Ricciardo (22)
Magnussen (29)
Ocon (33)
Vettel (34)
Vandoorne (18)
Palmer (31)
Kvyat (21)
Ericsson (44)
Stroll (65)

1 Hamilton Mercedes 1m20.686s
2 Ricciardo Red Bull 1m20.824s
3 Magnussen Haas 1m21.129s
4 Ocon Force India 1m21.194s
5 Vettel Ferrari 1m21.615s
6 Vandoorne McLaren 1m22.055s
7 Palmer Renault 1m22.418s
8 Ericsson Sauber 1m24.085s
9 Stroll Williams 1m24.863s
10 Kvyat Toro Rosso 1m26.529s
 
Who's leading F1's midfield?

“We’re behind the top three, but anyone else is in a tight pack,” says Renault’s Jolyon Palmer. “It’s all to play for.”

Force India’s Sergio Perez adds: “The top three teams are a bit ahead and in the midfield group anything can happen there.”

Two teams, two similar soundbites, and the expectation that the battle for supremacy behind the expected top three of Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari will be fiercer than ever at the start of F1 2017.

By finishing fourth last year, Force India won 2016’s midfield war but Perez told Sky Sports News HQ last night, while he remained confident for the season, the team had some “weaknesses” on their VJM10 to resolve before Melbourne:

“We had a lot of interruptions,” said Perez. “We had a little brake failure, then a couple of red flags which [meant] we didn’t quite get our programme done. But we learnt a lot again today and the team has found a lot of the weaknesses we have with the car, which are quite critical. It’s a matter of time before we sort them out because they are quite easy to sort. I’m very optimistic for the season.
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“We are pushing very hard to try and get some upgrades for Australia, especially those which are easy to fix and it just takes time. So hopefully we can fix most of them for Melbourne and if not, by the second or third race we should already be in a good level.”
 
Vettel. Purple through the first sector...
Vettel. Purple through the second sector...

It's showtime!

Sebastian Vettel throws round the Ferrari in a time of 1:19.341.

And that is seriously, seriously quick on the soft tyres...

In fact, that's half a second quicker than anyone has been on the soft tyres all week!

Vettel's next lap is pretty rapid too, slower but less than a tenth adrift. Is that Ferrari finally turning the wick up on the penultimate day?
 
Jon Noble
@NobleF1
McLaren cancels planned media briefing with Eric Boullier and Yusuke Hasegawa today. A response to Alonso's critical comments?
 
The Ferrari completes a cool-down lap after that barrage of fast times. It probably needs to cool down after setting such a scorching pace - only a few hundredths slower than Bottas managed on super-softs yesterday in the Mercedes.

Vettel's lap is not yet the fastest time this winter, which remains the 1:19.310 that Valtteri Bottas put down yesterday on the super soft tyre.

It's been a miserable pre-season for McLaren-Honda so far, but a bit of good news for the beleaguered team as Vandoorne posts its fastest time of the test so far - a 1m22.009s effort, about half a second up on McLaren's previous best effort.
 
Perhaps to the relief of Ferrari's rivals, it was a short run by Vettel as he has now pitted after those two flying laps on the softs
 
Ocon has also improved in the soft-shod Force India, he's now down to a 1m21.053s best - just a couple of tenths off Ricciardo's Red Bull now.
 
Honda report their Day Three programme is "on schedule" but both performance and reliability are still clearly far behind the schedule of the majority of their rivals.

Honda Racing F1 ✔ @HondaRacingF1
C6eH63sXQAISFoj.jpg

24 laps into the morning session. Today's #F1Testing programme with @svandoorne on schedule. #F1
 
There's a car motoring down the pitlane – it's Stroll. He's been very industrious so far and Williams isn't content with having 67 laps in the books.
 
It's busied up a bit. Ocon, Magnussen and Vandoorne are out there to play – and Vandoorne's just posted a personal best first sector in the McLaren.

Vandoorne uses ultra-softs to post a 1m21.671s.

This is comfortably the quickest we've seen McLaren run in testing so far.
 
Vettel's out there and has posted the best first sector so far. The Ferrari's flying.
 
caroper said:
At the end of his remarkable press conference, Alonso was asked whether he was taking Turn Three flat-out. He almost burst out laughing before explaining that, because of the reduced power from the Honda, he was taking every corner flat-out...:crylaugh:
Click to expand...


Where's @polish

He will probably say "look on the bright side, at least the MacLaren can be driven flat out this season" :p
 
Dave said:
Where's @polish

He will probably say "look on the bright side, at least the MacLaren can be driven flat out this season" :p
Click to expand...

Atleast....finally - McLaren have broken into the 1:21s, seven days into testing!
 
The fastest times in F1 testing on soft tyres so far:

Ferrari, Sebastian Vettel, Day Six, 1:19.341

Red Bull, Daniel Ricciardo, Day Five, 1:20.106

Mercedes, Valtteri Bottas, Day Three, 1:20.107
 
Vettel's rolled through the pitlane (not the flipping, quite spectacular crash kind) and back out the other side. He did that quite a bit on Tuesday. Anyway, now he's brought the Ferrari back in and we presume it'll have a little rest now.

Into the final hour before lunch. One hour to go. Here's a lap count update:

1 Vettel (46)
2 Ocon (41)
3 Hamilton (43)
4 Ricciardo (28)
5 Magnussen (36)
6 Vandoorne (27)
7 Palmer (31)
8 Kvyat (21)
9 Ericsson (65)
10 Stroll (77)

and Time sheet:

1 Vettel Ferrari 1m19.341s
2 Ocon Force India 1m20.523
3 Hamilton Mercedes 1m20.686s
4 Ricciardo Red Bull 1m20.824s
5 Magnussen Haas 1m21.129s
6 Vandoorne McLaren 1m21.671s
7 Palmer Renault 1m22.418s
8 Ericsson Sauber 1m24.085s
9 Stroll Williams 1m24.863s
10 Kvyat Toro Rosso 1m26.529s

And here are your main stories:

• Vettel flies on soft, all-but-matching the best time of testing so far
• Vandoorne’s running is limited but posts the quickest time we’ve seen from McLaren-Honda
• After Perez claimed Force India has found “a lot of weaknesses”, Ocon’s pumped in its best time to run second this morning
• Stroll runs up a morning-high tally of 77 laps (and counting)
 
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It's been fairly short runs for Ferrari so far today - they've been in the pits 12 times from 46 laps - which perhaps indicates the fuel loads Vettel has been running so far today haven't been the heaviest.
 
Esteban Ocon goes second quickest for Force India on a lap of 1:20.161 on supersofts, demoting Hamilton to third. Come on Merc, give us a response...
 
Vettel on track again – and another best first sector so far...
Vettel goes quicker – a 1m13.314s. A fraction slower than Bottas's best yesterday.
BUT – Vettel backed off on the main straight...
So that's an audible bit of sandbagging from Ferrari on super-soft tyres.
 
caroper said:
Atleast....finally - McLaren have broken into the 1:21s, seven days into testing!
Click to expand...

And to the think it wasn't that long ago the McLaren was vying for race wins against Ferrari et al, now it seems a big deal to just be within 3 seconds a lap of the big boys...
 
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