The 2015 pre-season testing thread

[Sublime_FA11C]

A thought struck me about the RB camo livery. Disguises can be used to hide strengths and weakneses. So... anyone think RB might be in trouble this year after all?

Renault is still down on power behind both Merc and Ferrari, Newey's involvement is reduced since he is kinda "passing the torch" to, er whomever. Despite Vettel's troubles and Ricciardo's killer instinct, losing the champion (who seems to be game at the moment) is a blow and finally, their early testing is nothing to write home about and they only have Honda struggleing more which is excusable. So are they actually in danger of finishing outside the top 4 in the WCC? Do they have us fooled? How will they keep Ferrari and Williams behind them in 2015, possibly even McLaren?

[Rob Dylan]

A thought struck me about the RB camo livery. Disguises can be used to hide strengths and weakneses. So... anyone think RB might be in trouble this year after all?

Renault is still down on power behind both Merc and Ferrari, Newey's involvement is reduced since he is kinda "passing the torch" to, er whomever. Despite Vettel's troubles and Ricciardo's killer instinct, losing the champion (who seems to be game at the moment) is a blow and finally, their early testing is nothing to write home about and they only have Honda struggleing more which is excusable. So are they actually in danger of finishing outside the top 4 in the WCC? Do they have us fooled? How will they keep Ferrari and Williams behind them in 2015, possibly even McLaren?

Interesting opinion, and I can definitely see where you're coming from. But as someone else said a few days ago, last year proved that Red Bull can't be written off as a factor in the championship until after Melbourne and a few more races.

[mario]

A thought struck me about the RB camo livery. Disguises can be used to hide strengths and weakneses. So... anyone think RB might be in trouble this year after all?

Renault is still down on power behind both Merc and Ferrari, Newey's involvement is reduced since he is kinda "passing the torch" to, er whomever. Despite Vettel's troubles and Ricciardo's killer instinct, losing the champion (who seems to be game at the moment) is a blow and finally, their early testing is nothing to write home about and they only have Honda struggleing more which is excusable. So are they actually in danger of finishing outside the top 4 in the WCC? Do they have us fooled? How will they keep Ferrari and Williams behind them in 2015, possibly even McLaren?

Interesting opinion, and I can definitely see where you're coming from. But as someone else said a few days ago, last year proved that Red Bull can't be written off as a factor in the championship until after Melbourne and a few more races.

It is true that Red Bull's design team is slightly diminished, given that they also lost Prodromou, their chief aerodynamicist, to McLaren and Ellis, their head of vehicle dynamics, to Mercedes over the course of last year. As for their engine, I'd agree that there are perhaps some concerns over Renault's progress, since the suggested power improvement (40bhp) appears to be less than both Ferrari and Mercedes (with some suggesting Mercedes have found 50bhp and Ferrari about 80bhp), although those figures are very speculative - what would be more worrying is the poor reliability in testing, though Toro Rosso's decent mileage suggests that the engine is reliable enough in that regard.

That said, I would still be wary about writing off the team just yet - they still have a very experienced technical team, have been engaging a number of specialists to help Renault on their engines (Mario Illen has reportedly been called in as an expert) and still have a pretty healthy budget to help compete at the front. I also think that Ferrari's pace, whilst improving, looks a little too good to be true - the fact that most of their stints were less than 10 laps suggests there was a bit of showboating going on, particularly since most of the Mercedes powered teams were focussed on reliability testing rather than outright pace.

We will probably have a better impression of the field once we get back to Barcelona - I'd be wary of playing down Red Bull just yet, since they were able to rebound from an even worse position in 2014 once the season got underway.

[mario]

I would not be surprised if the team instructed him not to leave the car in order to prevent a photographer vaulting the fence and taking close up photos of the car - Darren Heath's famous photographs inside McLaren's cockpit, revealing their turning brake solution, comes to mind.

Ah yes the double brake pedal. Has it ever been definitively proven what it did? I've heard everything from working just the rear brakes, just one side of the rears, or both (being controlled by a switch) some people claim it was tied to TCS others that it wasn't. Do we really know?

As far as I am aware, the system was used to brake the inside rear wheel of the car (so it was switchable from side to side, but only operated on one wheel at a time). I don't believe that it was tied into a traction control system, although by applying the brake to the inner wheel in order to prevent it from spinning up, the driver could control the amount of tyre slip on one side of the car.

That make sense, but how did it "know" what wheel was the inside? Did you have to switch it from turn to turn, or was it tied into the steering somehow?

I have not been able to find a full explanation of how the system worked, but my best guess is that the system would have been tied into the steering system.

[McJaggers]

To my knowledge, it was simply a brake on the inside wheel of a chosen side. So if a track had several low speed left hand turns (interlagos) then the left hand side was chosen.

On Montreal it would've been the RHS wheel.

[Wallio]

NBC is reporting Force India will miss the next test as well and may miss the first day of the final test too. Karma is sweet.

[CoopsII]

NBC is reporting Force India will miss the next test as well and may miss the first day of the final test too. Karma is sweet.

I agree with the karma thing but its an excellent illustration of how Bernies divide and conquer approach is proving very effective. Sadly.

[mario]

To my knowledge, it was simply a brake on the inside wheel of a chosen side. So if a track had several low speed left hand turns (interlagos) then the left hand side was chosen.

On Montreal it would've been the RHS wheel.

You could indeed be right and my supposition is wrong - it would sound logical that they would have adopted a relatively simple option such as that.

NBC is reporting Force India will miss the next test as well and may miss the first day of the final test too. Karma is sweet.

I agree with the karma thing but its an excellent illustration of how Bernies divide and conquer approach is proving very effective. Sadly.

And in some ways, those celebrating the misfortunes of Force India in this situation may well be celebrating a pyrrhic victory if we're witnessing the smaller teams effectively cannibalising each other in order to stay afloat.

If the rumours are correct - which state that Force India has a budget deficit of £15 million and cannot purchase anything on credit as a result - then even the £4 million from Marussia may not be enough for their misfortunes to really start coming home to roost. And if Force India do fall apart, that would probably trigger the requirement from FOM for the larger teams to run third cars, a prospect that could well proceed to hand even more power to the larger teams that are one of the chief architects of this scenario.

CoopsII, to be honest, half the time the teams themselves are happy enough to fight amongst themselves even without Bernie egging them on - just think about how teams have exerted pressure on the FIA to reinterpret certain sections of the regulations, for example. There have been historical examples of teams backstabbing and destroying each other for decades, long before Bernie got involved - for example, I've seen one poster on another forum dredge up the fact that, when FOCA was originally conceived back in the 1960's, BRM, Ferrari and Lotus all sabotaged BRP's efforts to become a member, therefore forcing them out of business by cutting them out from the negotiations over prize money from the race organisers.

[DanielPT]

To my knowledge, it was simply a brake on the inside wheel of a chosen side. So if a track had several low speed left hand turns (interlagos) then the left hand side was chosen.

On Montreal it would've been the RHS wheel.

You could indeed be right and my supposition is wrong - it would sound logical that they would have adopted a relatively simple option such as that.

NBC is reporting Force India will miss the next test as well and may miss the first day of the final test too. Karma is sweet.

I agree with the karma thing but its an excellent illustration of how Bernies divide and conquer approach is proving very effective. Sadly.

And in some ways, those celebrating the misfortunes of Force India in this situation may well be celebrating a pyrrhic victory if we're witnessing the smaller teams effectively cannibalising each other in order to stay afloat.

If the rumours are correct - which state that Force India has a budget deficit of £15 million and cannot purchase anything on credit as a result - then even the £4 million from Marussia may not be enough for their misfortunes to really start coming home to roost. And if Force India do fall apart, that would probably trigger the requirement from FOM for the larger teams to run third cars, a prospect that could well proceed to hand even more power to the larger teams that are one of the chief architects of this scenario.

CoopsII, to be honest, half the time the teams themselves are happy enough to fight amongst themselves even without Bernie egging them on - just think about how teams have exerted pressure on the FIA to reinterpret certain sections of the regulations, for example. There have been historical examples of teams backstabbing and destroying each other for decades, long before Bernie got involved - for example, I've seen one poster on another forum dredge up the fact that, when FOCA was originally conceived back in the 1960's, BRM, Ferrari and Lotus all sabotaged BRP's efforts to become a member, therefore forcing them out of business by cutting them out from the negotiations over prize money from the race organisers.

It would be one of the most ironic turn arounds in the sport if Manor manages to go to the first race while Force India doesn't. It would also be very sad as it would probably mean Force India would be doomed...

[watka]

Rosberg comments on breathing techniques. The press make it out to be a reason why he lost the World Championship last year.

#JournalistLogic

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/321827/

[UncreativeUsername37]

Rosberg comments on breathing techniques. The press make it out to be a reason why he lost the World Championship last year.

#JournalistLogic

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/321827/

The whole breathing thing looks like fake news. But it's on a real news site, so clearly not....

[AdrianBelmonte_]

Let's update this, Force India is running now with their all new (sic) car, Mercedes are even more dominators and yesterday McLaren did MORE THAN 100 LAPS!!!

[Wallio]

The McLaren is utter shite. The fact that it is occurring after Ronspeak resumed control only makes me smile.

[mario]

The McLaren is utter shite. The fact that it is occurring after Ronspeak resumed control only makes me smile.

For now, yes, but there have been flashes of promise that seem to suggest that the MP4/30 does have some potential - for example, when Button was able to start doing a few longer runs the other day, the times that he was setting did actually seem to suggest that they were not that far off the pace once the engine is up and running.

Equally, I have some reservations about celebrating the misfortunes of the McLaren-Honda partnership - mainly because one concern that I do have is over whether their issues could deter other engine manufacturers from entering the sport, or even potentially drive Honda away.

Let's update this, Force India is running now with their all new (sic) car, Mercedes are even more dominators and yesterday McLaren did MORE THAN 100 LAPS!!!

And Force India have certainly not hung around today with racking up the mileage, so the car is reliable if nothing else (158 laps today and 77 yesterday is a decent total). Mind you, I expect that it will take some time for them to find their feet in the opening races - which is perhaps not a great thing given that they have had a habit of fading in terms of competitiveness as a season wears on.

On another note, what does look promising is that Lotus seem to have at least partially turned the corner since their disastrous 2014 season - however, one thing that does seem to have been picked up is that Lotus, compared to previous years, do seem to be much harsher on their tyres this season.

[FullMetalJack]

Mind you, I expect that it will take some time for them to find their feet in the opening races - which is perhaps not a great thing given that they have had a habit of fading in terms of competitiveness as a season wears on.

Not necessarily, Force India seemed to do the opposite in 2011 and 2012, could that be the case this season too?

[Londoner]

Mercedes engines are looking ominously bulletproof already. It's a stark contrast for Enstone, given they were going through engine components like it was going out of fashion last year...