2016 F1 Testing General Discussion Thread

[Samus]

Not sure why there isn't a thread already for this, makes sense to me to have a general testing thread for discussion away from the car launch threads.

So, day 1 at the first test is over with the following data:

Of course it's testing and it goes without saying that you can't read anything into lap times, and that's especially true on day 1 when running and shaking down the car is the only important factor, not speed.

What you can look at though is laps covered and like last year, Mercedes seem to be already solid as a rock. 156 laps is significantly more than any other team. In contrast to last year however the other teams all had a solid running with no major reliability issues. Mclaren had a decent day of running in contrast to day one at Jerez last year when they managed a pitiful 6 laps, 18 seconds off the pace.

The only real issue to speak of was the new Haas, whose front fell off. I'm sure they'll want to make it clear however that that is not normal.

 

[sems4arsenal]

156 laps is insane. Mclaren didn't explode is also good news.

Looking at the liveries though title for this season is "Back in Black".

Top 3 liveries for me are Manor, Red Bull and Williams. sexiest car goes to Torro Rosso with that slim behind.

 

[lxmmy]

Does it really need its own thread? It would of been suitable to go here.

 

[GTPorsche]

Toro Rosso had a gearbox failure of some kind as well.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/122910

 

[Samus]

Does it really need its own thread? It would of been suitable to go here.

Eh, it's not like we've got a limited number of threads and running out.

 

[lxmmy]

Eh, it's not like we've got a limited number of threads and running out.

So you created a thread which will die off at the start of next month?

 

[Samus]

So you created a thread which will die off at the start of next month?

Yes, just like the car launch threads. What's wrong with that? Again, there isn't a shortage.

 

[GTPorsche]

Isn't there a test session at the Red Bull Ring, plus the post-season Abu Dhabi tests...

 

[Dennisch]

Does it really need its own thread? It would of been suitable to go here.

So you created a thread which will die off at the start of next month?

Please, have a read. Especially the parts that are in Indigo.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Of course it's testing and it goes without saying that you can't read anything into lap times

Yes, you can. And you should.

Maybe not on day 1, but testing is a bigger indicator of a team's performance at the start of the season than you might think.

The team that has the quickest pace, and posted the highest amount of laps during testing will be a front runner. It's as simple as that. Teams that are nowhere or do not even show up during testing will be nowhere. Hint: Mclaren-Honda.

From day 1 you can already tell Mercedes is dead-on on their schedule.

 

[Samus]

Yes, you can. And you should.

Maybe not on day 1, but testing is a bigger indicator of a team's performance at the start of the season than you might think.

The team that has the quickest pace, and posted the highest amount of laps during testing will be a front runner. It's as simple as that. Teams that are nowhere or do not even show up during testing will be nowhere. Hint: Mclaren-Honda.

From day 1 you can already tell Mercedes is dead-on on their schedule.

Yeah I guess 'anything' is too strong a word, you can certainly read something into them, they generally do reflect the true running order with a few exceptions. Definitely not on day one though.

 

[CarreraGT]

Have to say, I think the new exhaust configuration sounds much better! The Honda in particular sounds really nice

 

[daan]

Does it really need its own thread? It would of been suitable to go here.

The thread is here and it's fine. Read/contribute or ignore it.

The amount of threads is infinite. We're not going to use up our quota or run out. Not everything has to go in one huge thread.

 

[Pupik]

So you created a thread which will die off at the start of next month?

That's never happened in the history of Internet forums, like never-ever times infinity.

 

[Pezzarinho17]

Impressive mileage from Mercedes once again, impressive pace from Ferrari again, impressive reliability from McLaren for once.

 

[Samus]

Have to say, I think the new exhaust configuration sounds much better! The Honda in particular sounds really nice

There does seem to be an improvement but it remains to be seen how they'll sound in the FOM broadcast, they tend to use a lot of dynamic compression (which is needed) that neuters them quite a bit.

 

[Eva]

I think that we've lost our only backmarker this year, which is not a complaint. We have two front running teams and 9 mid-field teams I think, which sadly is a dramatic improvement.

 

[CarreraGT]

I think that we've lost our only backmarker this year, which is not a complaint. We have two front running teams and 9 mid-field teams I think, which sadly is a dramatic improvement.

I think we will see race wins from Mercedes, Ferrari, Williams and Redbull this year.

And Haas and Manor won't be on par with Toro Rosso, Force India, Renault and Honda

 

[Eva]

I think we will see race wins from Mercedes, Ferrari, Williams and Redbull this year.

And Haas and Manor won't be on par with Toro Rosso, Force India, Renault and Honda

I don't think we'll see a return of form from Red Bull. And I think Haas will be with it by Bahrain.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Have to say, I think the new exhaust configuration sounds much better! The Honda in particular sounds really nice

You mean less worse.

 

[Eva]

You mean less worse.

I think the quieter volume is good.

 

[Telstar]

I don't think we'll see a return of form from Red Bull. And I think Haas will be with it by Bahrain.

Manor might make the leap to become a mid-tier team, but I don't see Haas anywhere near the rest of the field for the entire season. In recent history, no new and small teams have been on par with the rest of the field (see HRT, Caterham, Virgin/Marussia) and I don't see any reason why Haas would be an exception. Being a Ferrari customer won't do wonder.
I'd love to be wrong though, having a competitve field troughout is something I'd like to see for years now.

 

[sems4arsenal]

I think we will see race wins from Mercedes, Ferrari, Williams and Redbull this year.

And Haas and Manor won't be on par with Toro Rosso, Force India, Renault and Honda

Wouldn't bet on it. RBR are already throwing in the towel (for the first half of the season anyway). Ricciardo was not pleased with the engine today.

 

[GTPorsche]

Manor might make the leap to become a mid-tier team, but I don't see Haas anywhere near the rest of the field for the entire season. In recent history, no new and small teams have been on par with the rest of the field (see HRT, Caterham, Virgin/Marussia) and I don't see any reason why Haas would be an exception. Being a Ferrari customer won't do wonder.
I'd love to be wrong though, having a competitve field troughout is something I'd like to see for years now.

None of those teams had the ability to be a second-tier factory team either. We'll see how it goes when the season arrives. They very well may start as a backmarker team, but they most likely won't be off the pace like HRT/Team Lotus/Virgin have been.

 

[aarror]

Manor might make the leap to become a mid-tier team, but I don't see Haas anywhere near the rest of the field for the entire season. In recent history, no new and small teams have been on par with the rest of the field (see HRT, Caterham, Virgin/Marussia) and I don't see any reason why Haas would be an exception. Being a Ferrari customer won't do wonder.
I'd love to be wrong though, having a competitve field throughout is something I'd like to see for years now.

Haas has had twice as long as those 3 to prepare a car, and also had the use of Ferrari's wind tunnel. They're certainly more prepared than any new team in recent memory, whether that translates into pace or not is yet to be seen.

 

[GTPorsche]

Haas also has one of the best rolling windtunnels in the world in Charlotte, NC.

 

[CarreraGT]

Wouldn't bet on it. RBR are already throwing in the towel (for the first half of the season anyway). Ricciardo was not pleased with the engine today.

They've still got the best chassis in the field though. Beside, Ricciardo almost (should have) won in Hungary last year with the 2015 spec car. I expect the gap between Mercedes and Redbull to be smaller this year, which is inevitable really given how far behind Redbull were last year and the regulatory stability from 2015-2016

 

[mustafur]

This is already looking like a significantly better pre season for redbull then last year, reliability is looking ok.

Need more sessions to work out much more though, I think we still have much more to see though test sessions these days are more about making sure all your parts work and doing the actual speed test stuff in private in the tunnels.

 

[trustjab]

Honda say they will have a spec II engine at the next test. 80+ laps on day one without a filming day beforehand is impressive for Honda. That's more than their entire first test last year!

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

I think we will see race wins from Mercedes, Ferrari, Williams and Redbull this year.

And Haas and Manor won't be on par with Toro Rosso, Force India, Renault and Honda

And Sauber might as well not exist since you didn't highlight them. I highly doubt Williams have a clue (strategy wise) as to how to win. Especially when Massa at times takes away from the supposed super star that is Bottas. Redbull on the other hand may surprise but I think Ferrari have a chassis that even redbull should respect and the same for Mercedes chassis as usual, so if Redbull do win, it's because of mistakes on the other two more so than anything.

If they can trump the others at places like Spain and Monaco and Hungary and even Singapore than they'll be up in the fight. However, each of those tracks is known to have a solid top driver from the two teams they're chasing and thus proves how hard again it will be to beat them.

Haas also has one of the best rolling windtunnels in the world in Charlotte, NC.

So good that it was claimed that Ferrari perhaps sent scale test cars to them to circumvent the limited wind tunnel running hours (as you know).