2018 pre-season testing thread

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Rob Dylan
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2018 pre-season testing thread

Post by Rob Dylan »

There's not a thread for this, as far as I'm aware, so I'll just start one. Alonso lost a wheel before lunchtime and span into the gravel on the final turn at Barcelona. But he still managed to rack up 51 laps by the end of the day! Compared to last year, the McLaren team must be crying with joy at just how well their first day of testing in 2018 has gone!
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

Post by Aguvazk »

Rob Dylan wrote:There's not a thread for this, as far as I'm aware, so I'll just start one. Alonso lost a wheel before lunchtime and span into the gravel on the final turn at Barcelona. But he still managed to rack up 51 laps by the end of the day! Compared to last year, the McLaren team must be crying with joy at just how well their first day of testing in 2018 has gone!




I think Honda as well, nice run from Hartley, a decent time and a lot of laps.
Maybe we going to have a good low-midfield battle.
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

Post by UncreativeUsername37 »

Livery opinions!

Mercedes: Despite the improvements in recent years, green stripes on silver is still not very pretty. Not that ugly, either, but compared to most liveries, it isn't good. I do like what they did with the halo, though. I know this'll be an unpopular opinion, but the bit of grey works well with silver.

Ferrari: The red wings will be cool for a month or two, then the single colour will be boring and we'll all want white back. But hey, it's Ferrari, it isn't supposed to be complicated anyway.

Red Bull: Nothing's changed from last year, I think. I wish they put effort into the halo. I mean, of course they'd all look better without it, but Mercedes and Ferrari found a way to work it in well.

Force India: The white front of the nose ruins it. The pink, white, and blue all work well together, but that specific extra bit of white turns it from something that works into... well, the problem that most pink and white things have. Just make the top of the nose all pink and it'd all be good.

Williams: The Martini stripes just don't quite work with post-2013 cars, do they. It's all kind of awkward, by Martini standards anyway. And the halo being white really makes it stick out. With Force India, I barely notice their bright halo because my eyes are already bleeding magenta ink, but white doesn't work like that. What they should do is put more Martini stripes on the halo. Imagine how cool that'd look!

Renault: How did they mess up yellow and black for the second year in a row? Look at what some of the other teams have to deal with. Mercedes and Ferrari: plain colours. Williams: classic livery that doesn't quite work with modern shapes. Force India: pink and white on a racing car. Renault: yellow and black! The way all the yellow is on one plane... ugh. If they reversed the colours, it'd be a lot better, but still not too great.

Toro Rosso: Silver on shiny blue is still great. Last year's livery was striking, and by that I mean it continued to strike me with its shininess and beautiful contrasts most of the way through the season. The red is all in the right general places, though the part on the sidepods isn't great. The curves of the car don't work with something that should really be pointy. But overall: still great.

Haas: White, grey, and red. The livery barely does anything, but on the other hand it doesn't screw anything up. I can live with this much better than last year's grey, that's for sure. The vertical line between the red on the nose and the white of most of the car is awkward, but that's about it.

McLaren: Orange and blue. And, um, that's it. It's like a palette swap of a Ferrari. I think it needs some blue in the middle to be less boring, which would've been a perfect use of the halo, but instead they made it black, because it wouldn't be McLaren without greyscale somewhere. Oh well. At least it's two colours that work together. Just like Renault. I'm still mad about Renault.

Sauber: White, red, and black. A basic colour scheme they didn't do anything complicated with. At least they did something, unlike some other teams. It's sort of a base against which other liveries can be judged.
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

Post by Rob Dylan »

The Sauber livery, while simple, has been the only one to catch my attention this year so far. A relatively unexciting launch period, though as I said a week or so back, my opinion might change when I actually start watching them out on track.
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

Post by Alextrax52 »

Rob Dylan wrote:The Sauber livery, while simple, has been the only one to catch my attention this year so far. A relatively unexciting launch period, though as I said a week or so back, my opinion might change when I actually start watching them out on track.


It certainly doesn't help in an era of the internet when pictures of the new cars get leaked on line before they are officially launched. Oh how I'd like to go back to the days of being made to wait even longer.

My positives are the new Force India looks absolutely brilliant. It's reminds me of some chewy mushroom sweets that are sold in my local ASDA which were really nice. I also think the Aston Martin print on the rear wing of the Red Bull looks very sleek. The all red Ferrari is quite pleasing also it does have a bit of a dearth in the sponsors on the car. Negatives for me include the Banana-Mobile Renault, Williams and Mercedes look quite bland again and the Sauber could have had more colours at the front, I think i'll be confusing the Sauber and Williams cars quite a bit this season
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

Post by Butterfox »

Other than mercedes Halo and the black on this years williams, i like all liveries. They're not inspiring but at least they're easily distinguishable from each other. Contrary to you guys i really love the Renault. And the Force India is cute.
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

Post by IceG »

The most significant thing about these testing sessions is the lack of pictures of Honda-powered cars sitting smoking by the trackside.
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

Post by AdrianBelmonte_ »

Imagine if McLaren stayed with Honda, there would've been more smoke than in Snoop Dogg's bedroom
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

Post by mario »

IceG wrote:The most significant thing about these testing sessions is the lack of pictures of Honda-powered cars sitting smoking by the trackside.

If Mark Hughes is right, whilst the car might have been running fairly reliably during the test (they actually managed to clock up the most laps, it seems), the indication is that they were not that quick on the longer runs.

I think it is fair to say that the general conclusion from that first test was a picture that managed to be even more confused than is usual. With those freak weather conditions, it seems that nobody could really tell what performance offset there might have been between the tyres, not really get a great picture due to the limited running.

That said, there does seem to be something of a consensus that the same three teams - Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull - are still up at the front, and seem somewhat similar to their 2017 cars as well (Mercedes being a bit quicker over a single lap, but slightly less competitive over a longer stint, whilst Red Bull and Ferrari seem reasonably similar in terms of performance).

The suggestion is that Renault have moved into 4th, perhaps not surprising if the team have been investing more heavily ahead of this season, whilst Mark Hughes seems to believe that Williams are potentially in 5th place (believing the car has potential, but also has balance issues). He then thought that Haas and McLaren were fairly evenly matched, followed by Force India, then Toro Rosso and finally Sauber.

However, there were a few interesting stories - Force India were apparently spending more time aero mapping, and now it appears that there were a number of parts on the car which were actually 2017 spec components, suggesting they've probably got more performance up their sleeve than they were showing. Equally, it seems that McLaren were possibly having to ease off a bit due to problems with an exhaust clamp overheating, so the car might have more potential than they were reportedly able to show during that test too.
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

Post by Wallio »

Vettel on hypers goes 1:17.1 new (unofficial) lap record, but Mercedes was supposedly 9/10ths quicker on comparable 60-lap runs. Melbourne should be interesting....
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

Post by yannicksamlad »

Are the cars going 'too' quick? They may feel like a 'bus' to Robert Kubica, but these laptimes are faster than I'd anticipated .Already last year circuits were making changes for safety due to increased corner speeds.They may have to think further about that . You cant always have more run-off without moving the spectators back..and it all costs money.
I wonder if there'll be a push-back in the next few years.
And I just looked the MotoGP lap record for Phillip Island is about 5 seconds a lap ( 1 min 27.8) faster than the 1999 record for a 500cc two-stroke, and their lap times are remarkably consistent over the years. They dont seem to feel a need to get quicker to have good racing. But perhaps they also feel that they can't push circuits too hard , as they already need circuits to accommodate bikes' particular needs.
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

Post by DanielPT »

So far it seems karma is hitting McLaren with such strength that I fear they are already in pieces before the start of the season...
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

Post by Wallio »

yannicksamlad wrote:Are the cars going 'too' quick? They may feel like a 'bus' to Robert Kubica, but these laptimes are faster than I'd anticipated .Already last year circuits were making changes for safety due to increased corner speeds.They may have to think further about that . You cant always have more run-off without moving the spectators back..and it all costs money.
I wonder if there'll be a push-back in the next few years.
And I just looked the MotoGP lap record for Phillip Island is about 5 seconds a lap ( 1 min 27.8) faster than the 1999 record for a 500cc two-stroke, and their lap times are remarkably consistent over the years. They dont seem to feel a need to get quicker to have good racing. But perhaps they also feel that they can't push circuits too hard , as they already need circuits to accommodate bikes' particular needs.


Actually from what I've read these times are disappointing, believe it or not. Some people thought the repave of Catalunya would be worth 1.7-2.0 seconds alone, plus the tires, plus the downforce increase. So I've seen reporters on Twitter actually disappointed.....
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

Post by mario »

Wallio wrote:
yannicksamlad wrote:Are the cars going 'too' quick? They may feel like a 'bus' to Robert Kubica, but these laptimes are faster than I'd anticipated .Already last year circuits were making changes for safety due to increased corner speeds.They may have to think further about that . You cant always have more run-off without moving the spectators back..and it all costs money.
I wonder if there'll be a push-back in the next few years.
And I just looked the MotoGP lap record for Phillip Island is about 5 seconds a lap ( 1 min 27.8) faster than the 1999 record for a 500cc two-stroke, and their lap times are remarkably consistent over the years. They dont seem to feel a need to get quicker to have good racing. But perhaps they also feel that they can't push circuits too hard , as they already need circuits to accommodate bikes' particular needs.


Actually from what I've read these times are disappointing, believe it or not. Some people thought the repave of Catalunya would be worth 1.7-2.0 seconds alone, plus the tires, plus the downforce increase. So I've seen reporters on Twitter actually disappointed.....

I wouldn't be surprised if, due to the fact that most of the first test was effectively written off due to the freak weather conditions, most teams didn't really bother with any sort of qualifying laps.

I expect that the majority of the teams were focussing even more than usual on race stints and reliability testing, given the reduced engine pool for this year - Ferrari perhaps pushed a bit harder than most, but I get the feeling that most teams probably were holding back quite a bit over the test.
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

Post by Paul Hayes »

Not sure what to make of these Haas times. I'd be very pleased if they do turn out to be shaking things up a a bit, but somehow I can't quite see it.
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

Post by mario »

Paul Hayes wrote:Not sure what to make of these Haas times. I'd be very pleased if they do turn out to be shaking things up a a bit, but somehow I can't quite see it.

Mark Hughes has been looking at the test times and reckons that Haas are probably in a similar position as Renault and McLaren, suggesting that they are probably around 5th to 6th fastest.

It suggests that they are potentially more competitive than they were last season, but the front three teams in the midfield pack seem to be fairly close together and it's more likely that reliability and the consistency of the driver line up will be key (Haas might be hopeful that they've at least got better reliability than McLaren, but out of McLaren, Renault and Haas, I would probably have to say that Haas has the weakest driver line up out of the three).

There are a few interesting points that he makes - it sounded as if Mercedes, whilst quick, were potentially struggling with blistering rear tyres a little more than their rivals and had slightly higher degradation as a result.

As for Ferrari, there was a slight hint that the car is pretty competitive with Mercedes on a single lap, but Vettel's race stint suggested he was having to manage his fuel consumption more than his rivals. It would fit with rumours last year that Ferrari were having to use more fuel than Mercedes (and possibly fractionally more than Renault powered teams were too), and with the indication that Ferrari have moved towards a philosophy that seems to have resulted in more downforce, but also more drag.

Red Bull, meanwhile, seem to have a car that is a bit kinder on its tyres than Mercedes, so although they are still a bit off the pace over a single lap, that disadvantage reduces over a longer stint (and suggested that Red Bull and Ferrari were reasonably evenly matched in race trim if Ferrari).

After that, you seemed to have Renault, Haas and McLaren pretty close together, with not much to separate them, with Toro Rosso seemingly in 7th place. Perhaps worrying for those who support Williams, it looks as if they are down in 8th with a car that seems to have a poor handling balance (and Lowe did seem to indicate that the team were having difficulty understanding how the car responded to set up changes).

Surprisingly, it sounded as if Force India were pretty far down the grid - Perez did sound a bit concerned that they had slipped back and weren't heading up the midfield pack - but, on the other hand, it sounds as if the team were mostly using 2017 parts and have a fairly big update package for Australia, so they might be more competitive.

As for Sauber, it sounds like another season where they are likely to be at the back, despite the deal with Alfa Romeo boosting their budget, with a car that seems to be struggling for grip.

[Edit] There is also an interesting take on things from another site known as F1 Metrics, which also has been looking at the longer race stints by the teams to judge the relative performance. https://f1metrics.wordpress.com/2018/03 ... -analysis/

That site does suggest that Haas are potentially right up there in terms of performance with Renault and McLaren, and it seems that the car is, a bit like the SF71H, potentially more competitive on the softer compounds (having set a stint that seemed to suggest they had a slight advantage on the soft tyres).

However, there have been a few suggestions that, if Haas really are that competitive, it might start causing quite a few arguments in the paddock. There had been a few complaints in 2016 that Ferrari might have been stretching the limits on what technology could be sold to Haas, given how competitive they were, but those complaints quietened down a bit when the team were less competitive in 2017.

If, as the data suggests, Haas are potentially in the running for 4th place and could be taking the fight not just to established privateer teams like Force India, but potentially even to a full blown factory works team like Renault, then it sounds as if we might start seeing a backlash against them from the rest of the paddock. There were already a few who christened Haas's car a "white Ferrari", but if it is the case that their car starts performing like one, we could start seeing the arguments over customer teams beginning to heat up again this year.
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

Post by yannicksamlad »

And how are people identifying the driver now we have the halo. I still look for the helmet. But that's harder to see now.
What do you do ?
( Looking at Ataxia's F2 pics I was disappointed that Sean Gelael has changed his helmet to a less distinctive colouring- these changes dont help me . And nor do 'Red Bull' helmets. Maybe I should start on the TV camera T-bar identification method. Maybe teams could do something with the halo..)
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

Post by Rob Dylan »

The Halo should be in the shape of the driver's intials.
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Re: 2018 pre-season testing thread

Post by Doyon »

I hope they sort this out asap. It made it really hard for me to identify the drivers. My sight is bad to begin with…
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