2018 pre-season testing thread

[F1NAC]

There is something strange in Vettel's race stints. In his last stint his last lap is a whole second quicker 1:19.9. There is not gradual pace increasing, it looks more like driving to a given delta. Is it possible he is hiding his true pace, like his qualy laps, where he was going off throttle on the pit straight. Maybe i am too optimistic about Ferrari, but we will see in Melbourne.

Not one second... Two seconds faster in single lap

[Chene_Mostert]

1:19.9
1:20.3
1:22.3
1:24.1
1:24.6

Lewis' short run on US, all over the place.

[CriXus]

All are driving to a delta, but Bottas' stints show a more clear view on Mercs pace, than Vettel's ones about Ferrari pace.

[FLuidd]

I have Merc out front and RB and Ferrari level with Renault just behind.

and Mclaren a lap down

I recommend taking a trip in the past and look at the 2004 F1 pre-season, you can find the article on motorsportmagazine.com

Read it and then come back here and apologize.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Vandoorne's race sim! Last stint is comparable with Ferrari and RB on mediums.

[etusch]

Gasly to 3rd, 1:18.3

000,4 more and he was second fastest.

[motobaleno]

All are driving to a delta, but Bottas' stints show a more clear view on Mercs pace, than Vettel's ones about Ferrari pace.

another thing in this direction is that mercedes had speedtrap less than 285 all the testdays until this afternoon while ferrari 290...
during race sim bottas jumped to 290 immediately. while ferrari remained there..

[MtthsMlw]

All are driving to a delta, but Bottas' stints show a more clear view on Mercs pace, than Vettel's ones about Ferrari pace.

Right there is basically no time difference between the first lap of a stint and the last lap (Ferrari and Red Bull)
On Bottas' race sim you can see much more variation between the beginning and end of a stint.

[Sevach]

Vettel stint 2 is allright, his car is heavier and he has to go long.

Stint 3 is bad compared to Mercedes however.

[CriXus]

All are driving to a delta, but Bottas' stints show a more clear view on Mercs pace, than Vettel's ones about Ferrari pace.

Right there is basically no time difference between the first lap of a stint and the last lap (Ferrari and Red Bull)
On Bottas' race sim you can see much more variation between the beginning and end of a stint.

Someone can say, well, maybe Ferrari eats the tires, but that is not the case. When see the images of Vettel's medium tires they look perfect.

[Sevach]

[CriXus]

Vettel stint 2 is allright, his car is heavier and he has to go long.

Stint 3 is bad compared to Mercedes however.

Yeah, all lap are in between 1:21.9 and 1:20.6-8 and the last lap is 1:19.9. Out from nowhere almost two seconds quicker than the previous lap.

[Chene_Mostert]

All are driving to a delta, but Bottas' stints show a more clear view on Mercs pace, than Vettel's ones about Ferrari pace.

Right there is basically no time difference between the first lap of a stint and the last lap (Ferrari and Red Bull)
On Bottas' race sim you can see much more variation between the beginning and end of a stint.

Someone can say, well, maybe Ferrari eats the tires, but that is not the case. When see the images of Vettel's medium tires they look perfect.

Omnious... I fear their pace if the start pusing the tyres...

[Just_a_fan]

On paper, you'd say Mercedes has the edge (to the tune of 0.2 per lap over Ferrari)

Based on the sims posted, it looks like a lot more than 0.2!

Look at the average lap over the entire race sim. From what I understand it’s 0.2 secs per lap in Mercedes favour

Between Ferrari's "fast" driver and Mercedes's "slow" one. If Bottas is his usual 0.2s slower than Hamilton, that makes the difference 0.4s between the red and silver cars.

Of course, this is all guesswork as the drivers tend to run to a lap time given by the team. Bottas might have been wringing his car's neck and Vettel driving Miss Daisy. Or vice versa.

[radosav]

Vandoorne's race sim! Last stint is comparable with Ferrari and RB on mediums.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DXx7PfMXUAMkG_k.png:large

Confusing