F1 2019 Pre-Season Testing Thread

[Jolle]

At some point the dominant years of every team has come to an end in the history of F1. I’m not saying it’s the case this year. We don’t know anything yet, but just because they are Mercedes doesn’t mean they will automatically get pole in Melbourne (as you stated). Of course they’ll remain top 3, regardless of what’s going on right now, but claiming they’ll dominantly be first anyway is a bit overreacting as well.
It could be or it couldn’t be - we will see in a few weeks/months.

Yes, domination always comes to an end, but in the past always trough a clear reason. McLaren dominated for almost eight years, before Honda dropped out and they missed the active car. Williams lost their funding and Renault. Ferrari lost their core team/tire advantage and RedBull lost their advantage of frozen engines. Mercedes got control on a level not seen in F1 before. They got their own funding, their own PU, a big team that can take a blow... Their weakest point might be Hamilton, he will leave a gap.

I'm hoping on a '86 or '91 season. nice close between two teams.

Hamilton a weak point?????? i would consider bottas a bigger weak point than hamilton and that is by far a wide margin....

Maybe the better wording would be, in a risk assessment of the future of the team, Hamilton's position is marked, as he's the hardest to replace.

[AMG.Tzan]

At some point the dominant years of every team has come to an end in the history of F1. I’m not saying it’s the case this year. We don’t know anything yet, but just because they are Mercedes doesn’t mean they will automatically get pole in Melbourne (as you stated). Of course they’ll remain top 3, regardless of what’s going on right now, but claiming they’ll dominantly be first anyway is a bit overreacting as well.
It could be or it couldn’t be - we will see in a few weeks/months.

Yes, domination always comes to an end, but in the past always trough a clear reason. McLaren dominated for almost eight years, before Honda dropped out and they missed the active car. Williams lost their funding and Renault. Ferrari lost their core team/tire advantage and RedBull lost their advantage of frozen engines. Mercedes got control on a level not seen in F1 before. They got their own funding, their own PU, a big team that can take a blow... Their weakest point might be Hamilton, he will leave a gap.

I'm hoping on a '86 or '91 season. nice close between two teams.

Hamilton a weak point?????? i would consider bottas a bigger weak point than hamilton and that is by far a wide margin....

I think he means that when he leaves the team (if he retires or goes to Ferrari in 2021) there will be no driver on the grid on his level to replace him!

[LM10]

I think Mercedes is being Mercedes. I think they’ll come out in Melbourne and get pole, or be right in it.

It seems the internet goes crazy every time testing starts.

Not saying they’re going to dominate the field, but they’re still one of the top 3, and it’s still close. Anyone considering any other possibility is deluding themselves.

At some point the dominant years of every team has come to an end in the history of F1. I’m not saying it’s the case this year. We don’t know anything yet, but just because they are Mercedes doesn’t mean they will automatically get pole in Melbourne (as you stated). Of course they’ll remain top 3, regardless of what’s going on right now, but claiming they’ll dominantly be first anyway is a bit overreacting as well.
It could be or it couldn’t be - we will see in a few weeks/months.

Yes, domination always comes to an end, but in the past always trough a clear reason. McLaren dominated for almost eight years, before Honda dropped out and they missed the active car. Williams lost their funding and Renault. Ferrari lost their core team/tire advantage and RedBull lost their advantage of frozen engines. Mercedes got control on a level not seen in F1 before. They got their own funding, their own PU, a big team that can take a blow... Their weakest point might be Hamilton, he will leave a gap.

I'm hoping on a '86 or '91 season. nice close between two teams.

You're right. What I meant was that it's perfectly possible that Mercedes, no matter how amazingly good they are, can lose their dominating pace. They can still win races and even get champions at the end, but reading some comments here I get the feeling that people believe that the clear domination of Mercedes can't stop at any time.

I don't know how good the top teams are in comparison to each other at this time of testing. And I guess I and we all won't know until first couple of tests either. I just wanted to point out that it's not impossible for a team to lose pace in relation to others, especially after regulation changes.
At this point, for me it's hard to believe that Mercedes got it wrong. And the reason is because they've shown their top class in the past 5 years. But, as I said, it's not impossible either.

[holeindalip]

Yes, domination always comes to an end, but in the past always trough a clear reason. McLaren dominated for almost eight years, before Honda dropped out and they missed the active car. Williams lost their funding and Renault. Ferrari lost their core team/tire advantage and RedBull lost their advantage of frozen engines. Mercedes got control on a level not seen in F1 before. They got their own funding, their own PU, a big team that can take a blow... Their weakest point might be Hamilton, he will leave a gap.

I'm hoping on a '86 or '91 season. nice close between two teams.

Hamilton a weak point?????? i would consider bottas a bigger weak point than hamilton and that is by far a wide margin....

Maybe the better wording would be, in a risk assessment of the future of the team, Hamilton's position is marked, as he's the hardest to replace.

Thanks for the clarification

[Mr.G]

Their weakest point might be Hamilton, he will leave a gap. .

How is Hamilton the weak point? What gap will he be leaving?

It was mentioned "if he decide to leave"...

[Capharol]

At some point the dominant years of every team has come to an end in the history of F1. I’m not saying it’s the case this year. We don’t know anything yet, but just because they are Mercedes doesn’t mean they will automatically get pole in Melbourne (as you stated). Of course they’ll remain top 3, regardless of what’s going on right now, but claiming they’ll dominantly be first anyway is a bit overreacting as well.
It could be or it couldn’t be - we will see in a few weeks/months.

Yes, domination always comes to an end, but in the past always trough a clear reason. McLaren dominated for almost eight years, before Honda dropped out and they missed the active car. Williams lost their funding and Renault. Ferrari lost their core team/tire advantage and RedBull lost their advantage of frozen engines. Mercedes got control on a level not seen in F1 before. They got their own funding, their own PU, a big team that can take a blow... Their weakest point might be Hamilton, he will leave a gap.

I'm hoping on a '86 or '91 season. nice close between two teams.

Hamilton a weak point?????? i would consider bottas a bigger weak point than hamilton and that is by far a wide margin....

What Jole meant was if Hamilton stops at Mercedes, that could be the end for them, because Hamilton carries Mercedes, like Schumacher did at Ferrari

[Bill]

Mercedes already lost their dominance last year Rbr had the best chassis &ferrari had best pu . Now that Rbr has a good pu thing look interesting. It is the first time in in 5 years that Mercedes has to deal with a different aero philosophy brought by change in front wing. Even though we had a rule change in 2017 the front wing had remained largely unchanged.

[Jolle]

Yes, domination always comes to an end, but in the past always trough a clear reason. McLaren dominated for almost eight years, before Honda dropped out and they missed the active car. Williams lost their funding and Renault. Ferrari lost their core team/tire advantage and RedBull lost their advantage of frozen engines. Mercedes got control on a level not seen in F1 before. They got their own funding, their own PU, a big team that can take a blow... Their weakest point might be Hamilton, he will leave a gap.

I'm hoping on a '86 or '91 season. nice close between two teams.

Hamilton a weak point?????? i would consider bottas a bigger weak point than hamilton and that is by far a wide margin....

What Jole meant was if Hamilton stops at Mercedes, that could be the end for them, because Hamilton carries Mercedes, like Schumacher did at Ferrari

Indeed, eventhough Ferrari there shot themselves in the foot. They replaced Schumacher with Raikkonen. It wasn't a voluntary leave. Also a bit like McLaren, they had a good run with Senna replacing Prost who replaced Lauda, with overlap. When Senna left, the Peugeot deal wasn't what Renault did at Williams etc etc etc... Mansell forced in by Philip Morris, drove two races... they only recovered after being taken over by Daimler. Mercedes got all bases covered, except for the driver. Ocon, Bottas and Russell are too young/not fast enough. Although.... If Hamlton would leave F1 the coming years, Max Verstappen might become the highest paid sport star of all time, he will be at his absolute prime for a long term commitment (where Vettel and Alonso are too old already)

but maybe this should be in the "silly season 2021"

[holeindalip]

Mercedes already lost their dominance last year Rbr had the best chassis &ferrari had best pu . Now that Rbr has a good pu thing look interesting. It is the first time in in 5 years that Mercedes has to deal with a different aero philosophy brought by change in front wing. Even though we had a rule change in 2017 the front wing had remained largely unchanged.

i would consider the ferrarri and mercedes pu as being par, no clear winner on that front but the rb was the strongest chassis i believe....

[Jolle]

Mercedes already lost their dominance last year Rbr had the best chassis &ferrari had best pu . Now that Rbr has a good pu thing look interesting. It is the first time in in 5 years that Mercedes has to deal with a different aero philosophy brought by change in front wing. Even though we had a rule change in 2017 the front wing had remained largely unchanged.

Compared to other years it looked a bit less like they were dominating the season, but still won more then half the races, even more poles and clinched both titles way before the last race. They won almost double the amount of races then the second team.

[Capharol]

Mercedes already lost their dominance last year Rbr had the best chassis &ferrari had best pu . Now that Rbr has a good pu thing look interesting. It is the first time in in 5 years that Mercedes has to deal with a different aero philosophy brought by change in front wing. Even though we had a rule change in 2017 the front wing had remained largely unchanged.

i would consider the ferrarri and mercedes pu as being par, no clear winner on that front but the rb was the strongest chassis i believe....

and that you see after 3 days testing .... wow
all I see is that the top 3 Teams are still the top 3 Teams, Midfield is a tighty thing and Williams are probably at the back of the grid because they already missed 2 1/2 days of testing so lets say around 300 laps

[LM10]

Mercedes already lost their dominance last year Rbr had the best chassis &ferrari had best pu . Now that Rbr has a good pu thing look interesting. It is the first time in in 5 years that Mercedes has to deal with a different aero philosophy brought by change in front wing. Even though we had a rule change in 2017 the front wing had remained largely unchanged.

i would consider the ferrarri and mercedes pu as being par, no clear winner on that front but the rb was the strongest chassis i believe....

and that you see after 3 days testing .... wow

He was talking about the past years, not this year's testing.

[Capharol]

He was talking about the past years, not this year's testing.

If that is the case , i misunderstood

[JPBD1990]

I didn’t intend for my comment to spark more speculation. Quite the opposite. All I meant was that speculation on Mercedes pace is rife because they’re not leading the timesheets, yet they rarely do in testing.

Although I do think James Allison is overrated (sidebar) - all I’m saying in don’t get swept up in the hype. Mercedes know what they’re doing.

They’re also shrewd business people. Toto has painted them as underdogs at every. Possible. Opportunity. Why? Because people like underdogs, and people are sick of one team dominating. This just gives people hope.

Again, I’m not painting it either way. I’m just saying - all is not what it seems (99.9% of the time in F1)

[LM10]

I didn’t intend for my comment to spark more speculation. Quite the opposite. All I meant was that speculation on Mercedes pace is rife because they’re not leading the timesheets, yet they rarely do in testing.

Although I do think James Allison is overrated (sidebar) - all I’m saying in don’t get swept up in the hype. Mercedes know what they’re doing.

They’re also shrewd business people. Toto has painted them as underdogs at every. Possible. Opportunity. Why? Because people like underdogs, and people are sick of one team dominating. This just gives people hope.

Again, I’m not painting it either way. I’m just saying - all is not what it seems (99.9% of the time in F1)

Now I get your point and I agree. At first I thought that your opinion was that Mercedes will get pole in Melbourne simply because they are Mercedes.
Anyway, being pessimistic and getting surprised is sometimes better than being optimistic and getting disappointed.