F1 2019 Pre-Season Testing Thread

[JPBD1990]

I don't understand why Toto or any other team boss gets so much hate for not saying cocky things. From what I can see, they're keeping themselves humble because they have experience of how quickly things go bad (a la "party mode" comments). Plus, keeping an underdog mindset in a sport like this means your engineers are working towards a goal rather than thinking "nah this issue is fine, we can get back to it later, we've won all these championships so I'm sure we can figure it out". Keeping on your toes is a good thing and it has the dual benefit of keeping any breakthroughs a secret from other teams anyway.

If this is in response to my post above - no hate whatsoever. I think he’s a shrewd business man, and he obviously is great at what he does. My point was to give his statements context. They’re not just innocent, 100% honest assessments (necessarily). They have a purpose, a strategy. Nothin’ wrong with that! But it doesn’t mean, simply because he said so, that Ferrari is ahead.

[motobaleno]

I mean that I don’t know the pecking order, nor do you, nor does Leclerc. Horner, wolf, etc MAY know, but they also have vested interests in selling a story.

Toto loves to sell this idea that they’re the underdog, even though they’ve walked 10 championships in 5 years (arguably last year wasn’t a total cake walk but a double crown nonetheless). Imagine our surprise when we show up in Melbourne and the cars great! What an amazing news story!

Likewise redbull. Imagine if they show up on Melbourne and they’ve surpassed the amaaaazing pace set by Ferrari in testing.

These dudes are running businesses. That’s literally it. Every word they utter to the media is calculated by media advisors and strategists and interns, etc.

As Charles said, and I will say again. Nobody knows. I think the most annoying thing, though, is Mercedes and Ferrari fans (biggest culprits on both sides) antagonising each other constantly. Sooooooo tiresome.

My very humble opinion is very distant from yours. I think that after 4 days of testing all the people that you cited PERFECTLY know the (present) pecking order: they know with excellent approximation how much each one is pushing and the fuel load of EVERY car out there lapping.
and I also think that external people thinking that nobody of them (the people you cited) know nothing about where his team and the rival (PRESENTLY) is, is rather naive.
As others have said few posts ago, decripting form the outside pre-season testing is a very exciting intellectual challenge (ad I can assure you that this challenge and the intellectual enjoyment connected has nothig to do, at least in my case, with the team I support or not).
Just one last thing: for all the people thinking "nobody knows" , "presason testing means nothing", "everyone sandbagging" etc...why you are on this topic? it should be completely pointless for you reading and writing here...

[motobaleno]

Bottas just did an 1:18.1 on his 16th lap of a stint on C2 tyres

source? I cant'find this

[Sierra117]

I don't understand why Toto or any other team boss gets so much hate for not saying cocky things. From what I can see, they're keeping themselves humble because they have experience of how quickly things go bad (a la "party mode" comments). Plus, keeping an underdog mindset in a sport like this means your engineers are working towards a goal rather than thinking "nah this issue is fine, we can get back to it later, we've won all these championships so I'm sure we can figure it out". Keeping on your toes is a good thing and it has the dual benefit of keeping any breakthroughs a secret from other teams anyway.

If this is in response to my post above - no hate whatsoever. I think he’s a shrewd business man, and he obviously is great at what he does. My point was to give his statements context. They’re not just innocent, 100% honest assessments (necessarily). They have a purpose, a strategy. Nothin’ wrong with that! But it doesn’t mean, simply because he said so, that Ferrari is ahead.

Nah it's not a direct response but I did see quite a few posts putting Toto on the lynch rofl. It's just that as you said, everything they say have a purpose and it's no surprise considering that's the nature of the sport. The only time you know you're getting honest responses is post-race interviews because then there's virtually nothing to lose to give out honest info about what went wrong with the car or whatever else. It's probably been agreed by most here from the first few pages that nothing can be trusted from testing and only with Q3 and the race can anybody be ahead or behind.

I hope F1 never loses the secrecy aspect, it's like a weird version of ninja films for the modern man lol

[Juzh]

Bottas just did an 1:18.1 on his 16th lap of a stint on C2 tyres

that's it then, pack it up bois

[FrukostScones]

BOT C5 1.17.857
back to the drawing board

[Shrieker]

BOT C5 1.17.857
back to the drawing board

Isn't that the softest tire...

[motobaleno]

I mean that I don’t know the pecking order, nor do you, nor does Leclerc. Horner, wolf, etc MAY know, but they also have vested interests in selling a story.

Toto loves to sell this idea that they’re the underdog, even though they’ve walked 10 championships in 5 years (arguably last year wasn’t a total cake walk but a double crown nonetheless). Imagine our surprise when we show up in Melbourne and the cars great! What an amazing news story!

Likewise redbull. Imagine if they show up on Melbourne and they’ve surpassed the amaaaazing pace set by Ferrari in testing.

I don't like much this non tecnical parts but also on this our opinion are much different.
Toto and the others don't choose their comunication strategy...they are (high) employes of big corporates...the underdog myth maybe good for US superball
but, as far as automotive and F1 is concerned, you sell expensive cars and earn big money being utterly dominant not underdogs...
mercedes is "the best or nothing" the underdog is good for Fix It Again Tony not for deutche uber alles
I'm quite sure that: if toto knows for certain to have a winner you don't see underdogs never ever.

my two cents

[Jozsusz]

Bottas just did an 1:18.1 on his 16th lap of a stint on C2 tyres

source? I cant'find this

I managed to find it.
Well, on F1 TV they just showed a lap with LH, and the car looked okay. The balance is a bit off because the back end got out of control a little bit 2 times. But the change of direction is good.

[NathanOlder]

Yeah the onboard lap with Lewis looked good, Planted, nothing unusual, flat through T9, and balanced.

[motobaleno]

Bottas just did an 1:18.1 on his 16th lap of a stint on C2 tyres

that's it then, pack it up bois

I would pack it up very easy but this would be the single most interesting stint of the test so far and I cannot find it anywhere...so please source.

[Juzh]

Yeah the onboard lap with Lewis looked good, Planted, nothing unusual, flat through T9, and balanced.

Turn 9 wasn't at all flat. He had 6th gear trough the entire corner when he could easily pulled 7th and even accounting for corner speed scrub you could clearly hear it wasn't flat.

[siskue2005]

Bottas just did an 1:18.1 on his 16th lap of a stint on C2 tyres

source? I cant'find this

I managed to find it.
Well, on F1 TV they just showed a lap with LH, and the car looked okay. The balance is a bit off because the back end got out of control a little bit 2 times. But the change of direction is good.

Its is mentioned in autosport
https://www.autosport.com/f1/live/28538 ... -four-2019

19.09 he starts the lap with 18.3 on the second hardest compund C2--then at the end of 16th lap @19.46 he does 1.18.1

[Mandrake]

Looking at the car's body language of the Mercedes and the Ferrari on their fast laps and on the slower laps I believe the Ferrari is a lot more stable at this point. The lap that Hamilton had to abort because of Kubica the looked rather light but still twitched away on him twice, which does not look like caused by weight. When on the "longruns" the car needs more steering input and looks a bit more sluggish.

The Ferrari on the other hand looked completely on rails both on the fast laps as well as on the long runs with certainly enough fuel in.

In Hamilton hands this might be overcome, however regardless of the times being driven, the Ferrari looks better to drive and quick at this point in time. And reliable as well!

[NathanOlder]

Yeah the onboard lap with Lewis looked good, Planted, nothing unusual, flat through T9, and balanced.

Turn 9 wasn't at all flat. He had 6th gear trough the entire corner when he could easily pulled 7th and even accounting for corner speed scrub you could clearly hear it wasn't flat.

I didnt notice him lift ?