F1 2019 Pre-Season Testing Thread

[zibby43]

I feel like the front wing designs are a bit of red herring right now.

It appears Ferrari has made some gains with their underfloor and rear suspension (watching the way the car behaves in transition areas like corner entry/exit). There have been changes "under the skin" on that Ferrari which we can't see. I think Merc needs to explore these routes.

The way Bottas made it sound, is that the W10 has a lot of potential (kept improving each session/day), but they're still trying to arrive at a setup that makes the car easy to drive *and* quick.

The Ferrari seems on rails and quick out of the box.

This really isn't anything new for Merc, they always have a hell of a time getting the car dialed in early in the year, but as the year goes on it gets better and better. Ferrari seems good out of the box, but doesn't seem to improve as much. RBR is some place in the middle.

Yep. This isn't unfamiliar territory at all for Mercedes. There was a lot of Mercedes hype last year during testing and after Melbourne quali, and then Ferrari went on to get 3 straight pole positions (including 2 front row lockouts) at Bahrain, China, and Azerbaijan.

Then, starting in Barcelona, and once more in Austria, Merc rolled out big upgrades. And Merc's development path over the course of the rest of the season was devastatingly effective - on both the PU and chassis fronts.

Last year, Ferrari had an outstanding package. It just took them testing and Melbourne for them to fully figure it out. Merc could very well be in that position this year.

[r.t.1.n]

about Mercedes case
This is by far the biggest sandbagging i’ve ever seen
cannot wait for Melbourne
Sry for my broken language

[Afterburner]

Mercedes and RB are hidding their game for sure, i think Mercedes is around 0,3s above RB and 0,5s above Ferrari.

Mercedes simply isn't doing nothing that shows they're in bad shape, no tons of flow viz, no first sectors full throttle, etc, and RB the same while they keep TR to full test Honda next spec engine.

[djos]

I dont think any of the works teams are running full power and light fuel - they are too busy learning the new tire construction and understanding their new cars.

I think next week we'll see some better indicators of qually pace and maybe some more representative race simulations.

[GrandAxe]

The obvious conclusion from testing so far is; Ferrari has done a solid baseline job, so they have been quick right from the start and have remained quick. It bodes well for them at Melbourne (that's not saying they'll win the race or even come second - just that it bodes well).

For Red Bull, they are having to deal with a brand new engine. This would mean having much more to look out for than either Merc or Ferrari. Everything from cooling, to gear ratio's, to electrics etc. will have to be examined in detail, this is outside the usual aero, grip and so on that their peers have to deal with. In this circumstances, they cannot expect to be quick out of the box.

Mercedes W10 has an entirely new rear end philosophy to enable them handle tyres better. Not surprisingly, they haven't yet got the hang of it and have been suffering massive cold graining problems, even on the fronts as well. I remember someone (searched, but can't find who) posted a link about this earlier on this thread. Merc will continue to be slow until they get the hang of their new tyre handling methods.
The photo below shows the W10's front left tyre on day two:


The full article (warning: not the strongest) the image above was obtained from can be found here:
https://www.racecar-engineering.com/art ... ng-update/

As expected, next week should give a better picture of roughly where the teams lie, particularly for Red Bull and Mercedes. I say "roughly", because testing can only provide the roughest of rough estimates about where the teams lie (lots of sandbags to heft out).

[PhillipM]

Merc don't need to worry about that yet - it's just a case of too much load through cold tyres, track temperatures will be a lot higher come raceday - it's just indicating they're running heavy if anything tbfh.

[zibby43]

The obvious conclusion from testing so far is; Ferrari has done a solid baseline job, so they have been quick right from the start and have remained quick. It bodes well for them at Melbourne (that's not saying they'll win the race or even come second - just that it bodes well).

For Red Bull, they are having to deal with a brand new engine. This would mean having much more to look out for than either Merc or Ferrari. Everything from cooling, to gear ratio's, to electrics etc. will have to be examined in detail, this is outside the usual aero, grip and so on that their peers have to deal with. In this circumstances, they cannot expect to be quick out of the box.

Mercedes W10 has an entirely new rear end philosophy to enable them handle tyres better. Not surprisingly, they haven't yet got the hang of it and have been suffering massive cold graining problems, even on the fronts as well. I remember someone (searched, but can't find who) posted a link about this earlier on this thread. Merc will continue to be slow until they get the hang of their new tyre handling methods.
The photo below shows the W10's front left tyre on day two:
https://www.racecar-engineering.com/wp- ... 96x446.jpg

The full article (warning: not the strongest) the image above was obtained from can be found here:
https://www.racecar-engineering.com/art ... ng-update/

As expected, next week should give a better picture of roughly where the teams lie, particularly for Red Bull and Mercedes. I say "roughly", because testing can only provide the roughest of rough estimates about where the teams lie (lots of sandbags to heft out).

I posted the article. All teams were suffering from cold graining when the ambient track temperatures were low. The cool track surface and subsequent cold graining yields unrepresentative data, which is why Mercedes didn't do much running at all early in the AM on the final day until the track surface started to warm up.

This cold graining problem is an entirely separate problem from both regular graining and blistering.

Haven't seen any blistering on the Merc's rear tires during their afternoon long runs, which is a good sign. It should also help Merc that the standard tire this year is the thinner gauge Pirelli used at a few races last year.

[Schuttelberg]

I am the first to admit that I'm not an expert on any of these test timings other than Mercedes being the usual pricks and taking the mickey out of F1 fans. Honestly, apart from Hamilton pretty much loathe the team. Funny as it may sound, I'd love for Lewis to have a championship challenging car if Max or Seb have one so that I can enjoy a season of great racing even if Lewis wins a 6th because in my opinion he is an all time great. He won't ever be greater than Schumacher to me even if he wins 10 title but that's besides the point.

From whatever has happened in testing, for me the greatest positive is Charles. His attitude and approach is top notch and I expect him to challenge and even beat Seb right away. Something in my gut is telling me that Lewis will take the title while the red's fight each other.

[zibby43]

Mercedes and RB are hidding their game for sure, i think Mercedes is around 0,3s above RB and 0,5s above Ferrari.

Mercedes simply isn't doing nothing that shows they're in bad shape, no tons of flow viz, no first sectors full throttle, etc, and RB the same while they keep TR to full test Honda next spec engine.

Here's where a senior F1 insider has the gaps at after the final day, per Andrew Benson:

"A gap of perhaps 0.3secs [from Ferrari] to Mercedes and Red Bull, with differing views on who might be ahead, although it seems that Mercedes may well be a smidge in front.

it's about 0.7secs back to Renault who are perhaps 0.2secs or so ahead of Alfa Romeo and Haas, the two Ferrari customer teams, with Toro Rosso, McLaren and Force India very close behind them, and very difficult to choose between."

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/47322639

[Jambier]

Am I the only one to doubt the gap announced by Pirelli on the different tyre spec?

I dont think any of the works teams are running full power and light fuel - they are too busy learning the new tire construction and understanding their new cars.

I think next week we'll see some better indicators of qually pace and maybe some more representative race simulations.

Renault is still not using race mode for engine.
They will use it next week.

So qualy is far away

[Cedo]

Got this video for a bit of an analysis! This was when Lewis almost crashed into Kubica when Lewis was on a flying lap on C3. Observe the STRAT dial! I believe the START setting is 6 or 7 (4m40 onwards). Below is also the Mercedes wheel picture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YwY7Eir_gE

https://wi-images.condecdn.net/image/bE ... eel-v2.jpg

(Click to enlarge)
https://i.imgur.com/JwuoSTr.png

Go to 7m16s on the youtube video. Set the playback speed to 0.25. Now watch the nose of the Ferrari just as the DRS is disabled (likely by a button). As the wing snaps back into position, the nose of the car lifts quite obviously. To me that means they either have something fun going on with their rear suspension, or it's set up very, very soft. Quite cool!

Sf90 https://imgur.com/gallery/tMOtNf8

[Just_a_fan]

He won't ever be greater than Schumacher to me even if he wins 10 title but that's besides the point.

When he crashes in to people to win titles, you can start to compare Hamilton to Schumacher. Until then, Hamilton's the greater driver.

[Capharol]

He won't ever be greater than Schumacher to me even if he wins 10 title but that's besides the point.

When he crashes in to people to win titles, you can start to compare Hamilton to Schumacher. Until then, Hamilton's the greater driver.

that's just a englishmen talking to a German .... never ever will a Schumacher-Fan tell you Hamilton is the greatest and vice versa neither, nor will a real Verstappen-Fan tell you, he went over the line against Ocon

[langedweil]

He didn’t ...

[Morteza]

By the way @SmilexTech on Twitter mentioned this quote from Bottas about Mercedes:
https://twitter.com/SmilexTech/status/1 ... 1148681217
Translation by Google Translate:

The most important problem of Mercedes in the first four days of testing explained well by Bottas: "With these cold conditions, on our car the tires seem to have a very narrow window of operation"