Posts by stormybadger8

Paul Patel95 said:Final results

Williams 🤣

Man, it’s absolute madness when the reserve driver is actually faster than both main drivers. 🙏

Kubica is driving tomorrow morning, then Sirotkin in the afternoon. Interesting stuff.

EDIT: They scrapped the plan for Kubica tomorrow morning—Lance Stroll is stepping in instead.

Hardly think those times actually mean anything meaningful...

Based on this, you'd think Honda's PU is way better than Renault's...
But let's be real, STR has always been—and will always be—aerodynamically inferior to RB...
Yet somehow they're just 0.3s slower than RB, 0.3s faster than Renault, and 0.5s faster than McLaren, all on the same tires...

I'd be thrilled if this was happening to my favorite team, but realistically? It's basically impossible...

And that idea about Ferrari being a full second faster than RB? Yeah right, no chance in hell...

ruggedhawk20 said:Stop acting like the McLaren fate is such a tragedy. God will punish you. He'll take away your erection.

I'm not a fan...

And there they go—the Brits are already starting to mess with them. You can always count on them to complain.

I'm gonna report him for working construction. 😬

They put the McLaren together, sent it out for a couple of laps, and then—boom—it died again. 🤦

Honestly, this is just pathetic at this point...

The real question is who’s sweating more right now... Fernando Alonso or the McLaren shareholders? 🤔

And I wonder how fast the firing spree starts. This is completely unacceptable. 😵

That’s not even close...
McLaren and the rest of them aren't some underdog weaklings...
If anything, they were labeled the "bullies" before, while STR was the one called small and weak...

Teams like Haas or ABC News have never been at the top; their drivers never acted like they owned the place or looked down on everyone else...
And honestly, they didn't play dirty or push other drivers off the track just because they felt entitled to space...
There is a massive difference between a powerhouse like McLaren and a bottom-tier outfit like Haas or Manor...

McLaren and Alonso fall more into the "what goes up must come down" category rather than being some little underdogs...

And no, I don't feel bad for them one bit. Especially considering how they mocked Honda, not to mention Alonso’s habit of mocking absolutely everything and everyone—like that stunt with Petrov and all that garbage...

Actually, it makes me pretty happy to see STR ahead of them. I’d love to see STR leapfrog Ferrari and Mercedes for all that matters...😁
Because STR is easily my favorite team on the grid, and they always deliver.🙏

I feel like this thread should just be renamed to a broken-down Ford 🤔

Another one-dollar screw causing all this drama 🙂
Or maybe it’s just the "yellow" guys' fault again 🤷

Raymond Anderson4 said:Regardless of the fuel load or whatever engine mode they were running, it doesn't change the fact that they set those fastest laps on Hard tires.
Mercedes was on mediums.
Do you honestly think they were running full tanks and lifting through half the corners on the softest compound? I highly doubt it.
By the way, if we're following any kind of logic—and I'll use yours here about them saving tires and being a fast car—wouldn't it make more sense for them to use medium tires? Longer stints, easier to hide their true pace.
You don't need to chase lap times on Hards to know how fast your car is. The guys in the pit box aren't stupid. They can see the correlation against the rest of the field even while running on mediums.

No matter how much they "lift," the fact remains that Alonso’s times kept getting wiped out (starting from day one...).
Hey, hold up. Lewis cut straight through the chicane instead of going through it, shortened the track, and clocked a great time.😁

Now the question is: why???
Probably because he was pushing at absolute maximum.
I highly doubt the car is such a wreck that it can't handle a chicane.🤷
And there's zero chance that was an error on Alonso's part while cruising around... he's way too experienced for a rookie mistake like that.

It also felt like his times would pop up and then vanish toward the end of the last day...
So it's totally possible he was cutting chicanes again, rather than lifting to hide his pace.

mellowtiger83 said:You are completely mistaken. McLaren wasn't just chasing sponsors; they were essentially lifting and driving significantly slower than their potential, utilizing softer tires due to the temperature, just as I previously noted.

Yeah, right. 🙂
Red Bull and everyone else had totally different temperatures than McLaren, yet they're the ones who supposedly need to chase sponsors and lap times 🙂
give me a break with this nonsense...
Hypersoft
Ultrasoft
Supersoft
Soft
Medium

The gap between a Medium and a Hypersoft is barely two seconds. McLaren didn't even close that tiny gap, let alone catch the top teams...

mellowtiger83 said:How many laps did McLaren actually put in earlier today??? I recall someone here mentioning they’d be stuck redesigning the exhaust and the floor plating🙂.

Obviously, lap times don't mean a thing. Yesterday we watched Vettel struggle, today it's Hamilton, and that's just how it goes.

And they were pretty slow while they were at it...
It’s obvious they spent the whole day chasing sponsors and playing around on Hypersoft tires, probably too scared to touch the frontrunners who were running much harder compounds...
I just hope that exhaust issue keeps giving them hell and they were stuck in some aggressive safe mode, otherwise they're in real trouble...

Anyway, McLaren didn't get nearly enough laps in...
Laps (by engine manufacturer)
# Team Laps
1. Honda 324
2. Ferrari 256
3. Mercedes 249.33
4. Renault 247.33

Laps (by constructor)
# Team Laps
1. Toro Rosso 324
...
7. McLaren 260

The race in Barcelona was about 60 laps total...
Honda managed to survive about 5 races worth of mileage😉
And no, it didn't die; everything worked perfectly without a single hiccup... so it'll likely be plenty reliable...
Based on what we've seen so far, that's the engine with the most miles on the grid, so let's call it the "most reliable" one for now...

That doesn't mean Renault won't be solid too, but it definitely means McLaren isn't a factory team anymore. It looks like McLaren seriously screwed up by ignoring Alonso's insistence that Honda was junk...
This might just end up being another one of Fernando Alonso's legendary boneheaded moves...

If we’re actually going to take these times seriously...

Assuming this data actually means something, here it is:
Fastest lap times from Test 1...

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Day Four, Mediums, 1:19.333
Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, Day Two, Softs, 1:19.673
Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren, Day Four, Hypersofts, 1:19.854
Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, Day One, Mediums, 1:20.179

Looking at this, McLaren seems like a total disaster. No way they touch Red Bull's pace...
Hypersoft (McLaren), Ultrasoft, Supersoft, Soft - Medium (Red Bull)
The gap between tire compounds is usually somewhere around 0.3 to 1 second per level, yet the final spread is only about 0.300...
Maybe McLaren is just that slow, but I highly doubt it...
Even back when they were running Honda engines, the gap wasn't this massive.

Mercedes is miles ahead of everyone, unless Ferrari or Red Bull are hiding something big...
Based on the tire delta, Red Bull might even be faster than Ferrari, while Mercedes is over a full second ahead of Ferrari...

Bottom line? As usual, you can't really conclude anything from this stuff.🙂

Live...

There it is. A live stream straight from the testing session...

EDIT:
So Max spotted two guys in red and decided to give them a little chase on the track...😬
Red flag...

https://www.reddit.com/r/motorsports..._1_f1_testing/

Looks like there are a few small streams coming out of testing...
Most of them are just shaky phone footage, but if anyone’s actually dying to watch...

Local hero ☕
https://www.pitpass.com/61120/Hamilt...od-of-his-team

Yeah, he totally sacrificed himself for the squad and Bottas! 🙏

Raymond Anderson4 said:Of all people, it had to be McLaren out there on the track. They’ve turned into a total circus lately. Since they clearly don't have the pace anymore, I guess the least they can do is provide some entertainment for the crowd.

They probably just want to see if the car catches fire or if they'll get buried in a snowbank instead.😬
I wonder if they're still losing wheels or wings mid-race, or if they've actually figured out how to drive through slush without falling apart.🤷

Haas is actually what’s worrying me here...
The real question is why they’re running such low mileage. Given how much money F1 teams are struggling with lately, I guess it wouldn't be surprising if they're hitting some serious budget issues...
Sauber is lagging a bit behind, but nothing crazy...

It’s pretty wild how everyone from Ferrari down to Renault is sitting right on top of each other when it comes to total kilometers driven 😁

Force India 🙏🙏🙏
Nice joke. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Now this is how you properly take the competition down a peg. 😁

And people actually have the nerve to tell me those clowns over at Liberty are geniuses. 🙄

Seriously, what an absolute joke.
If they had even a single functioning brain cell, they’d live-stream these pre-season tests. Just charge $30 or $40 for a month-long pass on the F1 Access app or the LT app...
They’d rake in a massive pile of cash and win over fans for life.

Honestly, I would’ve happily paid to watch the testing sessions rather than the actual races (which I can just find for free wherever I want anyway 😬).
But instead, they miss out on a huge marketing opportunity and a mountain of easy money.

mellowtiger83 said:What are you talking about regarding the Power Unit status? It’s only been one day of driving. Besides, Anderson is praising Ferrari and their stability again; he was spot on last year.🙂.
Today's conditions, specifically the 2°C temperature, are what actually matter; they probably won't even go out.

What do you mean "Renault"? They just pushed the throttle a little harder than everyone else and now suddenly they're a "must-have," right!

And what's this about Honda? My god, they clocked a massive amount of laps! Super!! But those laps were roughly five seconds off the pace, which is completely irrelevant; they could have driven 1,000 laps without a breakdown at that rate.

Once Mercedes and Ferrari actually turn up the power, then we'll see what's what.🤔

Obviously, lap count is the only thing that matters. The more, the better. ☕
When it comes to pace, I’m really not convinced that having it is actually a good thing under these kinds of conditions...

Red Bull could easily be a massive headache. If their car is actually capable of getting tires up to temperature in these conditions—unlike everyone else on the grid—it might just mean they’ll overheat and shred them once things normalize. It doesn't have to happen, but it definitely could. 😉
I mean, I’m really not convinced that having a race car flying down the track like this is actually a good thing right now...

stormytiger4 said:I’ve gotta say, I’m a little baffled by how much Ferrari is playing it safe lately. Usually, they come out swinging and absolutely crush the testing sessions. Now? It feels like they're holding back. I can't tell if they're being strategic with their approach or if the car just isn't where it needs to be yet.

Before we start blaming the Power Unit or whatever Mario thinks he knows...
Haas looks like a mess—they're missing laps, their times are mediocre at best, and Sauber isn't doing any better...

Lap times don't mean much right now, but the number of completed laps definitely does...

And regarding the Power Units (mostly reliability and actual race readiness), Renault and their customers surprisingly look like the most prepared,
aside from McLaren, who is traditionally a chaotic mess all on their own, yet they still seem way more ready than say, Ferrari, Haas, or Sauber...

Honda is even looking like one of the top two, so what the hell is going on with Mercedes and Ferrari? It's anyone's guess...
As for raw speed, we won't see anything meaningful until someone actually sets a decent time...
and if we do see any hint of real pace, it’ll probably be at the very last second of testing right before Australia.