Posts by stormybadger8

-Kimi Raikkonen just clocked a new personal best in the first sector. He's running on mediums.
-Another best sector for Kimi...
-Red flag
-Word is Fernando Alonso has stalled right at the pit exit.

Fernando Alonso is totally sabotaging Kimi 😬

And here comes the storm 🙂
Lewis Hamilton on softs... once the weather gets even faster than Sebastian Vettel's lap on ultrasoft, we can probably expect the Ford crew to just pack up and head for the nearest diner 😬

EDIT:
Dammit, I couldn't even finish typing before the session ended...
Lewis Hamilton 1m23.022s - soft 😢
Sebastian Vettel's best on ultrasoft was 1:22,810, while Kimi Raikkonen was actually slower at 1:23,477 on ultrasoft 😢

Total disaster for Fernando Alonso and General Motors...
Alonso is sitting exactly 2.5 seconds behind Lewis Hamilton on the same tires... same target, same gap.

Nico Rosberg dropped it into second gear... and boom, he just clocked a 1:24.329 on the mediums.

Interesting...
Fastest times on the medium tire so far:

Nico Rosberg - 01:24.867 (1 test)
Kimi Räikkönen - 1:24.907 (just now...)
Sebastian Vettel - 01:24.939 (1 test)

So either Kimi suddenly woke up from his nap, or Ferrari brought an upgrade compared to the first test.🤔
Or maybe they were running way heavier than anyone thought during that first session...
Still, it's pretty weird seeing Kimi suddenly outpacing Vettel...

There's zero doubt the Bear is hiding its true pace, but if Kimi is hitting these numbers, Seb is definitely faster.😁

Interesting...

http://www.thisisf1.com/2016/02/29/f...d-top-stints/?

Longest stints per tire type

• COMPOUND DRIVER TEAM LAPS
  Ultrasoft Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 7
  Supersoft Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 8
  Soft Valtteri Bottas Williams 17
  Medium Kevin Magnussen Renault 30
  Hard Valtteri Bottas Williams 26

The Williams car put in some serious mileage during those first tests, but weirdly enough, they aren't even showing up on this list for the longer stints on the harder compounds...

mellowtiger83 said:Exactly! If anyone could actually pull off the impossible, it’d be Lewis Hamilton👍 I'd say!

Total lie☕
Perpetual motion doesn't exist, and neither does some magical driver who can squeeze more than 100% out of a car... 100% is the hard ceiling. There's nothing mystical about it.
Honestly, the drivers who have massive swings in their results are just bad. They aren't even coming close to what the car is capable of...
Sure, a car might be better or worse on certain tracks, but it can't be so bad that it qualifies 10th one week and then wins the next, or jump from being a top-tier contender to being a mid-pack car overnight...
What people sell as a "superstar" driver pulling 120% is actually the exact opposite. It's usually a driver operating at maybe 80% of the car's potential, who occasionally jumps to 90% or hits 100% for a moment...
And that creates this chronically fake picture of what that car is actually capable of...
If that happens once, fine—it's an anomaly, great strategy, a chaotic race, or pure luck... but if it keeps happening, it's just the result of inconsistent driving.

The fact is, Sebastian Vettel drove a nearly perfect season last year, mostly because, let's be real, it wasn't quite perfect.

Meanwhile, Kimi Räikkönen has been driving way below his level for ages. We're talking since early 2008, and unfortunately, nothing significant has changed in any season since. The only difference is whether he was slightly less bad or a little more bad...
In 2012, he had a car that was legitimately title-contending, yet he wasn't even close. Same story in 2008...
Basically, it feels like after winning the title in 2007, he just checked out mentally. Like, "Okay, I got the championship, now I'm going to cash the checks and mess around."

I don't see any other explanation. He clearly knows how to do it, but he's obviously choosing not to... so he just doesn't want to.

swiftmaker12 said:I was actually making sense before they completely screwed up the idea of new qualifying sessions...

New qualifying isn't happening. 😁
Bernie says there's no way it happens before the US Grand Prix because FOM isn't ready for the headache—timing issues and all that nonsense...

And if you read between the lines, it means nothing for the rest of this season either. They'll just claim mid-season rule changes are too much of a hassle later on...

Timothy Castillo6 said:Any idea what we're looking at here?
http://video.gazzetta.it/formula-1-l...9-4a1b16cab93d
Formula 1: That Mercedes-Benz flash that just broke the internet

🤷

Lujo's snapping a selfie😁🤣

ruggedhawk20 said:Looks like this guy finally grew up enough to get fired.

Leaking info this brazenly during the preseason is a total disgrace.

You can take a guy out of the South, but you can never take the South out of the guy.

So what's the point? You're just calling out a Honda engineer who already slipped up a few times on the F1 technical forum regarding this year's Power Unit 🤣

mellowtiger83 said:Which one are you talking about? Which engine is Felipe Massa using??

Last year's Ferrari 🤣

Some crazy theory suggests last year's engine might actually beat this year's Mercedes or Ferrari... the odds of that happening are basically zero. Like, statistically impossible.
It’s way more likely that since Sauber is running last year's car and engine, they're pushing everything to the absolute limit, while everyone else is just cruising in some low-power test mode.

Anyway, STR and Sauber are on last year's power unit, while Ferrari and supposedly Haas are using this year's stuff.😉

Who even is this kid 😲

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/124...t-at-barcelona
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/me...w-nose-675584/



Seriously, how is that wing even staying attached to the nose? 😵
And I have zero clue how that thing passed a crash test. Like, is it actually sturdy enough? 🤔

mellowtiger83 said:Kimi said yesterday that the car is already better than last year's final spec. Look, Kimi might be blunt, but he's got that honesty everyone else lacks. If he says it, it's true. That means all this talk about even more dominance is just shooting in the dark. Nothing else.

I mean, even Haas is putting up decent times with that same engine, and you wouldn't even think they were trying in qualifying.

There’s plenty more to say, but Ferrari didn't mess up. If the car is already faster now, Mercedes is going to have a tough time. And I believe Kimi. When he says something, that's just how it is. Period.

Why are you so sure that matters?
Of course Ferrari is already better. Nobody is arguing that...

The real question is how much better Mercedes is. That's where the catch is...
Because Ferrari could be a full second faster than their old car right now, but if Mercedes also improved by a second over last year, the dominance stays exactly the same as last season.😉

Plus...
Yesterday's speed trap:
1 Nasr 210 miles/h
2 Lewis Hamilton 210 miles/h
3 Felipe Massa 208 miles/h
4 Nico Hülkenberg 207 miles/h
5 Haryanto 207 miles/h
6 Magnussen 207 miles/h
7 Grosjean 206 miles/h
8 Kimi Räikkönen 206 miles/h
9 Nico Rosberg 204 miles/h
10 Sainz 203 miles/h
11 Kvyat 200 miles/h
12 Button 199 miles/h

Hmm, since when is some kid at Manor faster than a Ferrari in the speed trap?🤔
To me, this smells like the Bears built a better PU than Ferrari, and as for the chassis, they're almost certainly way ahead too.
Honestly, I don't see how Ferrari catches Mercedes, let alone passes them...

jadeseal7 said:Williams No2?

Oh, look at that. You're back in your usual "blah blah troll" mode.

We'll see how much you're talking when qualifying and the race actually roll around.

If F1 looks this good, it means Williams is way better than we thought. ☕
When it comes to testing or even Williams's practice sessions, they always hide their cards. They run a completely different program from everyone else, so they never actually look fast...
The Bear also definitely drives way slower than it can in situations like this...

Basically, you can only judge the Bear's engine by looking at F1... just like you'd judge Ferrari's by Sauber or now Haas.
Because those are the ones chasing sponsors and pushing to the absolute limit. 😉

Not really 🤣

Look, I’ve been pulling for Sebastian Vettel since 2007. Honestly, 2011 was the most boring season for me, and even 2013 wasn't much better... I actually liked 2009 way more than those years.
Red Bull was never even close to being as dominant as Mercedes-Benz, but my favorite driver was just slapping everyone left and right, which made watching it pretty tedious...
Basically, I think this is the most boring era for Lewis Hamilton's fans too. If it weren't for Toto Wolff and his little puppet show, I bet even Hamilton's own family wouldn't be watching this stuff. 🤣

jadeseal7 said:Hey, someone tell Tibi to chill with those predictions... you're overthinking testing sessions that don't mean much. It's not like everyone is running race sims with identical fuel loads so we actually have a fair comparison.

Your theories are totally out there, implying FI will be a different team altogether.

They won't be "different," they'll just be third or fourth... Mercedes No1, Williams No2, Ferrari, or FI No3...

Mark my words, even Manor might start beating not just potentially Honda, but Renault and RB too. 🤣
I wouldn't even be shocked if Newey or even the big boss Matešić decided to walk away from F1 by mid-season...

Mercedes built a beast of a PU—seriously, it's incredibly reliable and clearly gained massive power...
Sure, we can throw out excuses about unknown fuel loads and all that nonsense...
but when Hulk clocks a 1:23.110 in Barcelona—where last year he set the fastest FI time at 1:28.365 during qualifying—then you know Mercedes has cooked up something special. 😳
Because there's no way FI found five seconds just through aero upgrades in a single year...
I mean, if I remember right, they were basically driving a 2014 car in Barcelona last year, but still, this progress is insane...

mellowtiger83 said:Exactly, man. I switched over to V8 Supercars and NASCAR ages ago. Honestly, watching this stuff just isn't doing it for me anymore—it’s getting pretty unwatchable. But hey, old habits die hard, so I guess I'll just hibernate through it.

It really grinds my gears seeing those vultures Bernie wants to invest in.🤦
God knows what kind of nonsense they'll cook up just to stay in everyone's good graces. It won't be long before they start pushing some moronic idea like starting the fastest driver from 20th place or some other garbage...

ruggedhawk20 said:Is being an F1 fan even worth the trouble?

Well, you already know how the championship ends, so you can just chill until spring 2017.

🎉
Honestly, it's a joke.😁
If nothing else, I'm at least not wasting my money on an F1 package this season...
I'll stick to watching C4 where it's half replays and half live, and I'm switching over to BTCC on ITV4 instead.😁

jadeseal7 said:Maybe the ultrasoft isn't actually any better than the supersoft on a track like this?

Maybe they're just lost in the woods...
As if they aren't. 🤦

Yesterday's fastest times...
1. Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:22.810 ultrasoft day 2
2. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:23.525 ultrasoft day 2
3. Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:23.658 supersoft day 2
4. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:24.298 supersoft day 2

It's pretty damn obvious the ultrasoft is the faster tire, carrying about 0.8 seconds per lap advantage...
For the race, it'll probably be garbage because it'll overheat instantly, but for qualifying—one fast lap—it's the winner, no question.

Anyway, the FI is insanely fast. 😳
Hulk just clocked a 1:23.110 on supersofts!
That's way faster than Vettel's or riccov's times on the exact same rubber. 😉

If the FI is this quick with a decent driver behind the wheel, imagine what the German will do. 😵
The season went to hell before it even started, even before the German stepped on the gas... looks like they made some massive strides with the PU.
Ferrari might be closing in on last year's Mercedes, but this year's version is going to be totally untouchable, even more so than last year...
All in all, feels like we're seeing a repeat of 2014 rather than an improved 2015.

Matthew Murphy91 said:So why isn't Ferrari running today?
Technical issues or what?

The Americans are busy boiling pasta today while Kimi went to get dressed.😬🤣

I think they had some fuel pump drama. Seems like they messed something up yesterday when they were testing how much the car would die once it ran out of gas...
Honestly, if Vettel was actually pushing the absolute limits on fumes yesterday, then the season is already over...
Because that 1:22.810 Vettel clocked on ultrasofts—if he really did it on empty—isn't all that impressive,
especially when you look at Rosberg's last year's 01:22.792 on supersofts. 😳

Jason Campbell70 said:If Rosberg thinks he’s going to dominate in Los Angeles, he’s dreaming. Hamilton's going to clinch that title before he even knows what hit him.

Rosberg being a tenth slower than the fastest lap doesn't mean a damn thing for how the season ends up.

Of course, if Rosberg keeps dominating like this, Hamilton’s title—and the one for Mercedes—is basically a done deal.
And of course, those tenths don't mean a damn thing for the championship. Just like how Rosberg has zero chance of winning it, you’re just as far off—or so does your mom think. 😁

Let’s be real, that mission is a total long shot—especially in a Mercedes. They’d honestly have a better shot at pulling it off in a Manor than they would in the German car. 😬
Look, none of that changes the fact that he’s generally faster than Hamilton in Los Angeles. That track just suits him perfectly—it's like he was born for it.
One single swallow doesn't make spring, but it does say something about how much bite Mercedes actually has at this track. Honestly, you should be looking at Rosberg's times here, not Hamilton's. 😉

Jason Campbell70 said:If Rosberg and Mercedes are running one or two seconds faster per lap in the race sim, then 2016 is just going to be a total rerun of last year.

Unless, like I said, Ferrari isn't playing it close to the chest.
Honestly, that seems pretty unlikely to me.

From what I can see, the German looks like they might actually dominate more this year than last.
And honestly, I don't think Ferrari is hiding anything. If anything, I think we've already seen their absolute ceiling.
Honestly, I don't see anyone even breathing down Mercedes's neck. I'm expecting a dogfight between FI and Williams long before anyone actually challenges the German team.

I wouldn't go as far as calling it a rerun of last season, but I honestly doubt Ferrari can even fight for second place in the standings, let alone have a shot at taking first.