Yeah, I'm with you on that. Hamilton seemed a little checked out there; even though he's such a die-hard fan, it actually caught me off guard how much he was just coasting. And clearly, it wasn't even about losing time.
I felt the same way about him. It seems like he’s just stepped into a team where he isn't strictly necessary, almost like an extra piece of talent that just happened to show up. He would have ended up in that exact same spot at Red Bull, whereas at Ferrari—or even if he had gone to Alpine—he would have actually held a much more vital role with a real chance to prove himself.
I have to agree... looking at the lineup on paper, they really aren't the strongest group. You’ve got those seasoned veterans out there who have already secured multiple wins and even championship titles, and honestly, those are the guys who have truly paid their dues in this sport.
Looking ahead to next season, if you just judge by the roster, they barely even crack the top ten, so they really need to prove they can stay consistent and hold their own over several years. They're definitely trailing behind teams like Mercedes and Ferrari, and I'd say McLaren is sitting right there in the mix—they've got that veteran presence paired with a rising star who, in my opinion, might be the next Max Verstappen, especially since she managed to grab points in her very first outing in that car.
I am honestly just so fed up with these Goodyear tires and all this nonsense they're pulling 🤦 I was wondering if you guys think there's any chance that the Bear's advantage actually comes down to the Goodyear rubber rather than the engine itself...🤔
I really don't know why they're dragging their feet on making changes, since they've been stalling on this since last year. It would be so much simpler if the FIA just implemented valve controls to ensure pressure never drops below a certain point—if it does, they just get a fresh set. Or even just better monitoring during tire inflation, because everything feels a bit disorganized right before the start. Now everyone else is just wasting time and money trying to figure out how to fix these trivial issues just to keep up with one or two top teams. 🙂
northerncobra31 said:I feel for Jolyon Palmer, but he really struggled to get this season off the ground.
And don't even get me started on Grosjean. After Australia or Bahrain, he was out there claiming Haas was the best car he’d ever driven, yet now he's constantly complaining over the radio about how undriveable it is.🤣
He really crossed the line yesterday, because honestly, all that constant bashing of the team deserves some kind of disciplinary action, maybe even something lower than what they'd give someone from Russia. It's one thing to admit you're missing a corner, but repeating it constantly like that is just incredibly demoralizing for the guys working in the pits.
I feel like I’ve been saying this for ages... Mercedes looks unbeatable as long as they can just pull away at the start, but once Ferrari or even Red Bull starts putting pressure on them, they’re going to look completely lost. Their whole strategy seems built on being out front and just disappearing, but if that doesn't work—and honestly, it won't work much longer—they'll struggle big time when they have to chase someone down, especially since they look so much slower on paper. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this plays out, particularly on those tracks where they usually struggle to find any pace.
It looks like everyone finally showed up. I have to say, Haas is a pretty pleasant surprise; they clearly aren't going to be bringing up the rear for the next three years, especially since it seems like Ferrari has lent them a hand whenever possible. The car feels like a pure Ferrari underneath, even if it hasn't been fully refined from the original design yet, but those core lines are definitely there.
As for the sound, I think they really nailed it. In my opinion, Honda takes the lead with that sharp, aggressive tone, followed by Ferrari, then Renault, and finally Mercedes... though the Mercedes engine hasn't really changed much to me; it still sounds a bit like a buzzing bee.
I guess this nose on the Mercedes-Benz is just what the FIA wants them to build... maybe they're trying to bake certain things into the regulations... but honestly, it looks pretty stunning right now. It seems like everyone is obsessed with weird shapes, blades, and all sorts of oddities this season, which is always interesting to watch. You can really tell they're hitting the limits of what these rules allow, so now they're just fighting over the tiniest little details.
Also, what do you guys think about Hass? I feel like they could actually become a solid mid-field contender quite quickly, especially since they’re finally looking like a team that won't be stuck at the back of the pack for years on end.
stormybadger8 said:... I guess you can really only judge the Bear's engine performance by looking at the FI... just like how you'd gauge Ferrari's through Sauber or even Haas right now. It's mostly because those teams are the ones constantly chasing sponsors and pushing everything they've got to the absolute limit. 😉
That's exactly it, and honestly, I think we should take these numbers with a grain of salt—maybe try averaging them out over several days to get a clearer picture. The leaders almost never drive at full power with an empty tank, especially not for an entire lap; they usually just hammer it for a sector or two to set their time while still carrying a decent amount of fuel.
I mean, who could have predicted this time last year how much Ferrari would improve or how much Red Bull would struggle... so let's just take it easy.
As far as I'm concerned, we don't really know anything for sure about the frontrunners yet, other than expecting Mercedes and Ferrari to stay at the top of the pack... as for the actual power ratio, I suppose we'll find out after Australia.
I was just sitting here listening closely to the engine notes, hoping they might actually sound decent in the broadcast without needing a bunch of digital filters. It sounds like Honda and Ferrari have found a much better tone this time around, whereas Mercedes honestly sounds exactly the same as last year... I can't help but wonder if they're just playing it safe by testing an old spec or maybe a partial update, which is what people are whispering about regarding Ferrari too.
The rumors about the shake-up over at Honda don't exactly sound promising for them.
Everything feels a bit disorganized right now, and even though a few things have leaked, it doesn't feel like we've actually seen anything substantial yet.
@Jell, does anyone actually have a clue what that weird pointy contraption near the Mercedes sidepods is supposed to be? And what’s the deal with their nose design—it looks like they finally have something decent going on... unless the deficit is so massive that even they're thinking about ditching it (just like Ferrari did)?
northerncobra31 said:I'm actually pretty surprised that Ferrari and Red Bull went out so early to push those laps on the supersoft and ultrasoft tires; it seems like Ferrari isn't running too many laps, and Haas was one of the last ones out there, while Manor isn't putting in much time either.
I really appreciate seeing that, honestly, because it feels like they aren't holding anything back right from the start. It probably makes sense since we have one less testing day, so they don't have that luxury of spending three or four days just "checking systems" and running laps that are several seconds off the pace.
swiftmaker12 said:Where on earth did you crawl out from? Has your therapy finally kicked in?
On this forum, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. You have people who share what they think without attacking anyone else(like me and others), and then there’s ...
Next time try being a little more politeinstead of just telling people their statements are stupid! Calling someone stupid is just making yourself look bad..... ...
If you dare label someone as stupid just because they don't see things your way, I feel like I have to give you a taste of your own medicine, even if my username isn't explicitly mentioned here.....
.... So, eitherback off, jerk, or just be decent to other people.......
Nediljko Matijaš aka Gooofffy.
Using bold text like that really shows your level of class. I haven't called anyone stupid, unlike you, who just threw out all sorts of insults... when I used similar language, I just said "nonsense," which definitely doesn't mean I was calling you stupid (if your previous post is anything to go by) or anyone else stupid.
I honestly don't know where some people get this nonsense from. For starters, I think this current Ferrari lineup might actually be the first one in the last decade that isn't constantly feeding the media these grand stories about success; instead, they're staying quiet and barely saying anything at all, which just leaves the newspapers trying to manufacture drama out of thin air. They finally seemed to settle the team down last year and really sorted out their internal relationships and priorities.
All this talk about things looking ugly or nothing being spectacular... I don't buy it. They’ve just started following the path everyone else is on (finally), narrowing the nose like most of the field, and they've minimized the rear end as much as possible—though honestly, everyone else has basically done the same regarding dimensions lately. There are just some minor tweaks left, and we probably won't see the final refinements until we get to Australia. As for reliability and overheating concerns, I wouldn't worry too much because, from what I understand, they were actually more reliable than Mercedes and didn't struggle with overheating issues. If this organized crew can't make this final small push toward perfection, then they never will.
And like I've said plenty of times before, Mercedes is strong right up until someone puts them under pressure, and once they feel that heat, they just lose their way. In every race where they lost over the past two years, they essentially buckled under the pressure and fell apart. So, if anyone—and this year, Ferrari is the only one with a real shot—starts applying constant pressure, they won't look nearly as dominant so quickly.
Besides, Mercedes hasn't really brought anything groundbreaking to me; they just narrowed the rear a bit and enlarged the upper intake, and that's pretty much it.
Honda doesn't look any more compact than Mercedes or Ferrari anymore; if anything, I’d say they look a bit wider around the radiator area. Those front wheels look kind of strange to me, too, and I'm wondering what those tiny little "fins" are actually meant to do.
It’s actually pretty interesting what they’re hiding back there... they're being so secretive, but looking at this shot, you get the sense that the engine and gearbox are basically hovering in mid-air. It looks like there's this pocket of space where the diffuser runs completely uninterrupted from one wheel to the other... it’s a really intriguing setup, and honestly feels a lot more compact than last year's design.
There's probably going to be more coming our way soon. Even if there isn't much groundbreaking stuff to copy from them—since most of it feels pretty classic, if you ask me—there might still be a little something worth grabbing from the other side of the fence somewhere.
Honestly, I’d be pretty surprised if teams weren't utilizing battery charging and using the MGU-K to manage energy deployment, especially since there isn't any rule actually forbidding it.
I think I’m going to step back from this argument because, honestly, mellowtiger83 is right—we totally messed this up and we're in the wrong here. I mean, what am I supposed to do, go tell my professors at State University that they're teaching us everything wrong? If anyone else here is in engineering, maybe you should head over to your department and let them know too.
BUT... if anyone still wants to fight me on this, I will mathematically prove my point every single time. Telling me "I used to drive my granddad's Mercedes or my neighbor's BMW and it worked fine" just doesn't hold any water for me. If someone wants to take the exact same wheel diameter, calculate their own speed ratio, and then show me how different engine RPMs—even with identical power output—result in different wheel torque and acceleration for a car of the same mass, then I'll be waiting.
Let's look at it this way. If you have a weak little truck and a car, both sitting at 200 hp, which one is actually going to pull more weight up a steep hill?
Power is really just a function of torque... physics told us that a long time ago, and it’s still true today. That formula I mentioned was basically invented at the same time as those laws, and honestly, we only talk about power because it makes things easier for people to grasp, especially when comparing it to electric motors, so that's where the confusion comes from.
I feel like you've completely twisted my point around by generalizing everything like this, and I really don't want to get dragged into a debate like that.
If we set aside things like friction and other variables, engines that share the same torque will essentially have the same pulling characteristics once you factor in the right gear ratios.
If you look at electric motors, you'll see how motors with different pole pairs—which means different rotational speeds—might be rated for roughly the same power due to industry standards, yet they have wildly different torque levels and physical sizes. It's much easier to wrap your head around it there because their torque curves are more or less identical regardless of size or power, making it clearer. (For instance, you can check out some online catalogs from companies like General Electric to see this in action)
I think I'm going to step away from this conversation since it's turning into a bit of an argument and moving away from the actual topic... if you dive into some actual technical literature, you'll see exactly what I mean. You can't really master the science without doing the reading.
Regarding the main topic, if we could actually see the torque and power curves for these engines, everything would become clear. Even if Ferrari is close to Mercedes in terms of peak power, there's so much more at play, specifically the shape of the curve and how they utilize the ERS. It's widely known that the Mercedes engine was designed to run at slightly lower RPM ranges compared to Ferrari and Renault, and that they rely heavily on the largest turbine to recover energy via the MGU-H... everything else is just guesswork. We saw a perfect example of how much engine mapping matters back in the day; even though Renault was arguably the weakest and Mercedes the strongest, Renault ended up being better despite being about 50 hp down, simply because they likely had a much smoother torque delivery that preserved the rear tires and transferred power to the track better, making them faster in race trim most of the time. Back then, the margins were slim and we didn't have five other complicating parameters to worry about.