2013 Car Reveal & Winter Testing Kickoff

darkmarlin16 said:To be fair, I know there was some chatter going around about those orange tires, but they’re basically just the replacement for those silver ones that were barely visible before.

I know, I know, this sounds totally ridiculous now that everything’s been laid out, but seriously... 😁

Who gave you permission to use my handle?😳
Shoot me a DM so I can permanently ban whoever thinks it's funny messing with my username.☕

Check out this massive collection of testing footage:

http://www.youtube.com/user/FiftyBuckss?feature=watch

Yeah, I have all his channels bookmarked; I follow his work religiously...
Just a heads-up, though—his streams constantly get taken down due to some kind of copyright issues. If I recall correctly, this is at least his tenth channel...

Frank Collins85 said:That’s an interesting thought... if Massa is showing that kind of pace, does that mean Alonso could be even faster?

Well, that went south fast.😬
It’s like Massa installed some kind of logic bomb in the engine that triggers self-destruct the second the Spaniard sits in the cockpit.😬
Pedro's currently walking back to the pits...

It’s a real shame, honestly. Today is such a critical day because we were expecting DL Rosa to drop some intel regarding how closely the car's actual track performance aligns with the simulator data.
But hey, I'm sure they'll have something figured out by lunchtime.

Transmission just kicked the bucket—so I gotta swap that out and then I can get back to it after a quick lunch break ☕

Transmission😕

How much abuse does a gearbox have to take before it just gives up on life like that?

😕

Smoke bombs everywhere😬

11:04 Looks like we finally got some clarity—that mess Ferrari was dealing with earlier? Turns out it was a busted gearbox. They’re scrambling to swap it out as we speak.

stormybadger8 said:Transmission😕

How much abuse does a gearbox have to take before it just gives up on life like that?

😕

That's what they're saying.
https://twitter.com/autosportlive/st...36029240737792

I wonder if this ties back to that overheating issue from the other day.
Did the Sauber F138 have that specific gap behind the oil cooler in the gearbox?

So, this is how the Williams team officially said goodbye to last year's machine today:

goodbye fw34 ...where the car was better than the drivers !

I’m really holding out hope that the FW35 can at least match last year's performance—and hopefully, our drivers will actually step up and show what they're capable of.

The RB9 is clearly a beast...
Yesterday’s pace on hards at Austin was insane—about 0.300 faster than Button's best.😁
Seems reliable too; from what I can tell, zero issues so far...
I just find Vettel's face a little weird. He's out there saying the car is "a step forward, amazing, blah blah," but looking at him, he didn't exactly look thrilled about it.🤷

Here’s the lap count per car:
1 Sauber 430
2 Red Bull 372
3 Force India 357
4 Williams 332
5 Toro Rosso 330
6 Mercedes 319
7 Caterham 318
8 McLaren 298
9 Ferrari 277
10 Lotus 271
11 Marussia 219
Sauber looks like a solid bet—fast and apparently bulletproof...
Gutiérrez clocked the most laps here, hitting 252. 😳

And here are the combined best times from all four days at Austin:
1. Felipe Massa Ferrari / 1.17.879 / 227 laps / Soft
2. Kimi Räikkönen Lotus / 1.18.148 / 123 laps / Soft
3. Jules Bianchi Force India / 1.18.175 / 56 laps / Soft
4. Romain Grosjean Lotus / 1.18.218 / 149 laps / Soft
5. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull / 1.18.565 / 198 laps / Hard
6. Esteban Gutiérrez Sauber / 1.18.669 / 252 laps / Soft
7. Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso / 1.18.760 / 177 laps / Soft
8. Nico Rosberg Mercedes / 1.18.766 / 162 laps / Medium
9. Jenson Button McLaren / 1.18.861 / 120 laps / Hard
10. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes / 1.18.905 160 laps / Medium
11. Sergio Pérez McLaren / 1.18.944 / 179 laps / Medium
12. Paul di Resta Force India / 1.19.003 / 240 laps / Soft
13. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso / 1.19.134 / 153 laps / Medium
14. James Rossiter Force India / 1.19.303 / 61 laps / Soft
15. Mark Webber Red Bull / 1.19.338 / 174 laps / Medium
16. Nico Hülkenberg Sauber / 1.19.502 / 178 laps / Medium
17. Valtteri Bottas Williams / 1.19.851 / 178 laps / Soft
18. Pedro de la Rosa Ferrari / 1.20.316 / 51 laps / Medium
19. Pastor Maldonado Williams / 1.20.693 / 155 laps / Medium
20. Charles Pic Caterham / 1.21.105 / 166 laps / Soft
21. Luiz Razia Marussia / 1.21.226 / 113 laps / Medium
22. Max Chilton Marussia / 1.21.269 / 107 laps / Soft
23. Giedo van der Garde Caterham / 1.21.311 / 152 laps / Medium

If things are actually looking this realistic right now, we might as well draw some conclusions🤣

Marussia finally showed up, and they might have even left Caterham in the dust...
Hulkenberg probably screwed himself over by jumping to Sauber...
Di Resta’s likely still fuming because Bianchi absolutely smoked him😳

The RB9 definitely suits Vettel way more than Webber...
Rosberg is actually faster than Hamilton 😬
Bottas could probably take Maldonado in a fight😁

I think Massa was actually faster than his teammate at Ferrari by a massive two seconds for the first time ever 😬🤣

It looks like Massa wasn't running on a light fuel load after all... at least according to James Allen’s take. Meanwhile, the folks over at Lotus are insisting they didn't run with low fuel once during the entire testing session. 🤷
Valtteri mentioned that most of the drivers actually did run with nearly empty tanks a few times during the tests... so I guess it's up to you to decide which story holds water.

Raymond Anderson4 said:It looks like Massa wasn't running on a light fuel load after all... at least according to James Allen’s take. Meanwhile, the folks over at Lotus are insisting they didn't run with low fuel once during the entire testing session. 🤷
Valtteri mentioned that most of the drivers actually did run with nearly empty tanks a few times during the tests... so I guess it's up to you to decide which story holds water.

Not me.😁
For him, it’s basically business as usual. There's no way you spend two days hovering around a 1:20 and then suddenly find another massive chunk of time to hit a 1:17.800.😉
What kind of magic tires would you even need to shave over two seconds off a single lap?🤷
The only thing that makes sense is if he was stuck on intermediates or wets during those first two days.

stormybadger8 said:Not me.😁
For him, it’s basically business as usual. There's no way you spend two days hovering around a 1:20 and then suddenly find another massive chunk of time to hit a 1:17.800.😉
What kind of magic tires would you even need to shave over two seconds off a single lap?🤷
The only thing that makes sense is if he was stuck on intermediates or wets during those first two days.

He was definitely running on inters on day one 😁

shadowstag10 said:He was definitely running on inters on day one 😁

Sort of.
He obviously didn't run the entire race on intermediates.

shadowstag10 said:He was definitely running on inters on day one 😁

Are you kidding me? Spent the entire first day on inters?🤣
If that's actually true, then the difference compared to that first day makes sense... but still, we’ve got to look at day two...

stormybadger8 said:Are you kidding me? Spent the entire first day on inters?🤣
If that's actually true, then the difference compared to that first day makes sense... but still, we’ve got to look at day two...

No.

So, who actually showed up to the Inter Milan match?

darkmarlin16 said:So, who actually showed up to the Inter Milan match?

I assume they just wanted to check if the new car was behaving itself without burning through a full set of slicks. 🤷

So Massa ran those first few laps on the intermediates, then spent the rest of the day on the wets.