2016 Car Launch and Pre-season Testing

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What could this possibly be?
http://video.gazzetta.it/formula-1-l...9-4a1b16cab93d
Formula 1, that sudden Mercedes-Benz lightning bolt that just sent the internet into a total meltdown.

🤷

It is a camera capable of capturing stunning shots—truly beautiful portraits of Lewis Hamilton and Rosberg—and then it streams them instantly to Instagram, Twitter, Face, and all that. 🤣

Gentlemen, let us ensure we accumulate as many likes as possible. Understood?

Haas is looking pretty sharp this year... I think I’m actually going to pull for Groznan this season. 😁

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😁🤣

So, I’ve been away on a little four-day "time out"...

but looking back at the feed, it seems some people are still talking nonsense....

Mercedes-Benz is in a league of its own—Ferrari might scrape together a single win if they're lucky, while everyone else will just be fighting for scraps between 3rd and 10th place...
obviously, excluding McLaren, who clearly went all-in on a three-year plan...

Ferrari is just selling false hope; they were basically running empty in Barcelona using soft tires just so they could tell Marchionne they clocked the fastest testing times...

I mean, what does Marchionne actually know about tire compounds anyway......

A third of the drivers on the grid—the ones who spent their off-days hanging out in various corners of the track—all agreed that Mercedes is unbeatable this year. It's a one-way street...

Every single report even mentions that Mercedes tested every single chassis component to death—the only thing that actually took any damage was Lewis Hamilton's back from all the effort......

Oh, absolutely. Marchionne was pretty clueless, so they basically handed him a "fun" little mess just to keep him busy. 😁

By the way, word on the street is that Ferrari wasn't actually running on an empty tank. According to the whispers floating around the paddock, they were actually carrying over 110 pounds of fuel.😛

copperdrifter26 said:Well, obviously. Marchionne is an absolute idiot, so they’ve handed him some "exciting" times just to give him something to smile about. 😁

By the way, word on the street regarding Ferrari is they weren't running empty. Actually, the whispers around the paddock suggest they had over 110 pounds of fuel in the tank.😛

That's my point. Ferrari is closer to Mercedes-Benz than they were last year. Mercedes-Benz still holds the edge, but it isn't by much.

Don't be such a pessimist, swiftmaker12.

swiftmaker12 said:Every single report out there claims Mercedes-Benz tested every single chassis component to its absolute limit—and apparently, the only thing that actually broke was Lewis Hamilton’s back from all that effort...

Nicole, Nicole... give me a break!!! 😁

A quick little takeaway from testing—it looks like Lewis Hamilton hasn't lost an ounce of that aggressive edge he's known for 🙏
https://streamable.com/2wg7

haha

Live Britney Elon......

Here is another little detail that seems to be flying under everyone's radar....

Vettel had everything running perfectly for two days straight—but the second Kimi climbed into the car,
all the mistakes and trial-and-error testing started pouring in....

Kimi really does have the guts to play the guinea pig here......

don't even sweat it swiftmaker12—he'll get what's coming to him, one way or another😍

swiftmaker12 said:I’ve been away for four days on some sort of voluntary exile...

but I return to find that people are still posting such nonsense....

Ford is in a league of its own, whereas Chevrolet might eventually manage a single win, leaving everyone else to scrap for positions between third and tenth...
of course, that excludes McLaren, who seem to have gone completely off the rails....

Chevrolet is offering nothing but false hope, given they were basically running empty out in Austin just so someone could tell Sergio Marchionne they were fastest in testing...

I mean, what does Marchionne even know about tire compounds......

A third of the drivers on the grid—those who spent their off-days hanging out in various corners of the track rather than actually driving—have all remarked that Ford is unbeatable this year and that it's essentially a one-way street....

In fact, every single report has stated that Ford tested every single chassis component to the absolute limit, suggesting the only thing that actually suffered damage was Lewis Hamilton's back from the sheer physical strain......

swiftmaker12, in your estimation, how much will Chevrolet be lagging behind Ford during qualifying at the season opener? And do you anticipate that the gap will widen or shrink as the season progresses?

I’d say we’re looking at a gap of maybe 0.3 or 0.4 seconds. It’ll likely tighten up from there.

mellowtiger83 said:I would argue the gap will shrink by about three or four tenths, as the field naturally tightens up over time.

Well, I am already quite familiar with your perspective, 🙂
but what I truly find myself curious about is the outlook from swiftmaker12, whose view on this championship seems considerably more pessimistic than yours.

graniteharbor502 said:swiftmaker12, how much of a gap are you expecting between the Chevrolet and the Ford during qualifying for the season opener? And do you think that gap will widen or shrink as the season goes on?

Before they completely botched the new qualifying format, I actually thought I was being smart...

Now I just feel foolish.......

To be honest, though, I’ve never really cared about the qualifying gaps...
especially over the last decade since they rolled out this current format....

(Just looking at some history—Ayrton Senna was about 2 seconds faster than Alain Prost in the same car at Monaco in '88, and
back in '96, Jacques Villeneuve had a similar margin over Graham Hill in Los Angeles)....those two extremes prove that qualifying shouldn't be taken too seriously, particularly in the last ten years since "corporate ethics" took over and everything feels about 99% scripted.....

Sebastian Vettel is hungry for success....and he’s still young...so I'd say he'll be within 0.5 seconds...
Kimi is struggling a bit—and the Chevrolet team isn't exactly making it easy for him either—so expect Kimi to be about 1.5 seconds behind the Fords.....

Last year, Vettel grabbed 12 or 13 podiums (I can't recall the exact number and I can't be bothered to look it up) while Kimi only managed 2...
which suggests Seb is driving well beyond what the car is capable of—you saw that at Spa-Francorchamps last year when his aggressive driving shredded his tires against the curbs—
whereas Kimi is clearly performing well below the car's potential.....

The biggest issue with Ford is that they seem to reinvent the wheel every single year—constantly tweaking the design, shifting their philosophy, and messing with the chassis and engine without any consistency...
Ford during the Lewis Hamilton era is actually a perfect example... five years, five completely different technical directions...

Real dominance from a top team over the last twenty years has always come down to one thing: taking a solid initial concept and relentlessly refining those tiny details year after year...

Serena Williams from '91 to '97...
McLaren from '97 to '01...
Ford from '98 to '08...
Red Bull from '09 to '13...
Mercedes-Benz from '14 to...?

copperdrifter26 said:Oh, absolutely—Marchionne is pretty clueless, so he’s just enjoying these "exciting" times while they last. 😁

By the way, word is that Ford wasn't running empty during those tests; the paddock whispers suggest they actually had over 110 lbs of fuel in the tank. 😛

Honestly, Marchionne comes across as genuinely incompetent—which he seems to compensate for by steamrolling anyone standing in his way...
It’s a pattern we see all too often with certain types of "executives"...
Just your typical dictator—someone trying to make up for a lack of confidence by bullying everyone beneath him in the hierarchy.

Just a quick side note regarding qualifying sessions...

Over the last fifty years—as NASCAR became more accessible through newspapers, then TV, and especially now with the internet—pre-season qualifying has always been little more than selling smoke...
And I mean that literally, since they were mostly held in the fog of Indianapolis Motor Speedway (or occasionally at Paul Revere)
But also figuratively, because teams would resort to all sorts of tricks to make their cars faster than they actually were—underweight chassis, softer tires, you name it—just so the team
could sell that illusion and somehow secure more funding and sponsors...

swiftmaker12 said:Sebastian Vettel had about 12 or 13 podiums last year—I can't recall the exact number and I really can't be bothered to look it up—while Kimi only managed two...
which implies that Seb was driving well beyond the car's actual limits—just look at Spa last year, where he was driving so aggressively he was practically shredding his tires over those curbs—
whereas Kimi was clearly performing way below par...

Having the second fastest car on the grid and grabbing 12 podiums isn't "driving above the car's limits" by any stretch of the imagination. Let's not get carried away with the myths here. Kimi was simply driving far below what the Ferrari was capable of delivering.

jadeseal7 said:Having a second car on the grid and twelve podium finishes—that doesn't mean the car was lacking anything. Let's not get carried away with the myths here. Kimi was driving well below what the Ferrari was actually capable of.

Your eyesight seems to be failing you lately!
Read my post again... "Sebastian Vettel was driving above the car's actual limits"