2016 Car Launch and Pre-season Testing

Regarding this Halo thing...
How does this actually protect anyone from the kinds of accidents we've seen lately that ended in tragedy?

It definitely wouldn't have saved Jules Bianchi. Honestly, even a fully enclosed cockpit probably wouldn't have done the trick—it might have actually made things worse if that contraption had been on his car.
Same story with Julián de Villota.
As for Felipe Massa, maybe a closed cockpit would have helped him, but the Halo? Almost certainly not.

And think about those close calls where drivers walked away fine. They could’ve been totally screwed if that Halo snapped and a piece ended up flying into their helmet—like when Fernando Alonso was at Spa, or when Michael Schumacher had Adrian Sutil end up on top of his car.
There's also the chance it could just be useless junk during a barrier impact, like with little Carlos Sainz, or during a spin like when Gutiérrez got slammed by Pastor Maldonado.
To me, the Halo looks like decent protection only if a tire or a wheel comes flying toward the driver's head. For anything else, it doesn't feel like a particularly solid or high-quality solution.🤔

I find myself anticipating seeing a Ferrari right there at the front of the pack in Melbourne.

jadeseal7 said:gooofffy, what you're saying applies to pretty much every other sport too. Just look at football—the way fans split their loyalty between Lionel Messi and Ronald, or how people supported Barcelona before Messi arrived versus supporting Real Madrid back when Ronald was there, and so on.

I don't see any issue with who someone chooses to root for. For instance, we have Jason Campbell70 here, who is a huge fan of Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari, yet he’s sporting a Vettel logo on his avatar. He's just one guy who, if faced with a championship showdown between Vettel and Hamilton, would probably be torn right down the middle. 😁

Honestly, the more passion, the better. 🎉

Schizophrenia!?

Let's go, Kimi! Let them worry about those Mercedes-Benz cars at least during testing! 🙏

I'm actually rooting for Kevin Magnussen to break into the top five at the starting grid... down in Melbourne...

Today, we might actually see the guys over at AMG getting a little bit of pressure on their heads 😁

While I still firmly believe that the Bear is basically untouchable, Ferrari really needs to step up and prove themselves during this race.

I’m looking at a tight scrap between Manor, Haas, Renault, and McLaren... 😢

jadeseal7 said:So, there's this guy Jason Campbell70 on the forum. He's a huge Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari supporter. Even his avatar features that Vettel logo.

jadeseal7 said:It’s all just one guy. A man who, if he ever found himself in a situation where Vettel and Hamilton were actually fighting for the title, wouldn't have a single clue what to do. 😁

In that scenario? He'd definitely enjoy himself. 😁

Jason Campbell70 said:

In a setup like that—I think he’d actually have a blast. 😁

I didn't mean anything by it, really—just saying the more, the merrier! 🎉

stormybadger8 said:

Plenty of room left for sponsors.

jadeseal7 said:man, all this stuff you're talking about happens in every other sport too. Just look at football—how many people root for Lionel Messi versus how many for Ronald, or how much they backed Barcelona before Messi showed up vs. Real Madrid before Ronald, and so on.

I don't see any issue with who supports who—look at Jason Campbell70 over here, he's a huge Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari fan, even has Vettel's logo on his avatar. It’s just one guy who, if Vettel and Hamilton were fighting for a title, wouldn't even know which 😁

But hey, the more drama, the better 🎉

Football again.

And then when I say the biggest problem is the "footballization" of Formula 1, suddenly I'm wrong.

You and everyone else like you brought that football mentality into Formula 1 and absolutely trashed it.

copperdrifter26 said:...

MER - S-M-M-M
FER - S-M-M-H

Hmm... I guess you have to consider that Nico Rosberg managed to pull off 18 laps on Medium tires during day two of testing, averaging about a 26.8.

graniteharbor502 said:I'm expecting Ferrari to be right up front in Melbourne

Talk about delusional optimism.

graniteharbor502 said:I’m expecting Ford to be right up there in Melbourne

As if...
Ford might even look faster than the Bear in the race sim (which clearly doesn't matter), because they don't stand a chance in qualifying since the Bear is just untouchable there.

Last year, they spent a ton of FP sessions looking fast in the race sim, only for the Bear to absolutely smoke them in qualifying...
It even looked like they might actually have a shot at staying ahead of the Bear, but the real issue was figuring out how to get past them in the first place...
At the end of the day, the Bear didn't even rack up 6 FLs last year, and it still didn't stop them from winning races where they weren't even setting the fastest lap...

All these times in the US, on SS, or S—it's all just smoke and mirrors to fool the competition...
The Bear, and honestly even Williams, still haven't shown what they can actually do. Maybe FI can actually go faster, but even that's a huge question mark...
And don't even get me started on the fact that they obviously haven't used the qualifying mode on the PU, which they clearly have, given how many times they showed it last season.
Every single time during FP, Ford was close or even faster, and then boom—the Bear hits Q3 with a gap of over half a second...

You have to look at the medium times, and that's where Ford totally fails.
Rosberg 1:24.1 vs Vettel 1:24.6... so we're talking at least a half-second deficit in qualifying.
Sure, maybe by some miracle Ford could be better than the Bear on soft tires (though I’d have guessed the opposite), but there's no way they're better by half a second...
In fact, you'd expect the actual difference on softs to be somewhere around +/- 0.1 to maybe 0.2 compared to the mediums, but nothing more than that...

Ferrari is sticking strictly to the softer compounds today—just enough to squeeze into the top two at the end of testing,
presumably just to show Marchionne how much they're crushing it... pure sandbagging to keep the peace at headquarters...

Mercedes is going to absolutely tear through Ferrari this year, and it won't be pretty.......

Ferrari might scrape together one win this season, and even then, only if Bernie plays favorites.....

fadedwalker18 said:I’m expecting Kevin Magnussen to be in the top 5 at the start...... in Melbourne,....

You're definitely onto something there. Even a psychic could see that coming, and honestly, I'm right there with you.

Which team is Kevin Magnussen driving for?

ruggedhawk20 said:Which team is Kevin Magnussen driving for?

Dacia

ruggedhawk20 said:Which team does Kevin Magnussen drive for?

Infiniti