2016 Car Launch and Pre-season Testing

Dacia Infiniti🤔

Dacia Datsun.

Give me a break.

I haven't been keeping up with F1 lately, so I'm out of the loop.

And honestly—I'm too lazy to go looking for it myself.

Which team is Kevin Magnussen driving for now?

swiftmaker12 said:Ferrari is sticking strictly to softer tire compounds just to make sure they look like one of the top two teams by the end of the testing day,
basically just sandbagging so they can show off to Sergio Marchionne and keep everyone happy at home...

Mercedes is going to absolutely smoke Ferrari this year, and it won't even be close.......

Ferrari might manage one win this season, and even then, only if Bernie pulls some strings.....

What are you even talking about? Is there something in the water over there? 😁

Ferrari was running their race simulation on the S-M-M-H combo, while the Mercedes duo didn't touch the hard tires at all.

crimsonstag84 said:Hmm, I don't know about that... on the second day of testing, Nico Rosberg managed to pull off 18 laps on the Medium tires with an average time of 26.8.

Mmm, I'm not so sure about that... 😁

stormybadger8 said:Oh, come on now...
Ferrari might even look faster than Mercedes in the race simulations (which obviously isn't the case), but that doesn't mean a thing because they don't stand a chance in qualifying since Mercedes is just untouchable there.

At the end of the day, last year they were showing all this speed in the race sims during those endless FP sessions, only for Mercedes to absolutely smoke them in qualifying...
It even seemed pretty clear they had a shot at staying ahead of Mercedes, but the massive headache was figuring out how to actually get past them in the first place...
And let's be real, Mercedes didn't even pick up 6 FL-s last year, so that didn't stop them from winning races where they weren't even setting the fastest laps...

All these times we're seeing in the US, on the SS, or the S—it’s all just smoke and mirrors to throw the competition off...
Mercedes, and honestly even Williams, still haven't shown what they're truly capable of. Maybe FI can actually go faster, but even that's up in the air...
Not to mention, I'm pretty sure they aren't even using the qualifying mode on the PU, which they clearly have, as we saw plenty of times last season.
Every single time during the FP Ferrari sessions, they'd be close to or even faster than the others, even in Q1 and Q2, and then suddenly, boom—Mercedes pulls into Q3 with over half a second advantage...

You really have to look at the medium times, and that's where Ferrari is seriously struggling.
Nico Rosberg 1:24.1 vs Sebastian Vettel 1:24.6... so we're talking at least a half-second deficit in qualifying...
Okay, maybe by some miracle Ferrari could be better than Mercedes on soft tires (though I'd have thought the opposite before), but there's no way they're better by half a second...
Actually, you'd expect the real gap on softs to be somewhere around +/- 0.1 to maybe 0.2 compared to the medium, but nothing more than that...

We'll see Vettel on the medium tomorrow, don't you worry. As for Williams, they won't be anywhere near the front; the RB is faster in Melbourne.

copperdrifter26 said:What are you even talking about? Is there something in the salt water out where you live? 😁

Ferrari was running the race sim on the S-M-M-H setup—meanwhile, the Mercedes duo didn't even touch the hard tires.

Hahaha...
At this rate, I’d say I’m just getting hit by some salty rain!

Both Ferraris are pulling out of Melbourne... and it's not even halfway through the race...

ruggedhawk20 said:Come on, let's be serious here.

I haven't been following F1 much lately, so I find myself curious.

And frankly, I don't feel like hunting through all the news sites to find out.

Which team is Kevin Magnussen driving for now?

The same one that caused that mess with Pastor Maldonado, which will likely leave us facing a rather dull championship season ahead...🙂

stormybadger8 said:I think you're missing the mark entirely. Honestly, saying you missed it that badly is an understatement.🤣

At the end of the day, American F1 fans don't actually hate any specific driver. At least, I’ve never gotten that impression, and I’ve been pulling for Vettel since 2007.😁

I’ve never viewed the trash talk directed at Vettel as genuine hatred. It’s strictly just poking fun at Vettel fans...

There’s nothing malicious about it, and it isn't hatred toward the fans, let alone the driver himself. It's just standard trolling and nothing more.

Spot on. Only an idiot would harbor actual hatred for someone, especially an F1 enthusiast hating a single driver. But trolling and flame wars on a forum? That’s just part of the game. It is what it is.

I don't buy for a second that Ferrari has caught up to Mercedes, but honestly, I wouldn't complain if they were trailing by a realistic 0.4s per lap. At least then we’d actually have some excitement on certain tracks.
On another note, Toro Rosso is a genuine surprise during these tests—they've clocked the second-highest total mileage so far. It looks like Red Bull really went all out making sure that chassis was rock solid.
From what I've seen up to this point, McLaren is unfortunately nowhere near Q3 territory. They’re likely sitting at 7th in the pecking order right now, especially with Renault and Sauber right there on their heels... It’s a shame, regardless of how much I love mocking Honda; F1 just feels empty without a competitive McLaren.

Kyle Edwards5 said:I don't think Ferrari caught up to Mercedes—though I wouldn't mind if they were trailing by a realistic 0.4 seconds per lap. At least that would guarantee some excitement on certain tracks.
On another note, Toro Rosso has been a genuine surprise during these tests—they've clocked the second-highest total mileage so far. It looks like Red Bull really went all out to ensure the chassis is solid.
From what I've seen, McLaren unfortunately isn't even in the ballpark for Q3. They're probably sitting around 7th place right now—and that's with Renault and Sauber right there behind them. It’s a shame, despite my usual teasing about Honda; F1 really misses a strong McLaren.

McLaren will be lucky if they aren't eaten alive by Manor in the actual race!!!!
Sure, Manor might be slower over a single lap, but they move like turtles because they're running a Mercedes engine... which is bound to actually make it to the finish line eventually.

copperdrifter26 said:We'll see Vettel on the Medium tomorrow, don't sweat it. As for Williams, they won't even be in the conversation; Red Bull is faster in Melbourne.

Yeah, right... as if...
Ferrari is going to have serious issues with Williams, and honestly, they'll probably struggle against Red Bull on certain tracks too—not to mention FI popping up at two or three races throughout the season...
The Medium tire fits Mercedes like a glove. Honestly, they should just rename the tire "Mercedes" instead of "Medium"...
And since that's the most used tire of the season, Ferrari is unfortunately looking absolutely terrible here. 😢

Looking at everything we've seen so far, Ferrari made a decent chassis and PU update, but it's only enough to catch up to last year's Mercedes... they might catch them, but they aren't passing them.
I'm not even sure they could win a championship with this car against last year's Mercedes, because it just looks unreliable...

The real kicker is that Mercedes seems to have pulled off a better chassis and PU update than Ferrari. Plus, they're way more reliable than their own previous package, let alone Ferrari's...
So, Mercedes' dominance is only going to grow, even if Williams, Red Bull, and FI end up being noticeably closer than last year and constantly fighting with Ferkan.

Besides, I highly doubt those guys at Williams are just talking nonsense when they say they'll be better than Ferrari...http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/123092
Plus, you don't see much optimism on Vettel's face in his interviews. He isn't just rambling about needing more time and whatnot...
It's crystal clear he isn't happy. He knows there's likely zero chance of a serious fight with Mercedes...

Anyway, Lewis Hamilton said this yesterday:
“It’s been really great splitting the days over testing because it feels like we’re testing on eight days rather than just four with how it’s worked out. The team has done a fantastic job with the car and we feel that we’re probably in a stronger position than last year, especially after the mileage we’ve done. We’ve still not pushed the car to the limit though, to really find how to balance it on the knife edge on the timed lap, but personally I feel comfortable right now. It’s kind of like building a pyramid, where the single-lap performance is the very pinnacle of the whole thing. At the moment we are building the base with our long running during testing – and the bigger the base, the higher you can ultimately go.”

Sebastian Vettel just clocked a 1m22.852s on the SS.

None of this matters as long as Mercedes doesn't actually step on the gas...
Then we'll see if Mercedes can actually clock a 1:20.xxx at Austin...

We’re just waiting on it now... 🙂 (though I honestly think you're being a bit dramatic here), because that would imply we're looking at a massive 2-second jump over last year's numbers.
Here are this week's unofficial aggregate testing times out of Miami 2015:
1. Nick Saban, Mercedes-Benz, 1m 22.792s, 254 laps
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-Benz, 1m 23.022s, 124 laps
3. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1m 23.063s, 179 laps
4. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 23.262, 205 laps
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 23.276s, 216 laps
6. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1m 23.469s, 272 laps
7. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1m 24.023s, 300 laps
8. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1m 24.191s, 218 laps
9. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1m 24.200s, 191 laps
10. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1m 24.276s, 245 laps
11. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1m 24.527s, 224 laps
12. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 24.638s, 200 laps
13. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1m 24.939s, 235 laps
14. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1m 25.113s, 130 laps
15. Kevin Magnussen, McLaren, 1m 25.225s, 39 laps
16. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m 25.327s, 138 laps
17. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1m 25.947s, 159 laps
18. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 26.705s, 176 laps

I honestly have no idea what on earth they’re still waiting for—they've already knocked out a million laps, and it's the very last day of testing.

jadeseal7 said:I have no idea what they're waiting for—they've already clocked a million laps, and it's the final day of testing.

03.19.2016 - Los Angeles is when you actually push for those fastest lap times...

Look, here's the deal.
Carlos Sainz 2015: 1:24:191
Carlos Sainz 2016: 1:23.134

That is a straight up one second difference.

jadeseal7 said:I have no clue what the hell they're waiting for. They've already done a million laps, and it's the last day of testing.

They just don't want to be responsible for giving Sergio a heart attack...

That was driven on US rubber—we really ought to compare those times using the exact same tire compound.