2018 Car Reveal and Pre-season Testing

The colors look great, thanks Martini. 🙏
The halo stands out pretty much in these shots, but we’ll see how it holds up in actual daylight. It might not be nearly as loud as it looks right now once you get it under the sun.

Honestly, I wouldn't be shocked if one team decides to go the complete opposite direction and paints theirs neon yellow. Maybe Red Bull—I wouldn't put it past them.

Even if Williams manages to get a decent car, they aren't going to see any real results because their driver lineup is just a disaster.

So, is that ugly, clunky Halo thing standardized? Does it have to be identical on every car?
Or is there room for a few surprises if they start using the Halo as an aerodynamic add-on? 🤔

stormybadger8 said:So, is that ugly, clunky Halo thing standardized? Does it have to be identical on every car?
Or is there room for a few surprises if they start using the Halo as an aerodynamic add-on? 🤔

There aren't any variations allowed. It is standardized and must remain identical across all cars. Perhaps they could change the color, but that's about it.

This halo protection thing is a pretty ugly addition. Honestly, I’m inclined to believe that in a few years they’ll just seal the cockpit shut entirely, and then NASCAR will be officially screwed.

Honestly, I'd take a closed cockpit any day over this absolute garbage we're seeing now, where you're basically left unprotected if a tire decides to fly off and smash right into your head, not to mention how much better the visibility would be if they just did it right

Sent from my NEM-L21 using Reddit

Is this just leftover PTSD from the Honda days, or did they screw up with Renault too? 🤔
Nothing actually blew up, and it looks like the startup went fine...
But looking at the faces of the McLaren crew, I wouldn't say anyone is celebrating. Honestly, it feels like this might not have been the "first" time either...
They look pretty worried to me. Instead of expecting a smooth start, they look more like they're in disbelief that it even fired up. There wasn't even any excitement... just a total letdown. 😕

I expected much more optimism from this 🤷

You can hallucinate all you want about what these guys should look like, but honestly? Half of them probably pass out from sheer exhaustion just thinking about the workload they have to tackle before the season even kicks off!

The only ones looking visibly stoked in that launch video were the Mercedes crew, especially Toto Wolff. He had a grin stretched from ear to ear, looking for all the world like a hyena straight out of The Lion King.🙂

https://www.f1puls.com/24808/wolff-m...der-prijetnja/

Now Toto is actually sweating over Renault and McLaren 😢
Poor guy. They’re stuck in the middle again, struggling just to stay in the title hunt 🙂

Honestly, I don't get how this guy hasn't bored himself to death yet with all this constant drama 🙄

stormybadger8 said:https://www.f1puls.com/24808/wolff-m...der-prijetnja/

Now Toto is actually sweating over Renault and McLaren 😢
Poor guy. They’re stuck in the middle again, struggling just to stay in the title hunt 🙂

Honestly, I don't get how this guy hasn't bored himself to death yet with all this constant drama 🙄

In reality, their only true competition will be Ferrari and Red Bull. I suspect we're looking at an incredibly tight season between those three teams.

We shall see whether Mercedes Resta or Adrian Newey manages to pose the greater threat.

If The Bear actually has any real competition, it’ll be Adrian Newey, no contest.
I’d bet money he just copies Ferrari's designs and beats them to it by the start of the season.
Not to mention Red Bull will definitely have faster development throughout the year; the only question mark is how reliable the Renault engine actually is.
At the end of the day, what decides the whole Ferrari vs Red Bull showdown is basically just the reliability of the power unit.

It would honestly be a miracle if Ferrari can even keep pace with Red Bull, let alone Mercedes...

Mind you, The Bear is going to have a massive edge over Red Bull and Ferrari, not to mention everyone else.☕
There might be some fight between Red Bull and Ferrari, but fighting The Bear? Unlikely, unless things go absolutely sideways for them or their drivers mess everything up.
Mercedes will probably just eat the competition alive thanks to a superior power unit—maybe not purely on raw power, but they'll definitely win on reliability.
Plus, there's the little detail where they'll still hold a huge advantage in qualifying since they can crank the engine way higher than in the actual races.
Meanwhile, everyone else will be forced to dial back the power and run conservative engine modes just to survive seven races without needing an engine swap.
And don't even get me started on the nightmare Ferrari, Renault, and Honda will face with the MGU-H/K and the turbo...

The Bear is so damn far ahead of everyone else that the situation looks something like this:
If Mercedes decided right now to just freeze power unit development and run today's spec all the way until the next rule change, here’s what happens:

Ferrari might catch them sometime in 2019, probably toward the very end of that season...
Renault might catch them sometime in 2020, again, likely at the tail end...
As for Honda, they probably wouldn't catch them ever.😬

@Tibi, you’ve missed the mark twice here. First off, Mercedes doesn't have a superior power unit compared to Ferrari. They might hold a slight edge, but it isn't nearly as significant as you’re implying.
Second, you suggested that Adrian Newey is going to copy Ferrari 🙂, which is an interesting take. Copy what, exactly? I wasn't aware that Newey had any insight into Ferrari's unreleased designs.
How is he supposed to copy them if Ferrari shows up again with brilliant aerodynamics?

mellowtiger83 said:@Tibi, you’ve missed the mark twice here. First off, Mercedes doesn't have a superior power unit compared to Ferrari. They might hold a slight edge, but it isn't nearly as significant as you’re implying.
Second, you suggested that Adrian Newey is going to copy Ferrari 🙂, which is an interesting take. Copy what, exactly? I wasn't aware that Newey had any insight into Ferrari's unreleased designs.
How is he supposed to copy them if Ferrari shows up again with brilliant aerodynamics?

I feel compelled to point out that it seems The Best NFL wants as few enthusiasts as possible following NASCAR on this thread, repeatedly insisting that the season will be dull because Mercedes is destined to dominate.

Winter testing hasn't even commenced, yet The Best NFL is already listening to the sound of a Mercedes engine and concluding that their Power Unit puts them back at the peak of absolute dominance in this hybrid era.

It appears The Best NFL has joined the Mercedes camp alongside mellowtiger83 and darkmarlin16. 👍

mellowtiger83 said:@Tibi, you’ve missed the mark twice here. First off, Mercedes doesn't have a superior power unit compared to Ferrari. They might hold a slight edge, but it isn't nearly as significant as you’re implying.
Second, you suggested that Adrian Newey is going to copy Ferrari 🙂, which is an interesting take. Copy what, exactly? I wasn't aware that Newey had any insight into Ferrari's unreleased designs.
How is he supposed to copy them if Ferrari shows up again with brilliant aerodynamics?

Oh yeah, just a "tiny" edge...
That gap turns into a canyon during qualifying, and it's massive when reliability comes into play.
Unless, of course, you don't think it's a huge deal when Mercedes blasts off at the start only to have their power unit hit safe mode mid-race. 😬

mellowtiger83 said:@Tibi, you’ve missed the mark twice here. First off, Mercedes doesn't have a superior power unit compared to Ferrari. They might hold a slight edge, but it isn't nearly as significant as you’re implying.
Second, you suggested that Adrian Newey is going to copy Ferrari 🙂, which is an interesting take. Copy what, exactly? I wasn't aware that Newey had any insight into Ferrari's unreleased designs.
How is he supposed to copy them if Ferrari shows up again with brilliant aerodynamics?

Last year's Ferrari, I mean. Just like Haas and Williams...
I expect Red Bull to pull a similar move, and honestly, I highly doubt Ferrari will show up with anything drastically different before they just bring a slightly tweaked version of last year's design.

Red Bull...

http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/vi...shes_the_RB14/

Linda Peterson43 said:Red Bull...

http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/vi...shes_the_RB14/

Nothing unusual here. It was bound to happen. It seems Adrian Newey just decided to copy Ferrari, likely because his creative well is running a bit dry in his later years.
I am looking forward to seeing what Mercedes, Ferrari, and Alfa bring to the table.

What really interests me is whether Mercedes will follow suit and start copying Ferrari too, given that all three cars have essentially become Ferrari clones now.

mellowtiger83 said:Nothing unusual here. It was bound to happen. It seems Adrian Newey just decided to copy Ferrari, likely because his creative well is running a bit dry in his later years.
I am looking forward to seeing what Mercedes, Ferrari, and Alfa bring to the table.

What really interests me is whether Mercedes will follow suit and start copying Ferrari too, given that all three cars have essentially become Ferrari clones now.

The laws of physics apply equally to Ferrari, Red Bull, and everyone else on the grid... 🙂

If someone manages to stumble upon an aerodynamic solution that actually works, I don't see any reason why the rest of the field wouldn't try to replicate it...

For the first time in years, Red Bull isn't scrambling at the very last second to bring a car to the grid.
Even though I can't stand them, I actually hope their car turns out to be solid—mostly just because I want to see some actual quality this season.

Linda Peterson43 said:Red Bull...

http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/vi...shes_the_RB14/

It’s ugly. Honestly, just plain eyesore.
What happened to the colors?

placidtinker39 said:It’s ugly. Honestly, just plain eyesore.
What happened to the colors?

🤦

Just wait until Feb 26th...