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Was wondering if there has been any feedback when following other cars closely? Wonder if any of the teams in Barcelona or in Bahrain will get their team mates to follow each other for a few laps. Then we can get an idea of what it's like following cars, see if they report back a loss of downforce on corners. Obviously it's not fully the same in pre-season but am just really hoping following and overtaking is easier. I'd love DRS to be done with.

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3 minutes ago, MUFC said:

Was wondering if there has been any feedback when following other cars closely? Wonder if any of the teams in Barcelona or in Bahrain will get their team mates to follow each other for a few laps. Then we can get an idea of what it's like following cars, see if they report back a loss of downforce on corners. Obviously it's not fully the same in pre-season but am just really hoping following and overtaking is easier. I'd love DRS to be done with.

Someone asked Carlos Sainz about this as he followed one of the other cars for a few laps. He said he did feel a difference and was positive about it.

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2 minutes ago, RondónEFC said:

Someone asked Carlos Sainz about this as he followed one of the other cars for a few laps. He said he did feel a difference and was positive about it.

I knew that sexy cunt would give me answers.

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38 minutes ago, MUFC said:

I knew that sexy cunt would give me answers.

Ferrari's other sexy cunt said that from 3-1 seconds you can follower closer, but from 1 second to 5 tenths it feels similar to last season. But from 5 tenths to very close it feels much better than last year. 

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Halfway through testing now and I've been keeping across a variety of (far from reliable) evidence. I think it's possible to get a broad idea of where things lie, we are halfway through pre-season testing overall! So a quick summary on what I've read on each team, it looks as if we've got quite a conventional pecking order, to be honest.

Mercedes ended the week with a flurry of fastest times for Lewis Hamilton on Friday afternoon. At the same time, George Russell suggested on Thursday that they were definitely behind Ferrari and McLaren for now, although we know this could be expectation management and/or early mind games. Things look largely positive for Mercedes, the design has received admiring looks from others in the paddock, the car has shown decent pace without any major reliability problems, although there is talk that they're still working hard to get more horsepower out of their engine with the new type of fuel. They are expected to bring significant updates to the Bahrain test as well. My gut feeling: The Mercedes is not currently the class of the field, but they are within striking distance, and with the development capability in that team, you wouldn't bet against them being in the hunt for pole position at the first race.

Red Bull unveiled a radical side-pod design on Wednesday, which raised some eyebrows in the pit lane. The test wasn't quite as flawless for them as it was for their title rivals from last year, with a couple of reliability problems disrupting Perez' track-time, but they did show some decent pace on Friday. Defending champion Verstappen hasn't said much but the noises he has made are noises of satisfaction. Trackside analysts suggested that the car carries speed well through high-speed corners and looks more 'on rails' than others. They're also expected to bring significant changes to Bahrain. My gut feeling: I don't think they're back in the midfield, but I think they're a bit behind the other three 'big' teams on pace and reliability. I expect them to get in the mix pretty soon though.

Ferrari 'won' the test, completing the most laps over the three days thanks to bullet-proof reliability, and consistently featuring near the top of the timesheets. We haven't heard much from either of their drivers or the team principal, so they are keeping their cards close to their chest, but I think we have to call that quiet confidence. They are also apparently very pleased with their engine development since last year. Testing tells you very little but from what little this week has told us, none of it was negative for Ferrari. However, unlike Mercedes and Red Bull, Ferrari are expected to bring largely the same car to Bahrain in two weeks. Already being crowded out in the development race? Or simply that far ahead with their development that major upgrades aren't necessary? My gut feeling: I'm going to say this is currently, narrowly, the best car out there, but I am far from certain that this will still be the case when the actual racing starts.

McLaren are in a very similar boat to Ferrari. Fastest on day one, consistently up there throughout the week and a clean bill of health on the reliability front. Norris played down his fastest time of the day on Wednesday, so we'll wait to see whether this was expectation management again. Certainly, nobody wants to be drawing attention to themselves having the fastest car during testing because you're effectively giving your rivals the heads-up to start studying your car and copying the bits that are making the difference for you, but the orange car was singled out for special praise by experienced journalist Mark Hughes, who was particularly impressed with the direction change through the opening part of the lap. My gut feeling: Like Ferrari, we've only heard good things about this car so far. I'm putting them in the top two for now, and I trust McLaren more than I trust Ferrari to take advantage of that slight head start they seem to have over Mercedes and Red Bull.

Alpine have had a mixed test. There are reports that the Renault engine isn't taking kindly to F1's new fuel and if it's bad enough to be comment worthy, that's a pretty bad sign because you don't tend to get huge discrepancy in engine performance and it isn't an easy problem to develop your way out of. Reliability-wise, they lost a lot of running on the last day after the car went up in smoke in the morning, but they did get a lot of running in earlier in the week. My gut feeling: Just very average for these guys, certainly no signs that this could give Alonso that final shot at a third title after he enthusiastically stated he "came back to F1 for this regulation change". It feels like there's a risk of a below-par season for the team but I still think they'll take up a traditional upper-midfield role.

Alpha Tauri seem to have had a solid week. Gasly's pace on Friday morning was the only time any of the traditional midfield teams have featured anywhere near the 'big' teams but we don't know what that's down to. Gasly also crashed the car on the final day of testing and the team packed up and went home early meaning that Tsunoda didn't get any running in the afternoon. My gut feeling: I don't really have one to be honest. An average test here, and we know that if there's one team who couldn't even mount a title challenge by stumbling across a miracle solution of some sort, it's these guys, because Red Bull would never allow it. The car seems like a standard, midfield challenger.

Aston Martin are another team we don't seem to have heard much from this week. Yet another team who lost their car to reliability problems on Friday morning and went home early after failing to get their repairs done in time to take advantage of the afternoon. I had these guys alongside Alpine as the best hope of a midfield team really mixing it at the front. Again, it's only testing but we're yet to see any signs of that happening here either. My gut feeling: I know it's boring when we've all had our hopes up for a shake-up in the competitive order with the new regulations, but Aston Martin join Alpine and Alpha Tauri as teams who look to be slotting back into the midfield pack like they have done for several years prior.

Williams probably ended up having the best test out of the midfield teams. No major reliability issues and plenty of laps on the board for both Albon and Latifi. They've been making vaguely positive noises and I have to mention that I like the new livery as well. Their pace has been solid and consistent, without grabbing any headlines throughout the three days. My gut feeling: I'm cautiously optimistic that this could be Williams' best season for a while. Nothing exciting, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them mixing it with the proper midfield, rather than clinging on to their coat-tails and calling it an improvement.

Alfa Romeo have had probably the worst test of any of the teams. Dogged by reliability issues and a trip to the gravel for rookie Guanyu Zhou across the three days. I believe Valtteri Bottas ended up completing about 30 laps in total, which is less than almost every other team managed to put together in each individual session. When they have been out on track, they've been yet to show any flashes of pace either, but let's be generous and say that their lack of running prevented them from getting to the faster parts of their programme. My gut feeling: I don't want to make a sweeping conclusion on any of these teams based on a three-day test that wasn't televised, but I will say that if I had to put money right now on which team will finish bottom of the Constructors' Championship in 2022, I would put my money on Alfa Romeo. That's right, even ahead of...

Haas. In between their horrendous 2021 campaign and the geopolitical drama across Europe that grabbed the headlines on Friday and saw the team change their livery and have the future of their main sponsor and one of their drivers into serious doubt, they also suffered from a raft of reliability problems, including the same cooling leak issue twice, which will have prevented them from carrying out their full testing programme. Still, there were positives in some experts and paddock onlookers referring to their car as the 'most developed' out there, if not the fastest, and team members have made optimistic noises about the pace of their new challenger. Fingers crossed that these guys can catch a break soon. My gut feeling: I really would have backed Haas to propel themselves into the solid midfield after writing off 2021 to focus on the new car. The problem is, even if they were up there with Aston Martin and co at the start of the week, they've already fallen behind on learning about their car and its development due to a lack of running. The Uralkali situation could threaten to destabilise the team throughout pre-season and the start of the racing calendar, but Guenther Steiner appears to be confident that it's all in hand, and if we're being honest, losing Mazepin would be a blessing not a setback. This week couldn't have gone worse for them but I still think they'll make a step forward overall.

 

In conclusion, I think we've seen very little change in the competitive order from last year, except that Ferrari and McLaren have hopped forward to be alongside or slightly ahead of Mercedes and Red Bull, Williams have shouldered their way forwards into the midfield and Alfa Romeo are struggling. Now we wait for the final test and the start of the season to see just how wrong I am about all of this.

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On 25/02/2022 at 17:30, RondónEFC said:

Halfway through testing now and I've been keeping across a variety of (far from reliable) evidence. I think it's possible to get a broad idea of where things lie, we are halfway through pre-season testing overall! So a quick summary on what I've read on each team, it looks as if we've got quite a conventional pecking order, to be honest.

Mercedes ended the week with a flurry of fastest times for Lewis Hamilton on Friday afternoon. At the same time, George Russell suggested on Thursday that they were definitely behind Ferrari and McLaren for now, although we know this could be expectation management and/or early mind games. Things look largely positive for Mercedes, the design has received admiring looks from others in the paddock, the car has shown decent pace without any major reliability problems, although there is talk that they're still working hard to get more horsepower out of their engine with the new type of fuel. They are expected to bring significant updates to the Bahrain test as well. My gut feeling: The Mercedes is not currently the class of the field, but they are within striking distance, and with the development capability in that team, you wouldn't bet against them being in the hunt for pole position at the first race.

Red Bull unveiled a radical side-pod design on Wednesday, which raised some eyebrows in the pit lane. The test wasn't quite as flawless for them as it was for their title rivals from last year, with a couple of reliability problems disrupting Perez' track-time, but they did show some decent pace on Friday. Defending champion Verstappen hasn't said much but the noises he has made are noises of satisfaction. Trackside analysts suggested that the car carries speed well through high-speed corners and looks more 'on rails' than others. They're also expected to bring significant changes to Bahrain. My gut feeling: I don't think they're back in the midfield, but I think they're a bit behind the other three 'big' teams on pace and reliability. I expect them to get in the mix pretty soon though.

Ferrari 'won' the test, completing the most laps over the three days thanks to bullet-proof reliability, and consistently featuring near the top of the timesheets. We haven't heard much from either of their drivers or the team principal, so they are keeping their cards close to their chest, but I think we have to call that quiet confidence. They are also apparently very pleased with their engine development since last year. Testing tells you very little but from what little this week has told us, none of it was negative for Ferrari. However, unlike Mercedes and Red Bull, Ferrari are expected to bring largely the same car to Bahrain in two weeks. Already being crowded out in the development race? Or simply that far ahead with their development that major upgrades aren't necessary? My gut feeling: I'm going to say this is currently, narrowly, the best car out there, but I am far from certain that this will still be the case when the actual racing starts.

McLaren are in a very similar boat to Ferrari. Fastest on day one, consistently up there throughout the week and a clean bill of health on the reliability front. Norris played down his fastest time of the day on Wednesday, so we'll wait to see whether this was expectation management again. Certainly, nobody wants to be drawing attention to themselves having the fastest car during testing because you're effectively giving your rivals the heads-up to start studying your car and copying the bits that are making the difference for you, but the orange car was singled out for special praise by experienced journalist Mark Hughes, who was particularly impressed with the direction change through the opening part of the lap. My gut feeling: Like Ferrari, we've only heard good things about this car so far. I'm putting them in the top two for now, and I trust McLaren more than I trust Ferrari to take advantage of that slight head start they seem to have over Mercedes and Red Bull.

Alpine have had a mixed test. There are reports that the Renault engine isn't taking kindly to F1's new fuel and if it's bad enough to be comment worthy, that's a pretty bad sign because you don't tend to get huge discrepancy in engine performance and it isn't an easy problem to develop your way out of. Reliability-wise, they lost a lot of running on the last day after the car went up in smoke in the morning, but they did get a lot of running in earlier in the week. My gut feeling: Just very average for these guys, certainly no signs that this could give Alonso that final shot at a third title after he enthusiastically stated he "came back to F1 for this regulation change". It feels like there's a risk of a below-par season for the team but I still think they'll take up a traditional upper-midfield role.

Alpha Tauri seem to have had a solid week. Gasly's pace on Friday morning was the only time any of the traditional midfield teams have featured anywhere near the 'big' teams but we don't know what that's down to. Gasly also crashed the car on the final day of testing and the team packed up and went home early meaning that Tsunoda didn't get any running in the afternoon. My gut feeling: I don't really have one to be honest. An average test here, and we know that if there's one team who couldn't even mount a title challenge by stumbling across a miracle solution of some sort, it's these guys, because Red Bull would never allow it. The car seems like a standard, midfield challenger.

Aston Martin are another team we don't seem to have heard much from this week. Yet another team who lost their car to reliability problems on Friday morning and went home early after failing to get their repairs done in time to take advantage of the afternoon. I had these guys alongside Alpine as the best hope of a midfield team really mixing it at the front. Again, it's only testing but we're yet to see any signs of that happening here either. My gut feeling: I know it's boring when we've all had our hopes up for a shake-up in the competitive order with the new regulations, but Aston Martin join Alpine and Alpha Tauri as teams who look to be slotting back into the midfield pack like they have done for several years prior.

Williams probably ended up having the best test out of the midfield teams. No major reliability issues and plenty of laps on the board for both Albon and Latifi. They've been making vaguely positive noises and I have to mention that I like the new livery as well. Their pace has been solid and consistent, without grabbing any headlines throughout the three days. My gut feeling: I'm cautiously optimistic that this could be Williams' best season for a while. Nothing exciting, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them mixing it with the proper midfield, rather than clinging on to their coat-tails and calling it an improvement.

Alfa Romeo have had probably the worst test of any of the teams. Dogged by reliability issues and a trip to the gravel for rookie Guanyu Zhou across the three days. I believe Valtteri Bottas ended up completing about 30 laps in total, which is less than almost every other team managed to put together in each individual session. When they have been out on track, they've been yet to show any flashes of pace either, but let's be generous and say that their lack of running prevented them from getting to the faster parts of their programme. My gut feeling: I don't want to make a sweeping conclusion on any of these teams based on a three-day test that wasn't televised, but I will say that if I had to put money right now on which team will finish bottom of the Constructors' Championship in 2022, I would put my money on Alfa Romeo. That's right, even ahead of...

Haas. In between their horrendous 2021 campaign and the geopolitical drama across Europe that grabbed the headlines on Friday and saw the team change their livery and have the future of their main sponsor and one of their drivers into serious doubt, they also suffered from a raft of reliability problems, including the same cooling leak issue twice, which will have prevented them from carrying out their full testing programme. Still, there were positives in some experts and paddock onlookers referring to their car as the 'most developed' out there, if not the fastest, and team members have made optimistic noises about the pace of their new challenger. Fingers crossed that these guys can catch a break soon. My gut feeling: I really would have backed Haas to propel themselves into the solid midfield after writing off 2021 to focus on the new car. The problem is, even if they were up there with Aston Martin and co at the start of the week, they've already fallen behind on learning about their car and its development due to a lack of running. The Uralkali situation could threaten to destabilise the team throughout pre-season and the start of the racing calendar, but Guenther Steiner appears to be confident that it's all in hand, and if we're being honest, losing Mazepin would be a blessing not a setback. This week couldn't have gone worse for them but I still think they'll make a step forward overall.

 

In conclusion, I think we've seen very little change in the competitive order from last year, except that Ferrari and McLaren have hopped forward to be alongside or slightly ahead of Mercedes and Red Bull, Williams have shouldered their way forwards into the midfield and Alfa Romeo are struggling. Now we wait for the final test and the start of the season to see just how wrong I am about all of this.

Top post.  Thanks for putting the time in on this.

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Question, I see that Ferrari is supplying power units to Haas and Alfa Romeo.  Those aren't the same engines that Ferrari runs themselves are they?  I would've guessed that Ferrari would just sell them a stock engine and let the teams modify them accordingly.  

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Interesting listening to the quotes that have surfaced during/since testing.

Mercedes haven't had much to say besides Russell claiming Ferrari and McLaren were ahead of them. Quiet confidence? Toto Wolff has said this week that Ferrari have stolen a march on the engine front.

Helmet Marko has also done an interview this week. He claims to believe that McLaren were seeking sponsors with some of their faster runs while Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull will battle it out. Confident words but he can be a bit eccentric. He also suggested that Ferrari go into the season with the best engine.

We've not heard much from McLaren. Norris made a pretty big deal of playing down their chances last week. It made me suspicious but I'm aware that I'm bigging up teams' chances whether they say they're confident or not xD. He made further comments on Friday about Russell being ahead of him for most of the season, albeit light heartedly.

Ferrari seem the most confident. Sources saying they also believe they've made a big step forward with their engine. Sainz also claimed that they weren't trying to hit fast times last week and they have performance in hand. Binotto played things down and countered Toto Wolff's claim that Ferrari are potentially 2-3 months ahead on development by claiming that he expects Mercedes to be 2-3 months ahead of Ferrari by Bahrain. xD

What is perhaps most telling of all is that these four teams have exclusively commented on each other. Haven't heard a thing about Aston Martin, Alpine, etc.

Still time for someone to surprise us at the next test though!

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20 hours ago, Coma said:

Question, I see that Ferrari is supplying power units to Haas and Alfa Romeo.  Those aren't the same engines that Ferrari runs themselves are they?  I would've guessed that Ferrari would just sell them a stock engine and let the teams modify them accordingly.  

They're the same engine, unless I'm completely wrong. I was hoping @nudge or @RondónEFC would reply, but I didn't want to leave you hanging. xD

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