2016 F1 Pre-Season Testing

[Rob]

Raikkonen’s first day in the SF16-H

Montmelò, 24 February – Kimi Raikkonen managed a total of 78 laps on his debut at the wheel of the SF16-H in this the first winter test session, having taken over driving duties from his team-mate Sebastian Vettel. The Finn took to the track after a long wait while the team carried out a series of important checks. He then continued with the programme which, apart from the usual set-up work, focused on engine mapping and aero testing.
Raikkonen will be back on track tomorrow for the fourth and final day of this inaugural session at the Catalan circuit.

Kimi Raikkonen: “The atmosphere in the team is quite nice even if, honestly, we’re still working on different things and still find something new to work on, but I am sure it’s going to be a better car than last year’s. There are always small changes between one car and another, they are never the same. We had improvements in many areas from the past season. These are early days, especially for me with this car. We are happy so far, even if we know that there are still a lot of things to do. There were tricky things and it takes time to fix them. It was painful losing time today, but we always try to do our best. There are always mistakes but we always want to improve and learn from them.”

[darkchild]

I think car is a good step up, and I'm happy with the team and what they have achieved. But, it does seem from reading what drivers have said (and their body language) that this is not enough to catch, let alone beat Merc. If you stand back and look, Merc redesigned parts of already extremely fast car. They put new sidepods, thinned them out, changed rear suspension slightly and bolted a new, improved engine that was already best of the field. They stayed by same aero philosophy, therefore their FW and RW stayed the same yet they were most developed as well. At the same time they are putting completely new and novel bargeboards to their car, as well as new nose.

Now look at us, we have new front suspension, changed back suspension, put much improved engine inside and shrinkwrapped our car like never before. And that is good, it will CERTAINLY slash their advantage good no matter how much they improve. But, we still have old FW, still have old RW and still have old bargeboards and aero bits around sidepods. They are already out of our reach if we are being realistic...Aero team certainly didn't do enough to catch them if this is what we are going to show up with in Melbourne, but engine one might have. Drivers see that, they know it and unfortunately most of us know it. Our car still looks underdeveloped (which it is) in comparison. We might catch them, but I have doubts about WC haul if we don't do it fast.

[mark p]

"Well, after 3 days of testing, I'm happy with the outcome: good milleage (not as much as we wanted, but still good number of laps), not too much problems (appart from today, but that's what testing is for, to make all the issues appear),"

I had heard the reason they towed the car off yesterday is that they purposely ran it out of fuel to check the telemetry, etc. I don't think it was a problem, it was a test from what I was told.

Thats what I thought with it being right at the end of the session as well. I guess when you do this to an F1 engine everything must be checked and logged to check all the effects but you cannot work outside of the testing hours so had to check all morning. They know what they are doing but why not do this last few minutes tomorrow?

Anyway sounds good so far but remember 2011 when Ferrari were said to be fastest on race pace but come the racing nothing. Well they are no where near as fast relative to the rest as 2011 which maybe a blessing.

[NenoX]

I think car is a good step up, and I'm happy with the team and what they have achieved. But, it does seem from reading what drivers have said (and their body language) that this is not enough to catch, let alone beat Merc. If you stand back and look, Merc redesigned parts of already extremely fast car. They put new sidepods, thinned them out, changed rear suspension slightly and bolted a new, improved engine that was already best of the field. They stayed by same aero philosophy, therefore their FW and RW stayed the same yet they were most developed as well. At the same time they are putting completely new and novel bargeboards to their car, as well as new nose.

Now look at us, we have new front suspension, changed back suspension, put much improved engine inside and shrinkwrapped our car like never before. And that is good, it will CERTAINLY slash their advantage good no matter how much they improve. But, we still have old FW, still have old RW and still have old bargeboards and aero bits around sidepods. They are already out of our reach if we are being realistic...Aero team certainly didn't do enough to catch them if this is what we are going to show up with in Melbourne, but engine one might have. Drivers see that, they know it and unfortunately most of us know it. Our car still looks underdeveloped (which it is) in comparison. We might catch them, but I have doubts about WC haul if we don't do it fast.

Ferrari usually brings in aero-bits on the second test. They usualy launch with previous year aero.

[darkchild]

Ferrari usually brings in aero-bits on the second test. They usualy launch with previous year aero.

I know, thats why I said I hope they don't show up with this in Melbourne and expect win.

[Ilsan]

I think car is a good step up, and I'm happy with the team and what they have achieved. But, it does seem from reading what drivers have said (and their body language) that this is not enough to catch, let alone beat Merc. If you stand back and look, Merc redesigned parts of already extremely fast car. They put new sidepods, thinned them out, changed rear suspension slightly and bolted a new, improved engine that was already best of the field. They stayed by same aero philosophy, therefore their FW and RW stayed the same yet they were most developed as well. At the same time they are putting completely new and novel bargeboards to their car, as well as new nose.

Unfortunately that's the vibe I'm getting too. As having warned us Mercedes seem to have found a lot of lap times over the winter (or just unleash what they had all along but didn't need to show) and already promise a big upgrade around Spanish Grand Prix. Rosberg can't stop bragging how much time they still have in hand and how innovative they are. It's unbearable I'm trying to avoid any Mercedes related news to not get dejected.

Having said that, we are also far from realizing potential of the car, as understanding the new car is the primary task at the moment. Kimi said they haven't made any change since the launch. Seb said there's more to come on both the chassis and the engine side. I'll keep my fingers crossed that those updates work well on the car as expected. Then we'll see where we are.

Edit: I have to admit that Toro Rosso's brilliant packaging job on such a short notice with last year's PUon a modest budget was an eyeopener. Obviously they had an advantage; since the PU components were well tested, with benefit of loads of real track data they knew exactly what they were getting and didn't have to be conservative. Still, what a beauty.

[Tony]

What's the rear view mirror in front of the driver?

Which one fratello?

[Fer12]

Thermal cameras to look at the front tyres.

[qb_marukochan]

What's the rear view mirror in front of the driver?

its on new regulation of new High FPS camera, to understand the mechanism of driver injuries, to accurately ‘determine the first point of contact to help develop cockpit safety’ which is a sensitive subject currently

The device, which measures around two centimetres by eight centimetres and is not much bigger than a USB stick, will record 400 frames per second compared to the previous standard of 25fps.

It will be mounted on the top of the chassis, just in front of the row of antennas, facing the driver. The height position of the device has yet to be decided.

The camera can record for up to 90 minutes before it returns to the start and rewrites. The time restriction has been enforced to limit the amount of compression to the file.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/120831

http://formulaspy.com/formula-1/form...ce=twitterfeed

https://www.formula1.com/content/fom...nsponders.html

[bonzo]

I think noone is showing its truely new aero parts at first season test. Actually come Friday at Melbourn we will see the real new developments in aero.

[abbottcostello]

Nice info on the high speed camera, qb_marukochan, I vaguely recall hearing about this a while ago, but didn't know any of the details... thanks!

Well, after all the angst & fretting in this forum, the team managed to get Kimi out for a productive 78 lap session - nice work by the Scuderia. Would be nice to finish off on a high note, trouble free for final day collecting lots of useful data.
Forza Ferrari!!

[Ojie1214]

Guys did Kimi got a new engineer??

[Kyss4k]

Here's the Mercs new nose... He's called Bruce: https://twitter.com/MercedesAMGF1/st...992384/photo/1

[tifosi1993]

[Kyss4k]

Those turning vanes... Mrcedes is really pushing with development now.

[Rob]

looks like s-duct intake aswell.

[Kyss4k]

looks like s-duct intake aswell.

Well the shark mouth is the inlet, that's why it's called Bruce.

The S-duct itself is in the twitter link in my previous message.

[Rob]

Well the shark mouth is the inlet, that's why it's called Bruce.

The S-duct itself is in the twitter link in my previous message.

didnt see your post, scrolled past to pictures.

[Rob]

g'day Bruce.

[Rob]

looks nothing like Bruce...



Not going to be able to watch Finding Nemo now.

[PURE PASSION]

Ok,the Mercs are really pushing it to the extreme!!!!
I'm wondering if we actually have something special to present in the other test,or we will just fine tune the current concept???
And will this be enough to beat these steroid Mercs???

[cokata]

Here's how the speed-trap figures looked during yesterday's running:
1 Nasr, 338.5km/h
2 Hamilton, 337.5km/h
3 Massa, 334.3km/h
4 Hulkenberg, 333.3km/h
5 Haryanto, 333.3km/h
6 Magnussen, 332.3km/h
7 Grosjean, 331.2km/h
8 Raikkonen, 331.2km/h
9 Rosberg, 328.2km/h
10 Sainz, 327.2km/h
11 Kvyat, 322.3km/h
12 Button, 320.4km/h

[Schumyboy83]

That Merc front wing looks like it will just fail and go under the car causing a huge accident, Hardly anything holding / bonding it in place,

[Rob]

10:02 I'm down at McLaren and it doesn't look like Alonso is going anywhere anytime soon. The car is up on stands without its nose or tyres.
Lawrence Barretto

[mandzipop]

I'm expecting Mercedes to win every race of the season.

[Rob]

I'm expecting Mercedes to win every race of the season.

if that happens, it will be yet another nail in the F1 coffin.

[mandzipop]

if that happens, it will be yet another nail in the F1 coffin.

They might drop a couple of races just to give people hope, but there is only one race in 2 years that they have genuinely lost on pace.

But this is in the basis of trackside reports. Anyone who has been to winter testing knows that it is always really obvious who is fastest without timing sheets.

What I don't get is that every other team that has had dominance has had the FIA sniffing around to curb the dominance. They have so far done the opposite.

[SinanOzerS]

Already 70 laps in for Hamilton.

[Rishu]

I'm expecting Mercedes to win every race of the season.

Not a surprise it will be, good start to 2014 was the key & unfortunately we see advantage till regulations change.. take RB from 2010 to 2013 or Ferrari in MS days

[Rob]

They might drop a couple of races just to give people hope, but there is only one race in 2 years that they have genuinely lost on pace.

But this is in the basis of trackside reports. Anyone who has been to winter testing knows that it is always really obvious who is fastest without timing sheets.

What I don't get is that every other team that has had dominance has had the FIA sniffing around to curb the dominance. They have so far done the opposite.

A friend of mine who races for AF Corse in Blancpain Series was a guest of Ferrari on Tuesday said the Mercs are out there on another planet, and they no way near pushing at 100% He said SF16 is massive step and is big improvement.