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Post by RyRy on Mar 10, 2017 22:53:36 GMT
Lewis said this today..... LH:"Driving today, the time you saw was the time I could do, I didn't feel like I left anything out there or I could have gone any faster." He's also said he's looking forward to close competition with the Bulls and Ferrari's. He's playing with them, I'm sure they have more to give yet.
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Post by racechick on Mar 10, 2017 23:39:11 GMT
Yes, that was my thought too.
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Post by Frontrunner on Mar 11, 2017 1:01:48 GMT
I feel Red Bull are a distance 3rd more than we may think for the first part of the season, might take a bit of time for them to mix it with the top 2. Merc and Ferrari upfront super strong and looks real close between the 2 teams, Can't wait till Melbourne to show us what the pecking order and margins are between the cars.
As for a Pecking order going into Melbourne, I'll give it go
Mercedes Ferrari - Red Bull- a lonely 3rd - Williams- best midfielder Force India Toro Rosso Renault Haas - Sauber McLaren- I put them last as making the chequered flag or dare I say it.. starting grid in Melbourne is their one priority at this stage. Once when Honda starts getting some issues solved then Sauber will be by themselves a the back.
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Post by Hammer on Mar 11, 2017 3:22:51 GMT
I'd say, at Melbourne:
Mercedes Ferrari Redbull/Williams Renault/Force India Toro Rosso
Haas/McLaren (while the car is running) Sauber
Only at Melbourne though, but Redbull to start challenging Ferrari by the 3rd or 4th race onwards. I still feel those guys are hiding something. Newey/Horner aka intelligence/foxy combo should never be underestimated.
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Post by RyRy on Mar 11, 2017 4:38:31 GMT
I'd say:
Mercedes - Comfortably fastest. Ferrari - Comfortably 2nd fastest, picking up any points that Mercedes loses and maybe challenging Bottas for the first few races. - Red Bull - Very lonely in 3rd with no one really in front or being that can be challenged/or challenge. They'll challenge and beat Ferrari after a 4-5 races - Williams Force India - By half way through the season will be the 4th best team. Renault - Will also jump Williams by the half way point through the season. Toro Rosso - Will be fighting with Force India half way though the season. Haas - Will pick up places when other midfielders make mistakes or they gamble on setup/tyres but will still be a little bit behind. - Sauber - Will be off in last on their own for the entire season :/
As for McLaren, for the first half of the season they will throw in varied results from being 4th best team to worst team 8th best team, however in the second half of the season I think they'll be right up there with Force India consistantly.
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Post by racechick on Mar 11, 2017 7:22:02 GMT
I've not really been paying close attention to the testing, just reading snippets. ( in France and had guests last two weeks)
But I get the impression the Merc will be ahead with Ferrari close. ( both are playing the game that the other is fastest. )
Then Red Bull.
Had a feeling Force India would do well but they weren't so good in the second test.
Williams looking good in Massa's hands. Will Stroll be up to speed by season start or will he be a weak link?
Can't get a feel for how Renault have done?
McLaren bad
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Post by RyRy on Mar 11, 2017 7:48:06 GMT
According to Mercedes the engine hasn't ran in any higher engine modes at all for any of the Mercedes engines in testing because they have a teething problem that they hope will be fixed for Melbourne. Very interesting so that might be why there is a difference in what we would expect.
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Post by Frontrunner on Mar 11, 2017 8:15:46 GMT
This side by side video shows how much time Merc might have up their sleeve compared to Ferrari, Bottas looks to be cruising more as Kimi is pushing that little bit more with more steering wheel input and missing the apex at turn 10. The Merc has much much more to offer for sure. Also looks Merc have superior front end grip to Ferrari but that could come down to tyre life, track temp or whatever. Hurry up Melbourne.
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Post by Hammer on Mar 11, 2017 8:49:45 GMT
Good video. The Ferrari looks handy at the very fast right handers, but the Merc clearly isn't trying as hard at the slow corners and like you said, the front is biting much better.
Difficult to say, both sets of tyres look good so it comes down to fuel and engine power. I'm sure Merc were running at more conservative settings though.
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Post by RyRy on Mar 11, 2017 10:09:06 GMT
After this video I wouldn't be surprised if the gap at the end of last year is about what it is at Melbourne.
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Post by Hammer on Mar 11, 2017 11:11:30 GMT
I hope Fonzi closed his ears when this interview was going on.
Honda 'a little bit scared' of performance gap to rivals
Honda chief Yusuke Hasegawa admits he is more worried by the Japanese manufacturer's performance deficit to its rivals than its reliability problems over pre-season testing.
Honda endured a problematic winter, with numerous problems across the eight days limiting McLaren to just 425 laps -- the lowest of any team and less than Valtteri Bottas, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Marcus Ericsson managed individually. After his penultimate day in the car Fernando Alonso said McLaren's only problem was its Honda power unit, which he claimed was 30 km/h down on every straight.
While rival manufacturer Renault had come into winter expecting to struggle with its Energy Recovery System (ERS), Honda was not braced for so many difficulties.
When asked by Racer.com if Honda had been anticipating any specific problems coming into testing, Hasegawa said: Of course not. Of course we knew the performance level but we didn't know the level of the other teams, so from a comparison point of view we are a little bit scared of the situation and it's too optimistic for us to expect a very good result in Melbourne.
"But from a trouble point of view, of course I didn't expect such a wide variety of problems that we suffered ... Everything that has happened has not been seen on the dyno, I believe. Especially the day two issue and this week's day one issue, we didn't expect such a problem."
Hasegawa thinks Honda's performance deficit is more to do with its rivals making a bigger jump than expected, rather than a failure to deliver on its own part.
"Of course we also improved our engine performance level; however, it looks like the PU performance improvement of the others is better and higher than us. We may even be further back, so that is very disappointing. "From the settings or a setting point of view we may have some things we can do in these two weeks. In the next two weeks we will try to find some ways of tuning the engine, and it can have better performance [by Melbourne], definitely."
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Post by Wß on Mar 11, 2017 13:59:14 GMT
I found myself cringing while reading that.
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Post by Frontrunner on Mar 11, 2017 14:36:57 GMT
"we are a little bit scared of the situation" That doesn't read very good especially when it comes from the chief that supplies your friggin engines. Its going to be looong season at Woking.
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Post by dogued on Mar 11, 2017 23:05:48 GMT
So it's all done and we now have a MUCH clearer picture of how 2017 will shape up.... The most telling numbers out of testing, for me anyway, are these: Laps per team (overall): 1. Mercedes (1096 laps) 2. Ferrari (953 laps) 3. Williams-Mercedes (800 laps) 4. Sauber-Ferrari (793 laps) 5. Force India-Mercedes (785 laps) 6. Haas-Ferrari (712 laps) 7. Red Bull-TAG Heuer (684 laps) 8. Renault (597 laps) 9. Toro Rosso-TBC (Renault) (584 laps) 10. McLaren-Honda (424 laps) Laps per engine (overall): 1. Mercedes (2681 laps) 2. Ferrari (2458 laps) 3. Renault (1865 laps) 4. Honda (424 laps) You can't lead the field if you're constantly playing catch-up.
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Post by LRW on Mar 12, 2017 6:07:30 GMT
Merc certainly don't have the mileage advantage that they did last year.
But thats all irrelevant - come Melbourne my boy Max and his TAG engine are going to kick bottoms all over the asphalt !!!
Yay. Goooooooooooo REDBULL!!
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Post by racechick on Mar 12, 2017 6:20:21 GMT
Mercedes can test for reliability all they want. The minute they strap one on the back of car 44 for a race, some part of it will go bang.
Ok, I'm being frivolous. I believe they've changed procedures to prevent engines in car 44 from exploding.
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Post by Hammer on Mar 12, 2017 7:43:11 GMT
Lol my thoughts exactly when I saw their "mileage".
They can rack up 10000 laps if they want, the odds of all their failures happening in 1/6 cars was almost hilarious last year. Almost.
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