F1 2015 Testing

  • Thread starter mikeerfol
  • 355 comments
  • 17,361 views
catamount39
Ferrari and Williams are the only two solidly in the 1:23's with Mercedes. And they within 1.5 seconds of Lotus...besides the car started off being 20+ seconds slower than everything. Mclaren has really made that car better.
Click to expand...
LMSCorvetteGT2
It's testing, you have no way of knowing their program. Which seems to be reliability runs due to the numerous amount of small issues they have. Testing times don't tell us anything, if they did Kimi should have won the WDC last year for being fastest at a test last year. The only reason Mercedes is an exception to this rule is due to the sheer speed they've ran and purposely trying to now do performance runs after showing they have great reliability as well as the other Mercedes backed teams, today FI did something massive, by running the greatest distance of any single test day seen in 2015.



On super soft tires...that doesn't mean anything once again. Also Mercedes ran their fastest tie with an experimental set up
Click to expand...

All valid points but again their pace isn't close to the top teams. You can say they ran with a detuned engine or have a different program or are always running carrying a lot of fuel but still through out the all the test days their pace isn't close.
 
They were faster than Red Bull today (granted in this case not saying entirely too much) and this time they were only about 1.5 seconds off of "average" pace. Mclaren is doing pretty well.
 
sems4arsenal
All valid points but again their pace isn't close to the top teams. You can say they ran with a detuned engine or have a different program or are always running carrying a lot of fuel but still through out the all the test days their pace isn't close.
Click to expand...

Because as I explained, they've had so many minimal issues that take the day away from them to fix, they haven't covered enough miles to gather the info they need toward a reliability understanding. You couple this fact in with the looming fact they have no idea how many tokens they'll have come Melbourne, and thus must do plenty now to make sure they have the reliability to last a race. A quick laps is the last thing they're worried about. They ran a comparative time to the Ferrari yesterday when you made your comment and on the same compound, with good stint runs.

So to say what you have is off base really, when they're the most unknown unknown of the entire field due to the situation they've put themselves in and been placed in.
 
They may eventually become competitive but not seeing how being 2.3 seconds slower on a similar compound can be considered anything other than off the pace.
 
sems4arsenal
They may eventually become competitive but not seeing how being 2.3 seconds slower on a similar compound can be considered anything other than off the pace.
Click to expand...

Are you not reading what has been said? If that's the case then Ferrari are off the pace too. It's funny too many times people see a team in bad condition during testing and quickly write them off as if they'll be under the 107% all season or something. Like RBR last year. No one is claiming these guys are going to win a WC but it's equally ignorant to say they're off the pace because of hollow lap times where setups and goals of the day between teams are far reaching.
 
Roger the Horse
Because this is testing and lap times don't really mean a great deal.

Wait until Melbourne.
Click to expand...
LMSCorvetteGT2
Are you not reading what has been said? If that's the case then Ferrari are off the pace too. It's funny too many times people see a team in bad condition during testing and quickly write them off as if they'll be under the 107% all season or something. Like RBR last year. No one is claiming these guys are going to win a WC but it's equally ignorant to say they're off the pace because of hollow lap times where setups and goals of the day between teams are far reaching.
Click to expand...

I am reading yet the idea that it is just "testing" doesn't make it reasonable that somehow they're supposed to be close to the Mercs come melbourne.

Heck button himself said (after completing the 100 +lap run) that "Mercedes are very quick and we’re a long way off.”

Not sure what's wrong with stating they're off the pace (of the leaders, never even brought up the 107%)
 
sems4arsenal
Not sure what's wrong with stating they're off the pace (of the leaders, never even brought up the 107%)
Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with it, but being off the pace in testing doesn't mean a thing. It's testing.

There's very little point comparing times until qualifying in Melbourne, any time before that you have teams sandbagging and pursuing other goals than pure speed.
 
sems4arsenal
I am reading yet the idea that it is just "testing" doesn't make it reasonable that somehow they're supposed to be close to the Mercs come melbourne.

Heck button himself said (after completing the 100 +lap run) that "Mercedes are very quick and we’re a long way off.”

Not sure what's wrong with stating they're off the pace (of the leaders, never even brought up the 107%)
Click to expand...

Yeah everyone is a long way off Merc considering last year, hence the tokens which basically debunked what you've said. Merc are in another universe as far as speed goes, but compared to everyone else when McLaren puts down a time that is relatively fast it isn't that far off the rest of the pack. Which is their goal. Their goal isn't Mercedes this year at least not the first half of it or first third. @Imari once again has nicely summed up what we've all said. If this was an FP3 session and these were the times, then sure it'd be safe to worry.

However, that's not the case as clearly explained to you. Also I never said you said they'd be under the 107%, what I said is your tone right now comes across like that without directly saying it.
 
Imari
There's very little point comparing times until qualifying in Melbourne, any time before that you have teams sandbagging and pursuing other goals than pure speed.
Click to expand...

Perhaps not even then, as Melbourne has had a weird history of teams performing better than they end up doing during the rest of the season (like McLaren last year, or Williams in 2011 come to mind).
 
And just like that it's as if McLaren workers logged on saw @sems4arsenal comment and then when asked in the by press today, said they expect to be off the pace until May.

Merc rivals though have said that since testing is a big guessing game, they do feel that Merc are miles ahead though based on the long distance runs.
 
I thought a comparison to last year qualy in Spain might have some interest and this aspect interested me most.

McLaren Honda have done very limited kms so far and Magnussen's time of Kevin Magnussen, McLaren, 1m 25.225s, 39 laps, compared to Lewis' GP efffort, Lewis Hamilton Mercedes (q1)1:27.238 (q2)1:26.210 (q3)1:25.232 , seems on paper to be better than it may look at first.

I think they are doing a very good job considering the opposition has way more data feedback to work with.
 
LMSCorvetteGT2
And just like that it's as if McLaren workers logged on saw @sems4arsenal comment and then when asked in the by press today, said they expect to be off the pace until May.

Merc rivals though have said that since testing is a big guessing game, they do feel that Merc are miles ahead though based on the long distance runs.
Click to expand...

I was just going to link that :lol: , but from Eric's comment it's more due to reliability than outright pace.
 
Times at lunch
1. Valtteri Bottas - Williams - 1:23.063 - 46 laps
1. Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari - 1:23.469 - 52 laps
3. Felipe Nasr - Sauber - 1:24.023 - 72 laps
4. Sergio Perez - Force India - 1:25.113 - 54 laps
5. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes - 1:25.186 - 69 laps
6. Max Verstappen - Toro Rosso - 1:26.267 - 49 laps
7. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull - 1:26.587 - 10 laps
8. Pastor Maldonado - Lotus - 1:28.272 - 35 laps
9. Jenson Button - McLaren - No time - 2 laps
 
TRGTspecialist
Perhaps not even then, as Melbourne has had a weird history of teams performing better than they end up doing during the rest of the season (like McLaren last year, or Williams in 2011 come to mind).
Click to expand...

Also Raikkonen with Lotus.

As for blockbusting dominance that Mercedes will bring, Lewis has a great chance for back to back Champion.
 
Times at close
1. Valtteri Bottas - Williams - 1:23.063 - 89 laps
2. Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari - 1:23.469 - 129 laps
3. Felipe Nasr - Sauber - 1:24.023 - 159 laps
4. Max Verstappen - Toro Rosso - 1:24.527 - 85 laps
5. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull - 1:24.638- 72 laps
6. Sergio Perez - Force India - 1:25.113 - 130 laps
7. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes - 1:25.186 - 148 laps
8. Jenson Button - McLaren - 1:25.327 - 30 laps
 
Last edited:
Ok, not that bad :lol:

Jokes aside: As much as the irony of who was behind the wheel isn't lost on me, not sure how Pastor can automatically be blamed.
 
RBR and Mclaren are the biggest question marks out of the Winter testing.

Both haven't gone close to a Qualifying Run and both haven't even had run the engine on Rich.

I think Williams is slightly ahead of Ferrari and Mercedes is about .6 a second ahead.

But the biggest thing you have to note is all testing is done in conditions far from what they actually race in, so come Melbourne expect this to all change.
 
Actually I expect very little to change. I understand all that happened is just testing but the writing is on the wall. Mercedes are still well ahead of the chasing pack.
 
Rosberg will only win off Hamilton UnReliability, he isn't got enough Talent to match him in a straight fight all things equal.
 

Similar threads

Mictodric
Oct 23 COTA F1
Replies
0
Views
448
Mictodric
Mictodric
cyder2
Nissan GT-R LM Nismo 2015 setting
Replies
4
Views
3K
coryclifford
coryclifford
Roggers
F1 - Monza getting dropped for a street race
Replies
9
Views
1K
Darla Starch
Darla Starch
Jimlaad43
Formula 1 Off Season, Launches and Testing thread 2019-20
8 9 10
Replies
286
Views
18K
Robin
Robin
Jimlaad43
Formula 1 2021-2022 Off-Season and Mid-season break thread
24 25 26
Replies
767
Views
64K
McLaren
McLaren

Latest Posts

Back