Winter Testing Thread!

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More slickintertastic goodness:

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More ultra-low wings and slicks:

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I wonder. What's so incredibly terrible about the '09 regulations that makes everyone run basically zero angles?


And one just has to love UpdateF1's coverage of the Jerez test. They're going bananas:

Regarding Massa and Schumacher's Time
Just shy of the McLaren came Felipe Massa, the Brazilian easily the quicker of the Ferrari duo as Michael Schumacher managed only eighth. With half a second between them, it could be that the veteran was on grooves, but it could also be that he was half a second slower.
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Laughing at Ralf for the last time
That is, in all fairness, a little unfair to the younger Schui, who endured a car failure this morning, but he did then proceed to crash – twice – on his way to a best time that beat, well, nobody, in fact. The rumoured appearance of Father Christmas, sadly, did not occur.
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Pointing out Vijay's subtle hint
Quote of the day two goes to that team’s new owner, the charismatic Vijay Mallya, who said of the test…. “Not only have we demonstrated the strong potential of the team by attracting five highly talented drivers to test for us….”
…which begs the question – of the SEVEN drivers who tested for you this week, which two did you think were crap?
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Next season is 2008, why are they testing 2009 rules?
 
Alex.
Next season is 2008, why are they testing 2009 rules?
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The cars they are testing do not conform to 2009 regulations. They are meant to simulate the downforce levels that the 2009 cars are expected to generate.

The reason they are doing these tests is because the teams will probably start working on the 2009 cars in 4–6 months, and Bridgestone provided these tyres so it makes sense for them to use them to get as much data as they can before they design their 2009 cars.

Metar
What's so incredibly terrible about the '09 regulations that makes everyone run basically zero angles?
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Well, to put it simply, the first line of the regulations on bodywork and dimensions reads:

“The purpose of the regulations under Article 3 below is to ensure no car may generate downforce in excess of 12500N at any time.”
 
appie17
Link
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I don't get it, is he complaining that the slick tyres are worse than the grooved while cold, all the time or just that they won't have the downforce levels they're used to now? Are grooved tyres easier to warm up or something?
 
Blake
“The purpose of the regulations under Article 3 below is to ensure no car may generate downforce in excess of 12500N at any time.”
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I wonder what new limitations will be introduced when top speeds go through the roof on tracks other than just Monza.
 
Blake
Well, to put it simply, the first line of the regulations on bodywork and dimensions reads:

“The purpose of the regulations under Article 3 below is to ensure no car may generate downforce in excess of 12500N at any time.”
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That's just stupid.

And how exactly are they going to enforce this? Are they going to run a wind-tunnel in Parc Ferme up to the speeds they'll run during a race (Which, I assume, will near 380km/h at Monza again, considering drag will also be reduced)? Or are they planning on penalizing cars that pass a certain amount of lateral G-forces?
 
Metar
That's just stupid.

And how exactly are they going to enforce this? Are they going to run a wind-tunnel in Parc Ferme up to the speeds they'll run during a race (Which, I assume, will near 380km/h at Monza again, considering drag will also be reduced)? Or are they planning on penalizing cars that pass a certain amount of lateral G-forces?
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They’re not actually regulating downforce, but the purpose of the bodywork regulations is to make it basically impossible for a team to make any more than that sort of downforce.

And mipuumal, I expect drag levels won’t be reduced that much. IIRC they’re making the cars wider, although I didn’t check when I looked at the regulations this morning.
 
And how are they making it impossible? Shorter, wider cars are what I recall - but that hardly lowers downforce-levels.
 
Metar
And how are they making it impossible? Shorter, wider cars are what I recall - but that hardly lowers downforce-levels.
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They may actually be limiting downforce levels. I know they intended to in 2008, but that was scrapped. The 2009 regulations never say the downforce will be measured, but I also can’t see how the regulations will result in such a drop-off in downforce levels.
 
Blake
They may actually be limiting downforce levels. I know they intended to in 2008, but that was scrapped. The 2009 regulations never say the downforce will be measured, but I also can’t see how the regulations will result in such a drop-off in downforce levels.
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So whats the points of testing low downforce then?

PS: My first post from the PS3:D
 
Catalunya, Day 2

Code: 
Pos.	Driver		Team		Time		Laps
1	S. Vettel	Toro Rosso	01:21.679	89
2	S. Bourdais	Toro Rosso	01:21.782	88
3	L. Hamilton	McLaren		01:22.135	80
4	H. Kovalainen	McLaren		01:22.511	70
5	R. Kubica	BMW		01:22.833	90
6	F. Alonso	Renault		01:22.938	115
7	N. Piquet jr.	Renault		01:23.002	115
8	M. Webber	Red Bull	01:23.020	75
9	N. Heidfeld	BMW		01:23.070	94
10	D. Coulthard	Red Bull	01:23.322	85
11	N. Rosberg	Williams	01:23.347	34
12	K. Nakajima	Williams	01:23.948	40
13	J. Button	Honda		01:23.959	58
14	V. Liuzzi	Force India F1	01:24.263	61

You can see Williams didn't run much today.
 
Well, I guess I'd put the pecking order of F1 at the moment like this:

1st: McLaren
2nd: Ferrari
3rd: Williams
4th: BMW Sauber
5th: Renault
6th: Red Bull
7th: Scuderia Toro Rosso
8th: Toyota
9th: Force India
10th: Super Aguri
11th: Honda
 
Renault did 230 laps in one day. Thats like 1062 km. I wonder what they were testing lol
 
Bee
Well, I guess I'd put the pecking order of F1 at the moment like this:

1st: McLaren
= Ferrari
3rd: Williams
4th: BMW Sauber
= Renault
6th: Red Bull
7th: Scuderia Toro Rosso
8th: Toyota
9th: Force India
10th: Super Aguri
10th: Honda
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Fixed :p

Aguri seems inexistent at the moment, and Ferrari alternated with McLaren in terms of laptimes so far, so I'd put them equal... And I'd actually send BMW a bit further behind. Williams and Renault were consistently third and forth, while BMW only recently found some pace again...

My_Sterious
Ferrari still not taking part in the Barcelona tests? I thought they were going to test today and tomorrow, only Friday a day-off :confused:
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They're with Toyota at Bahrain.
 
Unless it’s part of the testing restrictions (which I’ll admit I haven’t taken much notice of recently) I don’t understand why they’re not testing at two places at once. Ferrari always used to do that.
 
I guess it survived successfully then - only a tenth off the McLarens today :cheers:


Red Bull fastest. I guess they and STR pulled a few on-fumes runs while others were long-running, and got to keep the position thanks to the rain?
 
BMW seem to have found some speed, I'm starting to believe that they will have fast cat by first this season
 

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