Second Barcelona Test

Second Barcelona Test - Second Day

3rd & 7 37yd

Half an hour in and Nasr's 1:27.968 is the headline time so far.

by Nate Saunders 2/27/2015 8:28:13 AM
Nasr has just rolled past the press area on the red striped super-soft tyre, so that's what he set the headline time on.

by Nate Saunders 2/27/2015 8:30:37 AM
@aero they invalidate the onboard telemetry with respect to track conditions and balance and several other parameters to some extent but would give a pretty clear indication of the airflow coming off the front wing, the fact that they use Kiel probes makes sense since they are not affect by yaw as much as a standard pitot tubes but they are less precice

by lakespookie 2/27/2015 8:31:04 AM
Devoid of fear, devoid of compassion, devoid of sympathy...Devoid of injury? When someone like Ron Dennis uses such an odd choice of words, it just raises further questions.

by mfbull 2/27/2015 8:31:16 AM
when can we get the real speed of all the cars? Dont tell me australia

by Questionaire 2/27/2015 8:31:22 AM
@Questionaire: Australia ;)

by Nate Saunders 2/27/2015 8:31:27 AM
@Questionaire: Some might even say not unitl the Spanish GP.

by mfbull 2/27/2015 8:35:52 AM
What is special in the new Williams rear wing and thus we have another wing similar to it in other cars ?

by Melhem Sake 2/27/2015 8:35:58 AM
@MelhemSake: It's not as simple as just copying another team's rear wing because it works for them. It all depends on how it works with your aerodynamic package and Massa yesterday felt like Williams might finally have done that. Last year they were unable to look after their rear tyres and that was because it could not find a rear wing solution which suited that package.

by Nate Saunders 2/27/2015 8:36:51 AM
I was abducted by aliens once, I believe they used a Kiel probe.

by mfbull 2/27/2015 8:37:09 AM
@mfbull: I assume that was a South Park reference. If so you are commenter of the day. If not you will probably will be anyway.

by Nate Saunders 2/27/2015 8:38:12 AM
Hi Nate, can aero testing be done on qualifying day

by HHH 2/27/2015 8:38:17 AM
@HHH: Why would teams run an aero sensor during qualifying? Qualifying IS about raw pace and performance. Testing, when you are trying to find the limits and breaking points of both the car and the engine, is when you'll run an aero package.

by Nate Saunders 2/27/2015 8:38:57 AM
Only new to F1 can teams not run 2 cars in testing one driver on a race sim while the other tests other things? Sorry if a silly question :)

by Serenity 2/27/2015 8:39:05 AM
@Serenity: Not a silly question at all. There are quite significant restrictions on testing to help spiralling costs and one of them is the amount of cars a team can run. Also, at the start of the winter most teams only have one car anyway.

by Nate Saunders 2/27/2015 8:40:39 AM
@melhem they can copy some of the design aspects to try and gain more or less downforce in exchange for drag but a lot of rear wing desing is dependent on the airflow off the body of and side pods, and the ideal amount of downforce needed for a particular chassis to be balanced is affected be mechanical grip, front wing downforce, driver preference, etc... in short like everything in engineering and f1 its complicated, and non-trivial.

by lakespookie 2/27/2015 8:40:54 AM
Yes, I am 43 years old and still watch Southpark.

by mfbull 2/27/2015 8:40:57 AM
@mfbull: And don't ever let anyone tell you that's a bad thing.

by Nate Saunders 2/27/2015 8:41:05 AM
Sitting up there with dozens of journos firing questions at you, you might be devoid of good phrases like Ron Dennis too.

by Chris in Sunny Perth 2/27/2015 8:41:23 AM
I think it's important, especially in the modern era of journalism, not to read too much into individual phrases. Sometimes people can word something sloppily. In this case, this is the way Dennis speaks and don't think it means much aside from him emphasising the point Alonso is perfectly healthy.

by Nate Saunders 2/27/2015 8:42:21 AM
Dont they video capture the entire circuit during testing? How can they not know the reason for Alonso's accident?

by Questionaire 2/27/2015 8:43:00 AM
@Questionaire: Ron Dennis said the only camera which caught the accident. He said: There is only one piece of footage, it is off the circuit system. The quality of the footage, it is so poor it would not electronically transmit. We will look at that but it's not very informative."

It does pose a valid safety question during testing - why are there not more working cameras at all points of the circuit. Not even so the public can see them, but to aid with investigations into this sort of accident.

by Nate Saunders 2/27/2015 8:44:09 AM
Ron Dennis reminds me of a great NFL coach whose team no longer listens to him. Might not be done, but needs to go somewhere else. What's the ownership structure at Macca these days?

by mfbull 2/27/2015 8:44:12 AM
when is Kevin driving?

by ken 2/27/2015 8:44:16 AM
@ken: The days are not confirmed yet but I would assume he will get at least one of the next two days. I don't think McLaren will give him both as Button was down on track time compared to Alonso.

by Nate Saunders 2/27/2015 8:44:39 AM
@Nate - Can we have an update on the no. of laps covered so far? Ferrari not have a race sim under them belt so far is starting to get me concerned. Williams with its deg. issues fixed, will lock out the podium with Mercedes - unless Mclaren has some serious firepower hidden behind the faulty seals in that engine - or Ferrari/Renault have more than halved the power deficit.

by TifoSoySauce 2/27/2015 8:44:53 AM
@TifoSoySauce: Of course. We usually update the times for the first time at 1000 as the first hour is a lot of install laps and returns to the garage. At the moment only Bottas has double figures, 12 laps.

by Nate Saunders 2/27/2015 8:45:24 AM
Ron is somewhat of an intellect and thus talks like one so there is nothing unusual at all about Ron's choice of words... In my humble opinion.

by Wayne Bond 2/27/2015 8:45:37 AM
@aero the sensors on the redbull are there to collect aero data from the front wing and wheels, It would be useless to have a second set of sensors at the rear, as they would be interfered with from the front sensors.

nate is that right?

by bb 2/27/2015 8:45:44 AM
@bb: That's right, it's to measure the flow of air around those parts of the car. You'll see various aero sensors throughout testing, sometimes on the rear of the car etc.

by Nate Saunders 2/27/2015 8:46:15 AM
You think Ferrari is still looking as good as the first test in jerez?Or was it just smoke??

by speedf1 2/27/2015 8:46:28 AM
@speedf1: I never said Ferrari looked "good" at the first test because it was too early to tell anything. You have to realise testing, especially the first one, is probably the least informative one of all because the teams are getting to grips with their new car and putting things into practice for the first time. Mercedes came straight out of the garage in Jerez and did a race simulation which to me was the standout moment of the first test anyway.

by Nate Saunders 2/27/2015 8:47:38 AM
@speedf1 - I don't think it was all smoke - They were impresed with what they saw but whether it is good enough to compete with mercedes is a different question altogether.

by TifoSoySauce 2/27/2015 8:48:02 AM
Button returns to the action for McLaren.

by Nate Saunders 2/27/2015 8:48:25 AM
@nate you have any other screen caps of test equipment on the cars??, besides the typical flowvis of course

by lakespookie 2/27/2015 8:48:44 AM
@lakespookie: Of course. I'll try and drop them in as and when they come through.

by Nate Saunders 2/27/2015 8:48:58 AM
Some say that the engine is the whole story, well if we look back to last year we can see that only Mercedes had an advantage over Renault & Ferrari others like Mclaren & Force india were well behind and if Ferrari had a slightly better aero package they would have beat Williams. Thus what i would like to say is that Aero is still important in this new era of F1 and also that Mercedes has the best synergy between its very good Aero package and its super turbo engine

by Melhem Sake 2/27/2015 8:49:12 AM
@MelhemSake: Aero is always going to be important, yes, but its very simplistic to say Ferrari would have beaten Williams if it had a better aero package last year. It had a huge bhp disadvantage to Mercedes last year. Mercedes, I should add, probably had the best engine AND aero package, hence its complete domination.

by Nate Saunders 2/27/2015 8:49:59 AM
@speedf1: That being said, the Ferrari does "look" good. How fast it is? I'm willing to wait to see, I haven't rung the bells of the church in my Maranello diorama for a long time.

by mfbull 2/27/2015 8:50:05 AM
It amazes me that with all the time that Honda had, as well as the opportunities to learn from its competitors mistakes last year, how it has suffered in the last 9 days of testing

by #thepowerofdreams 2/27/2015 8:50:12 AM
An aero sensor on the rear of Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari

by Nate Saunders 2/27/2015 8:51:37 AM
i think the engine hampered Ferrari last year more then the aero.They clearly lacked pace which was evident on the long straights at certain tracks.

by speedf1 2/27/2015 8:52:37 AM
Update from Force India.

by Nate Saunders 2/27/2015 8:55:09 AM
This bright garage door hides our new VJM08, which is here at the track and currently being worked on! #FeelTheForce http://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-1sTf4WsAAzgrb.jpg

by Sahara Force India via twitter 2/27/2015 8:55:17 AM
That sounds encouraging.

by Nate Saunders 2/27/2015 8:55:21 AM

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