F1 2022 Pre Season and general Testing

[Ruslan]

Bottom post of the previous page:

The Ferraris do genuinely seem to be faster/better sorted than everyone else. Why?

[erwin greven]

[Star]

Don't know if it's a fair comparison given it's Magnussen's first go in an unfamiliar car etc. but Mick Schumacher was significanty faster than him today. As I say, it's nothing you can really judge anything on yet, but I just thought I'd say.

Red Bull and Mercedes are keeping their powder dry so to speak. I doubt we'll see how fast they can really go until qualifying in just over a weeks time.

[erwin greven]

Tomorrow last day of testing.

[Everso Biggyballies]

The Ferraris do genuinely seem to be faster/better sorted than everyone else. Why?

They do..... but I cant help think that maybe Red Bull and Merc, maybe others, are leaving a lot on the table. Even the fastest times we have seen this week are over 4 seconds off last years pole from 12 months ago. But Merc was porpoising as bad as anyone so who knows. Strange that Max and Lewis in the last 30 minutes suddenly pop up near the top of the times.

Its just I have lost count of the times in past years that Ferrari have blitzed testing and then come the first qualy / race of the year are off the pace.

Anyway thaats day 2 done.

- Sainz fastest from Max, Stroll and Hammy
- Top three all set times on C4, Hamilton's on softest C5
- Magnussen on track for first time since rejoining Haas /F1
- Williams sits out afternoon after on-track fire in morning
- Merc (and others) still suffering from porpoising.


Day two times

1. Sainz (Ferrari) 1m33.532s, C4, 60 laps
2. Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m34.011s, C4, 86 laps
3. Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m34.064s, C4, 70 laps
4. Hamilton (Mercedes), 1m34.141s, C5, 47 laps
5. Ocon (Alpine) 1m34.276s, C4, 111 laps
6. Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m34.366s, C3, 54 laps
7. Norris (McLaren) 1m34.609s, C3, 60 laps
8. Vettel (Aston Martin) 1m36.020s, C3, 46 laps
9. Magnussen (Haas) 1m36.505s, C3, 39 laps
10. Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) 1m36.802s, C3, 120 laps
11. Bottas (Alfa Romeo) 1m36.987s, C2, 25 laps
12. Schumacher (Haas) 1m37.846s, C2, 23 laps
13. Russell (Mercedes) 1m38.585s, C2, 67 laps
14. Latifi (Williams) 1m39.845s, C2, 12 laps
15. Zhou (Alfa Romeo) 1m39.984s, C2, 48 laps

[White six]

I'd think RB and Merc will show their hand a little by the end tomorrow. Strange for Lewis to go on c5s today...

[Everso Biggyballies]

That Porpoising word again

Re the porpoising they are still all having problems with seems to be hanging around.... a result of the new regs and floor rules

Gary Anderson, one who should know, thinks the whole problem would disappear with a quick rule tweak. Should they change the regs now..... it would save teams an awful lot of money if the fix can be made with a stroke of the pen in the regs. Anderson thinks so, and it should be done now before the teams have built up stocks of spares that would become obsolete.

Day one of Bahrain testing showed that all teams are still having problems with their cars ‘bouncing’ due to repeated aerodynamic loading and unloading as the underfloor airflow stalls.

The area that the teams will be working on to solve this problem will be the floor itself, modifying parts to try to reduce the phenomenon. Increasing ride heights would work too, but that would generate less downforce.

No individual team will want to trade off downforce for driver comfort, so I don’t see this issue going away any time soon.

If I was the FIA I would propose that the rear outer part of the floor – let’s say from one metre forward of the centre of the rear wheel – should be raised by something like 10 millimetres, or more.

The actual underfloor throat is 50 millimetres up from the reference plane, which is below the driver’s bum. On previous cars this raised section had to continue outwards to the extreme of the floor. This year it can step back down to level with the reference plane.

Simply raising this section would reduce the downforce just a little bit for everyone.

But more importantly it would stop the floor from mechanically sealing when the side of the floor makes contact with the track surface. It would also mean there would be a lot less damage created if a driver runs over a kerb.

I know this should be down to the teams to rectify with developments or set-ups but in the interests of everyone working together the rule change I’ve suggested would be the quickest and simplest solution – and it should be very easy and cheap for the teams to modify their floor tooling to achieve it.

Sounds simple dunnit?!

[Everso Biggyballies]

Got to laugh at Sainz response to questions about Ferrari "dominance"... but he is right as many of us here have commented.

Sainz:

“It is typical Mercedes,” he said, “typical George [Russell] - hype up the others and then come to the first race and blow the competition away.

"If it was the first season they did it I would maybe believe them, but they have done it for five, six years now and they keep surprising us in the first race. So as you can imagine I don’t believe much. Already in GPS we can also see what they are doing and, yeah… I am not going to say much.”

[Ruslan]

The Ferraris do genuinely seem to be faster/better sorted than everyone else. Why?

They do..... but I cant help think that maybe Red Bull and Merc, maybe others, are leaving a lot on the table.

My “why” question was really oriented to asking what are they doing that is different to everyone else to make them faster/more sorted than everyone else? Are their wings different? Are their side pods different? Did they do something different with their underbody? Is there any clearly identifiable change that makes them better?

[White six]

Lewis is claiming they're not bagging (again)

[Everso Biggyballies]

Don't know if it's a fair comparison given it's Magnussen's first go in an unfamiliar car etc. but Mick Schumacher was significanty faster than him today. As I say, it's nothing you can really judge anything on yet, but I just thought I'd say.

That comment hasnt aged well..... albeit with news that was quite a shock to me!

Magnussen fastest in Bahrain F1 testing

Kevin Magnussen used the extra time allocated to Haas to beat Carlos Sainz to the fastest time of the penultimate day of Formula 1 testing in Bahrain,

Haas is allowed to run an extra hour on Friday night before starting testing one hour early on the final day and running two hours later in order to make up for the four hours lost on day one due to its Formula 1-arranged freight arriving late. Magnussen had already been within a second of the fastest time on his first outing in an F1 car in over a year when he went 0.3s faster than the rest of the field had managed during the official running on the C4 compound.

I would like to say yeah but they ran in the evening when it is cooler / faster etc, but regardless it was not something expected.

I do wonder about this Mercedes concept. Yes I believe they are sandbagging, and yes Sain said we not what they are doing because of GPs etc, implying reducing speed in fast sections to lose time...... but the fact remains that their car looks a handful and does suffer from porpoising. It looks a handful from the limited viewing I have had. (No live TV coverage in Aus)


Oh and breaking news....

Danny Ric out with Covid


OK the Danny Ric illness is question is now solved. Despite previous multiple negative tests Danny will miss final day in Bahrain after a positive COVID test.

He has tested positive for COVID-19 and must isolate before being released in time to compete in the 2022 Formula 1 season opener next week.

[White six]

Don't know if it's a fair comparison given it's Magnussen's first go in an unfamiliar car etc. but Mick Schumacher was significanty faster than him today. As I say, it's nothing you can really judge anything on yet, but I just thought I'd say.

That comment hasnt aged well..... albeit with news that was quite a shock to me!

Magnussen fastest in Bahrain F1 testing

Kevin Magnussen used the extra time allocated to Haas to beat Carlos Sainz to the fastest time of the penultimate day of Formula 1 testing in Bahrain,

Haas is allowed to run an extra hour on Friday night before starting testing one hour early on the final day and running two hours later in order to make up for the four hours lost on day one due to its Formula 1-arranged freight arriving late. Magnussen had already been within a second of the fastest time on his first outing in an F1 car in over a year when he went 0.3s faster than the rest of the field had managed during the official running on the C4 compound.

I would like to say yeah but they ran in the evening when it is cooler / faster etc, but regardless it was not something expected.

I do wonder about this Mercedes concept. Yes I believe they are sandbagging, and yes Sain said we not what they are doing because of GPs etc, implying reducing speed in fast sections to lose time...... but the fact remains that their car looks a handful and does suffer from porpoising. It looks a handful from the limited viewing I have had. (No live TV coverage in Aus)


Oh and breaking news....

Danny Ric out with Covid


OK the Danny Ric illness is question is now solved. Despite previous multiple negative tests Danny will miss final day in Bahrain after a positive COVID test.

He has tested positive for COVID-19 and must isolate before being released in time to compete in the 2022 Formula 1 season opener next week.

Extreme interpretations of rules have rarely been the best ones. Here's hoping the Merc is as much of a dog as hammy claims

Watched sainz's lap. The car looked pretty stable and not much porpoising. And was able to follow hammy until he could slipstream him.

Very encouraging for Haas. Obviously a lot cooler and likely less wind, but well done them

[Cheeveer]

They should give out points for testing.

[Star]

@Everso Biggyballies I had forgotten the extra time Haas had. Good for Kevin Magnussen if he got into the swing of things and went much faster.

It's a shame Daniel Ricciardo has covid, means Lando is doing all the heavy lifting test wise and Daniel is missing out on vital in car time. Hopefully he'll be okay to race next weekend.

[PTRACER]

Do you think Mercedes are running those tiny sidepods to fool other teams? Can they really run those for whole races for the whole season with no overheating?

[DoubleFart]

Do you think Mercedes are running those tiny sidepods to fool other teams? Can they really run those for whole races for the whole season with no overheating?

I do wonder what it'd be like at a very hot Monaco behind a safety car, or Baku/Monza behind a safety car where they expect significant airflow.

It's probably also worth questioning how the cooling performs if they're not out in front - maybe they've told Lewis they'll give him a qualifying special, and he can lead George round, forcing his engine to overheat and therefore Lewis not be challenged.