Three teams were in action today at Paul Ricard conducting a special test of Pirelli’s wet weather tyres. Sprinklers were used to soak the track for the test.
Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull), Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren) and Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) were three drivers running at the French track.
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GT Racer (@gt-racer)
25th January 2016, 15:34
Speaking of tyres, the GPDA just ended a meeting in which they unanimously agreed that they want better tyres that allow them to push flat out over a stint for next year.
It seems the drivers frustrations about the tyres they have been given since 2011 are finally going to be vented in a unanimous & organized way via the GPDA rather than the odd bit of complaining from a few drivers as its been until now.
Gabriel (@rethla)
25th January 2016, 15:44
Finally some great news.
Iestyn Davies (@fastiesty)
25th January 2016, 15:47
@gt-racer Interesting news, although I’m surprised it took 5 years to get a unanimous GPDA agreement on it?
Patrick (@paeschli)
25th January 2016, 16:54
They are finally fed up?
It’s good to know there are some people in the sport who understand the current problems.
Robbie (@robbie)
25th January 2016, 17:38
On paper it sounds good, but I don’t expect this to happen, as much as the drivers and most fans, myself included, want it.
F1 will have to change it’s ways of late quite a bit, and aside from this news I don’t get the impression they are motivated that way. Pirelli has been tasked to make their tires the overwhelming deciding factor in races, and those and DRS are meant to counter the aero addiction (read processions) that seems to not be going away. Pirelli will get no marketing impact from making tires that aren’t problematic while they are the sole supplier, so either F1 will have to change it’s ways hugely, or a second maker will have to enter F1 and make for competition to Pirelli, in order for the drivers to get what they want.
There is nothing more I would want than the tires the drivers are asking for, and a reduction in aero downforce, as well as the elimination of DRS, but I will certainly not hold my breath. If there is any response at all by the likes of BE to the drivers’ wish list I expect it to read something like ‘of course the drivers want this but they don’t know how to look out for the big picture, only themselves.’ The current big picture actually being the wrong direction but F1 doesn’t care about that.
pastaman (@)
25th January 2016, 18:20
Except… how do you define a stint? When the tires fall off? Ok so how is that any different than now? Drivers could push flat out if they wanted to right now, it will just make their stint shorter. Unless you drive with tires that will last an entire race distance, you will always want/need to conserve your tires.
Gabriel (@rethla)
25th January 2016, 20:22
The stint ends when the tyres have become so slow you will gain more from a pitstop than going on. That should happen well before the tyres gets dangerous and it should not happen with a sudden arbitrary “cliff”.
The tyres should not blow up on a valid long stint strategy like Sebastian Vettel at Spa and neither should they obliterate a few laps before checkered if you try some overtaking moves on the last laps.
Ofc. the general descisions of saving tyres vs pushing for pace/overtakes will remain.
Johannes (@johanness)
26th January 2016, 3:13
I was just going to use Vettel/Spa as a perfect example of what the drivers want. It’s terrible that this is still considered a ‘want’ and not a ‘need’.
Sumedh
26th January 2016, 4:31
Great point. not understood by many fans who blame the tyres for everything.
Gabriel (@rethla)
26th January 2016, 15:47
And Honda can run their engines at 100% aswell, it only shortens their stint.
Loetkoe
25th January 2016, 15:38
Notice the RB livery…
GeeMac (@geemac)
25th January 2016, 15:58
A move back to their pre-Infiniti livery with Tag-Heuer on the engine cover. Looks like the race number is following the style on Danny Ric’s helmet, which I think follows Dale Earnhardt’s pretty closely.
https://www.racefans.net/?attachment_id=293379
http://tireball.com/nascar/files/2013/07/goodwrench.jpg
Andre (@lheela)
25th January 2016, 16:40
Likely not final though. IIRC they’ll have an event to present the new livery.
The livery run at this test is pretty much just last years with the purple Infiniti parts painted dark blue (notice rear wing endplates).
GeeMac (@geemac)
25th January 2016, 16:42
Indeed, it’s definitely in interim livery. It’s quite similar to the one the slapped on for Max’s ice run.
Patrick (@paeschli)
25th January 2016, 16:32
Ow yeah, sprinklers
Patrick (@paeschli)
25th January 2016, 16:34
And Stoffel suffered an engine failure apparently, hilarious.
GeeMac (@geemac)
25th January 2016, 16:44
So we have established:
(a) If Bernie wanted to host the French GP at his own track, he could get his wish and turn the sprinklers on half way through; and
(b) the MP4-30 is still the most useless thing to come out of the MTC since Michael Andretti.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
25th January 2016, 17:05
Well, technically,
(a) Michael Andretti was some 9 years or Something early for the MTC, and
(b) The Mp4/18 still has them both beat for uselessness.
GeeMac (@geemac)
25th January 2016, 17:13
Oh you know what I meant… ;)
Patrick (@paeschli)
25th January 2016, 17:14
At least the Mp4/18 was exciting and fast. Many features from the Mp4/18 were back-ported to the Mp4-17 and the Mp4/18 was the base on which the Mp4/19 was built.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
25th January 2016, 17:33
hahahaha. good one. That 4/19 was almost even more of a debauchery. at least with the 18 they had the sense to keep it in their pants. I mean garage. Damn what a piece of rubbish. I’m actually still mad about that one. To be fair, most of McLaren post-Honda (you know what i mean) has been one miserable story of failure. And the successful bits are more than made up for in this assesment by “We’re the greatest team in the history of ever”- quotes in unfitting situations.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
25th January 2016, 17:41
And once it was fast the damn wing fell off! Man i’m still upset about that!
markp
25th January 2016, 18:47
Mp4/18 probably could of raced and finished more than last years car but McLaren were title contenders in those days so could not risk it, now they are a midfield team they have nothing to lose hence teaming up with Honda.
anon
25th January 2016, 21:13
@paeschli, the MP4/18 was also something of a death trap – the car failed its crash tests twice, whilst Wurz was also involved in some extremely heavy accidents in testing due to component failures and handling issues.
It also has to be said that the car it spawned, the MP4/19, wasn’t a great car either – it was only when the team scrapped most of the aero package carried over from the MP4/18 that it became somewhat more competitive. Most designers, even great ones, have periods where they produce a poor car or two, and even Newey himself has admitted in retrospect that the MP4/18 was one of his poorer efforts.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
25th January 2016, 22:25
@anon, i actually never understood how newey managed that all people remember are his rb7s and FW15s and stuff. I also never understood how he could produce these dogs (and they weren’t alone, the 4/16 was incredibly pretty but rubbish, and the 4/17 in its initial incarnation was even worse), But never set a foot wrong with RBR. funny isn’t it?
Patrick (@paeschli)
26th January 2016, 6:59
@mrboerns
It took a rule change before Newey became competitive with Red Bull. I remember Toro Rosso beating Red Bull in 2008 quite well. :)
And I still consider the 4/19 a better car that what McLaren has done in the last 3 years. From title contender to fighting with Force India from 2012 to 2013 while the rules remained stable. Then no improvement from them in 2014 despite having the best engine and then an awful 2015 due to a bad engine (and I think their chassis is still far off the best too).
They need more than just a better engine to start winning races in my humble opinion.
Boomerang
26th January 2016, 9:38
“i actually never understood how newey managed that all people remember are his rb7s and FW15s and stuff.” We prefer to think about positives ;-) On the other hand, regarding McLaren team, I think there is something wrong about them, something about the inner structure or organization. We’ve seen Newey’s talent being choked during his late years in Woking and the resurrection of it in RBR. Strange. At some point I thought he lost it but he never did. Just pay attention about spray coming out of the cars in Paul Ricard, especially pay attention about it’s angle after the car. My face changes the color to green, I know RBR’s car reynold’s number is awesome. Adrian is still technical benchmark in F1.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
26th January 2016, 13:08
Oh and as i was already ranting anyway, why exactly has mercedes constantly been able to build engines that do not blow up twice a lap the veery second kimi left? Mercedes’ Kimi (and late Mika) years were so full of synchronized smoke you’d be forgiven to think it was an Aerobatics Team.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
25th January 2016, 17:13
Also, it’s no wonder we won’t have any more proper rain races because tyres will be rubbish when they test them with like a dribble of Water on track. Is it so hard to find a day with actual bad weather and actual amounts of water on track for this test? I thought most teams are located in britain anyway? Can’t be that hard.
Philip (@philipgb)
25th January 2016, 17:23
The problem is yeah at this time of year you can pretty much throw a dart at the calendar and get a rainy day in Silverstone but track temps are like 10-15°C so not representative of what will actually be faced in an in-season wet race.
The pre-season testing has a similar problem with how cold it is at places like Jerez making it a glorified shakedown test with next to no useful tyre data collected.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
25th January 2016, 17:39
Yeah i think that should’t affect a tires capability to get rid of water all that much. And i wish they would get rid of that stupid parc ferme nonsense while we’re at it. as things stand, a wet race will be red flagged because without a special set up (ride height?) the cars won’t handle rain. and no one puts a special set up because if there is rain on suinday the race will be red flagged because no car is set up to…. argh!
markp
25th January 2016, 18:49
All the more reason for active suspension?
JerseyF1 (@jerseyf1)
25th January 2016, 19:50
@mrboerns ride height isn’t an issue, the wet tyres have a larger radius so you automatically have a greater ride height in the wet. In case you haven’t noticed, they do still race in the rain, it isn’t automatically red flagged (though the red flag/SC certainly are used more than in the past).
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
25th January 2016, 22:21
Do they now? i seem to only see them waiting until it stops raining, drying the track up behind the safety car, then racing in what Jeremy Clarkson would qualify as ‘mildly moist’ conditions. And i do seem to remember that one of the more common explanations is that the cars actually ‘Bottom out’ on the water. And give or take that point, there still is a setup issue, be it the ride height or who knows what.
I just dislike all that parc-ferme and testing prohibition. Its like the team may not even touch its own car. It also leads to all those horrific abominations like Ferrari F60ies with a 2013 livery and some bits and pieces of 2014 bodywork slapped on for showruns instead of just demonstration your current challenger, or a historic car in its period configuration. Going a bit off track here, but those things just bother me above anything else.
SauberS1 (@saubers1)
25th January 2016, 23:15
How many laps performed Vandoorne?
Jerejj
26th January 2016, 4:40
87.