Does anyone knows what is on McLaren nose ? Is it some kind of dome hosting camera to look at brakes/tyres ? It seems many teams have increase air intake above the driver’s head and are splitting them into several channels.
@lateralus I honestly have no idea. Last year Rosber did a 1:22.792 on the final day of testing, yet his pole time two and a half months later was 1:24.681. Maybe it’s the tyres. One other reason I heard is that since the temperatures during testing are much lower than during the race, the air density is higher, and thus the cars have more downforce, but I’d be very surprised if that accounted for all the difference.
Fresh temps are apparently the best conditions, mainly for the tyres if I remember Michael Krumm’s Driving on the Edge correctly. He even uses Barcelona as an example at several points of his book to essentially say “watch out, you might not beat your morning time in the afternoon heat”.
On the cars themselves, they look better in broad daylight. The Red Bull looks like it might really be blue, which it didn’t to me on the stage where they revealed the livery. The number on the McLaren does look daft, cartoony… quite un-McLaren. The Ferrari looks alright. The Haas, not so much.
@guilherme@lateralus Testing times tend to be faster than qualifying times for two reasons:
1) Softer compounds are available during testing than during race weekends – for example Rosberg set a 22.7 on super-softs in testing last year, but could only manage a 24.6 on mediums during the Grand Prix.
2) The colder temperatures – colder air is denser, which supplies the carburettor with more air and is “heavier” over the aerodynamic surfaces producing more downforce. Also, with tyre blankets and plenty of downforce, the tyres are more likely to remain in the optimum window.
Ferrari, Haas, Manor, RedBull and the Mercedes look quite good on track.
Mclaren and Renault look like the same team and the colors seem to be used to differentiate the drivers (LeMans style)
The williams for me is still the better looking. I wish ForceIndia went for more orange, and hopefully Renault will use more yellow. It will be interesting to see what ToroRoso does
Manor are the only ones sticking with the long nose, which is odd since they started a partnership with Mercedes, which were the first team to go for a short version
@johnmilk I’m not sure if their partnership with Mercedes includes much in the way of aerodynamic design.
Bear in mind Mercedes were also the most advanced team right from the start, whereas Manor are basically the opposite. The ‘thumb’ nose requires greater aerodynamic design behind the actual nose, so it is more advanced aerodynamics, hence why teams have all been switching to it as they have upgraded the cars.
@strontium even if that partnership doesn’t involve aerodynamics, and it probably doesn’t they had a complete year to check what everybody else was doing. I am sure things don’t work as fast in Manor as in other teams but still I was expecting more sophistication from them or at least solutions that converge to what the rivals are doing
Interesting is that it looks a lot like the last year’s Ferrari
I hope they get at least the chance to fight with the saubers
Can someone enlighten me? Does HAAS only have a factory/headquarters in the US? Because they’re flying in a new wing, they lose six or seven hours just by being across the Atlantic. Do they have an EU outpost as well?
Totally agree. Ferrari with all the white is a disaster. But my god does the torro rosso looks amazing… love the pure look of that car. Like the ol days, one solid color minus the ad non sense. Now if the ferarri were all red….
Totally agree. Ferrari with all the white is a disaster. But my god does the torro rosso looks amazing… love the pure look of that car. Like the ol days, one solid color minus the ad non sense. Now if the Ferrari were all red….
We need to get rid of these ‘dongs’ as noses. Please shake up the regs to get aesthetically pleasing cars, the cars minus the nose and pretty, but those silly extremities looks awful, especially on the ferrari
The only issues are, the Ferrari livery (I’ve always thought Ferraris should be red, but this is really nice!!) is too busy with black stripes everywhere.
If I were Haas I would have made the black bits yellow to stand out more.
The Williams livery, nice as always, but it does seem a bit untidy at the front and back. I’d have done the stripes a bit differently, maybe had them join at the front, rather than go off to the sides, and just have one on the rear wing.
Finally, the unliveried Toro Rosso is actually very very nice!
The white on the Ferrari completely ruins its looks, specially on the cockpit sides. The front wing and bargeboards remind me of the Vodafone days, but that wasn’t a pretty combo either.
@fer-no65 I think Vettel’s white helmet nestling in that white surround makes for a powerful image. Makes him and the team seem as one. And having the fans and press on-side never hurt a Ferrari driver.
The Red Bull looks better on the track than it does in the release pictures. Looks pretty good! The same cannot be said for Ferrari, the livery is an absolute mess. If they wanted a whiter livery, then they should have gone for something like this: http://pic.armedcats.net/s/sc/schumacherm/2016/02/19/1455904778084.jpg The Manor does look brilliant though.
In terms of the shape of the cars, I like the STR (and I’ve always been a fan of Key’s cars so I’m not surprised), the Renault, and the McLaren. The STR ‘pods look awesome. And I agree with everyone in saying the RBR livery looks great – so much better than last year.
However – there are some very ugly cars out there too. Ferrari – how can you screw up a livery that badly? HAAS – you have a wonderful opportunity to bring some colour back, and what do you do? Silver, black and red – really? I’ll reserve my judgement on the Sauber livery as they may change it on their 2016 car, however if there is one livery that above all others accentuated the dong noses, that was it (as someone else said it’s the mankini look)
To me though the cars are all starting to look like stretched 2008 cars without the extra flappy bits – low noses, most with an anteater profile, high & flat monocoques in front of the cockpit.
Jeanrien (@jeanrien)
22nd February 2016, 11:20
Does anyone knows what is on McLaren nose ? Is it some kind of dome hosting camera to look at brakes/tyres ?
It seems many teams have increase air intake above the driver’s head and are splitting them into several channels.
Milansson
22nd February 2016, 13:00
I think it’s some kind of measuring device, McLaren uses this pretty often during tests..
Tom (@lithyeir)
22nd February 2016, 13:03
You willing probably find that teams have been splitting the air intake for many seasons, it’s just that the splits start earlier now.
petebaldwin (@)
22nd February 2016, 13:29
They’ve run the same (or similar) thing in pre-season a few times previously.
https://psychdbyf1.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/mclaren_load_sensor1.jpg
http://www.racecar-engineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/upmacl.jpg
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
22nd February 2016, 19:02
@jeanrien it’s a camera or a sensor to monitor the front wing movement, I believe.
DirkWar
22nd February 2016, 20:17
The font of numbers on the McLaren is just hideous. I like big numbers but the McLaren looks weird.
BJ (@beejis60)
23rd February 2016, 1:32
@jeanrien This has been discussed every year they’ve been using it during testing.
BrawnGP (@brawngp)
22nd February 2016, 11:41
gotta say the Mclaren and the Redbull look much nicer than I thought.
Manor need to get Pepsi to sponser them with that livery :-P
Arrows98 (@arrows98)
22nd February 2016, 12:47
Red Bull looks reaaaally nice, both the livery and the body.
and almost feel like Manor and Haas should switch liveries…
Shimks (@shimks)
22nd February 2016, 12:19
I love the shape of Manor’s pod behind the driver’s seat.
Arrows98 (@arrows98)
22nd February 2016, 12:54
god, I thought Sauber would get rid of the mankini strap…
Mike
22nd February 2016, 22:49
I can not unsee.
Steven Robertson (@emu55)
22nd February 2016, 13:13
Vettel is half a second quicker than all 3 of his Q1-Q3 times at last years Spanish Grand Prix. Just an observation.
Guilherme (@guilherme)
22nd February 2016, 14:55
@emu55 That’s to be expected. Testing times are always a couple seconds faster than qualifying times.
Lateralus (@lateralus)
22nd February 2016, 15:05
They are? Why?
Guilherme (@guilherme)
22nd February 2016, 15:41
@lateralus I honestly have no idea. Last year Rosber did a 1:22.792 on the final day of testing, yet his pole time two and a half months later was 1:24.681. Maybe it’s the tyres. One other reason I heard is that since the temperatures during testing are much lower than during the race, the air density is higher, and thus the cars have more downforce, but I’d be very surprised if that accounted for all the difference.
Man United_Vettel (@siegfreyco)
22nd February 2016, 15:52
The conditions that may were poor compared to 2015 testing… and track generally rubbers more on testing
FlyingLobster27
22nd February 2016, 16:48
Fresh temps are apparently the best conditions, mainly for the tyres if I remember Michael Krumm’s Driving on the Edge correctly. He even uses Barcelona as an example at several points of his book to essentially say “watch out, you might not beat your morning time in the afternoon heat”.
On the cars themselves, they look better in broad daylight. The Red Bull looks like it might really be blue, which it didn’t to me on the stage where they revealed the livery. The number on the McLaren does look daft, cartoony… quite un-McLaren. The Ferrari looks alright. The Haas, not so much.
CountryGent (@countrygent)
22nd February 2016, 17:39
@guilherme @lateralus Testing times tend to be faster than qualifying times for two reasons:
1) Softer compounds are available during testing than during race weekends – for example Rosberg set a 22.7 on super-softs in testing last year, but could only manage a 24.6 on mediums during the Grand Prix.
2) The colder temperatures – colder air is denser, which supplies the carburettor with more air and is “heavier” over the aerodynamic surfaces producing more downforce. Also, with tyre blankets and plenty of downforce, the tyres are more likely to remain in the optimum window.
Nikola Spasevski (@nikola-sf)
22nd February 2016, 17:43
Rosberg’s time last year was on super soft !
Guilherme (@guilherme)
23rd February 2016, 2:17
@countrygent I wasn’t that far off, then. Thanks!
petebaldwin (@)
22nd February 2016, 13:40
On McLaren: They managed an average of 32 laps a day last season during pre-season testing. Today they have covered 35 already.
Joao (@johnmilk)
22nd February 2016, 14:07
Ferrari, Haas, Manor, RedBull and the Mercedes look quite good on track.
Mclaren and Renault look like the same team and the colors seem to be used to differentiate the drivers (LeMans style)
The williams for me is still the better looking. I wish ForceIndia went for more orange, and hopefully Renault will use more yellow. It will be interesting to see what ToroRoso does
Manor are the only ones sticking with the long nose, which is odd since they started a partnership with Mercedes, which were the first team to go for a short version
Strontium (@strontium)
22nd February 2016, 18:11
@johnmilk I’m not sure if their partnership with Mercedes includes much in the way of aerodynamic design.
Bear in mind Mercedes were also the most advanced team right from the start, whereas Manor are basically the opposite. The ‘thumb’ nose requires greater aerodynamic design behind the actual nose, so it is more advanced aerodynamics, hence why teams have all been switching to it as they have upgraded the cars.
Joao (@johnmilk)
22nd February 2016, 20:07
@strontium even if that partnership doesn’t involve aerodynamics, and it probably doesn’t they had a complete year to check what everybody else was doing. I am sure things don’t work as fast in Manor as in other teams but still I was expecting more sophistication from them or at least solutions that converge to what the rivals are doing
Interesting is that it looks a lot like the last year’s Ferrari
I hope they get at least the chance to fight with the saubers
Mike
22nd February 2016, 14:09
Do I like the livery?
Is it black or very very very dark grey?
These rarely get the same answer. That the grid is saturated with black and grey, only makes it worse.
The Manor looks awesome.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
22nd February 2016, 14:38
Can someone enlighten me? Does HAAS only have a factory/headquarters in the US? Because they’re flying in a new wing, they lose six or seven hours just by being across the Atlantic. Do they have an EU outpost as well?
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
22nd February 2016, 14:40
I now realise this is a stupid question, they have Banbury of course. But is that a full production facility?
NeoGalaxy
22nd February 2016, 17:14
If you don’t know the answer… you haven’t really been following F1 in 2015. And the answer is yes, they bought a Manor factory in UK.
Albrecht
22nd February 2016, 15:27
The RBR looks nicer than on the release pictures. The Ferrari uglier, it looks like they let a bucket of white paint fall over it.
jason
22nd February 2016, 16:40
Totally agree. Ferrari with all the white is a disaster. But my god does the torro rosso looks amazing… love the pure look of that car. Like the ol days, one solid color minus the ad non sense. Now if the ferarri were all red….
jason
22nd February 2016, 16:41
Totally agree. Ferrari with all the white is a disaster. But my god does the torro rosso looks amazing… love the pure look of that car. Like the ol days, one solid color minus the ad non sense. Now if the Ferrari were all red….
Paul (@frankjaeger)
22nd February 2016, 16:55
We need to get rid of these ‘dongs’ as noses. Please shake up the regs to get aesthetically pleasing cars, the cars minus the nose and pretty, but those silly extremities looks awful, especially on the ferrari
Schummel Schumi (@schummelschumi)
22nd February 2016, 16:59
I think the Ferrari would look really great if the tip of the nose was black like some teams did in 2014.
lockup (@)
22nd February 2016, 17:27
Anyone seen any stint times?
Gerulf Dösinger (@)
22nd February 2016, 17:28
I may be one of few people but I feel that the cars start looking better again – if one ignores the mostly bland liveries.
I like the variety in the looks of the overhead intakes and, apart from the pointy front-ends, the noses kinda look better.
If we’d get some 2008ish aero-extras and more race-friendly frontwings I’d mostly consider my eyes pleased again.
Strontium (@strontium)
22nd February 2016, 17:54
Some of the nicest liveries out there.
The only issues are, the Ferrari livery (I’ve always thought Ferraris should be red, but this is really nice!!) is too busy with black stripes everywhere.
If I were Haas I would have made the black bits yellow to stand out more.
The Williams livery, nice as always, but it does seem a bit untidy at the front and back. I’d have done the stripes a bit differently, maybe had them join at the front, rather than go off to the sides, and just have one on the rear wing.
Finally, the unliveried Toro Rosso is actually very very nice!
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
22nd February 2016, 19:05
The white on the Ferrari completely ruins its looks, specially on the cockpit sides. The front wing and bargeboards remind me of the Vodafone days, but that wasn’t a pretty combo either.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
22nd February 2016, 19:41
@fer-no65 I think Vettel’s white helmet nestling in that white surround makes for a powerful image. Makes him and the team seem as one. And having the fans and press on-side never hurt a Ferrari driver.
Luke Harrison
22nd February 2016, 21:59
YES KEITH!
Thought this myself.
White Surround and White Helmet is as iconic as a red surround and red helmet.
Mike
22nd February 2016, 22:54
I imagine the feeling is not entirely the same for say…. Kimi.
Uzair Syed (@ultimateuzair)
22nd February 2016, 19:19
The Red Bull looks better on the track than it does in the release pictures. Looks pretty good! The same cannot be said for Ferrari, the livery is an absolute mess. If they wanted a whiter livery, then they should have gone for something like this: http://pic.armedcats.net/s/sc/schumacherm/2016/02/19/1455904778084.jpg The Manor does look brilliant though.
Matheus Carvalho (@mattrc)
22nd February 2016, 19:56
Looks much better indeed.
thegamer23
22nd February 2016, 21:57
Ferrari would look a stunner without the front penis.
Can’t get all the bash around the white, it looks unique on track and Vettel’s helmet in there is pure perfection.
Wesley (@)
22nd February 2016, 22:50
Caption competition: Massa
https://www.racefans.net/?attachment_id=312814
Deej92 (@deej92)
22nd February 2016, 23:02
F1 seems to be lacking sponsors at the moment. Even Mercedes don’t seem to have that many. Haas, Manor and Sauber have about seven between them.
Hopefully the teams that need them can get some on board during the season like Manor did last year.
Deej92 (@deej92)
22nd February 2016, 23:06
Best livery for me goes to Red Bull. McLaren 2nd.
Worst goes to Sauber for the 2nd year in a row. Hideous.
clay (@clay)
22nd February 2016, 23:30
I just hope Renault go 2010-style yellow & black…
In terms of the shape of the cars, I like the STR (and I’ve always been a fan of Key’s cars so I’m not surprised), the Renault, and the McLaren. The STR ‘pods look awesome. And I agree with everyone in saying the RBR livery looks great – so much better than last year.
However – there are some very ugly cars out there too. Ferrari – how can you screw up a livery that badly? HAAS – you have a wonderful opportunity to bring some colour back, and what do you do? Silver, black and red – really? I’ll reserve my judgement on the Sauber livery as they may change it on their 2016 car, however if there is one livery that above all others accentuated the dong noses, that was it (as someone else said it’s the mankini look)
To me though the cars are all starting to look like stretched 2008 cars without the extra flappy bits – low noses, most with an anteater profile, high & flat monocoques in front of the cockpit.
Bring on day 2!