Vettel quickest as Ferrari and Mercedes rack up miles

39 comments on “Vettel quickest as Ferrari and Mercedes rack up miles”

1. 

   Vettel fan 17 (@)
   6th March 2018, 17:18

   Looks like McLaren should have kept Honda…
   1. 

      harold wilson (@bonbonjai)
      6th March 2018, 17:25

      Vettel fan 17
      I would not go that far, but I hope to be proved wrong here. I think they are in trouble. Literally all their runs they have done has been on the soft or super soft tyres? Why? Still, Torro rosso & Honda have not exactly ended the day any better, as they have not been on track for hours, and according to auto sport journalist there their car is in pieces.
      1. 

         StefMeister (@stefmeister)
         6th March 2018, 17:56

         @bonbonjai STR’s problem today was with the brakes according to Autosport.
      2. 

         SJordsn
         6th March 2018, 18:02

         According to Toro Rosso’s twitter it was a brake problem so not Honda related.
   2. 

      sumedh
      6th March 2018, 17:51

      Mclaren would not have fared any better with Honda. If you have seen the Grand Prix driver documentary, you can see the depth of relationship between Honda and Mclaren was virtually nil. They both operated very independently (no drawings being shared, virtually no Honda presence at the Mclaren factory). And if this was the situation in year 3, God knows how it was in the previous years. Mclaren was effectively only a customer of the Honda engine and not really a works team partner. And if you have to be a customer, might as well be one of Renault than of Honda. Toro Rosso is truly the first works team of Honda, I believe.
      1. 

         sethje (@seth-space)
         6th March 2018, 18:53

         That must have been a customer with a lot of wishes and design demands then ;)
         One of the problems was the size zero concept McL demanded form Honda.
         1. 

            SM
            6th March 2018, 19:02

            Yet all Honda had to do was say ‘no sorry we can’t do that’ but they ended up saying ‘yeah no problem we’ll be matching merc in no time’.

            The rest is history
         2. 

            socksolid (@socksolid)
            7th March 2018, 1:02

            Just because ron dennis mentioned size zero couple of times in interviews doesn’t mean that was the issue. The only issue was that the honda engine was useless in every way.
         3. 

            Todfod (@todfod)
            7th March 2018, 5:44

            That’s true. McLaren were getting Honda to push the limits, and Honda failed miserably. Toro Rosso openly admitted last week that they are not putting any limitations on Honda regarding design or packaging. They’ll accept whatever Honda delivers to them. So far, it seems to be working out (at least reliability-wise) for Toro Rosso. Let’s wait till the season starts and see the performance of the Honda engine and the Toro Rosso chassis, before making any conclusions.
            1. 

               Sviat
               7th March 2018, 8:09

               @todfod – at least, we shouldn’t expect anything good from McLaren in the first several races. Only two weeks left until Australian GP, they won’t fix all the packaging issues they have now. PS: Yesterday, I read an interesting comment, “McLaren wasn’t a works team with Honda but rather a client team. They didn’t work as a whole”. That’s quite true, and it seems that Toro Rosso made correct decisions.
      2. 

         MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
         6th March 2018, 22:32

         Mclaren would not have fared any better with Honda

         That is the point right there. It is mclaren who Keep Screwing up for a solid 25 years. Doesn’t Really matter what engine is delivered to the MTC, they will manage to deliver some slow and/or unreliable dog of a car.
         1. 

            3304HL
            6th March 2018, 23:47

            If reports are accurate McLaren are having overheating problems and not just from the turbo/exhaust.
            Give the recent cold weather in Barca (including snow!) it’s hard to believe their simulations could be so far off the mark. Imagine what the temps in OZ will be like…
   3. 

      mrvco
      6th March 2018, 20:20

      It seems there was a reason that Mercedes didn’t want to supply McLaren with power units… and apparently it wasn’t because they considered Mercedes-powered McLarens a competitive threat. I sure hope McLaren can get their act together this season.
      1. 

         Todfod (@todfod)
         7th March 2018, 7:15

         It was probably because in 2014, McLaren openly stated that Mercedes weren’t giving customers the same hardware, software or substantial support. They probably didn’t want a repeat of any accusations from McLaren. Also guessing that McLaren are a more demanding customer than both Force India and Williams, so it would take more effort on the part of Mercedes to supply them.
      2. 

         socksolid (@socksolid)
         7th March 2018, 18:21

         Of course they viewed mclaren as threat. Mclaren is one of the bigger teams in f1 and given a good engine they can beat mercedes as much as ferrari or redbull can with good engine.
2. 

   stefano (@alfa145)
   6th March 2018, 17:20

   Anyone knows, jokes aside, why is Stroll so down in laptime?
   1. 

      nase
      6th March 2018, 17:31

      I’d simply blame it on an absence of short, (relatively) low-fuel runs. 1:21.9 is still 1.6 seconds faster than last year’s fastest lap in the race. If we take the resurfacing of the track into consideration, that’s a lap time that would be perfectly consistent with a race simulation.
      1. 

         anon
         6th March 2018, 18:24

         nase, sounds about right then – quite a few teams were reportedly running longer stints today to make up for the lack of running in the last test, so it would make sense if Williams were doing just that.
   2. 

      Kie
      6th March 2018, 17:34

      He was on Hard tyres apparently…
      1. 

         build
         7th March 2018, 7:05

         Lance Stroll used only Soft and Hypersoft tyres during the first day of the second test on Tuesday 06/03/18.
3. 

   AliceD (@aliced)
   6th March 2018, 17:27

   Looks like 2018 is going to be exactly like 2017. Mercedes and Ferrari close, but Mercedes just that tiny bit faster. Red bull with no chance, but just fast enough to spoil about a third of the possible Ferrari vs Mercedes fights.
   1. 

      Markp
      6th March 2018, 18:27

      Testing shows none of this. So far based just on 2018 testing nothing is clear. You may well be right but thats based purley on previous years results.
   2. 

      Ian Bond (@ianbond001)
      6th March 2018, 18:45

      I think we need to wait until they finish running at this track (i.e. May 13th) before trying to make such predictions.
4. 

   TEDBELL
   6th March 2018, 18:00

   Ferrari will melt seeking that extra bit needed to stop Mercedes. Its obvious. Vettle is the new Alonso at Ferrari. As for RedBull old AliceD. pretty much rang the bell of truth. They will be playas but a win will only come from the misfortune of others.
   1. 

      nase
      6th March 2018, 22:23

      I just have to ask: Is there a nest somewhere around here?
5. 

   iCarbs (@icarby)
   6th March 2018, 19:03

   Mercedes comparing both their cars with technical analysis being done by their technical director James Allison.
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfBOxwSNg6s

   That’s confidence for you…

   Lets hope the get good run for their money this year.
6. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   6th March 2018, 19:08

   Just beat the damn 1:18.339 already!
7. 

   Jason
   6th March 2018, 20:35

   F1 Twitter account posted the speed trap of today testing. Not sure if this means anything, but Honda powered Toro Rosso is in third place (323.3 kph).

   Link:
   1. 

      NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
      6th March 2018, 21:08

      Geez. Honda – STR third in speed traps…

      McRenault in the pits with cooling issues… At 9 degrees C… What is going on with McLaren, does not seem like they will bw reliable or competitive.
8. 

   Virolet
   6th March 2018, 21:03

   Have a feeling that Toro Rosso-Honda will be fighting for 5th place this year.
9. 

   MG1982 (@mg1982)
   6th March 2018, 21:04

   The times are still completely irrelevant at the moment. Only when they’ll start lapping around 1:18:5 or lower, the order will start to become somehow relevant regarding car capabilities.
   1. 

      MG1982 (@mg1982)
      6th March 2018, 21:10

      BTW, this time is 1.2sec faster than what Ferrari achieved last year with the Mediums, yet still 1.1sec slower than their best time with Softs. So, overall, so far things look quite the same at the top.
10. 

    Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
    6th March 2018, 23:30

    I haven’t really been paying attention to testing too much. Is HAAS really as fast as they seem, or is it just a product of testing circumstances?
11. 

    chris
    6th March 2018, 23:45

    The Mclaren have some burn marks in the engine cover, you have to wonder if Mclaren is really taking it very risky in its cooling design? And does Mclaren designed the aero and chassis too tight for Honda last 3 years that restrict both the design and cooling of the engine and they are still doing the same to Renault.

    The burn marks is right on top of the supposed location of the Turbo, or maybe the intercooler. I’m not sure but they tried to play it down as “Minor”, but to put holes as a stop gap can’t be described as minor. In perspective, they have the smallest air intake by far, unlike the others that have a large intake that has 3 visible entry, Mclaren clearly show only one opening maybe just for the airbox/intercooler.
12. 

    JC
    7th March 2018, 0:56

    Merc are fastest, Ferrari second, RBR a very close third.

    Then there’s Force India, Haas, Mclaren, Williams.

    Then STR, Renault, Sauber.

    It’s testing folks. The order hasn’t changed much. Just wait til the faster teams turn things up. That Honda is practically 2017 spec power-wise, don’t think there’s suddenly going to be a miracle. Sauber will spend half the season figuring out how to get the best from their car. Mclaren are just having awkward little niggles. There’s no major drama outside the usual testing of a rapidly changing prototype chassis.

    Mercedes are already working on recovering from sensor failures in race sims. That’s how comfortable they’re feeling.
    1. 

       Phylyp (@phylyp)
       7th March 2018, 2:52

       Mercedes are already working on recovering from sensor failures in race sims.

       That would almost demoralize the other teams! :-)

       That Honda is practically 2017 spec power-wise, don’t think there’s suddenly going to be a miracle.

       No, but if Honda have solved reliability, that in itself will be a good step forward for Toro Rosso, particularly given how their 2017 season ended.
    2. 

       Todfod (@todfod)
       7th March 2018, 5:47

       I’d replace Renault with Haas. Then you’ve probably got it right.
    3. 

       build
       7th March 2018, 7:45

       @JC; I’m curious how you came up with that assessment? Did you look at longer runs? Looking at all the long runs from Tues 6th, Ferrari are clearly fastest, Merc and RedBull are struggling with tyre deg and Renault are best of the rest. regards, build.
       1. 

          JC
          7th March 2018, 9:56

          It’s testing, using different tyres, at different times of the day, on different fuel loads. You can’t read into race sims in testing, especially on a newly resurfaced track. Everyone will have made a reasonable leap forward from last season. The above is pretty much that.

          I do think a Ferrari or Red Bull will win in Australia though, simply due to the circuit characteristics. Or at least it’ll be closer than other circuits in the flyaway races.

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