Motors Bit-Tech F1 2017 thread - Season Complete

Strolldonado's dad must have some deep pockets because thanks to him, Williams might as well have not bothered turning up to the first test.

 

If he's that bad I can see Alex Lynn appearing in practice sessions early season and in all sessions late season. Whatever his relative merit, dude can at least get a car round the track in one piece.

 

Re: Merc not running in the AM - If they knew that the afternoon would be wet again, and they were done with the testing programme, I can see how they'd use that time to fix "electrical problems" (look at the wiring harnesses or whatever).
Rumours (i.e. PlanetF1) also suggest that Merc were running detuned the whole time, which would surprise absolutely nobody.

 

I wouldn't run detuned at these tests. The value of sandbagging is reduced with fewer PUs across the season. I would want to break as many in testing to avoid reliability issues in-season.

What good is it to test your car for a bazillion miles with the engine turned down if it's going to break the moment you crank it up to race trim?

 

For the first test to ensure the aero package, basic running procedure etc is working fine and get early output from telemetry. No point blowing Something and spending 90% of testing time fixing things.
Lance must of learnt a lot on his "Stroll" back to the pits.

 

Basically this.

Also quite notable to me (in my probably stupid interpretation of things) was that, in spite of Merc's long runs, with engines that have been redesigned, are heavier and eat more fuel (due to more time at full throttle), They didn't do a "run fuel to nothing" run (Ferrari did seem to do that).
This means they had fuel to spare in their car at all times, or figured they could not get representative data from doing the test at the time (running heavy by using balast, maybe... or detuning an engine).

of course, it could just mean they correlated their model of fuel usage to their satisfaction and don't NEED to do that.

 

Makes perfect sense bent. They have been running detuned along with a couple other teams, confirming number from CFD tests etc. RBR are said to be bringing a lot of new aero toys next week.
Honda confirmed they have not ran the engine in its "final spec" what ever that means rumours are floating about that the turbo is still not making the right power nor is the ICU all means the ERS isn't charging so basically no actual improvement over the last two seasons.

Merc are doing the usual going round with 3/4 tanks getting the numbers in with a detuned engine, as have HAAS, Renault, TR etc.

Ive a feeling next week we will start seeing some more interesting components appear on the cars more quick car covering akin to rbrs wall of mechanics on the grid a few years back.

 

Not surprised by the Belaz 75710-sized sandbags from Merc, and to a lesser extent RBR, but I suspect Ferrari are still trying a bit harder to be at the top of the time sheets than they need to... But that's Ferrari, as much as they claim otherwise, they won't be changing any time soon.

Still not sure about the order below that - it seems Haas is getting on pretty well, and Renault seem to be fairly chipper about the first few days. But as of right now there doesn't seem to be much be separate them and Force India, Torro Rosso, Williams and Sauber - Apart from driver line-ups, of which none have 2 top-rate drivers imo.

Shame McLaren have probably the 2nd best overall driver pairing, but not a car to do them justice.

 

It's more likely they're running with the engine in race settings rather than it being de-tuned as such. I get the impression some teams (Ferrari) run testing with everything maxed out, then when they get to the season and an engine has to last four race weekends they have to turn everything down.

 

If Honda and Renault have redesigned the whole engine it isn't surprising they may be worried about reliability.
To get a real idea of the cars performance you almost need to analyse the Lines taken through the corners and at which point they deviate from that line.Was it pushing too hard or experimenting with the new tires. Did the driver remain on full throttle in a straight and when did he break latest.

Strolls accidents might have actually shown is the limit of Williams cars

 

You will not see a true qualy sim from Mercedes before the first race. Merc will run the engines full tilt in the factory and see what blows up.

Think the electrical wiring fault on thursday was just we are not running in this wet track.

Stroll was apperently on cold tyres, And lost control due to his according to Williams team. He was pushing hard as well at the time.

He has alot to learn in a short space of time.

 

Since Massa both went faster and didn't crash, I would call that an optimistic assessment.

 

Stroll will make mistakes, just as the other rookies will, what will make or break him is whether he can own up to them when they could have been avoided... That was Pastor's biggest problem (unless you count his eyebrows), it was always someone else's fault - even when he swiped across Hamilton in Spa quail after they both crossed the line, he still tried to play the "didn't know he was there" card.

 

F1 Fanatic's test roundup pointed out that Ferrari was one of the (many) teams that ran faster during winter testing than in quali at Catalunya.

Good read, that:
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2017/03/03/2017-test-one-best-driver-times-and-tyres-used/

 

When it comes to eyebrows, none shall match the fury of...




THE ESTEBAN




Honestly, you could lead an expedition to the poles armed with those things.

 

F1 viewer numbers dropped by 10m in 2016, 5.1 of that was the UK

...ouch.

source

 

I would love to see detailed analysis of a few of the figures.

1. Sky viewers over time
2. Freeview viewers over time

Are freeviewers missing races then trailing off completely or is even sky loosing viewers after so many races? How does retention compare to other eras? Do viewers watch on one source and move betwwen c4 and sky? Is it clearly Tilke tracks that people are avoiding?
While dull races are to be expected and "Hamilton's decline" may have turned people off (Made it more exciting tbh) I don't believe it should solely be attributed to viewer decline. Its a balance between quality and willingness to pay for that quality and simply put I'm among those not willing to pay for formula one regardless of quality. I simply cannot afford sky for one.



I know I have skipped watching some races due to waiting for highlights only to have something spoil the result. Once F1 goes behind a pay wall I will no longer bother with it.

 

Trouble is Sky don't really publish viewer numbers, only how many people are 'paying' for it, which includes people who have it bundles.

Given that Sky's deal is around $150million when their new Premiere League deal is in the region of $6.25 billion, I expect the answer is not many.