This is the 5th year of the "hybrid era", there's no excuse any more for Renault not to have basic reliability dialled down now. If Mercedes and Ferrari can do it, then Renault (who were the biggest supporters of smaller capacity, electronically assisted engines) should too. Honda could be forgiven for a number of reasons (late to party, only 1 team to develop parts with, that team being particularly demanding), Renault not so.
During last year Renaults ERS unit was that unreliable they reverted to the 2016 spec which from what I understand is still in use, so its quite a primitive unit an likely runs hot which was a common issue back then.
I wouldn't totally give Honda that. It was thought Honda where being clever by skipping the first year and having essentially a year of unrestricted development to watch and learn from other manufactures and top it off with knowledge from McLaren working with the Merc engine that season. Honda arrived almost as far behind year one engines, apparently having done no prep for the era. Add to that the sudden realisation that test bench does not equal track data was a monumental face palm and simply should of been caught earlier. I do agree that over all McLaren did shoot a wounded Honda in the head by restricting supply and being overly demanding with a size zero car. EDIT: Gary Anderson quote about Riccardo's lap time
Nearly everyone showing a jump in performance this morning, no dramas or breakdowns, either! Looking like the whole field is bunching up too, which is the best thing for a racing fan. I still expect it to be a Merc/Ferrari/occasional RBR show on a Saturday, but hoping for much tighter Sunday's this season.
Incoming Quote Dump From Gary Anderson Not going to be the actual pecking order but certainly will ball park. Personally Williams seems a high to me. Renault as well but I would say they're sitting in FI's spot of best of the rest from last year. Personally I would of said McLaren was just ahead of Renault's level but after yesterday and the articles I'm reading I donno where to place them. I also would place Torro Rosso slightly higher but the consistency has to be noted here. A few posts from Edd Straw amusing Quote from Stuart Codling
I find the comments from Ed Straw on Autosport Live the most "telling" of anything we've seen in testing. Notably today: Merc keeping the profile very low, and just lapping.
I think Renault have been very smart with their approach to returning to the front of the grid - no outlandish gimmicks to try and leap-frog the mid-field, no scattergun approach to new parts. Just get a reliable base and build from it, slowly but surely. Only hiccup was taking on Palmer... They definitely won't be troubling the "top 3" this year, but I reckon they'll settle into a very comfortable 4th. As for Gary Anderson, I gave up paying attention to anything he says ages ago - not that I don't like the guy, but I can't say I have ever found his predictions or analysis to be particularly accurate. Craig Scarborough is my go-to for technical round ups during testing!
So it wasn't Honda, or even McLaren... It was Fernando himself. Stoff did what,150+ laps yesterday? Alonso doesn't even see double figures before the car ejects it's oil all over turn 7!
Somebody in France must have worked with him in 2006, everyone at Mclaren remembers 2007... Having said that, this afternoon he put in a time almost four seconds faster than the fastest lap a McHonda ever did of Catalunya, so the previous years of Honda engine were just as bad as everyone thought. When it's working that McRenault is fast, not Mercedes fast, but Renault and Red Bull will be looking over their shoulders. http://www.planetf1.com/news/kubica-gave-up-track-time-for-stroll/ HE'S GOING TOO FAST HE'S GOING TOO FAST GOD MAKE HIM STOP!
Tyre manufacture said there is 2.5 seconds dif between the medium and hypersofts If merc in race trim can do 1.19.5s they gain about 4 seconds on that in quali Good luck rest
Merc didn't do a low fuel run the entire 2 weeks of testing. We all know they have an extra mode during qualifying from last year. In those conditions the Medium was the tyre to be on. As the week progressed the Soft became useful. Teams couldn't get enough heat into the tyres to get use out of them. Also mentioned in earlier posts the cars setup also determined how useful each tyre was. If the car was already under steering soft tyres aren't gonna help Hard, Medium, Soft and SuperSoft tires this year are a step softer. So Mediums this year were last years softs. Guide
I don't think so. Only 1 race actually had it as an option (spain from memory) and conditions meant it wasn't any use anyway. This years hard was last years medium and it was limited use. Choosing 3 non consecutive tyres will hopefully help here depending on circuit so they can bring the harder compounds along with more softer tyres.
Well it does still seem like they were using a smoke machine to mask it a little in testing. In other news: Ferrari has a few extra holes As was already considered here and elsewhere, STR is pretty open about discussing deliberate engine penalties
I've not read the rules admittedly but is there anything to stop the teams writing off the first race in Australia by taking multiple engine penalties to prevent them from taking any later in the season? Is it possible to go into the second race of the season with 5 engines to choose from for example?
Its a good question but Aus is typically a race anything can happen and all teams like to give it all. I can see it being more likely to wait for a bad qualifying session, a race they know they have no hope or a race they can reclaim the lost places.
Aus wouldn't surprise me if they did do that, only issue would be on that if the engine supplier uses some tokens to bring an update I think they would still need to use the older PU as the Honda PU is expected to be down on power compared to the rest of the field.
