New Grand Prix Season Is Almost Upon Us!!!

[Orm]

*censored*

[warspite1]

McLaren and Honda look to be in trouble.....[:(]

Mind you, they have done more laps than Red Bull and the Renault at the same point last season so......

[british exil]

The Barcelona test in numbers - who went fastest, and furthest 23 Feb 2015



Daniil Kvyat (RUS) Red Bull Racing RB11 at Formula One Testing, Day Four, Barcelona, Spain, 22 February 2015 Romain Grosjean (FRA) Lotus E23 Hybrid at Formula One Testing, Day Four, Barcelona, Spain, 22 February 2015 Valtteri Bottas (FIN) Williams FW37 at Formula One Testing, Day Four, Barcelona, Spain, 22 February 2015 Sebastian Vettel (GER) Ferrari SF15-T at Formula One Testing, Day Four, Barcelona, Spain, 22 February 2015 Carlos Sainz jr (ESP) Scuderia Toro Rosso STR10 at Formula One Testing, Day Two, Barcelona, Spain, 20 February 2015 Jenson Button (GBR) McLaren MP4-30 at Formula One Testing, Day Three, Barcelona, Spain, 21 February 2015 www.sutton-images.com Marcus Ericsson (SWE) Sauber C34 at Formula One Testing, Day Four, Jerez, Spain, 4 February 2015 Pascal Wehrlein (GER) Mercedes AMG F1 W07 at Formula One Testing, Day One, Barcelona, Spain, 19 February 2015

With four days of running at Jerez already under their belts, the teams were able to change focus slightly and begin discovering the true potential of their 2015 machines over the four-day pre-season test at Barcelona.

But which teams have made a jump forward, and which are at risk of dropping down the order? We crunch the numbers to shed some light on whose preparations appear to be coming on the strongest for the forthcoming season...

This week's unofficial aggregate test times from Barcelona:
1. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1m 24.067s, 111 laps
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 24.321s, 197 laps
3. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 24.348s, 173 laps
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 24.574s, 202 laps
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 24.584s, 164 laps
6. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 24.672s, 143 laps
7. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1m 24.702s, 155 laps
8. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1m 24.739s, 223 laps
9. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m 24.923s, 201 laps
10. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1m 24.941s, 216 laps
11. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1m 24.956s, 152 laps
12. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1m 25.345s, 178 laps
13. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1m 25.604s, 188 laps
14. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1m 25.961s, 79 laps
15. Jolyon Palmer, Lotus, 1m 26.280s, 77 laps
16. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1m 26.312s, 181 laps
17. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1m 26.340s, 166 laps
18. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1m 26.591s, 36 laps
19. Pascal Wehrlein, Force India, 1m 27.333s, 113 laps
20. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m 28.182s, 45 laps
21. Pascal Wehrlein, Mercedes, 1m 28.489s, 48 laps
22. Susie Wolff, Williams, 1m 28.906s, 86 laps

Total distance run - by team (power unit, where different):
1. Mercedes, 446 laps - 2,076 km
2. Red Bull (Renault), 418 laps - 1,945 km
3. Toro Rosso (Renault), 411 laps - 1,913 km
4. Williams (Mercedes), 407 laps - 1,894 km
5. Lotus (Mercedes), 361 laps - 1,680 km
6. Ferrari, 345 laps - 1, 605 km
7. Sauber (Ferrari), 318 laps - 1,480 km
8. Force India (Mercedes), 304 laps - 1,415 km
9. McLaren (Honda), 124 laps - 577 km

Total distance run - by power unit:
1. Mercedes, 1,518 laps - 7,066 km
2. Renault, 829 laps - 3,858 km
3. Ferrari, 663 laps - 3,086 km
4. Honda, 124 laps - 577 km

Longest stints - by tyre compound:
Supersoft compound - 5 laps (Felipe Nasr; Sergio Perez; Pascal Wehrlein)
Soft compound - 16 laps (Valtteri Bottas)
Medium compound - 24 laps (Max Verstappen)
Prototype medium compound* - 14 laps (Daniel Ricciardo)
Hard compound - 27 laps (Valtteri Bottas)
Intermediate compound - 7 laps (Sebastian Vettel)

*Being assessed by Pirelli for development purposes

Second test comparison - Year on Year*
2014 (Bahrain) - 2,322 laps (12,566 km) completed in four days
2015 (Barcelona) - 3,134 laps (14,587 km) completed in four days
That's a 16 percent increase

2014 fastest lap in qualifying at Barcelona - 1m 25.232s (Lewis Hamilton)
2015 fastest lap in testing at Barcelona - 1m 24.067s (Romain Grosjean)
That's 1.4 percent faster


Information taken from F1 official page.

Mat

[Gilmer]

Let's go!!! F1 2015!!!!

[warspite1]

Indeed! I wonder if Mr Alonso will be in Australia?

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Indeed! I wonder if Mr Alonso will be in Australia?

warspite1

....and now we have our answer, and its no! Big blow for McLaren, probably a big sigh of relief for Alonso - I mean who wants to travel all that way just to break down after a couple of laps? [:D]

[warspite1]

Further to the above - sounds like quite a knock he took. When Alonso came round he thought he was 13 and in a Go-Kart [X(].....

[TulliusDetritus]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Further to the above - sounds like quite a knock he took. When Alonso came round he thought he was 13 and in a Go-Kart [X(].....

Looks like I missed my chance then [:(] I should have paid him a visit and said "hey kid, do you really want to be a F1 driver? Here's the [unfair] contract, now sign it RIGHT NOW and make your dream come true".

[warspite1]

So then - what are your predictions for 2016?

I'll kick-off. 1 point per correct answer. Sadly, because I am superstitious I cannot put Lewis as champion [:(]

World Champion - Nico Rosberg
2nd Place - Lewis Hamilton
3rd Place - Sebastian Vettel
World Champion Constructor - Mercedes
Most Wins - Nico Rosberg
Most Poles - Lewis Hamilton
Worst team (determined by position in final official table) - Manor

Edit: Decided it would be more annoying if Vettel finished 3rd so replaced Bottas with the German.

[Gilmer]

Good picks.

I have a feeling Vettel is down around 5 or 6, though. Daniel Ricciardo or someone else in 3rd?

[Jagdtiger14]

Warspite, I think you nailed it.

I'm a big Mercedes fan, rooted for McLaren when they were a Mercedes engine client, now that Mercedes has their own team again...Go Mercedes!!!

I'm not a big fan of Lewis though...don't like his hood wannabe style (straight billed cap, etc...). I've always liked Nico...rooting for him to win it this time.

[british exil]

I read my Formula1 reports regularly, during the race season almost daily.

The official page. Formula1.com was the place to get official reports, interviews, results etc. Everything a fan needed to have to enjoy the racing.

As the prices of tickets are so high, for a normal working class person with a family, it is very hard to attend a weekend at any of the circuits. Not to mention hotel, travel expenses etc.

Now if I want to read the official page, I have to pay a monthly fee!!

I already subscribe to Sky to get a nice coverage of the races.

How long does the Formula1 want to survive? Teams not being able to afford to race, fans not able to attend.

Looks like the Formula1 may have to change it's name to Rich Country Racing. Dubai, Singapore, Russia.



Mat

[warspite1]

Yes agreed, there does seem to be an element of killing the goose that laid the golden egg here [:(]

[warspite1]

Bit of a faux pas at Sauber then; three drivers... two cars... whoops!

[Gilmer]

To British Exil: This seems to be the way of all sports. Go to making you pay for everything. It started, seemingly, to me, with pay per view for regular boxing, then it has moved to other sports with buying "packages" to watch your favorite teams, and also they started having blackouts locally if they didn't sell out a sporting event.

I think recently here the courts ruled that blackouts were not legal. But, even so, I see sports more and more priced out of the range of the regular guy.

I have a bad feeling that everyone will have to pay for any sport on TV at some point. And it won't be cheap.

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Bit of a faux pas at Sauber then; three drivers... two cars... whoops!

Whoops indeed. [:)]

[warspite1]

Lewis!!!!

[AndyG1]

What a sad weekend for F1 so far.

Sauber in the courts with a fight over 3 PAY drivers!

Manor Marussia made it to the circuit but never turned a lap.

Limited testing (brought in a few years back because of costs - make me laugh, let's change the engine format - bet that was cheap as) has shown it's worth, McLaren at the back of the grid with a new engine partner who is a year behind the game. Make that 18 starters - 9 teams - maybe 16 racing - McLaren = test session. Hello F1, this isn't competition!

And talking of TV rights, here in Aus we were due a year of live races on free to air.....then in February, woah! Subscribe for all, free to air has 10 races (wait for it, there's at least 3 of those chosen that will be live at like 3am in the morning!!), those not live will have an hour highlights programme the next evening.

And Bernie wonders why the TV audiences are dropping? First started watching F1 on the TV back in UK in 1976....nearly 40 years on and it's in a right old mess at the moment.

Let's hope that Ferrari, Williams, Toro Rosso and maybe Red Bull can have a good race between each other......because watching Mercedes saunter off into the distance again is going to be hard to take!

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: AndyG1

What a sad weekend for F1 so far.

Sauber in the courts with a fight over 3 PAY drivers!

Manor Marussia made it to the circuit but never turned a lap.

Limited testing (brought in a few years back because of costs - make me laugh, let's change the engine format - bet that was cheap as) has shown it's worth, McLaren at the back of the grid with a new engine partner who is a year behind the game. Make that 18 starters - 9 teams - maybe 16 racing - McLaren = test session. Hello F1, this isn't competition!

And talking of TV rights, here in Aus we were due a year of live races on free to air.....then in February, woah! Subscribe for all, free to air has 10 races (wait for it, there's at least 3 of those chosen that will be live at like 3am in the morning!!), those not live will have an hour highlights programme the next evening.

And Bernie wonders why the TV audiences are dropping? First started watching F1 on the TV back in UK in 1976....nearly 40 years on and it's in a right old mess at the moment.

Let's hope that Ferrari, Williams, Toro Rosso and maybe Red Bull can have a good race between each other......because watching Mercedes saunter off into the distance again is going to be hard to take!

warspite1

Agree with the majority of your post. Bernie really needs to get a grip here [&:].

Sounds like Oz has a similar deal to the BBC in terms of showing free to air only a limited number of races [:(].

The only thing I disagree with is the Mercedes sauntering off into the distance comment.

F1 has had plenty of years of one team domination - but where its one team, then a season can still be exciting as there should be two drivers battling it out. The Rosberg / Hamilton battle last year was never dull - Senna / Prost the same. Why? Because the teams at least allowed their drivers to race. I switched off watching Formula 1 during the Schumacher Ferrari years and the last couple of Vettel years because there was no competition - now that is DULL [>:][>:].

Mind you - there is a bit of double standards here [;)]. Nigel Mansell in 1992 was NOT dull... it was brilliant!! [&o][&o]

[AndyG1]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: AndyG1

What a sad weekend for F1 so far.

Sauber in the courts with a fight over 3 PAY drivers!

Manor Marussia made it to the circuit but never turned a lap.

Limited testing (brought in a few years back because of costs - make me laugh, let's change the engine format - bet that was cheap as) has shown it's worth, McLaren at the back of the grid with a new engine partner who is a year behind the game. Make that 18 starters - 9 teams - maybe 16 racing - McLaren = test session. Hello F1, this isn't competition!

And talking of TV rights, here in Aus we were due a year of live races on free to air.....then in February, woah! Subscribe for all, free to air has 10 races (wait for it, there's at least 3 of those chosen that will be live at like 3am in the morning!!), those not live will have an hour highlights programme the next evening.

And Bernie wonders why the TV audiences are dropping? First started watching F1 on the TV back in UK in 1976....nearly 40 years on and it's in a right old mess at the moment.

Let's hope that Ferrari, Williams, Toro Rosso and maybe Red Bull can have a good race between each other......because watching Mercedes saunter off into the distance again is going to be hard to take!

warspite1

The only thing I disagree with is the Mercedes sauntering off into the distance comment.

F1 has had plenty of years of one team domination - but where its one team, then a season can still be exciting as there should be two drivers battling it out. The Rosberg / Hamilton battle last year was never dull - Senna / Prost the same. Why? Because the teams at least allowed their drivers to race. I switched off watching Formula 1 during the Schumacher Ferrari years and the last couple of Vettel years because there was no competition - now that is DULL [>:][>:].

Mind you - there is a bit of double standards here [;)]. Nigel Mansell in 1992 was NOT dull... it was brilliant!! [&o][&o]

True, I wrote in a moment of frustration having seen my McLaren team decimated - LOL!

I am looking forward to the Williams Ferrari tussle at this race. Kimi right with Vettel is nice to see. Hopefully Ricciardo can hang with them too. Really excited by Sainz and Verstappen in the Torro Rosso. It's not all doom and gloom:).

PS - I prefer the Bismarck over Warspite an day..........LOL:)