F1 - 2017

Their lawn mowers are good though. I won't hear a word said against.

Cornering seems to be a bit of an issue though. Here is the prototype. Check the livery! 

Ah! Now it becomes clear....

Tony2011 posted:

Cornering seems to be a bit of an issue though. Here is the prototype. Check the livery! 

They have entered a team at the next meeting of the North Somerset Lawn Mower Racing Club according to the team principal this is due to the poor pre season testing he's hoping this will stop the grass growing under their feet.

Is this what they get up to on gardening leave? 

Quote of the day award goes to Fernando Alonso: "We have only one problem: the power unit.  no reliability & no power."

Well thats it,  testings all finished:    Raikkonen ends with fastest lap at 1:18.634  & I suspect Ferrari will take that as the cherry on their pre-season cake, they seem to have a genuinely fast & competitive car this year. Verstappen, Sainz, Bottas, Hamilton & Hulkenberg all posted times in the 1:19's today.      Mercedes appear to the most reliable over the whole 2 weeks, more laps & least problems of all.    The rest (including Ferrari) have all had up & downs but the other cherry on the cake has to be taken by Red Bull who have come from a poor 1st week with Verstappen posting 2nd fastest lap.   McLaren have had a nightmare 2 weeks, less said the better, but Alonso clocked his & the teams fastest lap 1:21.389 late this afternoon.    

Melbourne 26 March

It looks like I'll have another disappointing year as a Mclaren fan. Fingers crossed they do a deal with Merc and get a heart transplant next year! 

I refer to my post above at the start of the week!

Apart from the final quick lap from a Merc but there is a story behind that...

Oh and RiP John Surtees. Charming bloke. Very humble.

And I thought he'd go on for ever.

JamieWednesday posted:

Oh and RiP John Surtees. Charming bloke. Very humble.

And I thought he'd go on for ever.

Indeed. I remember reading 'Speed' in my early teens - real boys own stuff!

G

Mike-B posted:

Well thats it,  testings all finished:    Raikkonen ends with fastest lap at 1:18.634  & I suspect Ferrari will take that as the cherry on their pre-season cake, they seem to have a genuinely fast & competitive car this year. Verstappen, Sainz, Bottas, Hamilton & Hulkenberg all posted times in the 1:19's today.      Mercedes appear to the most reliable over the whole 2 weeks, more laps & least problems of all.    The rest (including Ferrari) have all had up & downs but the other cherry on the cake has to be taken by Red Bull who have come from a poor 1st week with Verstappen posting 2nd fastest lap.   McLaren have had a nightmare 2 weeks, less said the better, but Alonso clocked his & the teams fastest lap 1:21.389 late this afternoon.    

Melbourne 26 March

I think the data might show Mercedes about 0.5 sec ahead, once all the fuel load and tyre data are taken into account. I hope not, but it's not looking great for everyone else.

Yes indeed.  sad passing of John Surtees.   I never met him personally but I did get the impression I knew him from the time I spent around the bike & car racing world,  everyone spoke well of him.   I was also semi-attached to an engine shop during my student/apprentice years where I worked with an engine genius who was John's 'apprentice mentor' at HRD Vincent. 

Tony Lockhart posted:

I think the data might show Mercedes about 0.5 sec ahead, once all the fuel load and tyre data are taken into account. I hope not, but it's not looking great for everyone else.

Yeh but  !!!   I was not going to get into that,  I'm sure Mercedes have taken more away from testing than most.   I was half expecting them to go for a banzai lap,  but not doing so raises more questions & doubts - sandbagging, maybe, or not (maybe) ???

Merc were travelling with heavier fuel loads for much of the time. They figure there's going to be fewer tyre stops and wanted to check out wear rates while running heavier. Allegedly.

I did notice right at the start of testing when Adrian Newey was say about the amount of aero and power that are needed to get the same decrease in lap time. I suspect that the differential is still there, as much as AN has improved the Red Bull, Mercedes have maintained their power advantage too.

Also remember Ferrari were top of the pops at last years pre seasons. and how many GPs did they win in'16?

Re: McLaren, so sad to see again, it looks like the cars a dog as well as the engine, certainly a step backwards on both. Some say the engine just cannot push the car enough to make the chassis work at the moment, well time will tell. A shame because it is extremely embarrassing. 

So with that thought in mind a Mercedes engine might not do them much good, lets face other Merc powered cars aren't exactly challenging the main team are they?

I've seen McLaren winning GPs with Mercedes engines. Not recently obviously, since they've been lumbered with that POS from Honda.

It seems the same question is perennially in everyone's mind. How can Honda keep getting it  so wrong?

They're a high tech, well funded firm with huge resources and no shortage of experience in motor sport. This is their third year in the return to F1, with a year in development before that.

They came in later to new era than other manufacturers so had opportunity to learn from the competition, yet not only have they failed to improve over the last three years it's an absolute shambles and beyond comedy. They've  pretty much ruined McLaren's own standing, so much so that the only decent money they can now rely on is Honda themselves, a remarkable instance of a Catch 22.

Drivers ambitions are suffering (tho' if I was being paid £30M a year not to win races I would be quite diplomatic about it), but I fear this could be the end of McLaren as a racing team too, so people's careers and livelihoods are at stake which again is no joke.

In the end, the big question remains. How can Honda keep getting it so badly wrong?

Sadly I have to agree. It pains me to say I think will take a massive turn around to save McLaren as an F1 team. How Honda with all of it's technical know how can keep f*cking up beats me.

I wonder what promises were made by Honda?

McLaren have done a Williams. The difference being that they also threw their rudder overboard in the process. Let's hope they don't do the full Toyota. I have no doubt that Honda will do the full Honda.

BigH47 posted:

Sadly I have to agree. It pains me to say I think will take a massive turn around to save McLaren as an F1 team. How Honda with all of it's technical know how can keep f*cking up beats me.

All Honda can hope is to sell their engine development to the management ... it was only at that point "Honda" won anything in F1 :-)

Well, well... can't wait to see the overalls.

I think someone's over compensating 

Tony2011 posted:

Looks better from this angle...