Is Ted turning into one of those crazy old ladys that randomly stops and chats to you down the street. Showing you random things they have bought in their grocery bag and asking daft questions.
Hard to read Mercedes at the moment- I certainly don’t think they’ve upped the ante yet but I also don’t know if anyone else has. Red Bull look comfortable out there and competitive without pushing, McLaren look decent, Alpha Tauri look decent. Ferrari haven’t been particularly eye catching again have they. Are we expecting Sunday evening to be the time where they ramp up the pace and take out the fuel?
The question “Mercedes: sandbagging or a bit in trouble?” is a perennial one. They do look particularly at sea this time though.
Interesting that Karun Chandhok is saying that it looks from spy shots as though McLaren have an interesting trick diffuser going on that seems to be giving them a lot more rear downforce than anyone else. Could this be this season’s big loophole?
Well it’s been noted as innovative although of course you will see in Quali in Bahrain whether it’s that much of a boost- I hope so but I think Red Bull and Merc are sitting quite pretty at the moment. As the tracks cooled down to something more akin to race conditions Bottas has looked much more solid and Red Bull look very content on their programme and less twitchy than last year. Tomorrow evening in Bahrain might give us more clues for representative times and running?
So what's the deal then? Anything you guys have been able to glean from testing so far? I've not been able to keep up much.
To be honest SgtBhaji I think conditions are so unrepresenrativen in the heat and dusty afternoons it’s hard to say. it doesn’t look to the naked eye like anyone has truly turned up the wick yet. With just three days available I think a lot of teams are focussing on data gathering and reliability more than anything and you’ll see a much more interesting FP1 & 2 in a couple of weeks
Merc seem to be a little unstable at the rear, so maybe that is where they spent their tokens? Maybe they just need to optimise setup to get best out or new rear? McLaren seem to be doing well and some reports of a hidden trick on rear diffuser? Alpha Tauri seem to be doing very well. So maybe that bodes well for Red Bull? So difficult to tell anything without fuel data let alone PU settings. Seemed a good day reliability wise and a fair few laps going round. Hopefully get a better idea tomorrow afternoon but still may be sand bagging going on.... Oh well only 2 weeks to go plus 1 week for Netflix Drive to Survive.
I'm encouraged by McLaren. The car looks dependable and drivable if nothing else, as does the Alpha Tauri. There are suggestions that the Red Bull has been tamed a bit at the back too. As for representative lap times, no.
The headline times are all but meaningless, one thing that caught my eye was Bottas on the C5's (super softs?) - A tyre far too soft for this track. He was able to go purple in the final sector where the tyre should have been dead. Kind of shows how easy they're all taking it, or how easy the Mercedes is taking it in reality. Red Bull looks fast and stable, McLaren seem to have lost nothing and actually gained from the move the Mercedes power. Ferrari who many are hoping return to the top 3 however do not look great still, probably going to be battling for the P5-P8 range.
Cheers all. Would be good to have Macca closer to the sharp end again. Would be good to have a few of them up there. Watch us get some kind of parity this year right before the reg changes! I do want Hamilton to get #8 before he decides to call it a day, but hopefully winning it at the last race.