F1 Most liked posts in thread: 2016 - F1

Jonathan Noble has been writing a lot about this qualification system change. Best line so far:

He may be right there.

His suggestion, if there must be change, is run a qualifying race on Sat with the starting order reverse of driver championship standing, 22 laps and the last car on the track at the end of each lap is eliminated. Starting order for the race is then the reverse of the order of elimination.

To clarify, I do not want them to do this but I do think it would be fun to watch. Just imagine all the desperate pass attempts. Might make for greater attendance on Sat than Sun...

 

Yup, carnage, not what I want to see.

 

Day 3 numbers.

 

The Merc line on the chart above is slightly misleading. That is the fastest time for Merc today, and it was by Rosberg, but apparently Hamilton ran in the morning session and the two of them ran a total of over 150 laps.

 

Mark Hughes of motorsport.com on the proposed new qualifying system:

Full article (with both more detail and yet another race weekend proposal) here: Qualifying change could have been much worse

 

Also, just 51 laps. Their afternoon session was curtailed after a hydraulic leak and small fire.

 

Like others, but especially for such a new team, they're doing a lot more than just making the car go round and round. Though some of the team likely already had experience before the test started, hired away from other teams, etc, I imagine there's a LOT of getting used to one another to make the team gel and for many the whole thing is new. Even the logistics side of things, learning what goes best where in the garage, pit stop practice, etc, etc, etc. Puts that lap count in perspective when you think of how much more there is for a new team to learn and how many things are far from second nature at this point.

 

"I’m very happy with the car, very positive. I like driving it." is a good sign.

Romain Grosjean, Driver No. 8, Haas F1 Team: “The morning went without any problems. It was a really good morning. After lunch, we had a software glitch that cost us two small runs, but once we sorted that we were able to do some more mileage. The idea is to see how far the parts can go and which ones will be the first to go, so we did a good job in that aspect. We did the most laps so far in this test, so that’s good. Generally, I’m very happy with the car, very positive. I like driving it. The guys are doing a good job. We found some setup improvements, so that’s very positive for everyone.â€

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal, Haas F1 Team: “It was a very constructive day. We are pretty happy on what we achieved. We are getting laps together and, for sure, experienced some little problems, but that’s why we’re here. The team seems to be gelling and we’re working hard. There’s a very good atmosphere in the team and weâ€re making progress.â€

 

Speaking of unknown tire compounds, here's one fact that must seem ominous to all teams but one. Merc ordered only medium compound tires for this week. That's it, nothing softer. Every run is on mediums. That doesn't just explain their times in light of compound, it means they aren't even trying to push for quick lap times yet.

I read an article yesterday quoting both Hamilton and Rosberg saying, essentially, that they can't wait until the team lets them turn up the wick to see what happens when they go fast...