F1 2017 - F1

I really like this idea, but that may be because I'd be happy if ALL races were non-championship.

Brawn considers reviving non-championship F1 races to test new ideas (motorsports.nbcsports.com)

Seems like it would be tough to convince teams to play along given championship position is worth so much money. They'd need significant incentive like maybe increasing the purse and applying it to all finishing positions. Could deduct those winnings proportionally from the end of season pot and pay out right away.

I just like the idea of watching drivers racing for the sake of the race itself without regard to affect on their championship positions and team strategies based entirely on the end of the race rather than the end of the season.

 

I never thought of this but even diffusers get flow-viz testing.

 

Lots of laps today for Haas.

 

They wet down the track a couple times today for wet tire testing. Pirelli have decided their wet tires need fixing and plan to have improved versions ready by the second race of the season (China).

 

A bit of slo-mo for a better look at the Haas.

[ame]https://twitter.com/HaasF1Team/status/837335719433682945[/ame]

 

Haas' version of the final numbers, sorted by laps completed.

Williams didn't run today because Stoffel crashed once too often and they ran out of replacement parts.

Toro Rosso had a bad engine (think that's right) and only did one lap.

Merc had an electrical problem in the morning session so zero laps for Hamilton.

 

You can identify the McLaren by the sound of the Honda engine.

[ame]https://twitter.com/publogic/status/837325233547841536[/ame]

 

Cumulative chart from 4 days at Barcelona.



I'm a bit worried about McLaren. They put in more laps that Toro Rosso but not by a lot and that's with STR only counting one lap on the final day. And they seem to have lost ground. Oh well, it's just the first test and the Honda power unit is all new...maybe they just have room to improve?

Grosjean must be groaning about the unfortunate coincidence between his position on this chart and his lament last year that they seemed to finish most races 11th, just out of the points...

 

[ame]https://twitter.com/HaasF1Team/status/837743135321120768[/ame]

 

Here's one of those reasons why you don't take seriously much of anything that comes out of pre-season testing.

This is cumulative for the first week and top of the list is the car running 2016 engines... :lol:

 

If you've ever noticed a strange light shining at the ground below a corner of a WRC car during testing, this will look familiar.

Today during testing Ferrari and Toro Rosso attached cameras and led lights to their cars.

 

Seems Williams might be doing something similar with a laser, though this one is at the back.

 

Does it? I'm still not sure I know what they're doing, just guessing.