Barcelona Testing 2018

I was thinking Mercedes should have made some effort to improve its car in traffic. They did not do well last year when forced to follow at all.

 

One of the interesting topics in this video is fuel consumption. Apparently Ferrari are still using too much fuel.

 

Thanks for posting. German F1 journalists always seem to know so much more than everyone else about what's going on in the sport and what's going on with the cars.

Everyone seems to agree Haas will be very strong in the mid-field this year. Finishing 4th in their third season would be like winning the wcc.

 

I still don't understand why the Renault's exhaust isn't considered a "blown defuser". Clearly it's aimed to accelerate the airflow under the rear wing.

More airflow makes more downforce or the same downforce with less drag.

 

More airflow escaping = cooler running.

 

Nice review of testing and the top 3 teams here. Fuel use by Ferrari is included as a potential issue.

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/22721293/testing-analysis-f1-got-three-way-title-battle

 

Wow-- https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/134789/mercedes-qualifying-pace-still-unknown

Mercedes Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas says the team's one-lap pace is "unknown" going to Australia because it did not feel the need to discover it during pre-season testing.

Lewis Hamilton set Mercedes' fastest time over two weeks at Barcelona but was 1.3 seconds slower than Sebastian Vettel's pacesetting Ferrari, with Bottas another tenth behind.

But Mercedes came out on top during the race simulations and Bottas said its focus on long runs means it will not have an indicator of its pure pace until qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix in two weeks.

"The long runs and race simulation was very positive," said Bottas.

"We don't think we're anyway near one second ahead of everyone - that's not the case. [But] it was positive.

"It's nice to get some race simulation under my belt and feel the tyres and the car in the long run.

"There's so much more time in testing to try different things in the car and get comfortable in there. Lewis was pretty much doing the same.

"For us, I have to say the pure one-lap pace is unknown, but I guess we'll find out in a couple of weeks."

Bottas said that Mercedes did not "feel the need to go for the absolute maximum" in testing and is confident its W09 will react well in qualifying trim.

"We know that once everything is right, qualifying settings and all that will show just how quick the car will go," he said.

"We try to maximise the learning [in testing], have consistent running of different settings that really see the difference and focus on ourselves rather than the timesheet."

 

Yes only testing but this is simply not good for our season ahead lol

 

So, from what i have been reading and heard, Mercs shold be further ahead then they were last year, Reb Bull should have the best engine and Ferrari lost s9ome momentum. Seems the reds are having some trouble with traction entering high speed corners, the excessive raking is giving them some trouble...let's hope this si all wrong and that ferrari is a beast of a car....

 

I think it's a new car that they don't fully understand yet. Theoretically it tics all the boxes however they still are yet to get all the systems perfectly gelled into superior performance

 

Everyone in F1 is saying the Ferrari is slow and "disappointing". Perhaps they need some time to work with it. It may develop as the season goes along.

Also the mystery oil or vapor from the rear has people wondering.

 

They may be pushing the "oil burning" rule to the max -- or beyond. Had to say but it's very, very weird.

And why doesn't the Alfa have it?

 

Maybe they recycled 355 valve guides.

 

A plume out a breather on start-up seems odd. Oil isn't hot yet. However a plume out the exhaust on start-up means oil in the cylinders.

How do they measure what gets 'consumed' vs what 'is just used'?

 

Pretty simple...after the race when the car is in Parc Ferme they will check....

 

The quoted article stated that what was occurring is "a different thing to oil burning which is now limited to 1.8 litres per race".

 

Sounds like Ted is trying to explain oil consumption at the rings vs. what goes back in through the crankcase ventilation system (with a closed system).

The oil burn at start-up is not new. Renault were doing this last year and it was explained that they over-filled the oil tanks. Interestingly their engines would also do this getting away from the grid after extended idling (but maybe that was more related to the turbo issues they had?), so much so that many times I thought engines had failed on the grid. I don't know enough about dry-sump systems to know why they'd overfill their oil tanks but that's probably what's happening at start-up with the Ferrari.

With regards to the 'oil burn' last year I believe they just essentially used an ecu controlled pcv valve to increase the crankcase pressure when they wanted to let more oil into the combustion chamber. Clearly the combustion related gain must have been huge, because it was enough to overcome the associated windage losses and produce a large net positive gain.

They can't do this year since the crankcase vent system is now open to the atmosphere. Whatever is coming out of the small tube is just the result of normal combustion gas getting past the rings. If it's more than the other engines, it could be related to anything from ring design and tension to the oil scavenging system.

 

From the sound of it, the crank case pressure might be boost > rpm related. A loose tolerance piston will obviously have excessive blow by at low rpms/boost and, at start up, idle, and leaving the pit, this is the exact condition of the engine and would explain it.

 

Ferrari's smokescreen is their version of an old James Bond trick to blind others at race starts. Brilliant and cool