1519 replies to this topic

[TomNokoe]

After just 89 days, F1 2021 kicks into gear with three days of winter testing at the Bahrain International Circuit before the new season.

 

New drivers, new teams, new liveries, but a familiar location for just 24 hours (8hrs x 3) of on-track action. The teams will have to be super-efficient to maximise their preparation!

 

Many an F1 fan's favourite time of the year, anticipation and intrigue abound, endless possibilities hidden within tyre deltas, long runs and the ominous sandbags - never far away in this part of the world - all packed into a short sprint (too soon?) of weekend action, I can't wait.

 

Let's get the season started

 

 

The Circuit

 

 

 

A very familiar location, after hosting a double-header at the end of last season, pre-season testing now, and the first race in a fortnight's time.

 

However, a completely different proposition compared to the normal "winter" testing circuit of Barcelona.

• Temperature. Representative conditions for testing and solid comparisons with last season. The heat will test the cars and drivers straight away.
• Layout. Much more power-sensitive, rewarding straight-line speed and braking stability over aero efficiency, but will this mask the true competitive order?
• Track surface. Very abrasive, almost instant degradation, which may impact our ability to read into the lap times, especially during the day time.
• Location. Any big crashes or reliability issues cannot be quickly resolved by flying out new parts. "Run what you brung".

Thankfully we have already had three days of Formula 2 testing between Monday and Wednesday, over 4000 laps turned, so the track should be in good condition.

 

The Schedule

Thank you to Autosport.com for the helpful graphic

 

 

Weather

77kb gif

Spoiler

 

Friday - 33c, cloudy, windy

Saturday - 23c, cloudy, windy

Sunday - 23c, sunny, windy

 

Time Zones

 

1000-1900 Local

 

0700-1600 GMT

0800-1700 CET

 

Morning session (4hrs) - Lunch (1hr) - Afternoon session (4hrs)

 

Sunset in Sakhir is 17:45, meaning we will have roughly 1 hour at the end of every day with cooler, evening conditions, closer to how the GP is held. Happy hour?

 

Mini-preview

 

Mercedes - No more DAS. A sexy engine bulge. Deliberately hiding the floor.

Red Bull - F1Launch21 Hide-and-Seek champions. Marko says the new Honda is "a work of art".

McLaren - Plenty of work required to bed in the new driver and engine. Also hiding bits and pieces.

Aston - F1Launch21 Show-and-Tell champions. Looking forward to seeing the livery in the sun.

Alpine - Nearly as secretive as Red Bull. Alonso fighting fit. Lots of unknowns.

Ferrari - The other team in green. New engine has nowhere to hide on the long straights.

Alpha - Junior team becomes sister team. Exciting lineup but needs the mileage. Dark horses.

Alfa - Aiming for the midfield. Aggressive launch spec. Relying on Fezza.

Haas - New car yet to launch. It can't get any worse, can it?
Williams - A lighter car with refined aero. Still playing catch up.

 

Lap times to look out for

1:27.264 (2020 Q3, C4 tyre)

1:27.586 (2020 Q2, C3 tyre)

1:32.014 (2020 FL, C3 tyre)

 

2020 RACE LAP CHART

2020 QUALI BEST SECTORS

2020 QUALI SPEED TRAP

 

Compare 2020 long-run pace (en.mclarenf-1)

 

Due to the floor changes, new Pirelli tyre construction and day time conditions, lap times are unlikely to match last year's GP.

 

Live text and updates

Autosport Live

AMuS ticker

GPToday

F1Debrief Twitter (long run data)
 

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Assorted predictions, musings, hopes, fears, contract rumours, C5 tyre-spotting, nicknames for Mercedes' new mega-ominous-beast™, posts about Alonso, and Gary Anderson analyses welcome below   

Edited by TomNokoe, 12 March 2021 - 20:18.

[davidlan]

Will testing be televised anywhere??

 

Dave

[TomNokoe]

Will testing be televised anywhere??

Dave

UK/Ireland, Germany, Italy - Sky
Spain, Japan - DAZN

Almost everyone else (and some legacy German subscribers) - F1TV Pro

Edited by TomNokoe, 11 March 2021 - 01:46.

[davidlan]

Thanks Tom

 

But I am stuck in the US and cannot confirm if ESPN will show testing, 

so onto Plan B.

 

Dave

[Flasheart]

Finally!

Unfortunately, we can’t get F1TV here in Australia, and our pay TV service isn’t covering testing. 😐😡

[PlayboyRacer]

Finally!

Unfortunately, we can’t get F1TV here in Australia, and our pay TV service isn’t covering testing. 😐😡

Absolutely sucks doesn't it.

[Sardukar]

Finally!

Unfortunately, we can’t get F1TV here in Australia, and our pay TV service isn’t covering testing.

 

It would probably cost foxsports/kayo almost nothing to do aswell, but they can't be bothered.

[CrossComparisonOracle]

Catastrophic news. Testing hasn’t even begun and the official F1 website has already leaked the qualifying results of Bahrain

Spoiler

[BRK]

Yay, time for me to get unreasonably excited for a new season! Until reality will soon sink in that it will be yet another season of free trophies for Mercedes..

[Flasheart]

It’s bloody infuriating. It’s best not to start me! There’s at least three religious channels, a dedicated Kardashian channel, but they axed Eurosport!
Oops, I have started....

Back to testing...

[MaxisOne]

Fingers and toes crossed for another double (Yes know my team is hated around these parts) but we have brought the goods. I just need them to hold it together for one more season. After that The Reds or the House of Papaya can have at it.

 

Cheers and good luck to "almost" all the teams.

[Quickshifter]

Mercedes have shown discipline and commitment to a cause. Money alone cannot win you stuff, may be an odd title but this level of domination does not happen by chance. They leave nothing to chance and don't blow their own trumpet like Marko and company do.

Mercedes have pushed the boat with their PU and the car was the class of the field anyways. 2021 is done and dusted for them. Congratulations in advance to Toto and Gang.

Edited by Quickshifter, 11 March 2021 - 06:32.

[Jovanotti]

Catastrophic news. Testing hasn’t even begun and the official F1 website has already leaked the qualifying results of Bahrain

Well, one can hope...

[noikeee]

Still a better livery than Williams

[jcbc3]

...yet another season of free trophies for Mercedes..

 

What an incredibly stupid thing to say. Just sayin'.

[JdB]

Anyone know any websites who offer live timing? Tnx.

[SophieB]

I say it every year but I really don't get the point of sandbags in the top teams. Are there really ever people at, say, Red Bull and Ferrari going 'hooray! Mercedes are slow, we are going to win everything, no engineers, don't even bother looking at their car now, no point'.

 

Funnier if they bomb around a couple of laps on fumes to psyche everyone out a bit.

[AnR]

It's quite a challenge to be a rookie or to have a new construction like McLaren with 3 days for testing, compare that to the Ferrari seasons in mid 2000 where drivers and teams had nearly unlimited testing.

 

The team with the advantage like Merc have a huge heads up still

[jcbc3]

I say it every year but I really don't get the point of sandbags in the top teams. Are there really ever people at, say, Red Bull and Ferrari going 'hooray! Mercedes are slow, we are going to win everything, no engineers, don't even bother looking at their car now, no point'.

 

Funnier if they bomb around a couple of laps on fumes to psyche everyone out a bit.

 

I believe the idea is that if Mercedes smashes it out of the ball park, their newly designed (and different) floor is vindicated. Which mean Red Bull know they absolutely have to divert resources in that direction. If they sandbag a bit, the concept is only vindicated to the team that know where they succeeded and Red Bull will have to wonder if they should go down the Merc route or the Ferrari route. Which may (or most likely may not) make Red Bull have to sped brain and computing power on more solutions.

[ANF]

Any pictures from F2 testing of the barrier Grosjean hit?

[CrossComparisonOracle]

I say it every year but I really don't get the point of sandbags in the top teams. Are there really ever people at, say, Red Bull and Ferrari going 'hooray! Mercedes are slow, we are going to win everything, no engineers, don't even bother looking at their car now, no point'.

Funnier if they bomb around a couple of laps on fumes to psyche everyone out a bit.

I do believe that sandbagging exists, but I don’t think it’s done to psych out the teams. Instead I believe that it’s done to psych out the media.

The teams are smart enough to know when someone is sandbagging and have enough data to figure out where they are in the pecking order.

The media are the ones who read the laptimes and run a headline with it, especially the sensationalists.

I also believe that it’s in Mercedes best interest to keep the media guessing in pre-season instead of the headline being “season over Merc has it in the bag”.

Edited by CrossComparisonOracle, 11 March 2021 - 09:33.

[ANF]

Catastrophic news. Testing hasn’t even begun and the official F1 website has already leaked the qualifying results of Bahrain

Spoiler

Is it one of those AWS AI predictions?

[TomNokoe]

Anyone know any websites who offer live timing? Tnx.

 

There's usually a Youtube Stream of the timing screen.

 

I can't remember if the F1 app had live timing (sector-by-sector) last year, and therefore likely will this year, usually for a nominal fee.

 

There's a big banner on F1.com that says LIVE TIMING FOR PRE-SEASON TESTING advertising F1TV.

 

Otherwise, the usual suspects, Autosport, AMuS, GPToday, etc. (thanks for reminding me thegforcemaybewithyou )

Edited by TomNokoe, 11 March 2021 - 09:07.

[noikeee]

I believe the idea is that if Mercedes smashes it out of the ball park, their newly designed (and different) floor is vindicated. Which mean Red Bull know they absolutely have to divert resources in that direction. If they sandbag a bit, the concept is only vindicated to the team that know where they succeeded and Red Bull will have to wonder if they should go down the Merc route or the Ferrari route. Which may (or most likely may not) make Red Bull have to sped brain and computing power on more solutions.

 

Yeah I agree it's about delaying the time the opposition realises they've gone the wrong way and have to copy them. If they manage to dupe Red Bull and Ferrari to waste 2 or 3 weeks of development that's a net gain for them. It's also about messing up the simulations of the opposition teams, they'll run into bad assumptions about Mercedes' pace and make crap race strategy calls as a result of it. The more info you give the opposition teams the better they do. It's not a matter of "psyching them out".

 

In Mercedes' case there's another reason, which is they're masters of politically manipulating F1 to make it seem they're not as dominant as they are. They make a point of saying just how scared they are of the opposition teams and how things are actually at peril of going catastrophically wrong, at every single turn. The end goal is to avoid F1 running into the conclusion of "oh **** this is gonna be an unbearable season, and they're so far ahead it's pretty likely it'll continue next year too, we need to change the rules to cripple them"

Edited by noikeee, 11 March 2021 - 09:18.

[jpm2019]

Looking forward to hoping to draw any conclusions and that the end conclusion will be there can only be conclusions after Quali in Bahrein. 

[K20a]

I say it every year but I really don't get the point of sandbags in the top teams. Are there really ever people at, say, Red Bull and Ferrari going 'hooray! Mercedes are slow, we are going to win everything, no engineers, don't even bother looking at their car now, no point'.

Funnier if they bomb around a couple of laps on fumes to psyche everyone out a bit.

I remember back in 2009 when the Brawn first came out and was obliterating everyone else right away.

I still remember thinking to myself 'no f'ing way lol'

Then australia came around and they obliterated everyone again.

So good.

[JimmyClark]

I remember back in 2009 when the Brawn first came out and was obliterating everyone else right away.

I still remember thinking to myself 'no f'ing way lol'

Then australia came around and they obliterated everyone again.

So good.

 

Yep, I still regret not putting a cheeky tenner on them that morning. The odds of a Button title were 2000-1. 

 

Some people in the paddock cleaned up, apparently. 

[Nigol]

Wait what? Tomorrow the testing will start?

Either Covid killed all the hype or I‘m just getting old...

[Rumblestrip]

Yep, I still regret not putting a cheeky tenner on them that morning. The odds of a Button title were 2000-1.

Some people in the paddock cleaned up, apparently.

😉

[Shuffle]

I remember back in 2009 when the Brawn first came out and was obliterating everyone else right away.

I still remember thinking to myself 'no f'ing way lol'

Then australia came around and they obliterated everyone again.

So good.

Entertaining reading looking back at this thread, post #5793 and beyond: https://forums.autos...hl=2009 testing

 

The optimism and doubt from people when the first Brawn laptimes appeared.

[thegamer23]

Seb VS his past.

Shakedowns going on at the circuit

 

[JeePee]

My brain has a hard time understanding this picture

[JBJ]

Anyone know any websites who offer live timing? Tnx.

https://www.gptoday.net/en

[ConsiderAndGo]

Ferrari faster than Aston. Confirmed

[keshav]

What time does the testing start tomorrow?

[WouterF1]

What time does the testing start tomorrow?

8.00 a.m. CET.

[Rinehart]

Wait what? Tomorrow the testing will start?

Either Covid killed all the hype or I‘m just getting old...

 Must say I do look forwards to my annual "2 weeks of pretending to work whilst consuming every ounce of testing" - having it over a weekend is far too sensible. 

[TomNokoe]

Same as usual. I do like the no-brackets tyres. Probably because they remind me of 2011

 

Edited by TomNokoe, 11 March 2021 - 15:01.

[Whatisvalis]

What happened to purple - wasn't that C5?

[Stephane]

They died 2 or three years ago

[Kao18]

https://racer.com/20...-secret-weapon/

[Marklar]

day 1 line up

Mercedes: Bottas/Hamilton
RBR: Verstappen
McLaren: Ricciardo/Norris
Aston: Vettel/Stroll
Alpine: Ocon
Ferrari: Leclerc/Sainz
AlphaTauri: Gasly/Tsunoda
Alfa: Raikkonen/Giovinazzi
Haas: Schumacher/Mazepin
Williams: Nissany

[Whatisvalis]

https://racer.com/20...-secret-weapon/

That was an interesting read.

[sgtkate]

Must say I do look forwards to my annual "2 weeks of pretending to work whilst consuming every ounce of testing" - having it over a weekend is far too sensible.

I'm gutted as I like to follow it too but I won't get a free pass to watch it all weekend booooooo!

[Bleu]

What happened to purple - wasn't that C5?

 

It was ditched when Pirelli moved to have red sidewalls in the softest tyre of the weekend.

[noikeee]

https://racer.com/20...-secret-weapon/

 

Ferrari gave us a scare another year when they were up by about a second a lap during pre-season testing. And internally, within the team, we were just like, “We are so screwed here.” I think that was when they were doing something with their engines, and they were showing it in different places on the track. Remembering the engineering notes, we ended up finding a ton of performance almost inadvertently, and it had to do with ride height. So we made a ride height change, and basically the car just lit on fire — figuratively — and we found massive chunks of time. And as I remember, that might’ve been the afternoon of the last day of the last test before Melbourne, and we found about half a second, just in ride height changes.

 

That explains a lot. Was it... 2018? Or whatever year it was we were all CONVINCED it was the year Ferrari would smash it. Then when we came to Melbourne Mercedes were ahead again and it shocked us because, although duh, Mercedes will win forever, it really did seem like the entire paddock agreed Ferrari was ahead for real this time.

[TheAviator]

That explains a lot. Was it... 2018? Or whatever year it was we were all CONVINCED it was the year Ferrari would smash it. Then when we came to Melbourne Mercedes were ahead again and it shocked us because, although duh, Mercedes will win forever, it really did seem like the entire paddock agreed Ferrari was ahead for real this time.

2019 I think they were faster by alot during first week of testing and then by the end Merc matched their best time on Friday.

In 2018 they were actually looking slower, and only got onto it with floor update in Bahrain.

Edited by TheAviator, 11 March 2021 - 17:00.

[TomNokoe]

That explains a lot. Was it... 2018?

2019 as TheAviator said.

Also the year when Alfa strapped on some C5s one day, and Kimi's onboard was just an absolute dream.

[Marklar]

Vasseur test positive https://twitter.com/...064763863113730

[jonpollak]

Friday Saturday and Sunday 7am & 12noon GMT

https://www.formula1...z1SNzRpUWY.html

 

https://www.formula1...5vRjE2Qmwc.html

 

(Here's a Cut and Paste from F1.com)

The winter break has flown by, and just three months since the last race of 2020, pre-season testing gets under way on Friday. So with that exciting realisation, here are 10 crucial things to keep an eye out for when you're watching F1 testing on F1 TV, or following it on F1.com with our live commentary and up to date news...

 

Take it away you F1 experts !!!!

Jp

Edited by jonpollak, 11 March 2021 - 23:13.