Winter Testing 2013 - Barcelona
Posted by danm
Vettel on Sunday was amazing to watch through T1,T2,T3. Carrying so much apex speed, outstanding! I guess he must have been on low(ish) fuel as later it started to "look" like other cars when I expect fuel was put in though.
Mercedes with Rosberg was trying something interesting. Breaking into T1, not downshifting at all until taking the first right. Only after hitting the apex he went down the gears before accelerating off. So this was Brake, Turn, (hit apex), shift down, accelerate.
Anyone know why they would be doing this? It was for a whole stint. Does it help save fuel? I wonder what his laptimes were here.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2013 02:06PM by DJSKYLINE.
Mercedes with Rosberg was trying something interesting. Breaking into T1, not downshifting at all until taking the first right. Only after hitting the apex he went down the gears before accelerating off. So this was Brake, Turn, (hit apex), shift down, accelerate.
Anyone know why they would be doing this? It was for a whole stint. Does it help save fuel? I wonder what his laptimes were here.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2013 02:06PM by DJSKYLINE.
I'd go along with what Morbid suggests. It can't be fuel, as modern road cars use zero fuel when off-throttle, so I'd be staggered if F1 cars were incapable of doing so too.
No, I'm guessing it's helping rear stability under braking, as you often hear how down-shifts hamper braking, and KERS is known to add a degree of skittishness to the braking phase, so perhaps they're experimenting with ignoring the gears until just before powering on. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a system they only plan on using in the wet though - I'd guess there's enough braking grip in the dry for it to be rendered almost pointless... though I suppose if the tyres do degrade as much as reported, then it would aid them later in the stints anyway.
Without wanting to sound patronising, are you sure the sound was in sync?
No, I'm guessing it's helping rear stability under braking, as you often hear how down-shifts hamper braking, and KERS is known to add a degree of skittishness to the braking phase, so perhaps they're experimenting with ignoring the gears until just before powering on. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a system they only plan on using in the wet though - I'd guess there's enough braking grip in the dry for it to be rendered almost pointless... though I suppose if the tyres do degrade as much as reported, then it would aid them later in the stints anyway.
Without wanting to sound patronising, are you sure the sound was in sync?
Lol Gav, I know what I heard. I was sitting just metres away! Thanks for the interesting points though. (Btw this was in the dry yesterday)
They do all kinds of crazy crap in testing anyhow :P
testing is amazingly boring. perhaps halfway down the straight nico was half asleep, arrived at t1 and only then remembered to downshift?
Anyway, I've never gone into a season with so much unknown! Will be crazy and Im just annoyed I am missing it!
"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL
Anyway, I've never gone into a season with so much unknown! Will be crazy and Im just annoyed I am missing it!
"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL
You've never been to a freezing Silverstone to watch just one F1 car before have you?
You got a fair way around the circuit then... What was your favourite spot?
Might have missed it, but thoughts on testing? Pecking order? Thoughts based on track performance?
"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL
"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL
Yeah, I covered the whole circuit. Basically just walked around the track every day rather than staying in one spot. Favourite spot is difficult to say - Campsa is a pretty amazing corner, but most of the time the cars weren't going flat out so not quite as impressive. Turn 1 is always an interesting spot to see how the cars handle under brakes and then power away through the chicane. But in general the track is great for viewing because in nearly every spot you can see lots of the track - or are only a few metres walk away from being able to see another corner.
What also was cool was on one day when I was running late (similar excuse to Kimi's i imagine ) , walking from Montmelo station (30 minute walk from station to track) and hearing the noises of the cars whilst walking through a regular town centre. That was a pretty amazing feeling, and of course you couldn't get lost on the walk with those sounds!
As for the pecking order, I mean it's hard to say to be honest. As can be expected with minimal rule changes, I don't think any of the top teams have built a shocking car or anything, they all look pretty planted. So it's hard to really pick half a tenth between the cars when you are sitting at a corner, which is all it would be. The Mercedes always seemed to be pushing quite hard, it was clear Red Bull didn't push much for most of the time but when they did it looked good. Grosjean seemed erratic but hard to know if that's just him or the Lotus. But realistically, I can't make some sort of definite conclusions out of the time there. It was clear how bad tyre degredation was when Alonso tried to do a long stint on Friday afternoon, but again hard to say if that's endemic to all teams or just them. So basically I couldn't name a clear stand-out.
What was a pity was that I found a timing screen with speed trap and split time information about Saturday 4.00pm, but then when I went back about 4.30 (I wanted to see Ferrari times), they had turned it off, and it was off on Sunday too... It only showed the 10 most recent laps on track or something but a pity I wasn't able to study it a bit more.
X (@ed24f1)
What also was cool was on one day when I was running late (similar excuse to Kimi's i imagine
) , walking from Montmelo station (30 minute walk from station to track) and hearing the noises of the cars whilst walking through a regular town centre. That was a pretty amazing feeling, and of course you couldn't get lost on the walk with those sounds!As for the pecking order, I mean it's hard to say to be honest. As can be expected with minimal rule changes, I don't think any of the top teams have built a shocking car or anything, they all look pretty planted. So it's hard to really pick half a tenth between the cars when you are sitting at a corner, which is all it would be. The Mercedes always seemed to be pushing quite hard, it was clear Red Bull didn't push much for most of the time but when they did it looked good. Grosjean seemed erratic but hard to know if that's just him or the Lotus. But realistically, I can't make some sort of definite conclusions out of the time there. It was clear how bad tyre degredation was when Alonso tried to do a long stint on Friday afternoon, but again hard to say if that's endemic to all teams or just them. So basically I couldn't name a clear stand-out.
What was a pity was that I found a timing screen with speed trap and split time information about Saturday 4.00pm, but then when I went back about 4.30 (I wanted to see Ferrari times), they had turned it off, and it was off on Sunday too... It only showed the 10 most recent laps on track or something but a pity I wasn't able to study it a bit more.
X (@ed24f1)
Cool, looks like you had a great time. Here a few of my favourites from my visit in 2008.
Kimi, drunk at turn five.
I liked this vantage point because turn around 180* and...
You see Bourdais getting it wrong at turns one to two
Heikki at turn three, Christ that was a tricky shot to pull off
Probably a Red Bull flinging it into turn in nine, I got the exposure settings wrong but a lovely vantage point if you get the composition and exposure right
Fisi or Sutil kicking up the dust on the exit of nine
Kubica at that sorry excuse for a chicane
McLaren pit-stop practice
The old master doing some overtime for Ferrari
That sign made me feel so welcome
Kimi, drunk at turn five.
I liked this vantage point because turn around 180* and...
You see Bourdais getting it wrong at turns one to two
Heikki at turn three, Christ that was a tricky shot to pull off
Probably a Red Bull flinging it into turn in nine, I got the exposure settings wrong but a lovely vantage point if you get the composition and exposure right
Fisi or Sutil kicking up the dust on the exit of nine
Kubica at that sorry excuse for a chicane
McLaren pit-stop practice
The old master doing some overtime for Ferrari
That sign made me feel so welcome
Nice photos, yeah! I am tempted to upgrade my camera as i'm still on a high end digital camera rather than a SLR or anything. There are certainly some good spots around the track. For that Kimi photo, I got a few photos there standing on a bin to see over the fence. In fact lots of places I ended up standing on a bin in order to get a good view.
It said Bienvenue this year which is odd, not sure why it was in French as Benvinguts is the correct Catalan term.
X (@ed24f1)
It said Bienvenue this year which is odd, not sure why it was in French as Benvinguts is the correct Catalan term.
X (@ed24f1)
It transists through several languages, or at least it did back then.
Yeah that would make sense, but I had about 5 photos of it over the weekend as well as my recollection and it did seem to be always on the French version so not sure what happened there.
X (@ed24f1)
X (@ed24f1)
Too many French drivers probably
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