The 2018 Formula 1 Championship Discussion.

[Vestig3]

Oke so ive thought about it and im making this thread purely for discussions and wont be adding time charts and overal points as it takes to much time to edit after every race (and honestly i forget most of the time) if anyone else wants to add it to the thread your free to do so.

Testing in Barcalona has started today and already ive heard one thing that caught my ear, Christian Horner saying Redbull is not a title competitor this year but they do hope to be closer to Mercedes and Ferrrari and hope to be as disruptive as they can be, but hes aware that Mercedes is trying to go over 1000hp so hes putting all his hope on the chassis, He also said that he thinks Ferrari and Mercedes are working as one front being very buddy buddy with each other and that he doesnt know what they are gonna do.

With there being a gap between what Ferrari thinks and what the F1 group wants for the future Toto Wolff went on to say that not only do they think Ferrari's points on how the sport should move into the future are good, he agrees for most of what Sergio Marchionne has said about the direction of formula 1 in the future and this could be a problem for the new owners because Ferrari and Mercedes hold very strong positions when it comes to decision making, Zak Brown has said he seen this as a problem and says they have to much power over the sport.

[Enfilade]

Here's to hoping that Haas can do something this season!

[Bigbazz]

I'm hoping Mclaren can finally start doing something interesting, looks like it will be a Merc/Ferrari shootout again this year though and lets hope we can even have that.



2nd day testing.

[Vestig3]

Last year with the Barcalona test the temperture was slighly better around/above 10C and it was very sunny which helps testing now it was 1C lol, but this winter weather should be ending after the weekend so we will see does seem Ferrari and Mercedes are hammering at the rounds but Ricciardo yesterday aswell as Max Verstappen had a fuel problem in the morning which limited him.

[Bigbazz]

Great weather for testing today



Mclaren on top

[Vestig3]

The teams asked for a extra day of testing but thats gonna be a problem because Williams paid for the track on friday for promotional shooting and Ferrari did that for Saturday.

[Vestig3]

Realy suprised at how many rounds Toro rosso is able to do with the Honda engine without problems tho you dont know how well it will do once the tempertures go up but still its suprising.

[Bigbazz]

Yeah Honda might have finally fixed their design and brought something reliable, the writing seems to be on the wall already I think in terms of pace though with Merc closely followed by Ferrari and everyone else fighting for 3-5th place, it will definitely be confirmed by the next testing session we just need to figure out who is sandbagging, like Ferrari last year.

I'm already predicting Merc > Ferrari > Redbull > Renault/Mclaren/Force India > Williams > Haas/Torro Rosso > Sauber. Though Sauber does have a full current spec Ferrari engine this year so who knows.

[Vestig3]

Hmm Ferrari wasnt realy sandbagging at last years they showed their strenght at the 2e week of Barcalona testing and thats why a lot where wondering (BBC and Skysport) if it was just Mercedes sandbagging or Ferrari realy getting closer and Ferrari in the first half of the season showed that they came closer only to give it up due to silly personal mistakes and mechanical problems.

It does worry me that with the new 3 engine's for the season we will see a lot more penalties.

Im predicting Mercedes > Ferrari (will be nice if Ferrari got even closer) > Redbull (we will problably see Verstappen upfront more this reason because he had terrible luck last year) > Force india > Renault/Williams/Mclaren (cant decide which of these 3 is ahead of the other 2) > Haas/Toro Rosso > Sauber (aswell wondering what they can do with a current Ferrari engine but their Aero is lacking)

[Bigbazz]

Hmm Ferrari wasnt realy sandbagging at last years they showed their strenght at the 2e week of Barcalona testing and thats why a lot where wondering (BBC and Skysport) if it was just Mercedes sandbagging or Ferrari realy getting closer and Ferrari in the first half of the season showed that they came closer only to give it up due to silly personal mistakes and mechanical problems.

It does worry me that with the new 3 engine's for the season we will see a lot more penalties.

Im predicting Mercedes > Ferrari (will be nice if Ferrari got even closer) > Redbull (we will problably see Verstappen upfront more this reason because he had terrible luck last year) > Force india > Renault/Williams/Mclaren (cant decide which of these 3 is ahead of the other 2) > Haas/Toro Rosso > Sauber (aswell wondering what they can do with a current Ferrari engine but their Aero is lacking)

Even though Ferrari were fastest last year both drivers were lifting during their fastest laps and would have been even faster if not for that, that's sandbagging in its essence. Ferrari I think had a genuinely better car at that early part of the season but Mercedes overcame the flaws pretty quickly and their design was solid.

I was expecting like many that Merc would go with a shorter wheelbase this year, since they were a little over on weight last year (so less room to move ballast) but they have stuck with the long wheelbase while Ferrari have moved away from their short wheelbase of last year and increased the length a little, while adding more rake (like a Red Bull). Gonna be interesting at least, Mercedes long wheelbase concept only hurt them on the high downforce tight tracks, but if they can get around that issue they will be unstoppable.

[Vestig3]

Redbull also went with a longer wheelbase so i guess they all think its better, Mercedes went with a little more rake but not as much as Redbull and Ferrari this year, I still think that even in the end of the season Redbull and Ferrari had a better aero package then Mercedes the only difference being having less high downforce tracks in the 2e half helping Mercedes with their top speed.

I dont believe Mercedes being medicore at high downforce tracks last year was just because of the wheelbase it was also coz their aero for downforce was lacking.

[Deleted]

It will be a Mercedes-Ferrari battle like last year.

The Renault power unit does not look powerful enough for Red Bull to challenge those 2.

Interesting battle will be between Red Bull and Mclaren because Mclaren has been boasting so much that they have a great chassis. Now they cant hide behind Honda.

Speaking of Honda, Toro Rosso could be a big surprise. They always had a nice car wich was pretty good in the midfield. Now that the Honda power unit is showing signs of reliability and power they will be the wild card of the season. Of course Red Bull will help Toro Rosso in any possible way because the Renault-RB partnership is pretty bad and the rumour is Red Bull will also get the Honda engine in 2019. TR can be the test team of RB (young drivers) and Honda (engine tests).

Anyway the first week of testing doesnt say much, next week will be interesting.

[Vestig3]

Funny that Toro Rosso moved from Renault to Honda and has not problems whatsoever and Mclaren moved from Honda to Renault is is having problems lol

Currently Ferrari and Mercedes are eating kilometers in the test both of them went over 2 race distances today while Redbull had some problems in the afternoon.

[Vestig3]

Looking at testing today eventho Vettel crushed the record (not officialy) and problably could have gone harder today coz his third sector in the lap before that was better then the one in his fastest round it seems Ferrari Mercedes and Redbull are pretty much on par on long stints but it seems Ferrari and Mercedes are playing hide and seek and ofc Redbull is limited coz their engine cant run on full capacity it seems Ferrari and Mercedes havent yet shown their full speed

Here are the long stints all on mediums and from the first look it seems Ferrari and Red Bull are very close to each other and that Mercedes is very quick (we dont know fuel levels) but looking at Vettel's 1:19.9 it seems hes sandbagging

Vettel (M): 1:42.2 (Outlap) - 1:21.3 - 1:20.9 - 1:20.9 - 1:20.9 - 1:21.4 - 1:20.9 - 1:21.4 - 1:21.1 - 1:21.2 - 1:21.3 - 1:21.1 - 1:21.0 - 1:21.2 - 1:21.1 - 1:21.0 - 1:21.0 - 1:21.4 (Traffic) - 1:20.7 - 1:21.3 - 1:21.0 - 1:21.2 - 1:21.8 - 1:19.9 - Inlap
Verstappen (M): 1:43.1 (Outlap) - 1:20.9 - 1:20.7 - 1:21.4 (Traffic) - 1:20.6 - 1:21.1 - 1:21.0 - 1:21.1 - 1:21.1 - 1:21.4 - 1:21.2 - 1:21.2 - 1:21.9 (Traffic) - 1:20.4 - 1:21.2 - 1:21.1 - 1:21.3 - 1:21.0 - 1:23.1 - Inlap
Bottas (M): 2:05 Min. (Outlap) - 1:21.2 - 1:20.4 - 1:19.9 - 1:20.0 - 1:19.9 - 1:19.8 - 1:19.9 - 1:20.4 - 1:19.7 - 1:19.9 - 1:19.5 - 1:19.6 - 1:19.6 - 1:19.6 - 1:19.5 - 1:19.6 - 1:19.7 - 1:21.3 - Inlap.

Also a very productive day of Verstappen (186) and Vettel (188) thats both doing 3 race distances.

[Bigbazz]

Ferrari setting down a marker with that pace, gonna be an interesting battle between Ferrari and Merc. Torro Rosso impressive with Honda while Mclaren struggle, starting to think that maybe Alonso is just cursed, since the car hasn't shown especially good pace and reliability has been poor so far.

I'm ready for the first race now though, will see how the pace between the top 3 really looks.

- - - Updated - - -

Final timesheet for the testing,



I'm sticking with my previous predictions on the line up, 2 weeks until the first race.

[Vestig3]

So i watched Ted's Notebook of Day 4 of the 2e test week today and i must say hes riding the Mercedes and Redbull train hard and is hating on Ferrari, hes even going in as far as to say that Ferrari is the third team and that they are in trouble for Melbourne lol

Now ive checked around and read Mark Hughes blog and his analyst says Mercedes and Ferrari average the same lap time on medium tyres (Mercedes being slightly faster) with Mercs suffering from blistering and Ferrari not, he also says Mercs having trouble making the soft tyres work whilst the Ferrari made them work, and Red Bull was around Ferrari but not ahead of.

But in the end who knows this all might be SANDBAGGING

- - - Updated - - -

Adrian Newey stops as technical director for Red Bull racing and is gonna focus more on Aston Martin's Valkyrie project, he will remain active as chief technical officer.

[Vestig3]

Nice the TT Assen circuit in the netherlands have been ruled good for Formula 1 races with a few minor changes it would be nice to have F1 races again after all these years.

[Vestig3]

Tbh i think Lewis hamilton is taunting Vettel by saying hes more looking at Red bull then Ferrari.

Its also a bit silly to say that he thinks Redbull will be the strongest at Melbourne due to their updates they bring, like Mercedes and Ferrari wont bring updates from the info they gathered during testing.

[Bigbazz]

Interesting to see Mercedes tipping Haas as a big gainer this winter.

[Ranaas]

Nice the TT Assen circuit in the netherlands have been ruled good for Formula 1 races with a few minor changes it would be nice to have F1 races again after all these years.

That layout would bring horrible racing for modern f1 cars.