![]() This begs a key question: Was Ferrari the only team genuinely trying to top the testing time sheets? But after a disappointing 2016 season without a race win, the pressure's on Sebastian Vettel and his team to deliver. Given that Ferrari's main problem in recent years was pace in qualifying spec with a light car, these portents are good. The SF70H - named to celebrate 70 years since the first Ferrari car, the 125 S - also set the quickest individual laps on low fuel at the Barcelona testing. We won't see the truly competition-ready RB13 until Melbourne.īut with those caveats, Ferrari looked strong - especially in their simulated runs on heavy fuel designed to simulate a race situation. Mercedes tend not to show their entire hand, while Red Bull intentionally kept some aerodynamic parts under wraps this year, saying they didn't want to give the competition a chance to start on copycat concepts. Gleaning too much info from preseason testing is dangerous. So who looked like a possible threat in testing? Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes are likely to remain the benchmark - but that's a little less certain than in years past Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Hoch Zwei But it looks less likely that they will win every race bar one this year, as in 2016. They showed almost bullet-proof reliability and pounded out more testing miles than their rivals, in scenes eerily reminiscent of the last three seasons. Maybe not, but they're still among the favorites. We'll see, but I think it will be more difficult to overtake." "Today driving behind cars you lose a lot more downforce. I'm sure it will be much more difficult to overtake," Williams veteran driver Felipe Massa said, describing his difficulties when following in the pocket of "dirty air" generated by the car in front. ![]() ![]() "Definitely from the driving point of view, it's much nicer for the driver. A car following in this wake can suffer a serious performance disadvantage - right at the moment when the driver needs everything at his disposal to set up an overtaking maneuver. F1 cars are designed to gobble up smooth air at the front, put it to use as a force pushing the car into the ground and improving handling, and then spew out a disturbed, turbulent wake at the rear - a little like a boat on the water. The main concern is that boosted aerodynamic performance could make it harder for drivers to overtake each other. Yes, and one in particular could prove serious. I've got bruises and bumps where I've never really had them before." The force you feel on your body and on your neck is much higher. "I'm finding the car is much more physical to drive than in the past," Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton said during testing. The cars will be faster than any of the past decade. Indeed, the string of F1 lap records that still hold from the 2004 season - set during the last year of the V10 engine era - are in serious danger of falling this season. Lap times and cornering speeds are up, considerably. The goal now is to make Grands Prix more like a sprint and less like a marathon.Īt least to some extent, the alterations have worked. Several drivers, not least Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso, had complained that they spent too long nursing their tires or their engines, or trying to save fuel, at given race phases. The stated aim is to speed up the cars and to make it possible for drivers to push harder for longer during the races. Pirelli's tires have also been redesigned - abandoning previous efforts to make the race rubber degrade artificially quickly. Teams are again permitted to build "winglets" and other pieces of bodywork at the extremities of the car that had been banned in recent seasons. The front and rear wings are larger, as are the tires - with the rear wheels drastically increased in size to give more mechanical grip as well. Instead of trying to limit the amount of downforce the cars can produce, in a bid to slow the field down or at least keep the pace in check, this new set of rules is designed to permit the teams to generate more downforce. Why all the hype around the rule changes?Ģ017's alterations to the regulations are particularly noteworthy because they buck a recent trend in the sport. ![]() Read: Liberty takeover casts shadow over new F1 dawn ![]() Before the Australian Grand Prix, here's DW's survival guide for the 2017 F1 season. The lights go out for the first time on Sunday, March 26, in Melbourne. For the first time since the 1994 season, the reigning world champion will not try to defend his crown Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Bernie Ecclestone has taken a back seat and new owners Liberty Media will be trying to modernize and open up what can sometimes be a stuffy and elitist series. Lewis Hamilton will be fighting for a fourth drivers' championship in 2017, but preseason testing suggests that Ferrari and Red Bull might both be able to provide a sterner test for Mercedes up front. ![]()
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