Bottas Top Again - Red Bull and Ferrari Battle Problems

[Bethonie Waring]

Valtteri Bottas topped the times on a red flag littered day of testing. It was a troubling day for both Ferrari and Red Bull as technical problems and offs on track interrupted their testing programmes.

Bottas started the day with fast laps, but had to fight for the top time with Max Verstappen and Felipe Massa. The Mercedes driver ended the day top with a time just over a tenth of a second faster than former teammate.

McLaren apparently didn’t have any problems today, though they did have very limited running with long periods in the garage and the car stopping in the pit lane at the end of the day for currently unknown problems.

Ferrari also spent a lot of time in the garage today. Fluid system checks kept Kimi Raikkonen in the pits for two hours in the morning, but the Finn managed to put in some good laps once he got back out to end the day third in the timing order.

The good news ended when Raikkonen span off at the exit to turn three, hitting the barrier. The Ferrari’s front wing was broken and the front left suspension was damaged. It was a blow that brought an early end to the team’s day.

Red Bull’s day was similar in fortune. After battling at the top of the timings in the morning session, Verstappen was given an extended lunch break when the team needed to change the Renault engine. Four hours later, the team managed to get back out, with Verstappen running race runs in the afternoon. Verstappen's run came to an end just two laps short of a fall race distance, though, when he came to a stop on track due to the same problems that they had seen in the morning.

Many teams spent the afternoon completing long runs, including Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton completed a 20 lap stint on ultrasoft tyres, leading many to believe we won’t be seeing many pit stops this season…

For more thoughts on Formula One and the latest news, head to the Formula One sub forum here at RaceDepartment.

More good times for Williams – a sign of more to come? And what do you think of the long stint on the ultrasoft tyres? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

 

[Rob]

I wonder what they will do about the hard tires. F1 has built it's whole racing model around tire wear, so now in an effort not to seed up the cars even more, they mandate rock tires. Okay fine, but if the Ultra Soft can go 20 at Barcelona, and the FIA continues to mandate a tire for use, strategy will be at a minimum. Just strap on that tire and run it until you can slap on a faster one to finsih it out. Am I missing something? Have the tire allocation or madatory use rules changed?

 

[snyperal]

I wonder what they will do about the hard tires. F1 has built it's whole racing model around tire wear, so now in an effort not to seed up the cars even more, they mandate rock tires. Okay fine, but if the Ultra Soft can go 20 at Barcelona, and the FIA continues to mandate a tire for use, strategy will be at a minimum. Just strap on that tire and run it until you can slap on a faster one to finsih it out. Am I missing something? Have the tire allocation or madatory use rules changed?

That was my understanding too, I'm hoping we don't see tyres exploding like in previous seasons.

 

[Boby Kim]

I would suggest to abandon pitstops completely. Create a tire that last the complete race or make races shorter: 2 race format reversed grid. Pitstops bring extra spice with different fuel, tire and driver strategy.
As for prediction about teams....lets wait to half the season

 

[M-Bimmer]

Would like to see something like what DTM did last season...Race1 (short) with no pits (unless u have) and Race 2 (long) with pits open only before mid race.
Really hope for a good F1 season and not just a couple of drivers leaving the rest behind.

 

[grahamw]

If they take away pit stops it's going to be even less exciting than it has been (not) as at least there is a miniscule chance of some excitement in the pits in the few seconds they stop now days.

The work of Liberty and Ross Brawn is going to be major if they dumb down racing much more, as so far it's looking very like Mercedes are going to drive of in to the dust closely followed by Ferrari and Red Bull now where has that happened before.

Still on the plus side we can take a bet on which McClaren is going to break down first (come on Honda sort your act out) or which lap Stroll is going to crash on but apart from that the biggest excitement is looking very much to have already happened what will the new cars look like.

Jeez I am glad I get SKY F1 for free as it looks like the Gp2 and Gp3 races are going to be the most exciting thing on it in 2017 much like 2016 then.

Now where did I put my remote the Blancpain testing at the Paul Richard is on Motors TV and I have that rerun of the Supercars from Adelaide.

 

[Terry Rock]

I fully expected the tires to last a lot longer per race stint, since the wider contact patch will dissipate the heat and load better.
Race tires can have decidedly different characteristics from set to set with the suspension geometry playing an added part.
I say leave the regulation as they are.
There is simply no need to artificially 'manufacture' fast wearing tires or any of the additional gimmicks.
Leave the pit-stops as they are as well.

 

[gamer19]

Those guys on Motorsport com are just hilarious !!!
Here's their live coverage of testing:

14:08 Fair play to the people in the grandstands who are actually standing up. Here's to the people with the feet stamina!

14:05 Green flag, fantastic sun, an expectant Live audience...and nothing happening.

14:05 Read that last entry in a Larry David voice. Curb Your Enthusiasm fans know.

14:04 This is pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty boring.

14:02 Hope everyone's enjoying their extended lunchbreaks.

14:01 Two minutes gone. Somebody's doing something! No, they're not. We just needed to type something.

14:01 One minute gone. This is brilliant.

14:00 The afternoon session begins! And, as ever, nobody does anything.

Curb your enthusiasm.

I really love that old prick.