Day of the second Formula 1 test of 2017 was led by recently retired-back-for-more Felipe Massa in his Williams F1 and after his rookie teammate ended their efforts early in the first test of the season, it was good to see Massa get some serious seat time so the team can start sorting the chassis.
Massa was followed closely by Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and also by what some are calling the potential big-gainer in 2017…Ferrari. Massa set a 1m19.726s time with Ricciardo at 1m19.900s and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel at 1m19.906s.
McLaren was, once again, stricken by engine trouble prompting a change but they did manage to claw out 80 laps on the day in the hands of rookie Stoffel Vandoorne who seems to be acquitting himself much better than Williams rookie, Lance Stroll.
Mercedes had early issues with a damaged floor on Lewis Hamilton’s car but he did manage 49 laps before handing the car over to his new teammate, Valtteri Bottas, who hammered out another 86 laps.
Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg managed 57 laps despite early engine issues that scuttled his teammate, Jolyon Palmer, morning runs. Both Sauber and Haas pounded out more Ferrari engine mileage with a total of 181 laps. Ferrari are certainly showing reliability and racking up serious mileage that seems to be on pace.
| Pos | Driver | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Felipe Massa | Williams/Mercedes | 1m19.726s | – | 168 |
| 2 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull/Renault | 1m19.900s | 0.174s | 89 |
| 3 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1m19.906s | 0.180s | 168 |
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m20.456s | 0.730s | 49 |
| 5 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1m20.924s | 1.198s | 86 |
| 6 | Esteban Ocon | Force India/Mercedes | 1m21.347s | 1.621s | 142 |
| 7 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1m21.589s | 1.863s | 58 |
| 8 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas/Ferrari | 1m21.676s | 1.950s | 81 |
| 9 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso/Renault | 1m21.743s | 2.017s | 83 |
| 10 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren/Honda | 1m22.537s | 2.811s | 80 |
| 11 | Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m23.336s | 3.610s | 47 |
| 12 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m23.630s | 3.904s | 53 |
| 13 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1m24.790s | 5.064s | 15 |
Once again for the 5th day of testing FERRARI showed that their car is the most rock solid, the most consistent and the fastest (tyre corrected times).
Although mchonda’s troubles are the worst, they are not the only ones to have hit engine reliability problems out of the 4 manufacturers.
Anybody read about the latest “chaff” being banded about by some so called F1 technical experts about what FERRARI is experimenting with re their fueling system?.
Fast and reliable, its looking good for Ferrari, and Mercedes.
Do you know if Haas have got their braking system sorted out?
I do not know if they did or not, but some sites claim they still working to solve their braking system. what I know for sure, and that through experience is that one have to sort out/sieve out the chaff from the weed that is constantly pushed out when reading what others push out, examples of the latest pushed out are, oil and fuel mix claim, iron/steel/printed pistons, double anchor injectors.
Gary Anderson has stated that Romain Grosjean is braking several metres later than anyone else, as a result he is having problems slowing the car down.
It may be that the driver’s expectations are higher than the car can deliver. This certainly won’t help as Haas try and solve their braking issues.
He’s obviously not concerned about the brake system failing if he’s hurling the Haas into expecting its going to haul him up better than anything else.
I wonder if his driving technique had any influence on the problems he was having last year?
So is it a car problem, or a driver ‘failure to adapt’ problem?
Didn’t Roman famoudly have a problem judging stopping distances in his ‘first corner nutter’ season?????
That’s great for Williams, to be on the pace in Testing 2.1, after they got so little out of Testing 1.1 – 1.4.
Prediction (or maybe a gut feeling) . . . but I believe Massa will have a very good year if the car is there and reliable.
With Sauber using the 2016 Ferrari power unit I don’t think their mileage is helping to prove the reliability of this year’s unit. However the works team and Haas are running reliably enough to indicate that there isn’t a problem there.
Agree, That having the 2016 FERRARI power unit running parallel with 2017 power unit the 2017 project will not be helped any. if it was otherwise the FIA and the rest of the teams wouldn’t have gave permission/approved it for Sauber to run a year old power unit, in fact running a year old power unit no developments are permitted, as otherwise said manufacturer would be developing two specifications at the same time (rules states that only one specification can be used during a season). that was one thing that got me into trouble with a certain F1 WEBSITE, when… Read more »