Formula-1 2014 Season (New Turbo V6 Era)

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Bahrain test day four Results

Pos. Driver Team Best Diff Laps
1. N. Rosberg Mercedes AMG F1 1:33.283 - 89
2. J. Button McLaren 1:34.957 +1.674 66
3. K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:36.718 +3.435 82
4. F. Nasr Williams 1:37.569 +4.286 87
5. P. Maldonado Lotus F1 1:38.707 +5.424 59
6. S. Perez Force India 1:39.258 +5.975 19
7. D. Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:39.837 +6.554 15
8. J. Vergne Toro Rosso 1:40.472 +7.189 19
9. K. Kobayashi Caterham 1:43.027 +9.744 17
10. M. Ericsson Caterham 1:45.094 +11.811 4
11. A. Sutil Sauber - - 7
12. J. Bianchi Marussia F1 Team - - 4

 

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F1 Bahrain testing Day 4 highlights HD

F1 Bahrain testing Day 4 highlights HD - YouTube

 

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My first post on TAI. Been F1 fan for ages.

Manufacturers to seal engines by 28th February

Two days after the second Bahrain test starts, on February 28, each manufacturer must homologate a single-specification of its engine. How that relates to the ancillaries like the ERS-K and the ERS-H - well, we need someone like Gary Anderson to explain, but technically, that's it for the rest of the season. However Appendix 4 of the F1 sporting regulations allows modifications after that date for "reliability, safety or cost-saving reasons".

Which means that it's been in the manufacturers' best interest to make the most expensive 1.6 litre V6 turbo they can up until this point, so that any new feature can be presented as "cost saving" as opposed to that dreadful word "performance".

Given that F1 technicians excel in pushing rules as far as they can go, you can imagine that after February 28th Mercedes, Ferrari and especially Renault will be making a lot of cost savings. And its fairly predictable that engines are going to get safer and safer and safer as the season goes on.

Source:Planet F1

 

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My first post on TAI. Been F1 fan for ages.

Hi abhif1, welcome to TAI, feel free to share about your passion and interest for F1 sport

 

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Following the first test at Jerez, Mercedes can again be satisfied after showing strong pace and solid reliability at the first 4 days of testing at Bahrain.

Mercedes impressed its rivals by consistently going fast, experiencing relatively minor issues compared to other teams. Nico Rosberg ended the test for the team, completing 59 laps and setting a 1:33.283, easily the fastest time of the entire week.

 

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Ferrari news:

Raikkonen reckons the team has proven the reliability of its package, but he is yet to get an idea of how Ferrari stacks up against its opposition.

"We're not really so impressive in our lap time but we will see exactly where we are in Australia in the first race," he said.

"From the reliability aspect we are OK, but speed-wise I don't know where we are.

"I think we are not too bad really. There are lots of things to do still, and obviously I know our own situation but I've no idea what the others are doing.

"We'll keep doing our work and hopefully find out we are more or less where we should be."

Raikkonen said Ferrari still needed to work on its engine and improve the set-up of the F14 T.

"It's not too bad. Power-wise we will have to see next week what we can do, but it's not any major issue," he added.

"There are little things we still want to improve and we will just try to understand a little bit the changes and what the car will do.

"It's pretty OK right now, but we want to improve and there is still a long way to go before the season.

"Obviously everything is different [this year] so we are trying to learn. Next week we can put it all together and see where we are."

Source ASF1

 

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Though the Mercedes powered teams are much ahead in laps times, there is a big concern for fuel consumption.

The new V6 turbo engines and advanced energy recovery systems are more fuel efficient than the old V8s, but under the regulations are restricted to just 100 litres of fuel per race - a cut of roughly 35% on last year. Mercedes and McLaren were among the teams attempting a race simulation last week in Bahrain and both Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button said the teams have a long way to go to get the most from the engine over a race distance.

 

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Renault News

Renault confident it can manage a race distance
Renault is confident it will be able to complete a race distance at the Australian Grand Prix, but says there are still certain aspects of a grand prix weekend that its power unit has not been tested for.

Renault's V6 turbo and energy recovery unit has been riddled with issues during pre-season testing, which for the most part have kept its four teams rooted to the bottom of the timesheets. Reliability has also been a problem and none of the Renault-powered teams have completed a race simulation so far.

Nevertheless, when asked by ESPN if he thought the Renault engines will last the distance in Australia, head of trackside operations Remi Taffin said mileage was not the main issue.

"I'm pretty confident we can achieve it," he said. "If we were just going out and completing 60 laps of Melbourne it would be fine. The main thing we have to do is not just the 58 laps, it's the lap to the grid, the starts - it's all the typical things you would go through a race and not the things that you would test normally during this kind of session.

"That is part of the race preparation, which we will be going through tomorrow or the day after [Friday or Saturday]. From tomorrow onwards we will be going through that sort of preparation. We need to go at least once through all these stages to make sure we are not missing anything out, and not arriving at Melbourne and trying to do a start with everything falling apart.

"We'd like to be higher up the ranking, but that's where we are. We are always running different programmes so it's difficult to compare, but the one thing we can say is we can now run our power unit the way we want, we can develop the power unit and we can basically go forwards. The fact that we got a bit late doing this means that it will be difficult for us, but we are still planning to have the racing covered for Melbourne. "

All engine manufacturers have to submit their 2014 power unit specifications to the FIA for homologation on Friday, but Taffin insists Renault is not worried by the looming deadline.

"It's not a concern since we knew it was going to be tomorrow. We are ready to deliver the documents and everything is ready with the specification. We know how we are going to build the engines for Melbourne and that's according to this."

However, Taffin said Renault was clumping together certain upgrades to make sure it gets through its planned programme by the end of testing.

"You put every single modification into the power unit that you've got and you try to do everything at the same time, which is not the normal process. Normally you try to do one thing after the other sequentially and as a matter of trying to speed things up and take away the problems, we try to move up by big steps and sometimes it's a bit more difficult to digest. But that's just the way we need to go if we want to be ready by Melbourne.

"It's not like a lottery because we never go into things that we are not sure of, but we maybe squeeze a few stages in the way we should have done things, but so far it's paying."

Source: Espnf1

 

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Final Test Bahrain Day 1

1. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1m 35.290s, 105 laps
2. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1m 36.184s, 128 laps
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 36.432s, 54 laps
4. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 36.624s, 89 laps
5. Adrian Sutil, Sauber, 1m 37.700s, 89 laps
6. Kevin Magnussen, McLaren, 1m 37.825s, 109 laps
7. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 37.908s, 39 laps
8. Max Chilton, Marussia, 1m 38.610s, 44 laps
9. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1m 39.242s, 56 laps
10. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 40.599s, 31 laps
11. Kamui Kobayashi, Caterham, 1m 42.285s, 19 laps

 

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front wing update from ferrari on final bahrain test

 

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final test day 1 highlights

F1 2014 Bahrain test 2 Day 1 Highlights from SkySports - YouTube

 

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BREAKING NEWS from AMuS about Renault engines..

short version translated:

The deadline for engine suppliers when they have to give the engine to the FIA for Homologation is tonight.

Renault told at the weekend that they have sorted out the biggest problems. But now they have a new topic on the agenda where they want to have a delayed deadline by TWO or THREE months!!!

Seems like they are in big trouble.

There are rumors that Jean Todt and Renault president Carlos Ghosn met already to discuss this topic.
BUT. only one Veto by another team in the strategy group (Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, Lotus, Williams) will stop the delay.

So this will be very interesting.

 

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Force India's Sergio Perez set the fastest time for the second consecutive day at this week's Bahrain test, while Red Bull showed the first signs of a recovery from their disappointing pre-season so far.

Final Test Bahrain Day 2
1. Sergio Perez Force India 1:35.570 108 laps
2. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:35.634 122 laps
3. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:35.743 66 laps
4. Felipe Massa Williams 1:36.507 103 laps
5. Jenson Button McLaren 1:36.901 52 laps
6. Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:38.092 75 laps
7. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:39.041 89 laps
8. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:39.636 61 laps
9. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:39.976 106 laps
10. Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:41.613 31 laps
11. Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:42.516 55 laps

 

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Abu Dhabi GP to stay as only double points race in 2014 after expansion not agreed

Formula 1's controversial new double points system will still only apply to the final race of the 2014 season in Abu Dhabi after a proposal to extend it to cover the final three rounds failed to gain sufficient support.
Despite the double points plan in its original guise already proving hugely unpopular with fans and drivers after it was unexpectedly announced by the FIA before Christmas, a subsequent move supported by F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone had been afoot to try and also apply the rule to the two races before Abu Dhabi on the calendar, the USA and Brazil.

That suggestion was put before the F1 Strategy Group for consideration on Friday but the body voted against extending the system.

 

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Mercedes updates (Engine cover and monkey seat) from jerez and bahrain pre-sesaon test