P I T & PA D D O C K
WorldMags.net
Jonathan Noble
F1’s newshound
ou rarely find anything in Formula 1 upon which
every team will agree. But, as the garage doors
came down at the end of testing in Barcelona last
Sunday, signalling the end of track action until free
practice at the Australian Grand Prix, there was pretty
much universal consensus about one thing.
The best has got better this year. Mercedes is
everyone’s out-and-out favourite for early glory.
Barring an unexpected incident or disastrous
mechanical failure, no one in F1 is expecting anything
other than a front low lock-out for Nico Rosberg and
Lewis Hamilton in Melbourne.
For much of testing the silver cars have focused
o n tyre evaluation, long runs and aerodynamic
measurements, giving as little as possible away about
the W06 Hybrid’s relative performance. Then a stunning
soft-tyre run from Rosberg last Friday afternoon, 1.2
seconds faster than the next closest man – Valtteri
Bottas in the Williams, also on the soft tyres – made
everyone sit up and take notice of just how much of an
advantage Mercedes could have.
When Jenson Button was told that Rosberg had
complained about being unhappy with how his car felt
on that quick lap, all he could do was smile.
“I think he might be a bit spoiled, that one,” said the
2009 champion. “Mercedes is miles in front of anyone.”
Most worrying for the opposition is that Mercedes led
the Barcelona times without ever trying the supersofts.
Y
Regardless of what the official communications say,
the early phase of McLaren and Honda’s renewed
relationship has not been as productive as either team
or engine manufacturer would have liked. Niggling
reliability problems – allied to Fernando Alonso’s
crash – have hampered it hugely and it is heading in
to the year well behind schedule.
Few yardsticks could have provided such indubitable
proof of how disrupted McLaren’s winter has been than
the fact that Force India managed just 31 miles fewer
with its new VJM08 than McLaren did with the MP4-30
during all of pre-season testing. The VJM08 only arrived
with two-and-a-half days of running left.
McLaren may well be facing some tough times at the
start of the campaign, but still there remains a feeling
that when the ingredients properly come together, the
results will be good. On track we have seen very little of
the full potential of the car and engine. But off track
there are good clues about just why there remains this
mood of quiet confidence at McLaren about what can be
achieved in the latter stage of the campaign – despite
the present headaches.
Button and Alonso have both talked of promise in the
package, but it was Kevin Magnussen who gave us some
more solid insight in Barcelona last weekend about just
why there is this positivity.
It’s all down to the car. Comparing the MP4-30 with
its predecessor, he said: “It is not an evolution of last
‘‘There could easily be another few tenths in the
W06 even if it was running on fuel vapours”
Its winter-topping best lap was done on softs – so there
could easily be another few tenths in the W06 even if it
was running on fuel vapours…
While stunning one-off laps never tell the true story
of testing, the longer-run data is just as promising for
Mercedes. Race simulations from Williams, Red Bull and
Ferrari all appeared quite close at times – but they were
around 0.7 seconds per lap adrift of what Mercedes was
capable of. That’s not the sort of gap that is going to be
closed down in the short term.
Testing might have given us a firm answer about
what is going to happen at the front of the grid for
Melbourne, but it has also left plenty of questions
about how the competitive picture is going to develop
elsewhere. In fact, the unshakeable conviction of how
F1 is going to shape up for Mercedes at the start of the
year is in complete contrast to the total uncertainty
we have about what McLaren is going to be capable
of by the end of the season.
year’s car, it feels completely different. It is very
consistent, very predictable, and very smooth in a way.
Just driveable. Whereas last year’s car probably had more
downforce, it was much more sharp, on the limit and
unpredictable. On many occasions that was a problem,
because when you wear out your tyres and the rear starts
to move around more, you want a predictable car. This
year’s car is more smooth and predictable and driveable.”
It’s the best confirmation yet that chief engineer
Peter Prodromou’s influence in abandoning McLaren’s
old mantra of chasing ultimate theoretical downforce
could be ready to pay off in delivering a car that its
drivers can use at the limit. There is a long way to go for
the boys in Woking still, and even making the chequered
flag is going to be achievement in the early races.
Right now, Mercedes is setting F1’s benchmark for
pace and reliability once again. It’s just a question of
how long it is going to take the opposition, including
McLaren, to make up the gap – if they can.
WorldMags.net
MARCH 5 2015 AUTOSPORT.COM 7
7
Mercedes is still the pacesetter, but a mood of
quiet optimism surrounds McLaren even
though its new car has yet to deliver