I liked the helmet cam view but that big clunky camera on the front shock cover sure was distracting.

Still adjusting to seeing Ric in yellow.
The sound quality on that was pretty bad, but glad to have the cars running again!

First look at the cars (minus Williams) on track:




Link to original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY3JwfLdXNM

Testing times, Day 1:
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps
1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1m18.161s | 169
2 | Carlos Sainz | McLaren | 1m18.558s | +0.397 | 119
3 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1m19.159s | +0.998 | 65
4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m19.426s | +1.265 | 124
5 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 1m19.462s | +1.301 | 114
6 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1m19.635s | +1.474 | 77
7 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point | 1m19.944s | +1.783 | 30
8 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1m20.127s | +1.966 | 69
9 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m20.135s | +1.974 | 81
10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1m20.980s | +2.819 | 64
11 Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 1m20.983s | +2.822 | 44

What's your pre-season guesses?

Another Mercedes dominant season?
Ferrari with an upset?
Miracle Honda power from the RBR?

I think Ferrari is going to finally after getting their stuff together take it to Mercedes, I think they’ve closed the engine/power gap and have the upper hand with aero.

Mercedes is going to falter with the new aero regs with the front wing and rear wing haveing not improved enough with their engine.

I think Red Bull will have the power but there will be reliability issues with the Honda engine.

Renault will have sorted their stuff with engine just when the Bulls switched and overtake/fight the Bulls.

Alfa Romeo will fight with Haas for best of the rest.

Those are my off the cuff thoughts after day one of testing. Yay!!! F1 is back! Forza Ferrari!!!!

DRS failure for Ricciardo, lest to top flap of the rear wing, causing a spin & nearly into the wall.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
What's your pre-season guesses?

RBR finish 4th in constructors championship.

quote:

Originally posted by 280nosler:

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
What's your pre-season guesses?

RBR finish 4th in constructors championship.

Mercedes & Ferrari in 1/2, who's your 3rd place finisher?

I think it's going to be a good fight for 'best of the rest' this year.
Alfa, Renault, Racing Point, Haas.

We'll see come Australia how the Honda power fares. Sadly, seems Williams will be fighting for last again, barring some miracle. Hopefully McLaren has a good year.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:

quote:

Originally posted by 280nosler:

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
What's your pre-season guesses?

RBR finish 4th in constructors championship.

Mercedes & Ferrari in 1/2, who's your 3rd place finisher?

I think it's going to be a good fight for 'best of the rest' this year.
Alfa, Renault, Racing Point, Haas.

We'll see come Australia how the Honda power fares. Sadly, seems Williams will be fighting for last again, barring some miracle. Hopefully McLaren has a good year.

I hadn't thought about it, but my gut says Renault, even though Alfa may surprise many people. Ferrari ever have three teams they are proving data with, so I would not count them out. I took a prop bet (9:2) that RBR uses 5 engines over the 21 race season. Given both Honda cars last year used 6, and RBR used the most of any Renault engine car, I felt it was a good bet.

I think Ferrari and Merc will be top two (not that order), Renault, RBR, Alfa, Hass, Racing point, STR and Williams.

If RBR does finish 4th, I expect the team to quit/sell in 2020. Williams may close down if they finish last again this year. They are a public company listed on the Frankfort exchange, and lost money last year, and Patrick Head acknowledged that they would close if there were no budget cap in place and they finished last two years in a row (Forbes article from April 2018). Their estimated F1 winnings (total, non sponsorship) are estimated to have dropped from $79 MM in 2017 to just $55 MM in 2018 as a result of finishing 5th in 2017 to dead last in 2018. Their points scored dropped from 83 in 2017 to 7 in 2018.

Another bad year will kill that team. Keep in mind, in 2015 they finished third and used their $96 million in winnings to keep their car development going in 2016. They have lost significant ground every year since.

Their points earned over the past four years look like this:
2015 - 258 (3rd)
2016 - 138 (5th)
2017 - 83 (5th)
2018 7 (10th)

quote:

I hadn't thought about it, but my gut says Renault, even though Alfa may surprise many people.

This is what I'm thinking also...especially with the Aussie wanting to spank the Dutchman

New F1 Netflix movie looks interesting
preview:

https://youtu.be/OCMDH_at1_o

quote:

Originally posted by Mutiny:
New F1 Netflix movie looks interesting
preview:

https://youtu.be/OCMDH_at1_o [FLASH_VIDEO] [/FLASH_VIDEO]

Semantics, but it's a 10-part series. Looking forward to it.

Now that the first four days are done it looks like Ferrari and Mercedes are still likely to be the front runners. Not surprising.
The Red Bull and Renault are looking decent so far and maybe the Alfa and McLaren too.
The midfield looks like everybody else at this point, except the Williams, that hasn't run enough to tell. Looking tough for them right now.
Next test should give a little better indication and maybe everyone will make more qualifying type runs. They have been on a mix of compounds and fuel levels so far.

And everyone's accusing everyone of sandbagging....true colors to fly come quali in Melbourne.

21 days.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
21 days.

I guess we'll have to wait to Australia to see what's for real.
Just about every team has been at or near the best times other than Williams and they aren't that far back considering everything.
Maybe tomorrow someone will really turn it up. Most of the cars have reasonable reliability too.
Nice to see McLaren going quicker and showing some signs of real progress.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
I guess we'll have to wait to Australia to see what's for real.
Just about every team has been at or near the best times other than Williams and they aren't that far back considering everything.
Maybe tomorrow someone will really turn it up. Most of the cars have reasonable reliability too.
Nice to see McLaren going quicker and showing some signs of real progress.

Nice to see McLaren run so many laps. 130 today while being at top on C4 tires. But agreee, need to wait for Melbourne

Australian GP Tire Allocations