Liking the look of this apart from that huge black fin. Wtf is that all about ?

 

Hamilton taking the new car out for the first time today ...

 

The Merc coke bottle looks by far the tightest of the cars this year. I think they're going to walk it. Prodromou has already said it looks tasty (Merc have invested a lot of hours into their design).

Speaking of McLaren the orange makes it look like an old Arrows. Honda reckon they'll be as good as the final Merc 2016 engine although many think that engine was sandbagged in terms of development such was their superiority.

So that's aero and engines to Merc. It's all up to Valteri to perform otherwise Hamilton will run away with it.

 

The Mercedes certainly looks good, but the Red Bull hasn't broken surface yet and I fully expect it, certainly visually and hopefully perofrmace wise, to give the Merc a run for it money.

Also remember F1 teams are notorious for not bolting all their trick pieces to launch cars (though there is no getting away from how tightly packaged the W08 is).

 

Oh yeah, looking at a few of the teams front wings they were very basic. None have on the downforce generating appendages for brake ducts either. I expect, as you say and as per usual, that there will be completely different cars that turn up in Melbourne at the end of March!

As for Red Bull, Renault are saying their new PU is worth 3/10ths per lap. It's not going to be enough.

 

There's already a Ferrari protest relating to the Mercedes and Red Bull suspension planned for Melbourne...

 

Anybody else going to the Barcelona testing ?

I'll be there Tuesday and Wednesday.

 

Yeah but I can't see how it's going to work. Something such as 'self leveling suspension' would have surely been checked with the FIA. It's just another Ferrari protest for sour grapes.

 

So, Mercedes charging around, over 100 laps so far today, McLaren Honda's single installation lap provokes the need for an engine change. Gremlins have also been at the Red Bull.

 

More engine trouble for McLaren today - engine lost power and stopped. Stoffel did manage to get a good wedge of laps in though. Engine is being changed.