The first round of pre-season testing is now complete, and 10 of the 11 new chassis have hit the track.  We've already looked at Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Williams in the first miniMegaPr0n, and Haas got its own entry because they're just that darn cool.  This installment will look at four of the remaining teams.  "But Wonderduck," I hear you wail, and I think you need a little tuning, you seem a tad flat, "why not all six?"  Well, that's simple.  Toro Rosso is running an all-black testing livery that is totally impossible to pick any details out of from the pictures available, and Sauber hasn't debuted their 2016 car at all.  So four it is!

So enjoy these on-track snaps and amateur analysis from the duck with the best grasp of F1 in the world, yours truly.  And I can make that claim because what other duck is going to disagree with me in a way anybody could understand?


Renault RS16

As previously reported, the RS16 was a very late design.  Lotus, the team that Renault bought out at the end of the season, had roughly zero budget for things like spare parts for the cars or food for the crew, they certainly didn't have the cash to work on a follow-up design for last year's E23.  Thus, Renault had nothing to work with when they took over.  What we've got here is an E23 modified to fit the new tech regs, and a rear completely reworked to accept a Renault, as opposed to a Mercedes, power unit.  The team is already saying they'll be putting new bodywork on the chassis for the next test, and there'll probably be different stuff by the first race.  So yeah, here's a car, don't get used to it, let's move on, shall we?

Red Bull RB12

Ladies and gentlemen, Formula 1 has discovered the concept of matte finishes.  This can only end in tears.  Last year's RB11 was probably the best aerodynamic chassis on the grid in 2015, so it probably should come as no surprise that the RB12 is just an evolved version of the prior year.  The major differences are to the sidepods, which are slightly smaller, and to the rear suspension, which has a completely new layout.  The very late "decision" to use the Renault engine means that the team is still playing catch-up at that end of the car, but since the RB11 was no slouch, there's probably no great emergency there.  Really, the main problem Red Bull had last season was having the horsepower of a Renault Sandero.  If that gets fixed, the RB12 will be a Mercbeater.  If it doesn't, no amount of bodywork will make a difference.



Force India VJM09

This is going to sound like a broken record, but the VJM09 is just a slightly version of the B-spec VJM08 used to contest the second half of 2015's races.  There's a few reasons for that.  One, the tech regs are changing rather drastically in 2017.  Two, the teams we're looking at here are (save for Red Bull) running on a tighter budget than the Big Four.  Force India came right out and said it: "it didn't seem like a good use of resources to start from scratch on a design with such a short lifespan."  In other words, if they could throw buckets of money at the design like Ferrari or Mercedes, they would, but they couldn't.  Thus we get a VJM09 that has even fewer changes than the RB12.  Still, in 2015 Force India finished 5th in the Constructor's Championship, and that's nothing to sneer at.  They were also the fastest one day of the first Pre-season test, which means nothing but still looks good. 

Manor MRT05

First off, let me thank Manor, which was called Marussia last year, for actually using bright colors in their livery this season.  There's only so much silver, black, grey, pewter, dark charcoal, and nega-white you can take.  Oh, the car itself?  It should come as no surprise that Manor has the smallest budget on the grid.  As a result, they have to be very picky about what they change from year to year.  That's why they're using a long low nose instead of the short ones on, say, the Red Bull: it worked last year.  And here's the thing: they had one HUGE change to deal with.  In 2016, the team is switching from the 2014 Ferrari engine they ran in 2015, to the 2016 Mercedes engine.  That means while the mounting points are identical (per the tech regs), the rest of the power unit is laid out completely differently, and that means the back of the car needs more attention than the rest.  Much like Haas is using Ferrari suspensions, Manor is using a Williams gearbox, rear suspension and brake ducts.  Merc engine, Williams gearbox?  That should be interesting.  Hopefully they can be more than backmarkers this year.

I gather Sauber revealed a picture of their 2016 car; I'm going to wait until there's more info available to cover them and Toro Rosso.  Until then, everybody!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:05 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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