Photo: XPB/Edited by autoevolution
After Lewis Hamilton's first day of in-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, it was time for Nico Rosberg to jump behind the wheel of the Mercedes-AMG F1 W05 Hybrid, only this time it was for an entirely different reason.
While Lewis concentrated on setup, aero evaluations, practice starts and control systems evaluation in damp conditions, Nico's test was mostly about the first trial run of the “megaphone exhaust” tailpipe system, with the rest of day being somewhat similar to Lewis'.
For those of you who aren't up to date with the latest developments in Formula One, a lot of fans and and even F1 drivers or team owners have expressed worries about the way that the new turbocharged hybrid power units sound this season.
This, in turn, has made Mercedes-AMG Petronas try and develop a more sonorous exhaust system and Rosberg was the only one to test it so far in yesterday's session.
Apart form looking a bit on the goofy side and getting everyone to talk about its design, the new trumpet exhaust tip was apparently not extraordinary in terms of its actual purpose, at least according to the driver:
“Days like today are so valuable as you can’t really test anything effectively during a race weekend. No one run is the same as another, whereas here you can keep certain variables stable and properly compare things back-to-back. Everyone was talking about the exhaust but to be honest I didn’t notice much difference in the sound. Of course, we’re happy to try these things if that’s what the FIA and the fans want us to do. But perhaps this was not the right solution.
One of the main things we looked at was braking. This is an area where I haven’t felt 100% happy yet this year, so we’re continuously assessing ways to improve on that. We also worked on starts as this has been a bit of a weakness for the team this season. It’s not easy as it’s such a sophisticated procedure and there are some highly complex parts involved like the clutch, for example. But we definitely learned some interesting things.
Other than that it was the usual setup and engine management work that you’d expect at a test. Our aim is to keep increasing any advantage we can find over our rivals and the team is doing a great job of that. Of course, Monaco is up next and that’s a very different, special race. But our car is strong in all areas and I see no reason why we won’t be just as competitive there.”
Nico's best time of 1:25.805 from no less than 102 laps ran during the test put him second on the time sheets, with Lotus' Pastor Maldonado achieving the best time while also not crashing into anyone.
For those of you who aren't up to date with the latest developments in Formula One, a lot of fans and and even F1 drivers or team owners have expressed worries about the way that the new turbocharged hybrid power units sound this season.
This, in turn, has made Mercedes-AMG Petronas try and develop a more sonorous exhaust system and Rosberg was the only one to test it so far in yesterday's session.
Apart form looking a bit on the goofy side and getting everyone to talk about its design, the new trumpet exhaust tip was apparently not extraordinary in terms of its actual purpose, at least according to the driver:
“Days like today are so valuable as you can’t really test anything effectively during a race weekend. No one run is the same as another, whereas here you can keep certain variables stable and properly compare things back-to-back. Everyone was talking about the exhaust but to be honest I didn’t notice much difference in the sound. Of course, we’re happy to try these things if that’s what the FIA and the fans want us to do. But perhaps this was not the right solution.
One of the main things we looked at was braking. This is an area where I haven’t felt 100% happy yet this year, so we’re continuously assessing ways to improve on that. We also worked on starts as this has been a bit of a weakness for the team this season. It’s not easy as it’s such a sophisticated procedure and there are some highly complex parts involved like the clutch, for example. But we definitely learned some interesting things.
Other than that it was the usual setup and engine management work that you’d expect at a test. Our aim is to keep increasing any advantage we can find over our rivals and the team is doing a great job of that. Of course, Monaco is up next and that’s a very different, special race. But our car is strong in all areas and I see no reason why we won’t be just as competitive there.”
Nico's best time of 1:25.805 from no less than 102 laps ran during the test put him second on the time sheets, with Lotus' Pastor Maldonado achieving the best time while also not crashing into anyone.
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