Hi guys,
long time member but scarce poster dropping by! Hope everyone's well and keen about the new season as I am!
I just wanted to share a thought I had just now about Mercedes.
I'm sitting here watching some races from 2012 and 2013, and Mercedes are horrible on their tires. Contrasting that to 2014, and I'm lead to think that it's more than just their epic engine that made the difference.
My mind cast back to their illegal tire test with Pirelli:
https://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/06/04/ ... tyre-test/
They only got banned from a young driver test, which seemed quite lenient, but has set a benchmark for similar penalties.
Do we think that it might be worth teams doing another similarly unrestricted test to try and kick start their seasons in the future? Or has the understanding of tires and aero (or use of the relevant sensors) come to a point that tests like this aren't as effective?