Please, read EVERYTHING!
I was doing this test for a league and it includes only the cars that we use in the league.
How did I test them
The track was Barcelona. Race distance - 25%. Weather - Clear. Sessions: Q+R
I Q'd on Primes and pit on lap 5 for new Options.
Fuel was on Cautious, but I burnt all the fuel on the first 5 laps + the outlap on the options. On the Options, I was on mix 2 with +2 laps of fuel (+1 at the end).
I did 2 tests on Sauber & Toro Rosso as they seemed suspiciously slow. This is why they have "Test 2".
Force India:
- Feels easy to drive.
- Has balanced grip through the corner /balance between turn in and mid corner speed/.
- Brakes a lot better than the Toro Rosso.
- Lacks a little turn in compared to the Toro Rosso.
- Fast in slow corners.
- Traction is ON or OFF - there is a lot traction, but suddenly you lose it with a snap oversteer.
- Lacks a little straight line speed. ~3 kph slower than the Sauber.
- It feels like it's ride height is lower than the Toro Rosso.
- Lacks a little front end grip in high speed corners.
- Very stable rear end.
Fastest Q Lap (Primes): 1.19.491
Perfect Q Lap (For the session): 1.19.436
Perfect Lap (Race): 1.20.596
Fastest Lap (Race): 1.20.657
Mean S1 Time: 22.952
Mean S2 Time: 30.723
Mean S3 Time: 27.766
Fastest S1: 22.777
Fastest S2: 30.397
Fastest S3: 27.422
Toro Rosso:
- Locks up really easy.
- Brakes are uneffective and you need to brake sooner.
- Brake balance needs to be a lot on the back, which makes the car brake even worse.
- Has a lot of turn in and lacks a little mid corner grip (possible fix with setups).
- Great straight line speed. ~2 kph slower than the Sauber.
- Weight balance seems to be too much on the front. (results in random slides from the rear during trailbraking or even normal braking)
- Tyre management is a little below average. Especially the fronts go out quite quickly.
- Overall rear end grip is a little too low.
- Has good traction, but you can't floor it as fast as the Force India.
- Has really good front end grip in high speed corners.
- Has problems going over the curbs. It seems the car's ride height is very low. Probably this is why it's so good in fast corners.
Fastest Q Lap (Primes): 1.19.744
Perfect Q Lap (For the session): 1.19.533
Perfect Lap (Race): 1.20.776
Fastest Lap (Race): 1.20.972
Mean S1 Time: 22.898
Mean S2 Time: 30.694
Mean S3 Time: 27.825
Fastest S1: 22.748
Fastest S2: 30.388
Fastest S3: 27.589
========================= Test 2 =========================
Fastest Q Lap (Primes): 1.19.391
Perfect Q Lap (For the session): 1.19.276
Perfect Lap (Race): 1.19.941
Fastest Lap (Race): 1.21.082
Mean S1 Time: 22.908
Mean S2 Time: 30.702
Mean S3 Time: 27.809
Fastest S1: 22.800
Fastest S2: 30.500
Fastest S3: 27.641
Sauber:
- Has average brakes, but I felt I need more front balance.
- Mid corner understeer & too much turn in (possible fix with setups).
- INCREDIBLE straight line speed.
- Has bad traction.
- Very good front end in slow speed corners, but exit speed from them is lower due to lack of traction.
- Not the easiest car to drive by far.
- With the average brakes, you get average lock up rate as well. It's not easy to lock up, but it's definitely not hard to do it as well.
- Trailbraking is fairly easy.
- You don't get rear end randomly sliding, but it's easy to slide on the traction zone.
- Faster than the Williams in mid speed corners.
- Manages the tyres very well, but it's fastest laptime isn't the best. Results in incredible consistency through the stint.
- Has quite good weight balance. Weights more at the front.
Fastest Q Lap (Primes): 1.19.630
Perfect Q Lap (For the session): 1.19.416
Perfect Lap (Race): 1.20.825
Fastest Lap (Race): 1.21.043
Mean S1 Time: 22.863
Mean S2 Time: 30.786
Mean S3 Time: 27.790
Fastest S1: 22.730
Fastest S2: 30.528
Fastest S3: 27.567
========================= Test 2 =========================
Fastest Q Lap (Primes): 1.19.554
Perfect Q Lap (For the session): 1.19.524
Perfect Lap (Race): 1.20.819
Fastest Lap (Race): 1.20.819
Mean S1 Time: 22.789
Mean S2 Time: 30.703
Mean S3 Time: 27.838
Fastest S1: 22.730
Fastest S2: 30.508
Fastest S3: 27.581
Williams:
- Has INCREDIBLE brakes. Balance should go to the middle (50-50).
- Has a lot better exit speed of slow corners than the Sauber.
- Overall low-speed corners speed is really good.
- Has really good straight line speed. ~1 kph slower than the Sauber.
- Has great traction, but lacks FEEL of traction. It understeers too much & you sometimes can't judge good enough and lose it.
- Manages the tyres quite badly. Very good laptimes through the stint, but at the last few laps, it is a tenth or two slower than the Sauber.
- Very easy to drive. You can be very aggressive on both the pedals and the wheel.
- Mistakes are easily fixable. (If you outbrake yourself for example, you won't lose that much time.)
- Has really good weight balance. It weights a little more on the back, but not big difference.
- INCREDIBLY stable rear end. You'll have hard time sliding the rear, even on purpose.
Fastest Q Lap (Primes): 1.19.440
Perfect Q Lap (For the session): 1.19.379
Perfect Lap (Race): 1.20.726
Fastest Lap (Race): 1.20.792
Mean S1 Time: 22.841
Mean S2 Time: 30.642
Mean S3 Time: 27.802
Fastest S1: 22.759
Fastest S2: 30.408
Fastest S3: 27.559
Mercedes:
- Has really good balance. Best balanced car (front:rear) from all I tested.
- Lacks traction by a VERY small amount.
- Has a really good turn in (not too much, not too little).
- Lacks a little mid-corner speed.
- Has a little uneffective brakes. Balance should go slightly to the rear. (49-51 for example)
- Has INCREDIBLE consistency. The most consistent car!
- Manages the tyres incredibly well as well.
- Lacks a little when it comes down to fastest lap of the race, but doesn't fall down at the end of the stint.
- Lacks a little straight line speed. ~3 kph slower than Sauber.
Fastest Q Lap (Primes): 1.19.496
Perfect Q Lap (For the session): 1.19.490
Perfect Lap (Race): 1.20.841
Fastest Lap (Race): 1.20.988
Mean S1 Time: 22.927
Mean S2 Time: 30.617
Mean S3 Time: 27.770
Fastest S1: 22.789
Fastest S2: 30.485
Fastest S3: 27.567
Lotus:
- Has quite a lot of understeer.
- I felt like it had VERY LITTLE lack of grip.
- Balanced cornering speed (turn in & mid corner).
- Uneffective brakes.
- Consistency is pretty good. Not like the Mercedes, but it was decent.
- Traction is average.
- Trail-braking is quite hard with it, because front end just doesn't want to turn in while braking.
- It wasn't really good with the tyres, but not very bad as well. A little below average I'd say.
- Lacks in terms of fastest lap of the race.
- Overall, the slowest car in the Race by quite a lot.
- Lacks a little top speed compared to the Sauber. ~3 kph slower from it.
Fastest Q Lap (Primes): 1.19.476
Perfect Q Lap (For the session): 1.19.247
Perfect Lap (Race): 1.20.876
Fastest Lap (Race): 1.21.007
Mean S1 Time: 22.944
Mean S2 Time: 30.658
Mean S3 Time: 27.843
Fastest S1: 22.807
Fastest S2: 30.476
Fastest S3: 27.595
Caterham:
- Slight understeer.
- Overall, not a bad balance, but like I said - could be slightly better at the front.
- Trail-braking is pretty easy. BUT!!!!
- Trail-braking's problem is that, like in the Toro Rosso, the rear end wants to slide while doing it, so you have to keep on the brakes even after you've finished trail-braking.
- Brakes are quite effective. Balance should be around the middle (50-50)
- Consistency isn't the best.
- Was quite good with the tyres.
- Lacks a little top speed. ~2 to 3 kph slower than the Sauber.
Fastest Q Lap (Primes): 1.19.456
Perfect Q Lap (For the session): 1.19.410
Perfect Lap (Race): 1.20.841
Fastest Lap (Race): 1.20.897
Mean S1 Time: 22.886
Mean S2 Time: 30.701
Mean S3 Time: 27.815
Fastest S1: 22.830
Fastest S2: 30.420
Fastest S3: 27.591
My personal thoughts of each car:
Force India: I never believed this car would be so fast. It is quite smooth, easy to drive. Has really good race pace on both Options & Primes. Lacks a little when it comes down to Qualifying pace. I think it will do really good in the rain as well. Overall, I'd say the 2nd fastest car. It was easy to trail-brake with it and it was quite consistent. Has a slight problem going over curbs, but it's not as big as the Toro Rosso's.
Toro Rosso: This car has the most downforce at the front from the cars I tested. It has an advantage when it comes down to high speed corners, but it gets unsettled easily from curbs. It has really good Qualifying pace, but lacks quite a lot Race pace. I'd say this is the 2nd biggest disappointment from me. I expected it to be a top 3 car. Mistakes in this car are made really easy. I actually spun on my 2nd test, which was surprising as I built incredible consistency while doing these tests. But the biggest problem I got with this car was the trail braking. You have to brake a little earlier and not push the pedal as hard as you would in the other cars. It gets worse, if you don't hold it for longer, your rear end will most likely randomly lose grip in the middle of it and you'll lose massive amounts of time. That's the biggest problem of this car from my point of view.
Sauber: This car has unbelievable straight line speed. You just can't catch it on a straight. The problem is, it lacks traction massively and it lacks overall grip. In the corners, it is quite slow. Brakes are quite effective, but as the speed you reach is higher, you need to brake a little earlier than with other cars. Gets some time to get used to. Qualifying pace is average. Race pace is really bad in terms of fastest lap of the race, altho it has quite good consistency through the whole stint. Biggest disappointment from me. Expected it to be the best car.
Williams: For me, the best car from all I tested. It understeers, which doesn't suit me. I tested it in 2 AM, was sleepy and I still managed to do some really good laptimes in it. It has a lot of potential. If you make a mistake, it's very easy to correct it. It has the most effective brakes from all cars. Tyre management is quite bad tho. Especially fronts go out quite quickly. That's the ONLY problem with this car I can think of.
Mercedes: I was expecting this car to be really bad, I won't lie. Turned out to be the car with the best feel. It has simply AMAZING balance. It is the best of these cars at managing tyres as well. So you'd ask, what's the problem with this car. Well, it just lacks some grip. Without that, I think this would be the best car.
Lotus: Like the Mercedes, I expected it to be really bad. I know it's a top 3 worst car and it actually feels. It had amazing Q pace, but when I started the Race, I knew it wasn't good. It felt like a heavily understeering Mercedes. It was just understeering like a bus! It has problems with tyre wear as well. Brakes are terrible, even with the low speed it reaches, it has big issues slowing down and it even locks up quite easy. The worst car in the Race by quite a lot.
Caterham: After the Lotus, it felt quite good. It had a little understeer, but nothing like the Lotus. I was surprised that it is actually faster (by ~0.5 kph) in a straight line than the Force India,Mercedes and so on. Anyway, it has a little problem with the brakes. They feel like the Toro Rosso's brakes. You have to keep on them longer while trailbraking, if you don't want to spin. Which, of course, loses time. Overall this car didn't feel that bad.
