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I wouldn't write off the Redbull just yet. They have a habit of bouncing back and when they do they just demolish the opposition. We're only 3 races in, long way to go yet.
Bahrain Grand Prix 2014, Sakhir - Race 3/19
- Thread starter Shimmy
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I wouldn't write off the Redbull just yet. They have a habit of bouncing back and when they do they just demolish the opposition. We're only 3 races in, long way to go yet.
Caporegime
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The team has had problems for years. Look at Merc for comparison. They've been building their team over the past 3 years after it got basically taken to pieces in 2009. They were building towards a fully staffed up, fully focused and budgeted team for this years car. Mclaren have made big changes over winter but it will take Ron a while to work out what changes are required, and Boullier and likely some team changes throughout this season and I think they'll struggle over the next couple years before hopefully having things in place to get back to being competitive.
Though Honda could potentially accelerate that, if Honda engine is awesome it could have an advantage no one else has. It could be worse than all the other engines though.
They did have clutch failures in both cars, such a issue will likely hit most teams at some stage this year. Williams had truly awful tire deg issues this race, akin to Merc in the past few years. Potentially fast but huge huge tire issues in race. Without the safety car they could have both been looking at an extra stop of VERY slow final laps to be honest. Bottas pitted on 10, 26 and around the 40 lap mark I think. Massa went longer on both stints but tried to undercut the last one which was a mental and awful tactical choice. Undercut when your cars are struggling to do 10 laps on the tires, so cut a stint short and lengthen the final stint. Safety car probably saved their day.
Moldonado's nose never caused that.
Caporegime
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Mostly that they are ready for change, change won't always be good, but they certainly needed a change in management and they've made it and committed to further changes when they work out what they want. Hopefully they'll make the right changes. Ultimately I think if they stuck with the setup they had in the past 3 years, they wouldn't be competitive in the next 5 years.
Their only chance to be competitive again any time soon(2-3 years though still) is to make some big changes and Ron has stepped up and started the process.
Whilst true, it's a gradual erosion.
Last year tyres were compromised, before that there were other aero changes, no refuelling etc.
I personally don't care as long as everyone is under the same rules.
Doesn't prove anything, but he's good at what he does and if he doesn't improve the team I'll be surprised. He runs a very tight ship. and should see an end to the hundreds of mistakes they've made over the last 4 and a bit years.
Caporegime
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But then, if he did what Grosjean did, he could have gone over the car and right into Guti's face. I think Guti would prefer a flip than a car to the face. I heard his reaction on the radio again, it's still epic, calm kid like voice "errm, what was that"....
I don't think there is really going to be a great and safe way to smash into another car, particularly from the side like Grosjean's big smash into Alonso and Maldonado today(far less severe and much less reckless than Grosjean's, a team where both drivers should not be in F1, and now a car to match, and I loved Lotus (- Grosjean) last year).
As said it had nothing to do with the nose, it was a wheel on wheel issue, which is the same as always.
Yeah I guess we will never know how much harder vettel could have gone but when those two mercs went head to head the gap was worrying. Mansell 92 worrying for the rest of the pack.
I wouldn't write off the Redbull just yet. They have a habit of bouncing back and when they do they just demolish the opposition. We're only 3 races in, long way to go yet.
It's going to come down to Renault I think not red bull. There doesn't look a lot wrong with the car except power. The only people I can see closing the gap are other merc teams
Indeed the safety with the new nose definitely seems dodgy. The new nose was designed to make rear end shunts safer however it seems to have come at the cost of more dangerous side crashes...
Seems to me it would make more sense to keep the noses at the previous hight and put in place restrictions on the rear end of cars to achieve the same thing?
Yeah I guess we will never know how much harder vettel could have gone but when those two mercs went head to head the gap was worrying. Mansell 92 worrying for the rest of the pack.
The only glimmer of hope for other teams, is that its one of the strongest engine races with bug straights and slow corners. Meaning it's one if the most flattering tracks for the car. So maybe just 1secind a lap faster at other tracks.
Yeah I guess we will never know how much harder vettel could have gone but when those two mercs went head to head the gap was worrying. Mansell 92 worrying for the rest of the pack.
He'd probably run them off the road like he done so well today and like past years.
It doesn't look wheel on wheel with the angles I have seen. Sure the front right left bumps his rear right but at that angle I have never seen a car flipped like that. I sure the combination of the nose had something to do with it.
Years of design. Mercedes have been focusing on this year for the past 3 years. Everything about the Merc car is miles ahead, the way the power unit and engine are integrated into the design of the car is giving them a huge advantage. The seemingly poor design on the Renault engine seems to be compounding the issue.
Sky did a nice clip highlighting the strengths of the Mercedes car compared to the competition and it really was shocking how far ahead they are right now. The worst part is the major design flaw in the non Merc cars can't be rectified during the season.
Mercedes are going to white wash the season, and tbh they deserve it they planned much better for this season then any other team and that's the way F1 works.
In the post race they did the thing on the nice sky screen. It was wheel on wheel. there's been plenty of times wheel on wheel has come close to that, and it was a much harder crash than a normal racing one.
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This is why I'm looking forward to McLaren next year. As I feel they're doing the same, hence Honda returning late, taking Magnuson over Pérez, get him settled and experienced, Ron back.
I was never expecting McLaren to do that well this year, but wasn't expecting them this poor, especially as the merc engine is so good.
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