west52keep64 wrote: ↑24 Oct 2021, 23:36
JordanMugen wrote: ↑24 Oct 2021, 23:32
Mercedes' handling was detuned for some reason, they might still be faster elsewhere.
I am not sure why everything thinks the Mercedes is faster? The narrative seems to be that the Mercedes is faster, but at every race there is some reason why it can't be faster. It's getting tiresome. The Red Bull was clearly 3 tenths quicker this weekend, just look at the gap in qualifying, and look at the start of the race on equal tyres.
For the avoidance of doubt "elsewhere", meaning at some other place, and "everywhere else" are different terms!
I would be glad for the Red Bull to be easily faster or dominant everywhere. But, unfortunately, for the most part it does not seem to be case, and when the Red Bull was dominant (e.g., Baku) Verstappen lost the 25 points. IIRC Austria 2 and perhaps Monaco were the only other races where the Red Bull was clearly dominant. As you saw in COTA, that wasn't a dominant 25 second win by Verstappen.
Red Bull have rarely been able to win races cruising and IMHO it would be foolish for Red Bull to not be concerned about Mercedes potentially being faster, be it slightly or by a lot, at one or more upcoming circuits.
A run of five dominant Red Bull victories from pole would be great, but that seems far from a certainty!