Absolutely, it’s far from RB’s only advantage or even their main one. But you might argue that, without the stronger DRS effect (Peter Windsor showed that RB were gaining 4 kph additional over Ferrari under DRS), Ferrari’s (or rather Leclerc’s) one lap margin would have been greater (let’s say 3 tenths, rather than 2).Xyz22 wrote: ↑29 Apr 2023, 01:51One of RB advantages. The other (the main one) is that their car is so stable in race trim. The balance has been so much better than the Ferrari and you can see how easy is for Max to push safely without taking too many risks. Ferrari drivers need to be much more cautious in order to protect the tyres and in some cases, like Jeddah, the car was just extremely slow. The RB 18 and 19 reminds me of the Ferrari 2002 which wasn't unbeatable in qualifying, but it was in race trim.f1316 wrote: ↑28 Apr 2023, 23:19In some ways isn’t this encouraging for Ferrari?
It won’t be good if Max is <1 sec behind in the race - I’m sure he’ll sail by - but if one of RB’s advantages is under DRS, which can be used during twice in quali and Leclerc still ended up faster, then on a normal (non-DRS) race lap wouldn’t this favour Ferrari? I.e. an advantage of RB’s is taken away.
If that’s the case, that in principle might given them more of an offset against any tyre advantage RB may have. That said, you would imagine ferrari would be comparatively better on tyres (or less bad) if, as it appeared in Leclerc’s hands, the overall balance was better.