diffuser wrote: ↑15 Jul 2023, 18:17
You mean the " hell yes it's possible to catch Red Bull?"
To me, that just bluster. Nobody is going to say its impossible. But you hear stuff like this coming out of Alpine all the time. Remember when they planned to out develop everyone after preseason and then finish ahead of Mercedes regularly after Monaco? Its just PR, bravado type stuff.
diffuser wrote: ↑15 Jul 2023, 18:17
Most teams switch the design teams over to the next year's car at or around the summer break. Remember most parts will take 8 - 12 weeks to manufacture. So the parts you're making after the break will be completed at the end of October. Some of the design teams might linger for another week or 2 depending on where in the race they are.
We've seen teams literally leap frog them from being almost half a second a lap behind. Merc and Ferrari have significantly overhauled their cars AFTER seeing where they were in the season. Mclaren always was going to switch but AM had such a huge lead over them. Again, it just shows that they haven't been able to identify a route forward. And thats the worrying part.
diffuser wrote: ↑15 Jul 2023, 18:17
They might also have decided that 4th in the constructors is good enough for them, with the move, and McLaren and Alpine have a very slim chance in catching them.
That would be very disappointing. Very Alpine-ish mindset, if thats the case. A team which has confidence to compete for wins should be disappointed by loosing ground from a comfortable 2nd instead of a closing the gap to RB with much more ATR.
diffuser wrote: ↑15 Jul 2023, 18:17
They might have found that they have to change something in the car that can't be done easily in year to improve the highspeed corner thing.
This is a very reasonable possibility. However, reading between the lines, I dont think they have anything specific in mind like that.