The car is not difficult to drive with the older floors, Look at Perez. His performance recovered almost overnight relative to Ferrari, and Mercedes. He was only 5 seconds behind Piastri in the 1st stint. With the previous package he was fighting with Haas.
Max wasn't happy about the balance either, though. So it seems there is more than just a mere lack of overall performance.AR3-GP wrote: ↑25 Aug 2024, 23:13The car is not difficult to drive with the older floors, Look at Perez. His performance recovered almost overnight relative to Ferrari, and Mercedes. He was only 5 seconds behind Piastri in the 1st stint. With the previous package he was fighting with Haas.
The "difficulty" that is perceived now by Max is what happens when you try to push a car faster than it's capable of going. This makes sense considering they downgraded the floor to a launch spec and he's trying to keep up with a MKIII Mclaren.
The car has always leaned towards understeer since 2022. Max can be unhappy with the balance, but the car can still be "fast". It's just not good enough to fight Mclaren. They beat Ferrari and Mercedes with a launch spec floor, a "bad" balance, and the wrong wings, so it isn't all wrong.
I agree. The regulations intended for it to happen. It cheapens the championship but it is what it is. One may note that none of the backmarker teams have slingshotted upwards but the backmarkers are institutionally deficient. They can't be compared to the capacity of the leading teams. If you give teams like Mclaren, Red Bull, and Mercedes extra windtunnel hours over their rivals, they are going to close that gap quickly.PlatinumZealot wrote: ↑25 Aug 2024, 23:53McLaren is mostly benefiting from copying RedBull so a cheaper RnD investment which is then compounded by the additional wind tunnel time. They are sling shotting off the regulations basically, and will carry that into 2025.
Dr Obbs said that the Bahrain spec floor only got put on Max's car from FP3 onwards. Considering that FP3 was wet, lol. He did 1 lap in FP3 on the intermediates. This was like going into qualy with no prep work. Perhaps things are not so dire after all. I think a lot of the gap could be explained by Mclaren having a completed car that works, and Red Bull currently looks like a team inthe middle of pre-season testing. To qualify 2nd and finish 2nd is not bad at all. They are basically in a full-fledged test session.
On one hand you can say that the result is not so bad considering the circumstances. (glass half full)AR3-GP wrote: ↑26 Aug 2024, 00:18Dr Obbs said that the Bahrain spec floor only got put on Max's car from FP3 onwards. Considering that FP3 was wet, lol. He did 1 lap in FP3 on the intermediates. This was like going into qualy with no prep work. Perhaps things are not so dire after all. I think a lot of the gap could be explained by Mclaren having a completed car that works, and Red Bull currently looks like a team inthe middle of pre-season testing. To qualify 2nd and finish 2nd is not bad at all. They are basically in a full-fledged test session.
Most of the remaining tracks on the calendar should not have rain disruptions and they will have much more time evaluate changes.
I take back my previous reservations. They were not made with consideration for the full picture.
if it provides a new development path, it's not that bad, especially considering the price was only 8 pointsPaa wrote: ↑26 Aug 2024, 01:10On one hand you can say that the result is not so bad considering the circumstances. (glass half full)AR3-GP wrote: ↑26 Aug 2024, 00:18Dr Obbs said that the Bahrain spec floor only got put on Max's car from FP3 onwards. Considering that FP3 was wet, lol. He did 1 lap in FP3 on the intermediates. This was like going into qualy with no prep work. Perhaps things are not so dire after all. I think a lot of the gap could be explained by Mclaren having a completed car that works, and Red Bull currently looks like a team inthe middle of pre-season testing. To qualify 2nd and finish 2nd is not bad at all. They are basically in a full-fledged test session.
Most of the remaining tracks on the calendar should not have rain disruptions and they will have much more time evaluate changes.
I take back my previous reservations. They were not made with consideration for the full picture.
On the other hand these circumstances show that Red Bull is lost and desperate at the moment. Putting the launch spec floor on wet FP3 at the 15th race of the season, sounds super miserable. (glass half empty)