This forum contains threads to discuss teams themselves. Anything not technical about the cars, including restructuring, performances etc belongs here.
Aside from the aborted first lap lando has looked very fast from the off. Others have built up over more laps. This is a good sign for me.
At this point it seems Oscars race is run this season. Still a chance for him to win it but he is really limping hard to the finish line. Both lando and max will outscore him at every race from here out unless he can sort himself out.
Is it accurate though? The qualifying performance surely must have changed since Monza.
It has changed, but it is an unweighted average. A couple of "bad" qualifyings won't have a significant impact.
Think of all the "zeros" for each McLaren pole this season. Then consider the cases where they didn't get pole. Only 3-4 times it might have been on a gap higher than a tenth.
So pretty much the average qualifying difference was 1 or maximum 2 tenths between Mclaren and Red Bull. Definitely nothing like the huge difference that the RB of 2003 had from the rest of the field.
Nice input there Emag. It has previous years and can certainly show us which car was really dominant.
From what I see 2024 was even closer between Mclaren and Red Bull.
So pretty much the average qualifying difference was 1 or maximum 2 tenths between Mclaren and Red Bull. Definitely nothing like the huge difference that the RB of 2003 had from the rest of the field.
Nice input there Emag. It has previous years and can certainly show us which car was really dominant.
Quali-pace wise the RB19 basically had a gap to Ferrari of that year similar to what the MCL39 has to the RB21 this year.
Race-pace wise though, the RB19 is uncomparable. MCL39 was on track to be similar until Monza but the average has gone up since then. RedBull's nearest rival in race pace (on average) in 2023 was 0.5s back. Tremendous gap. McLaren's has dipped to 0.3s now and probably will go lower until the end of the season.
Missed watching FP3, looked at the timing sheet. Wow.
Verstappen 0.6 behind Norris, on such a short lap. It can't all be engine mode / fuel load, it most likely is a case of inability to maintain the correct tyre temperature on such a hot track. McLaren's tyre temp mastery (remove heat or keep heat as necessary, like a closed loop feedback system) coming to the fore. If the track temps remain similarly 'hot' for Q, it's an easy pole and win for Norris. McLaren has been running with least 'cooling ducts' (I hope car is unchanged w.r.t this today) which means not only their relative drag w.r.t others like Ferrari/Redbull is reduced, but also that their rear downforce structures are working much better than others.
Hopefully that FP3 has settled some nerves in this thread
)) that is something.
