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We are on par with Ferrari right now. And being here in Spain, it's a great result so far. Merc is another league. But now we can challenge Ferrari for 2nd WCC
Merc is in another league, but at least we can split the Ferrari. Gasly 3.5 tenths of Max, looking a bit better but wish he could have taken it away from Lecerc.
Anyone know why they did not send Max out for another Q2 run, just to further understand track conditions. Did they not have enough softs?
Something happened at the end of Q3. Everyone's second attempt was up in sector 1 but they all lost a lot of time in S3. I've heard chatter about the track temp rose 2 degrees during Q3 and also a lot of debris, mostly gravel from previous offs.
Max was looking to take 3rd from Vettel if he continued the pace he had. I think Bottas' mega lead is down to this issue. Everyone would of been closer. Hamilton included.
Positives, RBR have definitely closed the gap. They are basically Ferrari level now.
As they were in 2016, it seems it's 2016 all over again. However when Honda cranks up the power by mid season, and Red Bull figures out the tires and aero, even Mercedes can be caught.
It was pretty good result today.
Seems that Gasly improved since Baku .
But 0.5s in sector 3 isn't promising at all for Monaco .. Mercedes are really good on tires and mechanically amazing .
Hard working is waiting the technical team in the tests this week to be real competors in Monaco .
Hoping a podium tomorrow .
As they were in 2016, it seems it's 2016 all over again. However when Honda cranks up the power by mid season, and Red Bull figures out the tires and aero, even Mercedes can be caught.
I dearly, dearly hope so. It is easy to feel deflated, as If nothing ever changes. But in fact, things constantly change. Mercedes has made a big jump forward.
The biggest positive for me is that despite a new engine partner this season Red Bull has held onto their 3rd position and if anything closed the gap to Ferrari
They still need to extract more from their tyres & improve performance in slow corner if they have to close the gap to Mercedes. We saw in the previous race that Max race pace on medium tyres was on par with Bottas & Hamilton when they were operating in the preferred range
Also, Bottas speed advantage was visible in both Q2 and Q3 so I dont think it had anything to do with dirty track. He was 0.8sec quicker than Max in Q2 and same in Q3 as well
Gasly is getting into his groove which is again a plus for the team. Still 0.35 sec behind Max, but with his limited experience in F1 and with Red Bull, it is moving in the right direction for him
This result should be a wake up call
most people including Horner in china have been touting this amazing redbull chassis only been held up by less than ideal pu only Marko have been objective ,the engine is much better than chassis relatively speaking
If we look at STR, the engine is working good. They are fast, RBR needs to solve the issue with slow corners. On the 3rd sector they were losing a lot to Merc
And I noted a thing. Being on track, when downshifting, the PU throws sometimes "bangs"throught the exhaust. It never happened before, maybe they are going more agressive with mappings. Because they only did on the fast laps...
If we look at STR, the engine is working good. They are fast, RBR needs to solve the issue with slow corners. On the 3rd sector they were losing a lot to Merc
Everyone is, they are doing something no one else is doing, that is working the tires better than anyone else in slow corners.
here's a q3 lap by verstappen (P4 - 1.16.357). the car is very good in the corners, but for whatever reason lacks quite a lot of speed on the straights. Especially against ferrari's new engine the deficit has grown noticably.
here's a q3 lap by verstappen (P4 - 1.16.357). the car is very good in the corners, but for whatever reason lacks quite a lot of speed on the straights. Especially against ferrari's new engine the deficit has grown noticably.
