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From motorsport.comVerstappen: Mercedes alone in understanding 2019 cars well
Although the Dutchman’s Red Bull team has made progress with an update in Spain this weekend – which helped him split the two Ferraris to take fourth on the grid – Verstappen says his team is still not where it wants to be.
And though the team is slowly getting on top of the issues that hurt it at the beginning of the season, Verstappen thinks the complexity of the 2019 cars has made finding ways to improve more difficult than in the past.
“I'm not a designer, I just try to drive as quick as I can,” said Verstappen, when asked if there was a chance Red Bull could close the gap on Mercedes this season.
“If it would be all that easy to understand, then every race we would improve the car. At the moment this year, I think in general, the cars are not that easy to understand [in] how to make them a lot faster.
“Well, Mercedes seems to understand, but I think in general all the other ones as well, we've all been struggling a bit more
Verstappen has played down talk that the team was held back by balance issues early in the campaign, as he said key to the RB15’s progress is simply in adding more downforce.
“Well, I was never really struggling with the balance window. I was just driving to the limit of the car,” he said. “If I would go faster, I would just drift off the track - I never really had massive oversteer, massive understeer, except Bahrain where we had the set-up mistake.
“I think we upgraded it and the car is again a bit quicker, although just general grip, it's still not where we want it to be.
He added: “Mercedes was just too quick all weekend, and I think we did a good job to at least get one Ferrari. Because even they looked a little bit too quick after FP3 as well.”
Asked if it was depressing that Mercedes had been able to make gains to pull even further ahead, Verstappen said: “Well I've never seen anything else in Formula 1…
“For me it's not depressing. We're just very motivated and determined to try and close the gap, but it's not easy. If it was that easy, you would have a lot of people and a lot of teams in F1.”
How much speed against Merc and Ferrari? You posted the lap with telemetry on RBR, do you have one with Merc and Ferrari?Juzh wrote: ↑11 May 2019, 20:16here'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.
https://streamable.com/xgiez
https://streamable.com/xgiez
We know the Honda isn't on the same level as Ferrari and Mercedes in power. It is just better then the Renault at the moment. The Red Bull was running the big wings as well were they not.Datco wrote: ↑11 May 2019, 21:03How much speed against Merc and Ferrari? You posted the lap with telemetry on RBR, do you have one with Merc and Ferrari?Juzh wrote: ↑11 May 2019, 20:16here'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.
https://streamable.com/xgiez
https://streamable.com/xgiez
Where did you get this garbage from. Everybody in Red Bull has been hyping up the Honda and saying that they need to improve the rb15. Bringing forward the new engine in baku has forced Ferrari and Renault's hands with their PU upgrades. Considering it is the first year in the RB chassis the combination is doing a great job. This is another reason why I don't understand why they just didn't get rid of Renault for the 2018 season. They probably would have been able to keep Daniel if he could see the Honda powering him to victories and pole positions.
No, it's the War of Cash. There is no way anyone can compete longer with a massive budget MB drops into F1. It's so funny, when other teams talk about ''great updates'' for specific races - that's the order of magnitude MB brings in for almost every race. And then retarded FIA comes in with change of rules, which only helps those team with biggest budgets.HPD wrote: ↑12 May 2019, 00:17The sector 3 of Mercedes is simply unreachable for RB-Honda and Ferrari.
It does not matter what engine you have.
In my opinion this is a war of who understands these tires better. And Mercedes are obviously the best.
http://i66.tinypic.com/x2l8ie.png
Don;t overlook the fact that these were reported budgets for last year, when RBR had to pay for the engines, which further increases the difference. To me, Ferrari just don't have competent enough structure, management and technical personnel, so the only comparable competitor to MB would be this team - if not for the significant budget difference.GPR -A wrote: ↑12 May 2019, 12:41The cost of F1 revealed: How much teams spent in 2018
Red Bull - 310 mn dollars.
Mercedes - 400 mn dollars.
Ferrari - 410 mn dollars.
If money could have won championships, Toyota should have been multiple times world champions in 2000s with budgets in excess of 500 million dollars for every single year. Same applies to Ferrari.
Well, now that RB doesn't have to pay for engines, they can invest all of that 310 million for car development for this year. So let's see how this year develops and how the base sets for next year.dxpetrov wrote: ↑12 May 2019, 13:08Don;t overlook the fact that these were reported budgets for last year, when RBR had to pay for the engines, which further increases the difference. To me, Ferrari just don't have competent enough structure, management and technical personnel, so the only comparable competitor to MB would be this team - if not for the significant budget difference.GPR -A wrote: ↑12 May 2019, 12:41The cost of F1 revealed: How much teams spent in 2018
Red Bull - 310 mn dollars.
Mercedes - 400 mn dollars.
Ferrari - 410 mn dollars.
If money could have won championships, Toyota should have been multiple times world champions in 2000s with budgets in excess of 500 million dollars for every single year. Same applies to Ferrari.
