At this point and without having had the cars do any lap times it’s really impossible to know... Who knows what the season may throw at us, just as Mclaren had some issues last year, every other team in the midfield also suffered from something... Whomever not only has fixed their 2018 issues and maximized their strengths could end up leading the midfield.Darth-Piekus wrote:So do you people think we might be able to reduce the gap in half against the first three and be able to increase our gap from our chasers?
Everyone has improved, but by how much, and where exactly have they improved isn't known. McLaren isn't getting much from the power unit directly, or perhaps even indirectly, let's say they improve by a second and they're competitive against last year's top 3, that would be mission accomplished. To me that would be enough to cover anything anyone else is bringing bar Renault. Then McLaren vs Renault could be a very nice year long battle with occasional mid fielders mixing it up.SmallSoldier wrote: ↑17 Feb 2020, 03:49At this point and without having had the cars do any lap times it’s really impossible to know... Who knows what the season may throw at us, just as Mclaren had some issues last year, every other team in the midfield also suffered from something... Whomever not only has fixed their 2018 issues and maximized their strengths could end up leading the midfield.Darth-Piekus wrote:So do you people think we might be able to reduce the gap in half against the first three and be able to increase our gap from our chasers?
Joining the top 3 seems to be a huge undertaking, the gap could be considered as too big to cover in one winter since it was in excess of a second and not only do you have to cover that lap time, you also have to account to the improvements from Mercedes, Ferrari and RBR, so not likely to be join them in the fight... But it would be a welcomed surprise if they do.
I just find it funny how we have a tendency to predict where the teams will be simply based on pictures of the cars and there are even some that dare to predict where teams that haven’t even showed their cars (Racing Point, Renault) will fare.
By the end of next week we may have a better idea, but even then we should be really careful since testing won’t tell the actual picture (remember last year, by the end of testing that so called experts and journalists were claiming that Mclaren would be battling with Williams during the season and that their showing in testing was all about “Glory Runs”.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
With Redbull now building Alpha Tauri’s car for them I fear it could be a tough fight
Yep, the AT01 is effectively the RB15. I expect them to be very strong and make it a tough fight for 4th.
I agree. Just because they have the car doesn't mean the team will optimise it.
How is it you know they have lots of new team members? Are these in senior positions within the team and from the top 3 teams or are they poaching highly rated persons from the other teams?nevill3 wrote: ↑18 Feb 2020, 00:39As has been mentioned elswhere on this website, even though the other teams have inherited lots of details of last years front runners cars, they have to design and manufacture their own aero and chassis parts. The devil is in the details at the sharp end of the grid, total integration and understanding of the whole design process enjoyed by the best works teams is what gives them the edge, so improvements may be seen by the "customer" teams but the ultimate performance will always be below what the original manufacturers cars were capable of. Unless of course the customer teams have the ability to enhance the original design concepts and benefit from the inherited R&D without actually having to do the initial hard work themselves.
Teams that have managed to poach "original" staff from the respective teams could gain some insider knowledge that enables them to jump forward but we will not know until after testing or indeed until after the first few races. Haas has run year old Ferrari chassis designs but struggled all last year to optimise or understand how to unlock the true potential of the machinery they received.
Mclaren have lots of new team members, but they design all their own machinery so do not have this handicap. The new staff will have input from the get go and contribute to the overall design which should reap decent rewards for the ingenuity coupled with a deeper understanding of of how to optimise and develop their ideas and designs .