Mudflap wrote: ↑07 Sep 2020, 12:31All numbers reported in the media put Honda 20-30 hp behind Mercedes which should be around 0.3s loss per lap. This is roughly the target FIA had set for engine convergence. It follows that the rest of the gap, 6 tenths or so is down to the chassis.Moore77 wrote: ↑07 Sep 2020, 11:48What kind of chassis issues do you think that could remove a second difference to Mercedes? Generally, teams make gains of around a second over a full season in the stable regulations. In the past, Red Bull has demonstrated that, they can offset engine power disadvantage by having a better chassis. Given that, Mercedes has built a super chassis, even if Red Bull sorts out their problems, they would still be short on power. That one second gap that Mercedes has, is not just all chassis. While Honda is a good power unit, it's definitely nowhere close to Mercedes. Last year, Mercedes was struggling with reliability issues and ran their PU in more conservative mode, which gave an illusion that, Honda is on par with Mercedes. Even with this technical directive, they are ahead. To say, if Red Bull fixes chassis issues, it will be all over Mercedes, is an utter overstatement.Mudflap wrote: ↑07 Sep 2020, 11:11It's blindingly obvious the engine is not an issue.
Let's put it this way - if RB were to fix their chassis they would be all over Mercedes every weekend.
If Honda were to bridge the little gap to the Merc PU but RB fail to fix the car they would still get comprehensively beaten every race.
There's little benefit in in pushing the engine for an extra tenth and risking more DNFs when the car losses several tenths in a few corners alone..
I am well aware of the large uncertainty in these numbers but it is all I have.
TD or not, that engine gap is here to stay this season. If they can close the chassis gap down is it inconcievable that Verstappen could consistently beat one of the Mercs (which he already has done to some extent this season) ?.
I didn't imply they can beat both cars, my fault if it came across that way.