then why, with their 100% reliability, 0 penalties and perfect strategies, have they only won 2 more races than the McLaren, who have had 5 DNF's, more than 6 penalties and constant strategic **** ups, and had the FIA royally **** everyone but Renault over at Silverstone?
Un-merged. As it seems to be getting discussed on every live thread it's probably tidier to have a separate one.
McLaren have had 4 DNFS this season (1 mechanical). Red Bull is the best car this season and I don't think anyone in the paddock would disagree with that.
Red Bull has had easily the best car this season, just ask yourself "if I was a driver and could choose which car to be in this season what car would I choose?", it would be the Red Bull. Red Bull have not had perfect strategies either, they could of won China if they had got their strategy correct.
Red Bull are easily the best in qualifying, but their dominance never carries through to the races. Vettel has seven wins this season, but (with the exception of Australia where Hamilton had significant damage) he's never beaten a non-Red Bull driver by more than 11 seconds. Hardly dominant.
Even if Mclaren are much more even with Red Bull on race pace they are still starting behind them at every race so either your race pace has to be a lot faster or you win on strategy. In the last two years only Button has won from lower than P3 which shows how important it is to qualify well still and in this respect Red Bull are almost untouchable. I also suspect than Vettel could of won some races by larger margins than he has but has simply controlled a gap to look after the car.
That is likely to be the truth bearing in mind Red Bull's reliability record in 2009 and 2010 where they were still the fastest but had more issues than other teams which prevented the title in 2009 and meant they only just won it in 2010.
I guess Manny should take heart from this, as most seem to look at the statistics rather than what happens in the race itself.
Red Bull have had their share of in-race issues which have made the earlier part of the season look closer than it was. Malfunctioning KERS being just one that cropped up several times.
Because, in my opinion; McLaren's drivers are largely making up part of the short-fall, in spite of the team's errors.
Quite a few reasons: 1) Mclaren and Ferrari both had to deal with the loss of their own controversial devices from last year (F-duct and that thing Ferrari had in the sidepods) 2) Vettel has CLEARLY had all development put behind him 3) Hamilton has had a 'mare 4) The proximity of teams like Mercedes and Renault tending to bump Mclaren and Ferrari down a couple of places when they've had a bit of bad luck. I could go on... so I will: 5) They are almost certainly circumventing the rules with some sort of adjustable chassis to give them such fast qualifying pace. 6) They have probably focussed a fair bit of their development, now at least, on 2012. Okay, I'm done now.
Having much more than a pit stop in your pocket at any stage of a race is a bit silly, given the punishments for using additional engines and gearboxes. In the final stint, a comfortable leader's job is to nurse the engine as much as possible while still making sure of the victory. The Red Bull is the car I would want to drive. Although to give McLaren their due they are doing more than any other team to ensure that what on paper is a bore of a season is actually pretty entertaining.
