It’s a stroll in the park for Max. Pace wise Mercs and Ferraris over a second a lap slower than Max. Not exactly an endorsement for the main race tomorrow.
no pace on those softs. he was going backwards in the slow corners so thats a massive issue. it was a massively drs affected sprint. just watching dicing and total sitting ducks in corner 2 but then once 1 second gap formed it all stopped. at least there's a couple cars starting at the back that will give us some drs passes to avoid looking at verstappen trundling round in front.
I'm not sure why we hope for something to change up front. It's not going to change for quite some time. Max is still light years ahead and can pull out a gap as and when needed.
It also looked like Max was holding back a bit until Lando started closing the gap them Max put in a few laps that where 0.5sec faster than Lando. Max's Red Bull is just on another level - considering the little development it has had and the resources they have ploughed into the 2024 car I think we will have another year of a 1 horse race.
It’s not so much as what Max does, because we already know, but for Merc to be so slow is not a good sign.
Considering that RBR shifted development to 2024 a long time ago, and the rest still are realistically a mile off, they're going to have to do a lot of development chasing again next season, and I fully anticipate a repeat of this season next year, if not worse. Who knows what Newey has up his sleeve, but he is the absolute master and they have Max in his absolute prime.
There's still only so far in these regs this car can go. Everyone knows the direction, it's about application. Ferrari have wasted a potentially slightly better engine going down the wrong road. Merc have over relied on power for 5/6 years and lost their aero edge totally. They have come off the wrong path late but are still poor. Mclaren show what a team can do. Aston showed it. If the genuine big teams get it right they can compete
Of course they can catch up, but the likelihood they do before RBR have a massive lead next season is small imo. I hope I'm wrong, but I feel they wouldn't have quit evolving this car if they didn't have something up their sleeve for next season that they don't yet wish to reveal.
