It hasn't turned out to be anything yet. If they're as rubbish in Melbourne as you think they will be, then this will become a valid point. I'm not saying they'll definitely do well, just that it's too early to tell.
I could be wrong but I don't think it's a B spec. It's just another chassis with new bits - the bits that they wanted to test in private on Monday. It saves the mechanics having to strip the chassis they've been running and fit the new exhaust system, wings, and anything else they've updated.
Lotus have looked consistently strong all through testing - apart from missing four days. I wouldn't be surprised if they challenged Ferrari, I'm sure they'll be ahead of Mercedes.
If any of the teams who finished 6th or below in the WCC last season get into Q3 in Australia I will be surprised, reckon Red Bull through Lotus have those sewn up. Should make for a cracking Q3 session and (assuming one team doesn't dominate) some good racing too. Also looks like there might be a close scrap between Williams, Caterham and Toro Rosso for those last few Q2 spots this year.
I think the FI looks pretty handy. last year was a bit of a dissappointment compared to the moves they made the year before.
It seems Ferrari pulled the old MP4-26 trick, according to yalla.com. Radical exhaust, didn't work out, revert to conventional exhaust. This week has been about recalibrating the car for the replacement system. Also, Alonso's race sim yesterday was run on a mix of used and new tyres.
The RB8 with new exhaust and front and rear wings: please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Webber doesn't appear to have done an installation lap: 1:28, 1:26, 1:27.
Ted Kravitz was down in the pit lane when the updated Red Bull first took to the track and here’s his reaction: “No wonder they needed to fly out a new chassis – the whole rear of the Red Bull is different. There’s a completely different exhaust positioning and that means all the rear bodywork and some bits of the rear suspension are new as well. Previously, the exhaust pipes exited fairly far back towards the rear wing and quite tight to the centreline of the car - more or less under the ‘a’ of Renault if you look at a picture of where the engine manufacturer’s logo is on the rear of the car. But now they exit much further forwards and further outboard – much like the Sauber exhausts. In this respect Sauber are well ahead of Red Bull: they brought their version of this to the third day of the first test at Jerez and have been developing it ever since “Whoever thought of it first, it’s been beautifully executed on the RB8. The intention seems to be to channel the exhaust not so much over the top of the diffuser but actually around the outside of the rear wheels, tidying up the disturbed air that flows off the rear tyres. It’s quite a big job ahead of Red Bull because they don’t really know how the hot exhaust gas is going to affect the back of the car, so these final days will be crucial to see if there will be overheating problems - both on the rear bodywork, rear suspension and rear tyres.”
lol. At the risk of coming off Bensonesque, Red Bull appear to have adopted the Mercedes front wing, the Sauber exhaust positioning, the McLaren exhaust shaping and even the Ferrari floor. The airflow is supposedly being gathered from around the outside of the sidepods and brought in towards the rear of the sidepods: please log in to view this image please log in to view this image There are various theories on F1Technical about where the three streams (exhaust, side of sidepods, top of sidepods) are meant to go.
You can tell when Benson is going to extrapolate some bullshit about testing because he prefaces it with "Though it is obviously difficult to make judgements at this stage..."
So instead of their own innovation they have basically ripped off other teams and yet somehow have kept within the spending limit. I got a feeling its going to be 2011 all over again
So they've taken what we already thought was narrowly the best car on the grid and made massive improvements? Im think im going to go and cry a little bit.
Vettel has been talking to Ferrari and Alonso it seems... And Autosport is having a huge dispute over Webber's origins. As the resident Australian on this forum, I'd say that Webber is from Queanbeyan in the state of NSW (not far from where I live actually) but is a "Canberra Milk Kid".
If I understand it correctly, at this point Red Bull are not planning to renew their FOTA membership so, once it lapses, they won't be subject to the RRA. If that's all bluff and nonsense, however, some people think what we see on the RB8 today is a natural progression - not ripping teams off but a convergence of ideas, maybe influenced but planned all along. Even if they have taken other teams' ideas, that happens all the time and we are talking about fractions of a second's worth of performance from these innovations. Clearly, like Ferrari, they've had to redesign much of the back of the car to accommodate the new exhaust but that's hardly likely to have pushed them over the RRA at this stage. It's quite a risk to make substantial changes with only two days of testing left so let's see how they get on in Melbourne.
I believe they're still bound by the RRA because they signed a contract. They're not part of FOTA any more but their signature's still on the RRA and it's still got some time to run, maybe until 2017. Agreed. The amount they've put on the car some of it must've been planned. Everyone copied their exhaust last year because they revealed it too early. Their seems to be a lot on their car which has been seen on others though, so they've probably been stealing a few ideas here and there.
