Well! after seeing this just chucks in there how bad is the RB8 really? Think Seb should be commended how much of an effort it was to get the pole and win at Bahrain if thats what it has been like for the past 5 races. Newey is still ****ing around with that tunnel since March and yet nothing has come from it I feel and they still cant make it work.
Vettel says Red Bull did not have the pace to be in the top five in qualifying in Spain: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/99551
They seem to have a car that either works very well, or doesn't work at all. If this gap is so critical to the car, it doe suggest there is a design flaw in the car overall. Never seen Red Bull be so negative in qualifying as they were with Seb today. Clearly worried that they didn't have the speed to challenge for pole and wanted to save a set of tyres in the hope it will be an advantage, but misitifed why he then seemed to do two runs in Q3 and not set a time in either. Also, why start in 8th when you could be at the mercy of the pack around you going into turn 1? Do or die for RBR tomorrow. Could look genius if they have got their tactics right, or there will be a lot of egg on face.
I think Red Bull could've had about a 1:22.5 judging by the way they quickly sent Vettel out after seeing Hamilton's first lap, and then aborted when they saw everyone going quicker. They probably have the strategy to win tomorrow, in terms of time they can complete the race distance in, but overtaking is so difficult here and they're miles short in a straight line again, as usual only HRT and Marussia are slower. Edit: Williams are very slow in a straightline too, Lotus could be a real handful though.
Race pace didn't look positive either mate in Practice 2, was something like how far off McLaren were at Bahrain with RBR and Lotus, around a second a lap...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/18045055 No mention from Benson about his favourite driver stopping after his pole lap. Reckon he's hoping no one noticed!?
Nah, thats just his report article, his opinion article (which will probably be done later) will state how nice Hamilton's backside smells.
and with the straightline speed issue AG has just mentioned they could be in for a hard time. All the more wonder why they didn't try and get as far up the grid as possible and into cleaner air. They could be sitting ducks on the straight if someone gets within the DRS zone of them and we know how sensitive RBR's can be to following dirty air from the car infront.
Speed trap speeds (In order): Romain Grosjean 14:08:35 323.2 Kimi Räikkönen 14:17:02 323.1 Daniel Ricciardo 14:09:26 319.4 Jean-Eric Vergne 14:09:53 318.9 Lewis Hamilton 14:10:46 318.3 Jenson Button 14:07:48 318.2 Paul di Resta 14:08:43 317.8 Nico Hulkenberg 14:07:55 317.4 Michael Schumacher 14:10:35 316.7 Nico Rosberg 14:56:10 316.5 Heikki Kovalainen 14:10:42 315.6 Fernando Alonso 14:06:50 315.5 Felipe Massa 14:09:30 315.5 Vitaly Petrov 14:09:37 315.5 Kamui Kobayashi 14:10:50 315.5 Bruno Senna 14:09:34 313.8 Sergio Perez 14:19:01 313.7 Pastor Maldonado 14:59:32 313.7 Mark Webber 14:15:55 311.2 Sebastian Vettel 14:59:57 311.1 Narain Karthikeyan 14:09:39 310.8 Charles Pic 14:19:05 310.7 Pedro de la Rosa 14:10:38 310.6 Timo Glock 14:20:46 310.4 Is it me.... but does that suggest that RBR are struggling with downforce if they have to apply so much? They're slower than Caterham in the straights here and 0.3 faster than a HRT...
http://sports.williamhill.com/bet/en-gb/betting/g/1549588/Race-Winner.html Vettel third favourite. Tempted by Grosjean, he was quicker than Kimi in race sims on Friday, starts fourth and has the quickest car in a straightline. 10/1 is a great price.
They are really relying on the extra tyres and the hope they can get some clean air at some point in the race to try and make up some time.
I think everyone runs as much downforce as they can balance here. No idea where RBR's drag is coming from, they visibly ran less wing than others last year and were still ****e in the speed trap. I reckon they've just got a poor DRS.
Seb almost gained 7 tenths from Practice 3, all the way to Q3 if he set a time of 1:22.5 Pastor gained just over a second in the same senario. Lewis......he improved by almost 1.5 seconds if you put him down just being behind Seb in practice 3. Sorry but I think Lewis was sandbagging the whole weekend until today if he pulled out something like that.
