McLaren are having a bad year for sure, and Mercedes have looked good since their dodgy test, but who says Mercedes are going to have a good car next year? Or will even continue to win races this season, Hungary and Monaco aren't really standard F1 tracks you know. Also I admit I'm at a loss as to why everyone on here seems to think they'll have a great engine, because, as far as I'm aware, this will be the first 1600 turbo engine they've EVER built for anything, unlike Renault who pretty much introduced turbo power to F1 in the 70's.
It's pretty shocking that a team that gets $100m just for turning up and then employs that many experts takes a great car and turns it into an average one in a season they could have won.
probably because the Mercedes is fairly obviously the most powerful right now, only really challenged by the Ferrari, the Renault powered teams tend to just give up on top speed and go for pure acceleration. Talking about next year, there's been alot of rumblings recently about considerably more powerful engines, like 850hp and possibly beyond, and then more rumblings about Mercedes being concerned about increased tyre wear because of it. Sounds an awful lot like they're just going for the most powerful engine possible, and hoping more rule changes on tyres will go in their favor. I can see them having an absurd advantage especially as one of the articles i've read suggests the Renault engine for 2014 is more like 760hp, i mean that's just a stupid difference in power if true and would practically eliminated any non-Mercedes powered car from both championship battles if not like the top 10 as well (depending on how many teams are using them). I mean some suggestion that there is regulation going on would be handy, i fear it may turn into a bit of a farce.
I think next season out and out power will be even more for those who love top trumps. With the extra fuel saving element it will be how fast do you dare go due to tyres and fuel. I wondered about it being a bonus for quali but then there's strict rules on engine mapping changing from quali to race.
