I'm sure the others will catch up, and still another test to go yet and reliability is an issue for everyone. If Merc are still 3s faster than Ferrari after the next test then maybe we should start to worry a bit more, but McLaren seem to be up there still.
If Button and Hamilton are both in for the title, the BBC and Sky will be creaming themselves. So would I, probably.
Will Buxton ‏@willbuxton 46s Want to know how much torque the 2014 cars have? Kimi just juiced it too hard out of T4 and spun into the barriers.
Forza will spin a positive out of that by saying it's clearly more powerful and torquey than the vastly over-hyped merc Raikkonen admits fault, then doesn't!!
I have a feeling it will be Hamilton vs Rosberg this year. It appears Mercedes have by far the better car
People cried for change after dominance from Vettel over the past 4 years. They receive Mercedes dominance.
It's still testing yet... gotta see what the first races bring, but I hope the field isn't as spread out as it currently appears... Otherwise it could be another borefest. On the plus side... Not long till the Indy season kicks off.
At least the Mercedes drivers can challenge each other, so even in a worst case scenario it won't be as bad as 2013. Hopefully McLaren and Ferrari can step it though or it will be a disappointing season.
Yeah good point that, Rosberg vs. Hamilton would be tasty. And to be fair Magnussen and the Ferrari boys may be in with a shot. True.
Would lol though if Rosberg or Hamilton did a number 1 finger, could you imagine the fallout? "Supersoft is around 0.7s faster than soft, soft is around 1.2s quicker than med, med is around 1.3s quicker than hard" Pirelli #F1
Jean-Eric Vergne, STR9-03: “There’s no point in making negative comments, because everyone knows we are facing major problems and we are not alone in that. We knew when we came to Bahrain that there had not been enough time since the previous test to have solved all our issues. On the positive side, we have managed to fix some of them now. Also, even if I have not done so many laps, it’s clear from those I have managed to complete, that Toro Rosso has done a good job to give me a car that feels nice to drive, if we talk about the elements that used to be the main topics before this year, such as the aero and mechanical side of the package. It’s frustrating, but we need to keep calm and not get stressed as there are still a few weeks before Melbourne. We will try again here in Bahrain starting on Thursday. Clearly, in Melbourne, just finishing the race will mean you have a good chance of scoring points.”
Very impressive laptimes from Mercedes today. Hamilton said to German media yesterday that his lap wasn't a proper qualifying simulation, which explains why Rosberg could go one second faster today (despite making a mistake on his lap). I'm not sure Mercedes are dominant though. They have shown their pace and the others haven't. Only Button has come out and said that Mercedes are quicker, but he said that on day 3 and I seriously doubt Mercedes are over a second quicker than McLaren. I'm wondering if Button was playing mind games, putting all the focus and attention on Mercedes as well as the pressure of being the favourites. When Alonso and Rosberg attempted race simulations on day 2, both were in the 1:42's and on the same tyre (can't remember if it was medium or hard). Unfortunately both only did one stint before stopping with problems, but Benson calculated that the average laptime for Rosberg was a 1:42.6 and for Alonso a 1:42.8, although Alonso did do more laps so his laptimes were affected more by tyre degradation. Mercedes can't be dominant then.
