You are right there. Everybody saying the Red Bull aore package is better but I think everyone could see that the whole mercedes package is working great together....it's a true complete package. They certainly got it right.
Anybody noticed how long it seem to take Rosberg to overtake slower cars in front of him? Some of those cars I think he should have blasted pass them, but he seemed contented to cruise behind them for several laps. I think he needs to be a tad more aggressive, taking so long behind slower cars and ruining his tyres doesn't make sense. He needs to step up a notch. Even if his telemetry wasn't working he could have zipped pass most of his opposition in the blink of an eye..he wasn't doing that. Difference with Hamilton is that he doesn't waste time behind slower cars.
Well Nico said he wouldn't of been able to beat Lewis but the front row was likely as he was 6 tenths up on Lewis on his best run before the lock up.
So... What do we put Vettel's major malfunction down to? I was convinced he'd sacrificed qualifying position to setup for the race, and for a while he looked pretty good... I'm amazed how much he faded away. All drivers go through rough periods, and Vettel is no exception it seems... Though it looked like he would never stumble over the last four years. This has gotta be rough on him after so much success. He's going to need to dig deep (pardon the cliche) to get back to his best with Ricciardo putting him under pressure.
I think this wass the second race in a row he's had his front wing adjusted mid-race which says to me he seems to be struggling with setting up his car, which isn't something new for him during the early races of a season, whereas Ricciardo seems to have hit the ground running, it'll be interesting to see if Ricciardo can stay ahead when Vettel starts getting the best out of the car as he is obviously struggling with it atm (but still socring decent points)
It'll defiantly be interesting to see them head to head once he's on top of whatever issue he's having. It could be quite the duo. I have to say that I'm really beginning to like Ricciardo. He's quite a breath of fresh air to the sport with his attitude. He genuinely looks happy to be where he is... even when it all goes tits up.
I think that's unfair on Nico, but i also think it's fair to say that he maybe doesn't quite have the same level of ruthlessness when overtaking as perhaps Vettel, Alonso or Hamilton and sometimes it shows like here and perhaps even in Bahrain where despite being on a much faster tyre couldn't make a move stick
Yeah, I'm liking Dan The Man too. As for them going head to head, there's another RBR dynamic I'm also interested to see... If Vettel keeps losing ground to Dan, at what point will Red Bull stop indulging his disregard of team orders? And once Vettel has reached the point where he's able to compete (speed-wise), how tolerant would he be of RBR insisting that he plays support to his novice team mate? (I'm sure RBR wouldn't want to start that fight, but suppose Nico also keeps dropping the ball, leaving RBR with a whiff of the constructors championship?) That last bit might be a scenario too far, and even the first bit might be unlikely. But it would be interesting to see. How much ground would Seb have to lose before he also loses RBR's tolerance of their orders being ignored?
People need to realise that Vettel has had the biggest loss in this new era of F1. Vettel due to Newy/Prodromou and co has enjoyed a level of down-force ie grip which no other team could rival, especially with the RB7 EBD and the Coanda exaust system which was used to such effect on the RB9. I remember reading an article where it was suggested that the reason Vettel was so dominant over Webber was that he understood the phenomena of EBD that the more gas you gave the car around a bend the more grip you got something Webber could not get to grips with. Now with the new rule changes all those tools are now gone with major reduction in down-force and lack of grip Vettel does not have the advantage he held for those years that he reigned and it is clear to see he will have to show that he is a driver who can adapt to the new higher torque less controllable hybrids, and if he cant it seems people will say his last four years has been about the Newey designed cars over driver skill.
I think we are seeing that Vettel is not that fast a driver, he was just better than Webber, which for me wasn't exactly difficult. It always amazed me why Red Bull had Webber for so long, as I wouldn't of had him in the top 10 drivers on the grid at any stage during his career. Now that Vettel has a team mate who's actually a decent driver, he's being out done in race after race. It would have been interesting had Vettel had a decent team mate when Red Bull where on top, as I don't believe Vettel would have won all those world championships
If Vettel had a better teammate he wouldn't of won all those championships, you mean like every driver who's won the championship? i don't see why it's such a surprise Ricciardo is better than Vettel, Red Bull obviously have a good driver training programme, which has no doubt improved even since Vettel went through it. Also with the reduction in rear end grip the Red Bull now probably handles more like the Toro Rosso from last year anyway.
A none pro-Hamilton post on Sky, a rarity haha: Think we need a driver like Schumi that can out perform the car and take the fight to Mercedes, just like the 98,99,00 seasons.
The EBD was designed so drivers had to use oversteer so the car (had) to be unstable or loose in the first place which Vettel mastered more than any driver on the grid as it was entirely out of their comfort zone. Vettels speed was because he could preserve his tyres better with this new EBD style of driving and the rest were unable to match him not because his Newey car was miles ahead of anything else. McLaren actually designed a better EBD than Red Bull in the early stages of 2011 and their rear all season was just as planted as the Red Bull, Vettel was just doing miles better than Lewis and Jenson all year and Webber was nowhere. McLaren were hot blowing the diffuser with fuel rather than cold blowing like Red Bull were with the engine mappings, with pumping out air because the Renault engine had these butterfly flaps for reliability and the Mercedes engine didn't, so Mercedes had to go down a different route. Horner highlighted as well that hot blowing was in fact better than cold blowing during the mid season point until they were able to do it as well. Also the drivability of these new cars are entirely controlled by the software, same with the brake by wire and that the drivers are more dependent on their engineers getting it right for them. Mercedes as well as having a power advantage also have the advantage of engine mappings and torque control in advance for each drivers because of the vast testing they did. Let's be honest Mercedes are in a whole different zone with the preparation for their drivers as compared with Red Bull who are still coming at the end of testing with the miles they have done. As also reported in Germany the Renault engine mapping is vastly more aggressive in response as they're trying to keep up with Mercedes which can heavily punish any driver if the software doesn't suit the driver. The closer the Renault power unit gets to the Mercedes, the less aggressive the response and more refined like the Mercedes it will become.
