9 of 20 races down. What do you think the current "pecking order" is where car performance over a grand prix weekend is concerned. People are still banging on about Alonso dragging performance out of a bad car which is more a case of "first impressions count" as that ferrari hasn't been a bad car for a good while now. I think currently its something like this Red-Bull Ferrari Lotus Mercedes Williams McLaren Sauber Force-India Torro-Rosso Caterham Marrusia HRT
Red-Bull/Ferrari Lotus Mercedes Williams / McLaren Sauber Force-India Torro-Rosso Caterham Marrusia/HRT
At the moment: Red Bull Lotus Ferrari McLaren Mercedes Williams Sauber Force India Torro Rosso Caterham Marrusia HRT Red Bull clearly have the best car at the moment, and Lotus have been a lot better than their recent results show. Lotus were clearly second fastest in Valencia and despite Grosjean's early pitstop in Silverstone, at the end of the race he was only 14 seconds behind Alonso. That's why I've put them ahead of Ferrari. As for McLaren, I'm convinced the car is still quick, not as good as before but nowhere near as bad as the pace they showed in Silverstone. Overall though, I think McLaren have been the best, closely followed by Red Bull.
Over the season: Red Bull Mclaren Lotus Williams Ferrari Mercedes Sauber Force India Toro Rosso Caterham HRT Marussia Now: Red Bull Lotus Williams Ferrari Mclaren Mercedes Sauber Force India Toro Rosso Caterham HRT Marussia
The last race confuses things. Wet practice and a dry race (that supposedly should have been wet) meant teams may have been unlucky/lucky with setups. McLaren now look worse than the looked Ferrari in Aus, but this race should be a better show of who is where.
Over the season: Lotus McLaren/RBR Ferrari Williams/Sauber Mercedes Force India Toro Rosso Caterham Marussia HRT Now: RBR/Ferrari Lotus McLaren (New upgrades with limited testing at Silverstone made it look worse) Williams/Mercedes/Sauber Force India Toro Rosso/Caterham Marussia HRT
I think it differs from race to race, not one team has mastered every type of track, not even Redbull or Lotus have achieved this yet.
There seems to be a quali pace and a race pace differential, but merging the 2 together I would say: Red Bull Lotus Ferrari Williams Mercedes McLaren Sauber Force India Torro Rosso Caterham Maurusia HRT
I think Caterham will be ahead of STR before the year out which is amazing considering STR were point scorers at the start.
No idea why people think the Williams is so good? I think it's like this: Red Bull Lotus Ferrari/Mclaren Mercedes Williams Sauber Force India Toro Rosso Caterham HRT Marussia
I think Ferrari are right up there with Red Bull now, they were similarly paced in Silverstone, and during the race in Montreal, Red Bull were in a class of their own in Valencia but that was always going to be a particularly strong event for them. I think Ferrari will be with them again in Germany and Hungary, Mercedes could also be strong in Hungary if Monaco is anything to go by. I'd say Lotus are just behind them, and then a bit of a gap to McLaren. I think it's hard to place Williams, Sauber and Mercedes because their drivers are pretty erratic, Williams in particular seem to have a very good car. Lotus are also a bit hard to place though, Grosjean (on very old tyres) and Raikkonen were trading fastest laps in the final stint at Silverstone, and it's not like Alonso and Webber weren't pushing at that stage of the race. They also looked like they had race winning pace in Spain and Bahrain. It could be down to a characteristic of the car but before Raikkonen went rallying he used to have a habit of being underwhelming all weekend and then suddenly stringing together a load of fastest laps out of nowhere in the race, so it could be driver related.
I felt that the Mclaren was definetely set up more for a wet race, Lewis was reasonably quick in all practise seesions and then almost nowhere in the race, Silverstone was again an anomolous race, same as last year, with the FIA changing the blown diffuser rule. Hopefully Germany and Hungary will see the true potential, however as we all know upgrades do not always work as expected
