I think the Merc situation with Lewis is that he knows even with the fastest car (which he had at Mclaren on numerous occassions) it doesnt guarantee wins. He has also been directly competing week in week out with Jenson, Vettle and Alonso and knows that on any given day one of these drivers is capable of beating him. Nico is driving a car that is obviously a big step forward and probably feels a million miles better than the previous year so the comparisons are not like for like. On a seperate note I was encouraged by the Mclaren, but on reflection and having read the press feedback I am very concerned.
That and he felt that was probably the best car he ever drove with McLren against the current field and that they couldn't hold it together which would of possibly been a very easy WDC for himself. If McLaren could of held it together, I reckon Lewis would of won the title right at the USA. If McLaren can't win the title with a "dominant car" when can they then? Was right to leave in my opinion, looks like they they have lost their bottle to win and are scared of RBR.
If Lowe goes coupled with Hamilton's departure and the potentially inconsistent pairing of Button and Perez I fear that from 2014 we could see a slump for McLaren similar to what they had in the mid 1990s.
It's 2013 or bust I feel for McLaren, after that the years won't be pretty I fear until they sort out that engine and can tempt some of the massive names in F1 back.
Well I wouldn't say the mid 2000 cars were bad, more un-reliable. If they were reliable they would have been championship winning cars.
can you not remember that season where DC was shockingly bad and Kimi was better but barely got any podiums. finished behind BAR Ferrari and williams. maybe even Renault too
2004 season? Ahhh yes it was a pile o' crap that season. But as said mainly due to reliability problems. Newey 's designs basically broke the car mechanically.
Ah 2004, DC was awful that year, and then Montoya said he was moving there and I was really sad... Built a fast car for 2005 though
Looking back that was a crazy idea to move from a more competitive Williams to mclaren but just look at that 2005 williams!!
According to AMus, according to Ferrari, Vettel had at least 50 kilos on fuel onboard when he did his 1:22.197 If you take away 50 kilos (2 seconds) from his 22.1, then subtract by half a second to adjust for the supersoft tyre, and you get an adjusted time of 1:19.697! We know from this that Alonso could have done at least a 1.20.188 (+0.491) and probably faster given that this adjusted time was done on his first day in the new car. There is a problem though. Vettel's best lap was set on day two, and track temperatures were higher that day so I don't think comparing Alonso's fuel adjusted day one time with Vettel's fuel ajusted day two time is a fair comparison. Also Hamilton on day two did a fuel adjusted time of 1:20.222, and Brawn says Mercedes are a second off the pace, so if Red Bull only had 50 kilos onboard, it means Red Bull are 0.475 slower than whoever Brawn thinks has the fastest car. Given all this, I think it's likely Red Bull had more than 50 kilos - if they had 60 kilos onboard, they would be 0.925 quicker than Mercedes, and therefore probably the car that Brawn was referring to when he said Mercedes were a second off the pace. Now the problem is how do you compare Red Bull's newly adjusted 1:19.297 to Alonso's 1:20.188? Hamilton said (via body language) that Mercedes had shown their hand. If you assume that Rosberg's adjusted 1:20.776 day one lap was on fumes just like Hamilton's adjusted day two laptime, then Ferrari are at least 0.588 faster than Mercedes, which if you compare to to Hamilton's adjusted time, it would mean... Ferrari are at worst 0.337 behind Red Bull When you take in account the fact that it was Alonso's 1st day in the car, and Red Bull were probably running illegal engine maps, I think the gap could be very very close.
With regards to the engine mapping, a guy did make a good comment that most of what AMuS reported was actually speculation. The report that the rule suggested they could change it was their opinion all along rather than saying it happend. I would think it would be very silly and short sited of RBR and Lotus to put all their eggs into a direction that has been ripped to shreds by the FIA in the past. Even if they did get away with it at the start you know the advantage would not last long and backfire in the long run. Maybe Renault did ask the FIA if that was the case, but RBR are smarter than that to trust Renault with the direction of development and how ugly it will get with a EBDmk2. They caught up already without the EBD, they should just try and get ahead and avoid that area all together because the FIA won't let them have that. You and I know that kind of advantage (if allowed) wouldn't last 2 months before getting banned with the threats of a protest by the big names of Mercedes and Ferrari. With regards to the fuel RBR carrying to produce a gap it's possible I'm sure if you stare at these cars long enough like most of these guys do. F1 drivers would also be able to make an assessment and check back car responses from qualifying in the past and see if it matches. The bad news is though Seb only needed about 0.3-0.4 to dominate 2011 and that kind of performance will only mean a bad thing for the season.
