It's all down to the gulf in budgets between the teams and the standard of the drivers. Merc and Ferrari can do so much more than tinker with aero concepts which it seems the other teams are restricted to and until that gets sorted there will always be a big difference. My point is that it only ever seems to be Merc that get singled out for disparity.
I would say its because people focus on the gap between merc and williams in particular. They would expect them to be doing better but are not so blame the engine. Force india and Haas have lower reputations/expectations so people think they are punching above their weight.
It's because Merc have been so dominant. They've been a country mile ahead without a customer in sight. Thing is, it's not all engine.
IIRC there was talk that Stroll Senior didn't want Kubica getting the drive in case he showed Stroll JNR up . Funny if Sirotkin is doing it .
I am sad that Williams are so far back but it does go to show that the PU isn't the magic ingredient that propels a team towards the mid field. I guess there is masses of information that the teams can use to optimise the PU installation but how much of that info is passed to customers? My guess is they get fairly minimal info they will get cooling requirements but how close they are to the ones the works teams use, who knows.
As I have posted before , IMHO this year is the perfect storm for Williams . By their own admission , a radical departure in car design compared to recent years , and if ever they needed at least one experienced driver to provide feed back... Rob Smedley must be doing his nut ... Paddy Lowe talking , but next to f all from Claire ..... Not good . Dark days ahead .
He certainly deserves it , if he keeps on performing like this , I can see them extending his contract again .
Wow didn' expect Ferrari to be top here. What' happening at Merc. In fact what's happened to Lewis? Can't even beat Bottas....and still no contract?
interesting laps. consistent 0.4s gap to Merc for ferrari. seems hamilton wasn't just sandbagging after all. old man hill looked absolutely freezing here
No more engine mode. already accusations of blown rear wing surfacing to explain Ferrari being faster here.
According to the BBC , the last time a driver won the opening 2 rounds of the championship and did not go on to win the title , was Alain Prost in 1982 . Now that I have typed that , anyone who puts money on Vettel being Champ needs their head examined
