djones wrote: ↑27 Oct 2022, 17:12
Surely nothing will change here for Mercedes.
Let's say the air gives 10% less drag. Well, it's 10% less for everybody so all things are equal?
well rb have historically been very strong here with draggy but high downforce configuration.. Mercedes' performance in the corners at COTA against RB (who did admittedly run with the medium downforce wing for Max) was good.
It's also worth noting that at Barcelona, where they did run their Monaco wing and reached maximum velocity, RB's velocity traces were not anything special. It seems like that when RB go to their high downforce configuration, they lose the straightline advantage they hold in the medium and low load settings:
Credit for telemetry: dialtone
That said, seems like even in high downforce setups, RB have developed the RB18 to work well. We saw RB comfortably ahead of Mercedes and competitive with Ferrari at Singapore and Hungary with the high load wing. Throw in Mercedes' latest 3 tenths worth of upgrades and we have a very competitive w13 at high downforce tracks eg zandvoort, mexico (potentially)
Conclusion: I imagine it will be close with Mercedes this weekend, and not another walkaway win for RB