But that was the case last year too after McLaren's upgrade.Xyz22 wrote: ↑10 Jun 2024, 09:38It's possible that in some tracks we'll be close or even faster than McL but we need to start looking at the "bigger picture". McL has been the most consistent car in the last few races. Look how slow Ferrari was in Canada.SoulPancake13 wrote: ↑10 Jun 2024, 04:38I somewhat disagree. Yes, Ferrari had a bad weekend, I won't deny that, but Imola showed that the Ferrari is not miles off the McLaren(and according to Charles they didn't maximize the setup, another tenth puts Leclerc at the same pace there). What the car needs now is the ability to generate temps for the qualifying lap, which is supposed to be addressed at Silverstone. After that, I think we should see who will be 2nd best, but until then, the car is still competitive in the hotter conditions which we should hopefully see in Barcelona. This is too much of a knee jerk reaction to the past races IMO. There is no doubt McLaren is second best or even best right now though, just that a widening of the operating window and getting better at putting some energy into the tyres could go a long way.Xyz22 wrote: ↑10 Jun 2024, 03:22
That was just a colossal gamble considering the race was completely lost. They were not sure they would have fixed the engine issue.
In any event the goal is to keep improving. Highly likely that McL will be 2nd best this year which sound’t be a surprise considering last year they were almost 1s quicker than Ferrari in real tracks. They probably started the year with a conservative car and Ferrari historically has been able to start the season with relatively better package. Their upgrade has been massive and put them into a position to often challenge for the win. We had 2 chances to win and we did it, which was important.
There is a lot of work to do.
We got the same knee jerk reaction then too which was basically game over, but yet Ferrari outscored McLaren over the second half of the season even with their mega upgrade, they actually outscored everyone bar Red Bull.
IMO there is a knee jerk reaction by some when looking at the bigger picture because when I look at it, the work needed is not all that big.
What I see when I look at the bigger picture, is a car that generally looks after it's tyres very well, arguably better than all and a car that has got enough pace to mix it at the front in most conditions.
I don't see Ferrari requiring a lot of work at all with regards to getting ahead of McLaren, I feel the step towards Red Bull is the one that still needs some very good work because contrary to what some think, I still think Red Bull are at least 1 step ahead of McLaren.