Car A with more downforce, matching the straight line grunt of a car B with less downforce means, car A has a lot more horsepower than car B. Drag is a byproduct of downforce and to run a draggy car faster on straights, you need a lot of power. Whole of last year, Williams was quick on straight line, in fact quicker than Merc, but so much slower in downforce hungry sections of a circuit compared to Merc. Ferrari equals Merc this year in terms of straight line, but doesn't hold candle in downforce sections. Clearly means, when Ferrari manage to put as much downforce as Merc have (assuming no change in power output), their car is going to be A WHOLE LOT slower on straight line compared to Mercs. Unlike last year's Bahrain race, we haven't seen two Merc fighting cats and dogs with full power on display. We have only seen them managing the races from the front and that is helping them run their PUs in quite safer manner and in turn, a longer life on PU. 6 Races on one ICE, is quite an example of that strategy. So in all honesty, Merc still possess a big advantage in their power output and downforce, compared to Ferrari.SectorOne wrote:I think Ferrari are closer in horsepower then downforce if that makes sense.f1316 wrote:So you think Ferrari were closer to the pace on a power hungry track than a flowing track of fast corners? Or is it the increased length of this track that you think will make the quali gap increase?
I wonder. Pace difference in first two sectors of Barcelona in quali was only about a tenth and a half, after which Ferrari lost a huge amount of time in the slower stuff of S3. I still think that the largest part of Ferrari's deficit is in slow corners (and the way out of them) and tend to think of silverstone as not having so much of them, but perhaps that's a false impression.
Another interesting point is, both Ferrari and Merc have 7 tokens left in their pocket. Both have admitted in different places that, their next target for PU upgrade is Monza. Spa, a race prior to Monza would be the sixth race for Merc's 2nd ICE, if they have manage it until then, which then would be logical end of life for that unit. It leaves with another 8 races to spend 7 tokens. They can afford to run the next ICE more aggressively. On the other hand, for Ferrari, it would be the 3rd Specification and 4th ICE, which means all their 7 tokens now have to go into the next iteration as it is their last for the year, unless they are ready to spend token on another iteration and take grid penalty. As it stands, Ferrari still have power deficit, despite spending tokens for development. It would be interesting to see how closer can they get with one last iteration.
