Lewis Hamilton completed a faultless Mexican Grand Prix to take the win unthreatened. Nico Rosberg did get under fire from time to time, but held it together to finish second. Vettel completed the podium following a penalty for Verstappen, although he too was later demoted, handing the remaining podium position to Daniel Ricciardo.
This only confirms the idea that RB should be the greatest rival for Mercedes in 2017, if not directly the team to beat.f1316 wrote:As if by magic to reinforce my point:f1316 wrote: I'm beginning to think Ricciardo was right about the Renault engine being almost on par with the Ferrari too since they don't suffer particularly from long straights any more.
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/red-b ... ow-843490/
Do not put too much into this. It has an agenda.f1316 wrote:As if by magic to reinforce my point:f1316 wrote: I'm beginning to think Ricciardo was right about the Renault engine being almost on par with the Ferrari too since they don't suffer particularly from long straights any more.
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/red-b ... ow-843490/
Correct. Just to remind, while Lewis and Nico started the race on Softs, Ricciardo was on SuperSofts.basti313 wrote:Do not put too much into this. It has an agenda.f1316 wrote:As if by magic to reinforce my point:f1316 wrote: I'm beginning to think Ricciardo was right about the Renault engine being almost on par with the Ferrari too since they don't suffer particularly from long straights any more.
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/red-b ... ow-843490/
In reality Ham was cruising for 5 laps and when he picked up the pace on lap 6 he put a 0.5sec pace advantage on Ric with the harder tire. Between the stops Ham put additional 1.8sec on Ric.
So Merc was able not only to prevent an undercut on old tires, but to put something like 0.6sec per lap on the Bull on new tires.
No idea how one can talk about similar pace with these numbers.
I totally agree on "Carrot and Stick". Whenever Merc needs to pull the trigger in clean air they are off. There are only certain circumstances like Singapore brakes, where they hurt themselves with a too aggressive setup.GPR-A wrote:Correct. Just to remind, while Lewis and Nico started the race on Softs, Ricciardo was on SuperSofts.basti313 wrote:Do not put too much into this. It has an agenda.f1316 wrote:
As if by magic to reinforce my point:
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/red-b ... ow-843490/
In reality Ham was cruising for 5 laps and when he picked up the pace on lap 6 he put a 0.5sec pace advantage on Ric with the harder tire. Between the stops Ham put additional 1.8sec on Ric.
So Merc was able not only to prevent an undercut on old tires, but to put something like 0.6sec per lap on the Bull on new tires.
No idea how one can talk about similar pace with these numbers.
Plus, the way I think, Lewis was constantly bothered about his engine situation and Nico was more mindful of his championship and it can be safe to say, they both were cautious in how they were operating. On the other hand, neither Red Bull drivers had anything to lose and were definitely pushing to their maximum.
While I would like to believe that Red Bull are closing the gap, but knowing how Mercedes has been playing "Carrot and Stick" with Ferrari for the whole of last season, it isn't surprising to see Red Bull getting caught up with that game now. Hope things would be more even next year.
Force India has the largest number of sticker for Mexican GP. It proves the commercial benefits of having Checo on your side.
