Despite having issues with his Red Bull a long way ahead of the halfway mark of the race, Daniel Ricciardo mastered the conditions and controlled from the front, winning his first Monaco Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel finished second with Lewis Hamilton completing the podium in third place.
They can, and they will, it just takes time, it's not easy either. Next batch of upgrades should be coming 1st week of July, I know that they're just scratching the surface of what that new nose is going to do for them. Little by little the car will shed it's old skin and everything will be optimized to the new one.
Superficial bodywork tweaks/aero tidbits will never turn a slow car into a fast one. They will need a comprehensive re-design with new chassis and changed overall concept to get to where they want to go.
I wonder how long they can be considered a top team when they have virtually no sponsorship.
That's where we disagree, I see at least .4 seconds just hiding in the body work alone. You don't know how powerful the body work is, a small tweak to a vg here, or slot there, or a slight reprofile to a wing can be the difference between a key flow structure having integrity or not. One bad design can trip up your y250 vortex and next thing you know you're fighting flow instabilities or an overall lack of downforce.
I think it's going to be a good fight between Vettel& Ric (or Vettel & RBs).
Mercedes seems like a distant third, but not so much. If anything happens in the front, they will be there to capitalise on it.
I think the overcut will be difficult if they are not fast enough to use the harder compounds in Q2.
My bet only Redbull and Ferrari may get away with that (if Merc is indeed behind). That means they will be on the backfoot already.
Not for nothing, Rosberg's Championship is the only thing that lends credibility to Hamilton's recent success. Otherwise, he'd just be the guy who's had the best car. — bhall II #Team44 supporter
Merc and Ferrari could do Q2 on US for starting on them, then wait for a safety car and pit for SS for at least 2 reasons:
- 1. knowing RB has the edge on Q3 qualy and
- 2. knowing in Monaco usually the overcut could be beneficial, because the track may be difficult to get heat into the tires, especially if you are coming out on ultras.
But we have to do a recap of what tyres are doing:
- US tyre is “low working range compound for use on tight and twisty circuits that place an emphasis on mechanical grip … a very rapid warm-up and huge peak performance, but the other side of this is its relatively limited overall life” … so, a non-overheating setup is needed in order to not overshoot the working range, or in other words, you need a setup to warm them slower …
- SS tyre is “ideal for slow and twisty circuits, especially in cold weather (the last stint), when the maximum mechanical grip is needed. The supersoft benefits from an extremely rapid warm-up time, which makes it ideal in qualifying as well, but the flip side to that important characteristic is, of course, increased degradation. This is a low working range compound.”
It was interesting to see is that in FP1 all top 3 teams have had the same top speeds: 280-282km/h, but in FP2 Ferrari changed their PU mode doing 285-286km/h, RB 282-283km/h but Merc stayed on the same 280-282km/h top speed. This morning in FP3 was the same situation like in it was on FP2 so I think Merc could have at least 2 tenths in their pocket regarding just their top speed …
I dont think they have a large enough gap to risk US in Q2. The hyper is that much quicker i think. I think only RedBull can risk it, but of course depends how much Merc and Ferrari up the engine mode in Q2.
Not for nothing, Rosberg's Championship is the only thing that lends credibility to Hamilton's recent success. Otherwise, he'd just be the guy who's had the best car. — bhall II #Team44 supporter
