This makes sense though I think Ferrari should be much stronger than we saw in Melbourne. In fact, I think they must be actually matched.GPR -A wrote: ↑27 Mar 2019, 12:22I still don't understand how the 0.5 second difference was arrived. Nobody knew the fuel levels that either teams carried and the PU mode that was used while clocking times. With bigger fuel tanks coming in picture for this year, there was every reason to stay away from pronouncing the performance difference and pecking order. Yet, some people did, despite Mercedes matching the times that Ferrari did on Race sim and short runs. The fact is, all those who predicted those 0.5 seconds gap, were all proven wrong. So their theories should be in junk yard by now.
Who knows, Mercedes was probably already faster than Ferrari and were carrying way more fuel with the help of that bigger tank and more conservative than Ferrari in PU, despite having cold graining issues. When they arrived with better understanding of setup in Melbourne, it was simply the same two cars from Barcelona Test 2 and the difference was finally obvious, with better temperatures, better setup and on fumes. Everything is possible. If Mercedes has continued their development work, after the Spec 2 has gone in to production, there was good couple of months that they have already spent in development. With such new specs, there is more to explore now than, probably 12 months later. That's my hunch.
One of the 0,5 gap supporters was actually Mercedes, but you know, I tend to not believe a word coming from Toto.