FittingMechanics wrote:Great result for the team. This weekend shows the team is coming together, they went in the wrong direction on Friday, made an analysis and moved in the right direction on Saturday, qualified almost the best they can (P7 and P9) and in the race ended up P6 and P8 even though SC/VSC came out at the worse moment for them. You know the team is doing well when they can recover after a really bad friday to end up best of the rest. Imagine what could have been if they nailed the setup on Friday.
One thing that is slightly disappointing to see is that the McLaren is still in the "don't fight the top 3" mode, pretty much anyone from top 3 if they come close, McLaren focuses on not losing time to guys behind them. It's a bit sad to see, but hopefully this will change as they catch up. Sainz told on Sky that he thinks they need about 0.5s to be able to defend against top teams, say they are about 1.5s behind Merc on race pace, but with 0.5s more pace they could defend in these kind of situations.
About Honda and Renault, we all remember that Red Bull was winning with Renault (and passing factory Renaults and McLarens) and it can pass us this year as well. It doesn't mean that the Honda is a better engine, just shows that Red Bull is a really good car.
In regards to them not fighting the top 3... Sometimes you have to understand who you are fighting against... The team won’t achieve third position and achieving 4th isn’t secure yet and that’s still a “soft target” for the team.
If they try to maintain position against the top 3, they run the risk of not only losing pace at the end of the race due to damaging their tires (you are braking later, getting more wheel spin out of corners in an effort to maintain distance to your opponents and consuming more fuel)... You will also probably add additional stress to the engine and batteries by running in higher modes to defend the position... Which you could ultimately lose due to the pace difference.
Not fighting the top 3 isn’t a matter of lack of ambition on their behalf, is acknowledging the pace differential and playing the smart game and achieving the maximum amount of points.
You nailed on the situation between the Renault and Honda engines... The reason why the top 3 can make a pass with ease on the midfield, isn’t due to a difference in power from the units, it’s the difference in the chassis performance... With more efficient downforce, not only do they run lesser amount of drag, they also have the capability to be closer to the car in front before the straights, making DRS more efficient and a secure weapon to use... In Russia, the difference in performance out of S3 shows why for teams like RBR was “easy” to make a pass on the like of Mclaren (in addition to Mclaren not necessarily fighting to keep the position).
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