LM10 wrote: ↑22 Feb 2020, 10:40
zibby43 wrote: ↑22 Feb 2020, 07:14
Just_a_fan wrote: ↑21 Feb 2020, 14:19
That's some serious delta driving. That last stint is all, bar the odd lap, sat at around 20.3 with no sign of tyre deg or fuel burn off showing (unless one is matching the other almost perfectly). Makes one wonder what they could do if they were pushing.
I agree.
On a side note, remember when Ferrari let James Allison walk?
Before Allison's arrival, one of the Merc's most glaring weaknesses (and there weren't many) was its propensity to chew through its tires - particularly the rears. Now, Merc are the class of the field in terms of tire management in race trim.
Mercedes already was amazing in slow corner performance last season (and also before), but they seem to have still managed to make an even bigger jump this year. Juzh, the onboard-video provider of the forum, told that he has observed Mercedes already in testing having a significantly higher minimum corner speed in slow speed corners than in last year's Q3.
It's safe to say that James Allison is a big blessing for Mercedes. He's a suspension genius and it seems like that area still is one where you can gain big chunks of time in. Their "adventurous" suspension system at the rear and DAS at the front make it two innovations which in combination could already mean game over for this year.
RBR seems to be very upset about DAS and will desperately try to get it banned. They know they can't argue on a mechanical level as it is not against the rules so they try to do it by bringing the argument that it primarily has an aerodynamic benefit rather than mechanical. They really want to make Max the youngest champions in history. They worked so hard to improve their car and have been fairly optimistic the last weeks.
On another note, I think Ferrari should eye the situation closely and if their car turns out to be significantly behind, they should just be honest to themselves, be clever, let Mercedes and RBR fight and turn their focus on 2021.
I knew Mercedes was looking pretty handy (visually) in the slow corners thus far, and the S3 times were ahead of what RB was doing, but did not know about the significantly higher corner entry speeds. Thank you for sharing that. Interesting stuff indeed, as the slow corners are where you can make up the most time of all the corners.
As you pointed out, Merc have been slowly evolving to prioritize that slow corner performance. And agree on Allison. His personality just seems to fit well within the culture that Mercedes have established.
I think Mattia is trying to introduce a better culture at Ferrari, it's just going to take time. When he was the TD, Ferrari were innovating on the hardware-side (both with respect to the PU and the chassis), but the culture was not where it is today. I think there's been a bit of a trade-off with him switching roles. I have a lot of respect for Mattia.
Definitely not, man. In 2014 they were 80 hp behind according to Binotto. They surely didn’t close this gap in one year. Mercedes has been the clear class of the field in regards to PU up until 2017 (included).
