Emag wrote: ↑08 Mar 2024, 20:42
MCLvamos wrote: ↑08 Mar 2024, 20:21
Ben1980 wrote: ↑08 Mar 2024, 20:13
What's disapointing? Red Bull were always going to get faster, everyone knew that. If anything it's all pretty similar.
-Outdeveloped by Aston, who were clueless with their development direction in the second half of last year (yes we may still be ahead on race pace but they have undeniably got closer)
-Ferrari a good chunk ahead when we were neck-for-neck at the end of last year
-Ferrari and Merc's issues in Bahrain masked our gap to them, I suspect this will be exposed tomorrow (although I hope I'm wrong)
-Forgetting about outright performance as well, key areas of focus since the new regs set (straight line speed, drivability) not being addressed
I trust in the team and Stella particularly, but I think the many false dawns over the past few years has made the pessimist I am today...
If Aston can't beat any of the top 4 teams in race-pace, then their qualifying advantage is useless. They fell off the cliff at Bahrain to the point where they were no threat at all for position. If that turns out to be the case tomorrow as well, then you can hardly call that "outdevelopment".
And as for Ferrari, they had pretty clear significant problems with correlation and car development last year. Their 2023 car was sometimes slower than their 2022 car ...
It is to be expected that they make a big jump, because arguably, they had the most to gain out of the top teams just by fixing clear issues with their car (low hanging fruit).
Mercedes has gone for an almost complete redesign of their car, and yet they are barely quicker than McLaren which has come out of winter with a car that looks largely similar to the MCL60 that closed off 2023 at Abu Dhabi.
And RedBull had the whole of 2023 to develop their 2024 car ...
I know perhaps the expectation was to be right on the tail of the leading car, fueled perhaps by the team's clear ambitions for race wins this season before the start of the season. But the situation is not as dire as it looks, and there are reasons for the current gaps to the teams ahead.
Now it's up to the team to stick to their ambitions/goals and deliver on track.