This is my first ever thread - so be kind. (Thanks in Advance).
I just made a comment in the RB8 thread and it got me thinking about starting a thread on what is usually refered to as 'The Pecking Order'.
The winter testing season was a bit of a question mark (other than the McLarens being rather "good" and the Ferrari being rather "poor, relatively speaking"...)
And, then, when we had Australia, it was said Melbourne is "an atypical circuit" so "let's wait" for Malaysia...
And, then, finally, we had rain in Sepang which threw up it's own "issues" with different cars operating differently on Full Wets and on Inters.
But, I think, we've seen enough to have some sort of Pecking Order already. And I think it's pretty different between 1 Flying Lap trim and Race Pace. I'll start off the speculation:
Qualifying 3 Trim:
1 McLaren MP4-27
2 Lotus E30
3 Mercedes W03
4 Red Bull RB8
5 Ferrari F2012
6= Sauber C31
6= Williams FW34-Renault
Race Pace:
= 1 McLaren (Paddy Lowe says they don't have a race pace advantage)
= 1 Red Bull
= 1 Lotus (shame about Grosjean's accidents and Kimi's starting positions)
4. Ferrari
= 5 Sauber
= 5 Mercedes (can't use W/F duct through the front of the car as in Q; poor tyre deg)
= 5 Williams (???!)
Obviously we have the next group of Force India and Toro Rosso...and then we have Massa who's really under-performing, making the Ferrari look worse than it is.
Lastly, Williams could possibly have a potential race winner on their hands (under lucky circumstances) but there's a HUGE question mark over Maldonado and Senna.
Is the current Williams better than where it's being put on the grid and where it's being raced?
Thoughts?
Edited by RayInTorontoCanada, 11 April 2012 - 16:09.