Were Mercedes foolish to show the full advantage of their car in the Bahrain GP? [split]

And there was me thinking that everyone on this forum was totally 'p****d off' with delta-driving, and just wanted to see drivers going balls-out to beat each other.
Kudos to Mercedes for being willing to let them race, unlike the other manufacturer/manufacturer-favourite teams.

If the drivers are allowed to race and they are as close in performance as they have been so far I don't think it matters. What made the Ferrari and Red Bull years so bad was the lack of internal competition.

Edited by Clatter, 09 April 2014 - 09:54.

I don't know why, but I'd rather see Mercedes scrapping it out amongst themselves than Red Bull. RBR seems to have an underhand, biased, secretive way of racing where as Mercedes seems to be much more on a level playing field.

 

And it's also better to see two team mates scrapping it out together ala 1988 than a year like, say, 1992 where Mansell was so far ahead of Patrese.

 

On the subject of the Senna/Prost rivalry, I have kinda come to the opinion that Senna wouldn't be the great he now is if he didn't have Prost (who is an amazing driver in himself) pushing him to the absolute limit. And I suppose the same could be said about Prost.

 

I think the problem for Red Bull was that they gave both driver equality but that just one was better than the other. Seb was in qualifying about 0.2 to 0.3 quicker than Webber on most days. In the race, Vettel was even quicker because Webber usually had a so-so start, and as it has been shown, even the fastest car on the grid slows down and suffers tyre-degredation behind other cars. And Vettel was usually waaaay in front of any car of importance.

Another 'problem' for Red Bull was that, despite their superiority, they were not that far ahead of Ferrari in 2010, or McLaren in 2011, or Mercedes in 2013. That means that you have to plan your tactics much more in detail than if you are 0.8 sec a lap quicker than anyone else.

 

That doesn't mean I agree with you, by the way. I think that Red Bull has another - and in my eyes less sportive - attitude towards racing than Mercedes.

Long term, I don't think dominance is any good for the sport, but at least this year it's a different team and as as been said more than once, at least there's a real battle at the front.

 

 

Agreed, for this year won't be a problem, especially with Lewis and NIco fighting each other. The positive is they are dominant enough to be able to let their drivers race which will keep it interesting.

 

Lets hope Ferrari, RB-Renault and McLaren-Honda keep them honest next year though or it could become a problem.

A call to that Hembery guy could do it.

 

Change tyre compounds til they no longer fit Mercedes and the difference in performance would probably reduce. 

 

And if it doesn't have the desired effect, quietly tell Mercedes that their two-piece turbo is a movable aero device, and that they have to change its design. 

 

The list of possibilities FIA has available is long. 

or the FIA could leave Mercedes alone because they clearly worked the hardest over the winter and deserve the victories especially after having a tyre eating car for the past few seasons!

Well indeed.  Clearly the other teams were just splashing about in their swimming pools over the winter.

i think the other teams had a good idea how much faster the works mercedes was after the bahrain tests ,seem to remember christian horner saying 

mercedes could lap the field before qually in melbourne ,which was generaly dismissed by this forum and pundits alike .

Edited by northanmonkee2, 09 April 2014 - 13:58.

or the FIA could leave Mercedes alone because they clearly worked the hardest over the winter and deserve the victories especially after having a tyre eating car for the past few seasons!

 

 

Todt has already said he has no intention of changing the rules this season. Saying it would be unfair to Mercedes. People are grasping at straws when they say mid season rule changes will happen to reign Mercedes in.

For the engineers the 10 lap tussle between Rosberg and Hamilton was the best that they could hope for that weekend. The car's performance was extracted and components were stressed to the max.