7 replies to this topic

[Alfisti]

Most of us with a driver in the RBR camp would agree that the car has been a superb piece of kit for lapping F1 circuits for about 2 years now, just fantastic, job well done. What it was poor at was hand to hand combat, the front end seemed to wash away really badly when following other cars and it was just slow in a straight line, could have been the engine, could have been the downforce settings, dunno but it was slow. So we'd all dread a dud start or a poor stop or bad luck being fed into traffic. It was also **** off the line more often than not, just ****. It gave the other teams hope, especially the Merc powered teams with their lightening straight line speed and/or killer KERS.

But now, none of that is so critical, just turn the knob and crash bang wallop you're past.

[noikeee]

It tends to be a big benefit for faster cars, true. But it's also a big benefit for faster drivers. Now we can actually see who is faster through the while stints, rather than only in the rare laps in clean air.

[Sausage]

I agree, luck/the start etc. was far too important in the last few years. All F1 fans worldwide sat around the telly hoping for the faster cars/drivers to have a **** start or stupid strategy and voila you'd have yourself some actual fun watching it being unable to pass for 30 laps despite being faster. Good on RBR this year for having made a great car again and have their races not ruined by some stupid little things.

[GregAU]

Not only that but the current qualifying rules are currently giving RBR an even bigger advantage.
Brundle and/or Coulthard stated last night that the RBR's were able to use their DRS in a couple of extra spots compared to other teams that literally couldnt, saving an estimated 2/10ths per lap. If this is accurate at the very least Webber would have started on the 2nd row without it.

Whether you can view this as job well done to RBR or an unfair advantage that needs a mid-season rule tweak is apples vs oranges.

Personally because of this reason I think the use of DRS and maybe KERS should be disallowed in qualifying.
At the very least DRS should be only allowed in the zone at all times, but without race conditions it's a moot point so it should be disallowed in qualy altogether.

[Alfisti]

Nah no rule tweaks, that'd be harsh. Just making the observation that DRS is going a HELL of a long way to solving RBR's start line, straight line and general car on car hustling issues. Newey must be sick from laughing.

[pingu666]

notsure how the speeds compair at certain points on the track, but the drs zone was at the fastest point of the track. im surprised they can use it more than the other teams as it goes to such a tea tray mode, specialy compaired to the mclrean one

[BennyJohnson]

While this assessment is correct, that of the DRS helping RBR, it's much more complicated than than "Crash Bang Wallop, You're Past".

The reason RBR is being helped so much by the DRS is that they are able to run downforce levels at a much higher rate, without the car being massively affected on the straights.

This is going to be crucial for places like Monza, Spa and Canada, the 3 bane tracks of Red Bull, because they will be able to have a setup much more acustom to the car, that reaps the benefits of what that car is designed to do, which is be planted, without suffering majorly in Straight Line Speed.

KERS also helps in the same way, RBR can run massive amounts of Downforce, while being able to keep up with the other cars on the straights.

That's why Vettel can get 10 seconds ahead, and then dictate the race as he sees fit, and that's why RBR are going to be a class above the rest.

We'll see the true advantage of how quick that car is in 2 weeks time, that's for sure.

[krapmeister]

Having said that they still need to get the car setup right - wasn't Mark's car banging on the limiter when he made the pass on Alonso? It almost looked like he wasn't going to make it - although that may have also been due to the KERS issues Webber was having in the last stint.

But I agree essentially with what Alfisti is saying - and I am sure that Seb and Mark especially are not as desperate to try and not lose spots at the start like they were the last couple of years. Even if they do they know they can get them back...