Different gear ratios could account for that.
But that's not the case, something that was said on the BBC race commentary, the teams have to choose their gear ratios before the season starts, this is why there has been so much talk of gearing that was too short, teams would not deliberately sabotage their own cars with short ratios if they had the freedom to change them during the race weekend!
The impression I got from that was the teams have to have a group of gear ratio "presets" to use throughout the season - not pick one gear ratio set for the whole season.
I didn't mean they had one set of ratios for the whole season, they set ratios in advance on each of the gearboxes allowed and they just swap gearboxes that work best for any given track...
The rules you posted seem odd and very contradictory, what's the point of sealing gearboxes if that seal can be broken any time before FP3!
Whitmarsh is blaming low downforce for the McLaren's losing to vetTEL at Korea. Except the McLaren's lumps are up by at least 25 bhp. And the faster McLaren's trap speed was less than 4 kph faster than the slowest Red Bull. Which begs the question, if they were so short on downforce, whenceforth came all that drag?
Understeer my friend, which obviously affects the car whilst cornering. Speed trap stats are irrelevant to this discussion.
Not necessarily true; the speed possible through the speed trap is reliant on getting a good exit from the previous corner, if the front is washing out, the driver will have to wait to get on the power; then surely the maximum speed through the trap can not be achieved because they will be slower all the way down the straight!
