FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[What's Burning?]

I think Mercedes may not need to rely on Vettel retirements for them to continue making progress.

as far as Lewis and his championship chase goes...
[youtube]Eew3pEFApKY[/youtube]

[myownalias]

I'm going to go for a Webber victory in Germany, now he has made the announcement of his retirement, I believe we will see a much more feisty Webber.

I'm hoping for an Alonso win to cut he gap to Vettel in the WDC, make the second half of the season much more interesting, another retirement for Vettel would be great!

You should have more hope in Mercedes cutting into Vettel's lead from now on....they not only know how to consistently lock out the front row, but it seems they've found out how to keep the lead as well. Horner's boots were shaking a lot more in Silverstone.....even after Vettel DNF'ed.

I still believe that Alonso has the best chance of overhauling Vettel for the title; Mercedes have improved massively but Alonso seems to consistently be there or thereabouts to take advantage like at Silverstone; cutting the deficit to Vettel by 15 points. The problem that Mercedes have is that their drivers are going to take points off each other, while Alonso has 100% of Ferrari's resources concentrated on him!

[Hammer278]

You have a point, but Ferrari's development rate seems nowhere close to where it should be for there to be much chance. What happened between Barcelona and Silverstone? Even they are surprised.

[myownalias]

Despite the slower than some others development, Ferrari have still been in the mix on race day, their issue is qualifying. In the race they seem to be as fast as anyone else, but end up back in the lower reaches of the top 10 qualifiers so end up losing a bucket load of time passing slower cars, if they can sort out their qualifying pace, then Alonso will be a real threat!

[Hammer278]

Yeah...but they've been talking about 'solving their qualifying pace' since mid 2012.

[myownalias]

Yeah...but they've been talking about 'solving their qualifying pace' since mid 2012.

Yes, guess it's tough one to solve, maybe its related to their pull rod suspensions system, McLaren having problems too with that design, maybe it's not the way to go development wise!

[spankyham]

Yeah...but they've been talking about 'solving their qualifying pace' since mid 2012.

Yes, guess it's tough one to solve, maybe its related to their pull rod suspensions system, McLaren having problems too with that design, maybe it's not the way to go development wise!

I genuinely believe Ferrari trade race pace for q speed. So they will only try and improve q to the extent it didn't impact race pace.

People often overreact to the last race, when you really need to contextualize. I think Ferrari made some bad decisions at Silverstone, yet still, during the race their lap times were competitive.

Bottom line, I think Ferrari will be in the title hunt this year, and anyone writing them off based on Silverstone is making a mistake

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Tapatalk 2

[What's Burning?]

Without a strong contender, we might as well keep giving RB doubles for years to come. The old addage, I'd rather be lucky than good was very much illustrated last year when McLaren graciously gave Red Bull a WDC. I'm just looking for someone... anyone to take away one of their titles or at least make them work for it. This year it was looking like only Ferrari could do so, but now it's looking like Mercedes has joined them in the hunt as well.

The reality is that if Webber was a better driver, Vettel wouldn't have 3 possibly going on 4 WDCs as he would have been taking many more points away from his team mate and making things close for all, a la 2010. I'm curious to know who will be the next Red Bull driver indeed.

[myownalias]

The reality is that if Webber was a better driver, Vettel wouldn't have 3 possibly going on 4 WDCs as he would have been taking many more points away from his team mate and making things close for all, a la 2010. I'm curious to know who will be the next Red Bull driver indeed.

Like Ferrari, RB prefer one driver over another and a second driver will not get a chance of a world drivers title unless the #1 is sidelined for whatever reason. If Webber was a better driver, he would help Vettel to titles as he would be taking more points off the likes of Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton and Rosberg finishing second behind team leader Vettel consistently!

[What's Burning?]

The reality is that if Webber was a better driver, Vettel wouldn't have 3 possibly going on 4 WDCs as he would have been taking many more points away from his team mate and making things close for all, a la 2010. I'm curious to know who will be the next Red Bull driver indeed.

Like Ferrari, RB prefer one driver over another and a second driver will not get a chance of a world drivers title unless the #1 is sidelined for whatever reason. If Webber was a better driver, he would help Vettel to titles as he would be taking more points off the likes of Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton and Rosberg finishing second behind team leader Vettel consistently!

That wasn't the case in 2010. So we went to the Brazilian GP with 4 or 5 drivers still in it from what I recall.

[myownalias]

The reality is that if Webber was a better driver, Vettel wouldn't have 3 possibly going on 4 WDCs as he would have been taking many more points away from his team mate and making things close for all, a la 2010. I'm curious to know who will be the next Red Bull driver indeed.

Like Ferrari, RB prefer one driver over another and a second driver will not get a chance of a world drivers title unless the #1 is sidelined for whatever reason. If Webber was a better driver, he would help Vettel to titles as he would be taking more points off the likes of Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton and Rosberg finishing second behind team leader Vettel consistently!

That wasn't the case in 2010. So we went to the Brazilian GP with 4 or 5 drivers still in it from what I recall.

Yes, but since then, it's been Vettel that has been allowed to take victories while Webber is told to hold station despite being faster, yes we can talk about Brazil 2012, yes we can talk about Malaysia 2013, but generally when Mark has been a position to challenge for the win, Vettel has been given protection. This was confirmed when Vettel told the worlds press that he would ignore team orders again and Red Bull suddenly say, well, we'll just abandon team orders then... instead of punishing their driver for ignoring team orders.

[CookinFlat6]

If the performances of Merc, Lewis and Nico last race is representative of the way things are then Lewis is in the best place to challenge Seb. Instead of Nico taking point off Lewis he will be taking the second place away from Seb. If Lewis qualies ahead normally he will win many more races and if Nico comes second each time or first if Lewis fails then in 5 races Lewis is in control. And if Lewis is not able to beat Nico normally for over half the races left then he doesn't deserve the title anyways. As long as these 2 can qualify on front row normally Merc will take both titles

Germany will be a big clue

[Hammer278]

If the performances of Merc, Lewis and Nico last race is representative of the way things are then Lewis is in the best place to challenge Seb. Instead of Nico taking point off Lewis he will be taking the second place away from Seb. If Lewis qualies ahead normally he will win many more races and if Nico comes second each time or first if Lewis fails then in 5 races Lewis is in control. And if Lewis is not able to beat Nico normally for over half the races left then he doesn't deserve the title anyways. As long as these 2 can qualify on front row normally Merc will take both titles

Germany will be a big clue

Don't forget courtesy of the FIA mutts, we now have all of Merc's competitors getting a nice 3 day test to do all the development work they will, so that Redbull and the Whining Horner can get their free double cheeseburger at the end of the season for the 4th time in a row.

[CookinFlat6]

I am sure that in the light of these further developments Mercedes will not be standing by and letting this happen. We dont know whats going on behind the scenes, but we do know Merc are very powerful.

I cant see the rest getting a 3 day test and Merc nothing when its now clear that Pirelli had to do the test with someone

[Denthúl]

Current drivers won't get to do any car development work, so any time they spend in the car will be subject to the same restrictions as Mercedes' test.