Red Bull’s staggering superiority and the impact of a doubtful Safety Car call

26 comments on “Red Bull’s staggering superiority and the impact of a doubtful Safety Car call”

1. 

   Jimmy Cliff
   20th March 2023, 11:28

   In reversal of last week the gap behind Red Bull is artificially inflated by those behind Red Bull settling for their position and more cruising to the finish line, this prior to Merc and AM told to push.
   In Bahrain it was Red Bull that was cruising after the 1st pitstop, now there were more pushing till about 10 laps till the end.

   If you look at lap 50, a lap were multiple drivers were pushing for various reasons the lap time difference is much smaller.
   All driving on hards of equal age Max was 0.3 faster than Alonso and 0.5 faster than Russell. Even Sainz in the Ferrari who had no reason to push and was on even older tires was less than a second behind Max’s FLAP.
   1. 

      drmouse (@drmouse)
      21st March 2023, 8:12

      At the same time, remember that Max had to push more than normal, which would have taken more like it of his tyres than normal. If the others were selling for their position, they would have taken less out of their tyres than normal.

      Given all that, the fact he still beat Alonso’s fastest lap by 0.3 gives a good indication that the advantage they showed in Bahrain wasn’t an outlier.
2. 

   Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
   20th March 2023, 11:33

   Hats-off to Red Bull, they’ve designed an amazing car.

   Unfortunately, unless you’re a Red Bull fan, it’s making races pretty boring!
   1. 

      Ciaran (@ciaran)
      20th March 2023, 11:51

      The downside of this sport unfortunately!

      Perez’s pace at the front was encouraging though. I hope Red Bull don’t hold him back too much too early in the season.
      1. 

         Mayrton
         21st March 2023, 9:35

         I would say Perez was rather underwhelming seeing what Max got out of the car. Plenty of opportunity for AM, Mercedes and Ferrari to beat Perez this season.
   2. 

      Claus J
      20th March 2023, 13:52

      Unfortunately, unless you’re a Red Bull fan, it’s making races pretty boring!

      Not really. I’m not a Red Bull fan but found this race rather intense, not knowing if ham would beat rus, ver catch perez, lec wipe out sai, etc. The 5 teams in front may only really battle inside each team; but the last five teams are fighting intensely. Not for points unless one of the 10 best cars has a fault; but still.

      Not being a Mercedes fan either, I may have been inoculated against race boredom by the last decade :o)
3. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   20th March 2023, 12:00

   ‘Immediately clear’ is inexcusable as they have all the necessary tools & technology available to be aware of where every car is at all times, so pretty amateur error.
   Additionally, they could clearly see where he parked from the world feed footage & CCTV views.
   1. 

      Olivier (@olivenoire)
      20th March 2023, 14:17

      +1
   2. 

      JaxP
      20th March 2023, 14:53

      +1
   3. 

      drmouse (@drmouse)
      21st March 2023, 7:38

      Agreed. And on top of all that, they could have spoken to the Marshalls on the scene.

      They took about 30s to decide to deploy the SC after Stroll retired. It’s inexcusable that in all that time with so many officials now available, they couldn’t see that the car was right next to the access road, off the track, out of danger and would be completely gone in no time.
4. 

   Julian Goddard (@juliangoddard)
   20th March 2023, 12:28

   I think Alonso was 22 seconds behind after 25 laps. Lap 45, not lap 35.
   12 seconds behind after 9 laps, or 19 seconds behind after 18 laps, still shows a massive advantage.
   Mercedes “only” seem to be appropriately 1.25 seconds a lap behind at this track.
5. 

   baasbas
   20th March 2023, 12:35

   How the race unfolded at least gave us the true pace of RBR. This is what it looks like then the push without hiding any pace. Sandbags removed. Even to the point both cars were developing issues. So they showed their hand.
   1. 

      Carsten Nielsen (@carstenb)
      20th March 2023, 12:59

      I liked Checo’s comment towards the end when both were going flat out and the distance between had stabilized around 5 sec, when he said: “Are we really doing this?”
      During the interview it was obvious that he didn’t know that Max had snatched FL from him on the last lap, his face “froze”. Though should have realized when the gap started opening up on the last few laps and tried himself.
   2. 

      Esploratore (@esploratore1)
      20th March 2023, 20:04

      See, they’re not lapping the field, but indeed there’s a big superiority, however I wasn’t one of those who said “it’s only race one, let’s wait to see a few more tracks before saying red bull is gonna dominate”, what I saw in the first race was enough to convince me to vote they will win almost all races.
      1. 

         drmouse (@drmouse)
         21st March 2023, 8:22

         In Bahrain, Max lapped all but the top 12, and it was very clear he wasn’t pushing for the majority of it.

         This race, they didn’t have much more than half race distance, Max wasn’t even in the lead, and they were still managing their pace for a significant amount of time. Bottas was still lapped, though. Without the safety car, even with their second driver leading, they looked like that could have lapped all but the top ten, maybe more.
6. 

   Michael (@freelittlebirds)
   20th March 2023, 13:14

   I have a feeling Max could have won yesterday but he decided to not push the car to its limit as he thought there was an issue. He just bagged the 18 points. His fastest lap showed he had the extra 0.25 seconds of pace per lap but didn’t want to do 20 laps of that.
   1. 

      Esploratore (@esploratore1)
      20th March 2023, 20:07

      Wouldn’t have been easy to pass perez anyway, he was on form.
      1. 

         drmouse (@drmouse)
         21st March 2023, 7:48

         That’s assuming RBR wouldn’t have just ordered him to let him past… I don’t think that’s a very safe assumption.
7. 

   Mr Squiggle
   20th March 2023, 20:12

   Its pretty clear piastri was faster than lando when they were both on whites
   1. 

      Mooa42
      21st March 2023, 4:35

      I think if i’m reading it correctly, Piastri went on to the hards on lap one and then used them all race?
      Piastri and Lando’s lap times looked very even during the race and similar fastest laps, a lot more encouraging than Dan, especially after such little time in the car.
      So it looks like they have two top drivers and one of the crappiest cars
   2. 

      Nitzo (@webtel)
      21st March 2023, 7:29

      Norris was on yellow mediums for most of the race. Piastri was able to overtake Logan quite soon after he was let part lando. It’s a very good performance from the rookie actually.
8. 

   Jimmy Cliff
   20th March 2023, 20:16

   With clickbait titles like this and repeated articles it looks this website is more and more part of the Mercedes PR camp.

   Why are there so many articles on what Mercedes, Lewis, Toto throws out into the media or articles of issues/bad things Red Bull are doing and far fewer and likely more interesting articles on the other 8 teams and their drivers.
   1. 

      F1Plossl
      20th March 2023, 22:28

      I wouldnt say that calling Red Bull’s superiority staggering is Clickbait.
      If it would of been ” Red Bull’s staggeringly superior budget busting car is unstoppable and the safety car made no difference ” then I would’ve agreed…
   2. 

      Sean
      20th March 2023, 23:37

      So weird. The title and article have very, very little to do with Mercedes, Toto or Lewis and record Red Bull’s dominance in breathless terms, and this is your conclusion.
   3. 

      drmouse (@drmouse)
      21st March 2023, 7:56

      How do you get “clickbait” from this title, or “Mercedes PR”? The RBR advantage is staggering. They clearly have over a second in hand on race pace, just look at the numbers and it’s plain to see.

      Of course, if you’re part of the anti-Mercedes crowd, I expect such a blinkered view.
   4. 

      Mayrton
      23rd March 2023, 12:56

      This. 100%. Imagine another driver saying what Lewis did about Mercedes. The press would totally crucify him. On here, its hardly a thing. All the focus goes to aiding the Mercedes PR machine. Blindly also, hardly any critical questions. Staggering superiority? No, nowhere near the Mercs in the V6 Hybrid era. But I think the effect of repeating the Mercedes narrative is decreasing. They have overplayed their hand by continuously rocking the boat and I think FIA and Liberty know Wolff’s antics by now. Look at the whole budget cap situation. Wolff spoke before he was allowed, before he officially had info and he exaggerated massively. Plus he made FIA look like fools beyond their fault as they had not yet concluded the process. And in the end it was hardly a thing (0,7-0,8% overspend), apart at some small fanatic group of fans. Or the first half of 2021 campaigning to get Max an image of being a dangerous idiot. Pure fear and lack of confidence they can win on their own. Or the lobby around porpoising – playing the safety card towards the FIA to eventually end up with nothing. Or the year before again playing the safety card to get the tyres to complement the Mercedes better. All is PR at Mercedes, hence their actual car isn’t really much since they lack focus and priority. They firstly need to return to participating in the sport and demonstrating they actually like what they are doing. Then the results will come back. Their continuous venom and complaining has made things internally toxic as well.

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