That was a quote. Sorry, not my words
February 19 2014 12:41 AM Magnussen puts the GP2 times to bed. Reasonable to assume these times will come down much further yet. No chance that GP2 will come close to F1 Share neopardy
February 19 2014 1:09 AM While Red Bull continue to stress they'll be out for the first time today shortly, we haven't also seen Toro Rosso as yet in the opening three hours. We hear it might take them a little longer to get the STR9 up and running for action. Share James Galloway
Latest times: 1: HUL1.36.880 2: ALO1.37.879 3: HAM1.37.908 4: MAG1.38.295 5: VET1.40.224 6: SUT1.40.443 7: FRI1.42.900 8: KVY1.44.346 9: GRO1.44.832
fastest times of the day so close to 2013 race pace is one in the eye for those concerned about the speed of the new cars.
Looking like another rough day for RBR. Only 7 laps and another fire. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bg1ydTeCQAAOv5E.jpg
Jennie Gow, BBC Radio 5 live pit-lane reporter in Bahrain "While Red Bull have at least got out of the garage and managed 13 laps so far, they are clearly still in trouble. The turbo is not kicking in on fire-up in the way it does on other cars, and there is a distinct smell of burning from the car after it has been running - suggesting those overheating problems are far from solved. All the Renault-powered teams seem to be suffering from similar problems, with electrical and software issues blighting their progress. Meanwhile, the word among the teams is that Mercedes and McLaren look in good shape, and Kevin Magnussen is impressing many people up and down the pit lane.
I think McLaren is right with them. Magnussen had a stint of 14 laps that were all in the 1:37 range. I didn't see that 1:36.8 coming from Force India/Hulkenburg, but they do have the Merc engine...
I wouldn't leave McLaren or Ferrari out of that mix. Merc hasn't done so much more or better for a clear advantage to be established yet, imho...and, we don;t know how fuel consumption & ERS performance is going for any of these cars yet.
I wouldn't count out the Scuderia either, but I think that Merc would be a good bet at this moment. I think the main thing to look at right now is "reliability speed", I.e. 'How fast can they go without breaking down?'
Race laptimes are almost always slower than flying laps with open air galore; in a race there's more fuel, tires are usually worn, traffic, dirty air etc etc. if anything it confirms this year's cars are a lot slower because they can't even best a race laptime on fresh tires, low fuel load & zero traffic.
Last year's fastest race lap was 136.961 and last year's pole was 132.330 just to highlight the difference. The 2014 cars are much, much slower than last year. They have a long way to go. FWIW, the lap record for Bahrain is 130.252 set my MS in the mighty F2004.
The 2014 cars are still running with a good bit of fuel, of this we can be certain. That being said, I think these cars *might* be good for a sub 1:34 here So far, extended long run pace seems to be about the same as 2013 though
I love that RB are struggling. At least (at this point anyway) we should expect some actual racing at the top of the grid this season.
