So who was fastest today?
Magnussen fastest in OT. Nice conclusion to the day. Ironic if Haas were upper end of field after all their challenges.
Correct regarding Toro Rosso. Perez won a GP with a Racing-Point-Mercedes. Daniel Ricciardo's won at Monza on a McLaren-Mercedes. Toto wasn't sacked. I think the FIA should insist on engine parity between suppliers and customers, with units allocated at random, supervised by officials. . Otherwise, only 3 or 4 teams are allowed to win. There is no point wanting a "level playing field" if some teams receive less powerful engines, IMO.
Theoretically you are right, and I agree with you on the substance. The reality is slightly different and the board of major manufacturers won’t let their customers teams win against their expensive proper team on a regular basis..
https://www.planetf1.com/news/christian-horner-clarifies-w13-stance/ Horner believes the car at this point is legal. That said, its only testing.
Day 2 results Image Unavailable, Please Login Cumulative and Daily results with regards to lap counts and mileage completed. Image Unavailable, Please Login
we know better than to jinx it. after all, by my count it's only been 5,253 days since we won the championship...
Mercedes "space-age" tech clarified per Pay Symonds “On the Mercedes they have a few little tricks in there that help them in this respect. For example, the intercooler is a very, very neat device. It’s a water air intercooler, which of course Mercedes have had for a little while. But I think this is a little bit different and that’s why they can really shrink wrap this car a little bit more than most of the others can.” “People are doing this sort of air-breathing rocket motor and this sort of spin-off from that has been this really extremely efficient heat exchanger technology,” Symonds added, “and I think that’s part of the reason why they’ve been able to produce the car the way they have.” Mercedes has combined their creative interpretation of the regulations with their edge in cooling packaging to create their slimline sidepods. It remains to be seen whether this concept will yield a large advantage but it is refreshing to see a new concept and, importantly, to see the constructors’ champions continue to push the boundaries of the sport. https://www.racefans.net/2022/03/11/analysis-mercedes-slimline-sidepods-and-the-rocket-technology-behind-them/
The discussion about customer engines are interesting. I am sure the factory team gets the latest and greatest and the units that test the best on the dyno. Though I don't think there are huge differences. It's not like the old days when Sauber would get 1 year old engines from Ferrari. Even if the customer engine is identical mechanically to the factory engine, I think there can be quite a bit found in the tune and the energy deployment strategy. Of course there are stories like the ones from Lotus/Grosjean in Spa 2015 about Mercedes denying them the best engine modes.
I like how Charles is showing good speed on the Med. Hopefully that is going to translate into good race pace with long stints.
The race question has been answered. As an extra data point, the best a Ferrari customer team has finished overall in the WCC was 4th
But they weren´t a threat for the championship. It remains to be seen what would happen if a customer and works team were really fightting, but the inter-team orders exist. Right now I´m remembering Ocon at Force India allowing a Mercedes to pass at Monaco.
Well, that may be true in F1, but not in endurance. There are many instances where customer teams received the same equipment as the work team, and beat the factory. The team of Reinhold Joest won Le Mans not once but 4 times against the Porsche factory (1984, 1985, 1996 & 1997). The EuroBrun team also defeated the Porsche factory in 1984 to win the World Endurance Championship with the late Stefan Bellof. Even when AUDI was dominating endurance, they leased some cars to US and Japanese teams that beat the official team. Of course it's a different scene than F1, but it's good business for a brand to let the customers win.
