Link to PlanetF1 article http://planetf1.com/story/0,18954,3265_3484826,00.html Agree with track being a zero. Right there with Hungary. I will be at Monaco this year to witness that parade. Disagree with Renault making substantial progress. Fastest lap for Kimi was over 1sec quicker than Alonso's. He ran light and the safety car allowed him to stay out longer. They arent even close yet. Better but not a factor.
So you think Piquet making it to Q3 was nothing big? Renault clearly made a huge leap in performance for Barcelona. They are not ready to run at the front but if I were McLaren and BMW, I would be looking over my shoulder.
I'm not so sure about that. It appeared that Renault pushed the limits of the engine to get a little more out of it. Combined with a semi light load of fuel and the luck of a safety car, the Renault was running well above where it should have been. Once the dust settled, Renault was barely a top ten car and stayed there until the over tweaked engine expired. That's how I viewed it anyway.
I based my position relative to Ferrari's overall pace. Better but nothing yet for Kimi to worry about. For now it seems they are more like Jag when Webber was there. Great to qualify not so good in the race. I think the big 3 have not too much to worry about yet. If they show the same in Turkey then I guess the improvements are for real and maybe the others should be wary. Did Fernando overstress his motor to make an impact for the home crowd? There is more to the story I think. He was targeting 7th. I do believe Fernando is quite rational in what is actually possible with his machine for now. They did steal the headlines thats for sure
I really hate when this happens, I absolutely agree with you. OK, so Alonso lost an engine, but he only had to pit two laps before Massa, and he kept the pace until that first stop. As soon as they get the reliability issue resolved, Renault will be up there with BMW and on the podium.
Massa stopped one lap before scheduled and Alonso stopped 4 laps after there scheduled stop because of the safety car.
yep, the safety car period made things look better, ie. FA was not 'that' light on fuel, when in fact he was pretty light. however, it does seem Renault have made progress, but nothing earth shattering. will be interesting if they can catch up to Mcl and Bmw this season...
The safety car also aided Massa's fuel mileage, yes? The talk here pre-race was Alonso on vapors. As it turned out, his fuel load was a lot closer to the Ferrari's that all teh armchair expoerts on here predicted. Renault has made a significant increase in performance, there is no other explanation for how a driver as mediocre as Piquet Jr. could have qualified in the top ten.
