Mercedes VS Renault 2011

[PlatinumZealot]

Boy, this situation is interesting. I believe* the Mercedes is the better car, but sheesh, they are behind Renault in the constructors' standings. Is it that Petrov and Heidfeld are just a better driver combination than MSC and Rosberg? Or just bad luck for Mercedez? There is something inside me that wants Renault to beat them this year though.

[beelsebob]

Boy, this situation is interesting. I believe* the Mercedes is the better car, but sheesh, they are behind Renault in the constructors' standings. Is it that Petrov and Heidfeld are just a better driver combination than MSC and Rosberg? Or just bad luck for Mercedez? There is something inside me that wants Renault to beat them this year though.

I think that at the moment Renault actually have the better car. But if/when Merc figure out how to not eat their rear tyres it'll eat them for breakfast.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Actually I would say the Mercedes is a better car, but suffers from tyre wear issues.

The reason Renault are ahead is because Mercedes had no points finish at Monaco(2 retirements) and had Rosberg in 8th at Canada only for him to go to 11th in the space of 3 laps.

If's and buts on may say, but Renault will be due this misfortune at some stage of the season all things being equal.

I expect Mercedes to be ahead come Spa, comfortably.

[gridwalker]

Personally, I believe that the Renault is a btter car than the Merc, but the driver pairing aren't getting the best out of it; I believe that a fit & healthy Kubica would be wringing the neck of that car and giving the Ferraris something to worry about.

Still, that is a subjective judgement and I've got nothing to back it up ... but if Petrov can grab a podium, anything is possible!

[Carlo's]

Renault is better by some margin. You are just unable to see it due to the fact that Renault drivers don't do their job properly. Heidfeld has problems with warming-up the tyres during quali as always, and Petrov is usually slower in race trim than Nick. With Kubica behind the wheel they could have been better by far. Aerodynamically this car is very good, look on the quali results from Spain, Petrov could have been better than any driver on the grid except Red Bulls. They may be struggling a bit with stability under braking due to the KERS, but since winter testing we haven't seen any evidence to claim this.

Mercedes is usually strong in quali, but it's quite a different story in race. They will be unable to catch Renault in this field unless they find solution to high rear tyres degradation. Their strenghts are very good DRS and I guess mechanical grip is not bad there. Of course their driver's combination is substantailly better than Renault's.

[beelsebob]

Actually I would say the Mercedes is a better car, but suffers from tyre wear issues.

I think we just violently agreed – the renault is the better car, but won't be if Merc sorts out its tyre issues.

[marcush.]

ah ..you cannot tell by points and championship standing at this point.
all Reanault drivers faced terrible luck /or just were unable to make it happen for them until now.Clearly the Renault was stronger than mercedes at the season start but now it seems Mercedes is finding their feet.
Sure MSC and ROS are a stronger combo than Heidfeld and Petrov...and one result from Schumacher has changed the whole picture.
Both teams are underperforming and we have not seen the true potential yet.Would Kubica have made the difference ? History tells us that Kubica does not excell under difficult circumstances he needs to have it all behind him and a very competitive car.

[Vasco]

I guess it depends on how you define a "better car". The Merc seems quicker over one lap but suffers terribly from tyre degradation in the race as compared to the Renault.

Sure, if Merc were to sort out its tyre issues then they might beat Renault in the races, but also if Renault sort out their single lap performance then they might stretch their lead over Merc.

Its the overall strategy employed by the respective teams on how to approach the the design of the cars this season. It seems that Renault's philosophy is paying off regarding the battle of the midfield teams. They designed a car that looks after its tyres well and has tremendous straight line speed. With the new rules regarding DRS and KERS, race position is not as important as in previous years.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Renault is better by some margin. You are just unable to see it due to the fact that Renault drivers don't do their job.

And Petrov pays Renault a few million for them to invest in their car, and pay Heidfeld peanuts. So using the driver excuse is invalid IMO

[Traction]

hard call to make regarding which car is better, with only 8 points between the two teams and only one retirement due to technical issue (Merc)during the season so far theres not much between the two.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

The mercedes is faster. Only wear issues slow them down.

[HampusA]

It might be the faster car but it can´t in no way be better if it has substantial problems of keeping the life in it´s rear tires.

That´s probably a design issue and not something you just tweak out of the setup.

[Traction]

The mercedes is faster. Only wear issues slow them down.

Well if you look at the cars holistically as a package then Mercedes are not better as the tyres are part of the car.There must be a technical issue causing the early wear on the tyres. Renault might not be faster but if tehy are not having tyre issues or any other technical issues then they should be considered the better package. Looking at the qualifying times for the races so far the amount of times that Merc are ahead of Renault and vica versa is so close. Mercedes have only qualified ahead of Renault once more so far this season.

[gridwalker]

Oh cripes, now we're getting into the tortoise vs hare argument ... this way madness lies ... all we can give at this stage are subjective judgements!

[Traction]

Oh cripes, now we're getting into the tortoise vs hare argument ... this way madness lies ... all we can give at this stage are subjective judgements!

so...ummm...which one is the tortoise and which one is the hare?