2017 Red Bull Racing Team - Tag Heuer

[TwanV]

Ricciardo having more luck than he deserves in my opinion. He's been put in the shadows all season by Verstappen, yet comfortably leads in him in the standings now.

Absolutely agree! And totally gutted. Not that i don't like DR, but MV is another league.

Ricciardo is driving fast, making almost no mistakes. I cannot say the same about Verstapen. Yeah, spectacular start but then you need to use your brakes a little bit...

Strange comment; the car's electronics failed.. dunno, are you talking about Sainz? VES is more or less flawless this year, but unlucky.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Last year, Ricciardo beat Vetstappen 11-6 in qualifying. This year, he trails by 3-5. The scenario started changing late last year, specifically from Malaysia onward where he started going his own way in terms of setup, rather than copying Ricciardo's setup which he was doing until that point. In the last 6 races of 2016, Verstappen outqualified Ricciardo 4-2.

It's a matter of time for Verstappen to get luck coming his way and sorting some of overtly aggressive driving to get on top of race performances.

[TNTHead]

Very unlucky for VER after his marvellous start. RB still managed to get a podium finish which is remarkable since this is a power circuit and the given (prognosis) of a power deficit of 50 hp.

Quite astonishing to see that RIC managed to keep two Mercedes engine driven cars behind him at this power circuit with Perez almost constantly within DRS distance. How would that be possible given the prognosis of a 50 hp power deficit?

I wonder if the Renault engine is quietly improved by small updates, or is it only that the chassis starts to work well? Only a better working chassis would not help much at long straights.

[Godius]

I've also noticed that Ricciardo has great difficulty in following Verstappen his pace this year. Last year it seemed that Ricciardo was holding back a few tenths in his pocket but this year he has to deliver 100% and still does not match Max his pace.

[Vasconia]

Absolutely agree! And totally gutted. Not that i don't like DR, but MV is another league.

Ricciardo is driving fast, making almost no mistakes. I cannot say the same about Verstapen. Yeah, spectacular start but then you need to use your brakes a little bit...

Strange comment; the car's electronics failed.. dunno, are you talking about Sainz? VES is more or less flawless this year, but unlucky.

In my opinión his start, though spectacular, went too far because he touched Vettel and ruined his chances of winning the race.

He is being quite unlucky with realiability, though.

[Sieper]

Please be honest when I ask, did you see it the first time around? I only saw it in the replay, that was how light of a touch it was. (but a touch is a touch of course). If he really would have gave Vettel a big hit then yes, he would have been out of line, but this to me was viable, Vettel himself also admitted it, Max was fair in going for the hole that opened up.

Now should he have risked going around the outside, maybe not. But then, he was having such an extraordinary quick jump of the line, he had so much speed and Vettel was already blocking Bottas (to get on the inside race line) that Verstappen was almost completely past Vettel already when he turned in (and thus was on the race line himselve).

Maybe even Vettel could have prevented the touch (I don't really think so) but if yes that would have allowed him a second place finish for sure. If they went it for a new frontwing under the Safetycar he would have certainly ended up 3rd. Now they waited until the wing collapsed after the SC car release and in the end he came 1 or 2 laps short of overtaking Ricciardo.

[djos]

Ricciardo is driving fast, making almost no mistakes. I cannot say the same about Verstapen. Yeah, spectacular start but then you need to use your brakes a little bit...

Strange comment; the car's electronics failed.. dunno, are you talking about Sainz? VES is more or less flawless this year, but unlucky.

In my opinión his start, though spectacular, went too far because he touched Vettel and ruined his chances of winning the race.

He is being quite unlucky with realiability, though.

Max was lucky his rear tire wasn't destroyed on the spot by that contact with vettel's front wing.

[FPV GTHO]

Very unlucky for VER after his marvellous start. RB still managed to get a podium finish which is remarkable since this is a power circuit and the given (prognosis) of a power deficit of 50 hp.

Quite astonishing to see that RIC managed to keep two Mercedes engine driven cars behind him at this power circuit with Perez almost constantly within DRS distance. How would that be possible given the prognosis of a 50 hp power deficit?

I wonder if the Renault engine is quietly improved by small updates, or is it only that the chassis starts to work well? Only a better working chassis would not help much at long straights.

Perez said Ricciardo had excellent traction. Getting off the corners quicker was a trick the team used quite often late in the V8 era.

[Vasconia]

Very unlucky for VER after his marvellous start. RB still managed to get a podium finish which is remarkable since this is a power circuit and the given (prognosis) of a power deficit of 50 hp.

Quite astonishing to see that RIC managed to keep two Mercedes engine driven cars behind him at this power circuit with Perez almost constantly within DRS distance. How would that be possible given the prognosis of a 50 hp power deficit?

I wonder if the Renault engine is quietly improved by small updates, or is it only that the chassis starts to work well? Only a better working chassis would not help much at long straights.

Perez said Ricciardo had excellent traction. Getting off the corners quicker was a trick the team used quite often late in the V8 era.

Yes but those straights were long enough to try the overtake, and I saw Perez being quite passiv, which is not usual.

[TNTHead]

Since Ricciardo was running on the soft tyres and Perez was on supersofts, the explanation that it is traction related is remarkable. That would suggest that the chassis of RB is working very well at the moment and/or the FI lacks traction.

Although Christian Horner already stated that the softs were the better choice for them over the supersofts (which was suggested during the race by Alonso as well).

I still wonder whether Renault has found some updates that diminishes the performance gap. At the end of the race Ricciardo was 35s behind Hamilton, which is al lot less than the >1 minute at Spain.

[Webber2011]

I think that even though a distant 3rd was all he achieved, Riccardo also drove one of the most intense races he's ever had.

As whittnessed by his own comments.

He said himself that's the hardest he's had to concentrate on defending for a while.

[djos]

I think the Renault for the last couple of years has always been very drivable and that might explain the great drive out of corners.

Iirc the Mercedes engine in Monaco was described as a bit peaky which led to the traction issues and their subsequent issues.

[TNTHead]

So you suggest the Renault engine suffers less from 'turbo lag' than the Mercedes engine? That's an interesting observation.

That drivability feature is also useful at the start. It might also give an explanation of superb start of Verstappen. He stated that he had no wheel spin at the start with immediate grip.

[djos]

So you suggest the Renault engine suffers less from 'turbo lag' than the Mercedes engine? That's an interesting observation.

That drivability feature is also useful at the start. It might also give an explanation of superb start of Verstappen. He stated that he had no wheel spin at the start with immediate grip.

I can't recall the details of the claims, but it was something to do with mgu-k deployment was more aggressive than was useful around Monaco so I'm assuming that applies to power down out of the corners in Canada.

I could well be completely wrong too.

Dan also mugged Raikkonen off the start Iirc.

[FPV GTHO]

Since Ricciardo was running on the soft tyres and Perez was on supersofts, the explanation that it is traction related is remarkable. That would suggest that the chassis of RB is working very well at the moment and/or the FI lacks traction.

Although Christian Horner already stated that the softs were the better choice for them over the supersofts (which was suggested during the race by Alonso as well).

I still wonder whether Renault has found some updates that diminishes the performance gap. At the end of the race Ricciardo was 35s behind Hamilton, which is al lot less than the >1 minute at Spain.

Perez may have also just been making excuses for not letting Ocon past though. But power down only affects half the overtaking manoeuvre. I'd expect with more downforce the Red Bull should also have shorter braking distances than the Force India.