godlameroso wrote: ↑17 Nov 2021, 17:38
SiLo wrote: ↑17 Nov 2021, 16:11
godlameroso wrote: ↑17 Nov 2021, 15:57
They had enough dirty downforce to beat Mercedes at COTA, enough dirty downforce to beat Mercedes in Paul Ricard, Bahrain, Austria, Zandvoort(literally at sea level) those circuits weren't at super high altitude like Mexico. What they did have in common was a lot of aero dependent corners, something the Red Bull excels at. Mexico was just the icing on the cake, you don't get a better read for downforce than there. Even Mercedes fearless leader says Red Bull has more downforce this year.
Losail requires a lot of downforce, thus says the circuit director. Perez has raced and won here, so we do have some data, even if it is 12 years old.
So are you just going to ignore all the other races where Mercedes were faster, at tracks that are far more similar to Losail than any of the ones you mentioned? You can't just cherry pick a quote from an outlier race and then say "Look! I'm right!". Anyone can do that and create a narrative that conforms to their desires and beliefs.
Bahrain was very early season, the cars were closely matched, both Lewis AND Max could have won that race. Austria and Mexico has been terrible for Merc for a while now, and good for Red Bull.
As stated by Mercedes multiple times, they really didn't like the aggressive banking and lost all their time in the banked corners.
Such as?
Barcelona was nip and tuck, and bad strategy cost Verstappen the race more than a pace deficit, same in Bahrain. Mercedes were stronger on the exits of corners and could manage their rear tires better. That's a fact. Portimao has nothing but corners where exit traction wins, any corner that requires carrying speed through it is easy flat. Mercedes didn't win in Hungary and had to use political means to get his man into P2. Russia, well I mean Hamilton only had to beat Norris, so sure. Silverstone? LOL! Where else did Mercedes win post Silverstone upgrade...Turkey and Brazil, Turkey was in the wet, and Bottas's Mercedes with superior exit traction and top speed won, and then finally Brazil.
Brazil is at elevation so the same excuse about dirty downforce should hold as well. Brazil doesn't have many mid to high speed corners that require you to carry speed through. It does have an abundance of corners that require exit traction, getting a good run out of Juncao helps massively down the main straight.
"they really didn't like the aggressive banking and lost all their time in the banked corners."
Then they're going to struggle in Losail, it's not as flat as the sims have you believe, there's a fair bit of undulation and camber on the road that's not easy to see. I tried to drive with this in mind.
An excuse for almost every race yet won't hear the opposite for Red Bull. I'm just trying to point out the biases in your reasoning. Mercedes were clearly faster in Barcelona, that's why that strategy worked out for them. Similarly for Red Bull in Austin even with a compromised Merc setup.
Monaco is all tractions zones and Red Bull were very fast there as well, plus its all dirty downforce.
It's been back and forth all year, but I don't agree with your statements that Red Bull are "untouchable" in high speed corners when the evidence simply does not point to such a conclusion.