Although Webber's bad luck and Vettel's mechanical problems, Redbull performance at Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix proved -what was already obvious- that ahead of the incoming races in the European continent, the team is a step ahead of their rivals. However, McLaren and Ferrari are already making their "hunt" plans in their factories in order to threaten Redbull's current pace domination.
Ferrari's Team manager, Stefano Domenicali admitted Red Bull remains a step ahead for the time being.
“Who is the fastest car after the first three Grands Prix?. If I have to look from the number point of view, we are leading the championships. So we should be the fastest. We know that is a very optimistic approach, and that is not the way that we think. We think that for sure looking at the result of the first three Grand Prix, Red Bull did three pole positions. They had reliability issues on other occasions, so for sure Red Bull seems to be the most competitive car.
One of the developments Ferrari is working on is a version of the McLaren ‘F-Duct,’ which will give to the cars a straightline speed boost with similar performance to to the 2009 KERS system.
“On the system of McLaren, for sure we are working flat out at home, because we saw the benefit that seems to be very, very big above all in the main straight with certain conditions, I would say stalling of the rear wing. But we will bring as soon as everything will be reliable, and we will be 100% sure that the system will work.”
McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh beleives that McLaren can close the gap to Red Bull sooner than it was firstly expecting – and hope to make a big step in China.
"I think they were very much in a class of their own. We’re a lot closer now. Their qualifying pace has been very good, we think we know why, and I think that’s something that others will be doing shortly.
The consensus in the pitlane is that Red Bull’s qualifying pace stems in part from its apparent ability to run its cars low with no fuel in qualifying and yet still retain a competitive ride height when a full fuel load goes in for the race, despite the rules saying that car settings cannot be changed."
Whitmarsh also quoted that he has confidence in McLaren’s R&D program:
"I think one of the nice things about it, I sense, to be honest at the beginning of last year we were a long way behind and a little bit lost in terms of the correlation between our tools and what happened on the track. This year we’ve got a good hit rate, a good correlation between the tools, therefore if we find something is quicker in analysis and simulation, then it is when we put it on the car. I think we’ve got reasonable momentum at the moment. Who knows? You could come to the next race and someone’s ‘Hallelujah,’ and they take half a second or one second. But I think we’ll be competitive in China.”
by chris kasta
