GERMANY PIVOTAL RACE FOR VETTEL ?

The Mercs are about to fall behind by missing this test, I think Monaco-Silverstone will be the peak of their season. If we get a cold Belgium GP they may go well there but they're now playing catchup, which is kind of pointless due to the looming major shake up of rules.

Even Alonso seems to be faltering this season, its all falling into place for Vettel in what could end up being a title almost as easy as 2011 for him.

Martial

Yea I can only see a Vettel win this season unless he hits some reliability issues. A couple of DNF or a drive through pen, or Webber taking him out in the last race

Potentially Mercedes or Lotus (or Alonso) could have a good stretch where they pick up wins - however Vettel is always there or there abouts.

Is he the best on the grid? Maybe, certainly there is imo a group of 3/4 drivers who could be however for me he is the most consistent and that goes for Red Bull too in general

I don't rank him as an all time great atm - just outside the top 10 I think - but and this might seem unfair I need to see more, maybe an intense rivalry and come out on top. You could say that last year Alonso was his biggest rivalry yet - but I think Alonso was more disadvantaged with his car especially for the first few races.

I wonder if a great rivalry actually helps to create a great legacy?

n six

yeh must admit vettel would seem to be on a high at the minute , i just cant help but think unless mercedes has a fundamental flaw in there chassis design as mclaren would seem to have the W04 is going to come good any race now such is the basic pace of the thing -

not quite sure what is happening at ferrari , i have a funny feeling using the toyota wind tunnel is not doing them alot of favours as the season is starting to unfold --

You must work for Mercs PR department Martial, Mercedes have had the same problem for years now. If they couldn't sort it out up to now I have little hope for the second half of a season most people aren't bothering to fully concentrate on

n six

hear what you are saying nsix ,

merc literally have a designer for each corner of the car now such is the strength of there design team that has been getting stronger every year , the strongest engine , the best KERS , unlimited samoleons ,

i just cant see how it cannot fail to come good with that little lot , the fundamental pace of the thing makes me think the chassis and aerodynamics are first rate but the jigsaw is just lacking the final piece --

Not sure about unlimited money martial, McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari all have bigger budgets than them. They probably do have the best KERS but thats so secretive no one really know. As for engine they seem to have the most powerful but they also have the most thirsty one which hurts them for large parts of the race. Its also fairly well accepted that the Merc engine can't hold a candle to the Renaults driveability. Renault have taken what they have and fettled something special, I have big respect for what Renault Sport folk do in their sheds

2014 is a reset so there might be a new order of teams in the future, that said the best designer on the grid is staying with Red Bull, and the second best is going to Ferrari. More of the same perhaps?

n six

think we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one nsix , when merc have the strongest design team on the grid they cant be short of a few bob especially when the have a zillion fat fluckers across the globe buying there 4 wheel midlife crises heaps every year that basicily fund the whole operation -

as for the merc engine -- who knows , none of us here and that includes me has the first clue about the drivability or the fuel consumption of any of the engines , what we do know is that red bull went after the merc engine in a big way a couple of years ago and were turned down ,
---------- that really says it all for me --

as for 2014 -- who knows -- merc will have the overall strongest design team , red bull have newey and vettel , ferrari should have there new wind tunnel up and running , not sure about mclaren ,the loss of paddy lowe will hurt them more than they care to admit --

alain prost seems to think there will be a bit of an engine war next year as opposed to the aerodynamic war we have had for the last few years , maybe the teams have gone about as far as they can go with there wind tunnel black magic so maybe engines will play a major role as they did in the last turbo era --

I'm just going off the raw facts Martial, the teams spending for the last few seasons and this one is freely available on the tinterweb. Lotus is the impressive team, a tiny budget compared to the likes of Red Bull and Ferrari yet right up there with them. Just a shame their design guru is off to Ferrari

I just say it as I see it, we've heard plenty of talk from the experts about engines over the last few years, some of those experts have been lucky enough to drive a selection of current day cars so when they talk about the Renault engines drivability I'm forced to take notice. Its the only thing we can truely accept as anything close to a fact. Engine power and consumption is all guess work but it seems its pretty well known that the Merc is the most powerful and the Renault the least thirsty. How do we know that, who knows but it makes sense when you read more into in.

Engines and their power is all well and good for boasting in the pub but unless you're a cha,v or 14 years old people tend to know theres more to a car than that. a 100hp caterham will get round a track quicker than a 110hp mini bus... and why is cha,v a banned word!

I think aero is still king in this sport, which is why the teams with people like Newey are doing so well. You can't unlearn what you already know so unless the FIA gave teams a car they couldn't play with at all aero will be the biggest part of a car to find time gains with for a while yet.

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Someone needs to tell Force India that their engine should make them world champions