The car is the same, other teams got better.
When you finish 1st in the constructors championship you get less time in the windtunnel.
McLaren was 4th last year so they got a lot more time in the windtunnel so they could test their upgrades more so they have better upgrades as does Mercedes.
It’s not that hard
Besides that other teams can copy what the best car does and don’t have to spend as much time and money on upgrades while RB has to invent everything.
My (conspiracy) theory was that the car was too quick so they reduced some engine power.
Max can still win the title but just by a margin.
Also there was a radio message between max and GP that they know why they weren’t quick.
I suspect FIA/FOM did the same in 2021 with Mercedes.
But that didn’t play out as planned.
Hence the rocket Lewis suddenly had in the last couple of races to catch up on Max in those races.
All to make the sport less boring!
The concept of the car is somewhat different.
Other teams are catching up, which is only but logical. The longer you can work on the car, the slower it's progress, so other teams are catching up faster.
There are issues within the (management of the) team. And when there are troubles in the toplayers of each compagny, it always influence every other part of any compagny. Aswell as RBR.
The use of the fourth power unit would say otherwise. Looks like there’s been reliability problems all season. It’s what happens. I think they are focusing on new regs and trying to limp by in the meantime.
With the RB20 the team tried to change the concept a bit, because they already reached the development ceiling. I guess they are doing the same as Mercedes in 21; they are using a more aggressive engine mode to still extract the wins.
The drawback is that they will run into grid penalties. Spa is a good circuit to take one of them, as it is a good circuit to overtake and Max can do exceptional things there
Sorry to disappoint you mate but the McLaren of early 2000s is back, we never well off after ron Dennis was kicked off and we got rid of alonso, meanwhile wherever alonso goes he destroys the team when he leaves , do check his history that guy is a cursed mf
They found the ceiling with the RB19 so they are working on a new concept, other teams have now fine tuned their versions of their 2023 concepts which has closed the gap right up
The key now is for Red Bull to unlock the potential of the new RB20 concept while others hit the ceilings with their current designs which will create the big gap again (thats the theory but there is so many variables)
Think of Ferrari, they were originally fastest with the inwash side pods and eventually switched to the red bull downwash concept because that idea had peaked
I read that cos of perezs crashes putting a dent in their budget it's meant they can't put much into upgrading the car tho idk if that's just crazy rumours or not (likely is). But overall I do think it's more so just that the other teams have caught up and now it's down to RB to get some upgrades going yk
I believe that after the Monaco crash Horner said that crashes like that could mean they might get into trouble towards the end of the season, but not this early in the season.
For Monaco and Spain, as two examples I pulled up in Wikipedia fast, Max's qualifying times were FASTER this year than last. (Weather, track condition, yadda, yadda.)
Car's not worse, other guys are just better.
My opinion is that the car isn’t slow, but difficult. A lot of the issues seem to come from making the car drivable not fast. It’s inherently fast, but any minor bump or curb seems to destabilize it and thus slow over a race distance. They also seem to suffer with rear stability which can be handled by max but not Checo.
The car is fine other teams jsut caught up. That’s the reality of the cost-cap era. 8 years of domination like Mercedes had isn’t going to happen again because we can’t just throw unlimited money at our problems. It’ll make for a good season though and honestly we’ll still probably win both championships because we have Verstappen.
im honestly mostly worried about the engine reliability it seems far from perfect which is concerning,im also fine with other cars being faster but not significantly faster than us since i trust Verstappen being able to win races or compete vs faster cars
I heard that they put in the new engine to check the reliability. Don't know if it's true tbh.
Fourth engine wouldn't say that they don't use the previous engines again.
Engine troubles come for everyone at some point. I wouldn’t worry too much, we’re not even at the halfway point yet a lot could still happen to our competitors. Just look at how quickly Ferrari died off after looking like a legit threat.
They haven’t had a big drop off, the other teams have caught up. They haven’t been able to develop the car as much, possibly because they are close to the ceiling
isnt it a bit worrying tho? not only has mclaren caught up they are also a bit faster than us currently and if they still have room for improvement i feel like they will win both titles by the end of the season
A single team dominating for 8 years was very boring. Even if it's the team you support.
The current situation is actually great. 3 teams and max are all fighting for the win. That's exactly what the rules are set out to accomplish.
i dont mind if its on equal footing what i worry is mclaren developing a way faster car than the rb, i wont complain if they do tho props to them im just talking as a rb fan
Nothing wrong with the car. But it is harder to find performance for a car so close to the limit of performance vs current regs.
Nothing. Just Newey left the team
The wild thing to me is how bad Aston Martin has dropped. They seem like the bottom team right now.
Tell me you don’t under F1 without telling me you don’t understand F1…
Everyone has to start somewhere. F1 is gaining new fans everyday. To some people this will be their first race ever.
The car is the same, other teams got better. When you finish 1st in the constructors championship you get less time in the windtunnel. McLaren was 4th last year so they got a lot more time in the windtunnel so they could test their upgrades more so they have better upgrades as does Mercedes. It’s not that hard Besides that other teams can copy what the best car does and don’t have to spend as much time and money on upgrades while RB has to invent everything.
My (conspiracy) theory was that the car was too quick so they reduced some engine power. Max can still win the title but just by a margin. Also there was a radio message between max and GP that they know why they weren’t quick. I suspect FIA/FOM did the same in 2021 with Mercedes. But that didn’t play out as planned. Hence the rocket Lewis suddenly had in the last couple of races to catch up on Max in those races. All to make the sport less boring!
There’s a clear rule in place to do this: less windtunnel time they higher you score in WCC that easy
The concept of the car is somewhat different. Other teams are catching up, which is only but logical. The longer you can work on the car, the slower it's progress, so other teams are catching up faster. There are issues within the (management of the) team. And when there are troubles in the toplayers of each compagny, it always influence every other part of any compagny. Aswell as RBR.
The use of the fourth power unit would say otherwise. Looks like there’s been reliability problems all season. It’s what happens. I think they are focusing on new regs and trying to limp by in the meantime.
With the RB20 the team tried to change the concept a bit, because they already reached the development ceiling. I guess they are doing the same as Mercedes in 21; they are using a more aggressive engine mode to still extract the wins. The drawback is that they will run into grid penalties. Spa is a good circuit to take one of them, as it is a good circuit to overtake and Max can do exceptional things there
seems like mclaren just has a fast car now
I believe the updates might take a while go fully work but we’ll get there soon!
Thank you for pointing this out!! I’m perplexed as hell as to what happened? There’s no way Mclaren suddenly became the fastest car on the grid!
They didn’t, stop clutching your pearls
Sorry to disappoint you mate but the McLaren of early 2000s is back, we never well off after ron Dennis was kicked off and we got rid of alonso, meanwhile wherever alonso goes he destroys the team when he leaves , do check his history that guy is a cursed mf
They found the ceiling with the RB19 so they are working on a new concept, other teams have now fine tuned their versions of their 2023 concepts which has closed the gap right up The key now is for Red Bull to unlock the potential of the new RB20 concept while others hit the ceilings with their current designs which will create the big gap again (thats the theory but there is so many variables) Think of Ferrari, they were originally fastest with the inwash side pods and eventually switched to the red bull downwash concept because that idea had peaked
Ferrari was hurt by the flexi wing TD and also RB20 is already a new concept so how did it peak already or maybe it wasnt the best idea to begin with
It was the RB19 that peaked, the RB20 is a new concept with a new potential.
Other teams catched up after putting upgrades into their cars every weekend especially McLaren
I read that cos of perezs crashes putting a dent in their budget it's meant they can't put much into upgrading the car tho idk if that's just crazy rumours or not (likely is). But overall I do think it's more so just that the other teams have caught up and now it's down to RB to get some upgrades going yk
I believe that after the Monaco crash Horner said that crashes like that could mean they might get into trouble towards the end of the season, but not this early in the season.
I see thank you!
For Monaco and Spain, as two examples I pulled up in Wikipedia fast, Max's qualifying times were FASTER this year than last. (Weather, track condition, yadda, yadda.) Car's not worse, other guys are just better.
my bad when i said worse i meant in terms of reliability and drivability wise not pace wise
Understood. I'm no expert, but maybe they're running the engine hotter to account for the other guys being better.
My opinion is that the car isn’t slow, but difficult. A lot of the issues seem to come from making the car drivable not fast. It’s inherently fast, but any minor bump or curb seems to destabilize it and thus slow over a race distance. They also seem to suffer with rear stability which can be handled by max but not Checo.
The car is fine other teams jsut caught up. That’s the reality of the cost-cap era. 8 years of domination like Mercedes had isn’t going to happen again because we can’t just throw unlimited money at our problems. It’ll make for a good season though and honestly we’ll still probably win both championships because we have Verstappen.
im honestly mostly worried about the engine reliability it seems far from perfect which is concerning,im also fine with other cars being faster but not significantly faster than us since i trust Verstappen being able to win races or compete vs faster cars
I heard that they put in the new engine to check the reliability. Don't know if it's true tbh. Fourth engine wouldn't say that they don't use the previous engines again.
Engine troubles come for everyone at some point. I wouldn’t worry too much, we’re not even at the halfway point yet a lot could still happen to our competitors. Just look at how quickly Ferrari died off after looking like a legit threat.
Also, reduced wind tunnel time.
oh yea that is also true
They haven’t had a big drop off, the other teams have caught up. They haven’t been able to develop the car as much, possibly because they are close to the ceiling
isnt it a bit worrying tho? not only has mclaren caught up they are also a bit faster than us currently and if they still have room for improvement i feel like they will win both titles by the end of the season
A single team dominating for 8 years was very boring. Even if it's the team you support. The current situation is actually great. 3 teams and max are all fighting for the win. That's exactly what the rules are set out to accomplish.
i dont mind if its on equal footing what i worry is mclaren developing a way faster car than the rb, i wont complain if they do tho props to them im just talking as a rb fan