Red Bull.jpg

With the season now underway, we’ve got our first real glimpse at what the 2017 Formula One season will look like, and it seems like this year might be a Mercedes vs Ferrari show.

But it’s too early to rule Red Bull out.

Red Bull seemed oddly missing last weekend. The biggest part the team played in the race was Max Verstappen acting as a road block for Lewis Hamilton. The teenager finished the race an unspectacular fifth, whilst his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo retired due to an issue with the sensor on his gearbox.

Even before the race, Red Bull appeared to be off of the pace. Though the pair were third and fourth in FP1 (behind Mercedes), they fell further back throughout the testing and qualifying.

It’s unsurprising with the team using 2016 specification engines after Renault postponed the update due to reliability concerns. The heavier engines no doubt aren’t helping their 2017 campaign, but the team aren’t as far back as you’d think, if you believe Verstappen and Christian Horner.

“To be honest, I don’t think we’re that far behind,” Horner told ESPN. “With Mercedes I think we have about half a second to find. Ferrari have been very impressive here and probably had the quickest car [in Melbourne]. We probably had the third quickest car and we’ve got to find a good half a second to get into the fight ahead. Max was pushing Kimi hard all race but we didn’t have the pace of Vettel or Hamilton.”

Verstappen maintained a gap of about two seconds for most of the race, though he fell away from the Ferrari towards the end of the race, finishing with a gap of over six seconds.

“I was still a bit surprised that we were that close to Kimi,” Verstappen said. “Pace was quite good compared to him. The whole race we were quite close to each other.

“Behind me there was not much pressure, so that was very nice. I think the car behaved quite a bit better in the race than in qualifying. It’s difficult to say how much [the team is away from the front]. It looked a lot better in the race, I’m happy about that. We need to improve, and we will work hard to do that. So we’ll see in the next few races.”

It’s too early to say Red Bull will be out of the fight between Ferrari and Mercedes, especially with Melbourne not being the best indicator for the direction of the season. But it seems like the team still has work to do, especially as they try to claw back the deficit of the old power unit specification.

For more Formula One news and discussions head over to the RaceDepartment Formula One sub forum and join in with your fellow community members.

Do you think Red Bull will be able to catch Mercedes and Ferrari? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
 
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per horner (publicly anyway). 0.5s, which he's confident will be found.

i will be surprised if theyre not fully in contention by monaco, barring mercedes finding a massive gain, which isnt likely but the pessimist in me fears it.
 

Bram

RaceDepartment Founder
Staff
Premium
Not impressed with RBR so far. The hype-train is in full motion in the Netherlands because of Max Verstappen with Dutch TV not longer being a critical media but more turning into fanboys.

I am the first to admit Max has the potential (can't find my prediction thread from 2010 anymore) to become an amazing Formula 1 driver, but an entire country thinking he will become World Driver Champion just like that with RBR is a bit naive. If the AusGP pace is something to go by for the first half of the season I am not very hopeful Max and Daniel will finish higher than 5th and 6th.
 
The best 2017 F1 development?
Finding Unimas, a Spanish language HD sports channel buried at Channel 1644 (!).
Finally, flag to flag no ad breaks USA coverage.
Enthusiastic presenters who call Horner "Spice Boy" each time he's shown.

The Oz race? Man, doesn't Italy have a great national anthem? Missed that.
 
Not impressed with RBR so far. The hype-train is in full motion in the Netherlands because of Max Verstappen with Dutch TV not longer being a critical media but more turning into fanboys.

I am the first to admit Max has the potential (can't find my prediction thread from 2010 anymore) to become an amazing Formula 1 driver, but an entire country thinking he will become World Driver Champion just like that with RBR is a bit naive. If the AusGP pace is something to go by for the first half of the season I am not very hopeful Max and Daniel will finish higher than 5th and 6th.
its hard to blame them; i realize lauda had an agenda in saying it but he called him the most talented driver on the grid last year. he was far from alone.
 

Bram

RaceDepartment Founder
Staff
Premium
He absolutely is, no doubt about it, but the limiting factor will be this TAGHeurer Renault engine again just like in previous years at RBR.
 
Not impressed with RBR so far. The hype-train is in full motion in the Netherlands because of Max Verstappen with Dutch TV not longer being a critical media but more turning into fanboys.

I am the first to admit Max has the potential (can't find my prediction thread from 2010 anymore) to become an amazing Formula 1 driver, but an entire country thinking he will become World Driver Champion just like that with RBR is a bit naive. If the AusGP pace is something to go by for the first half of the season I am not very hopeful Max and Daniel will finish higher than 5th and 6th.

So you read the Bible? Well, there is this passage, Ezikiel 25:17...and I will strike down three with great vengeance and furious anger...

...anyone who questions the talents of World Chamion (to be) Max Verstappen.

Love,
Dutch Press (and their close buddies in England)
 

burrito

It's an opinion, nothing more, nothing less.
He absolutely is, no doubt about it, but the limiting factor will be this TAGHeurer Renault engine again just like in previous years at RBR.
Honestly I think the Renault engine is much better than in previous years. It's certainly still behind Mercedes but I am reasonably confident it is close to the Ferrari PU, at least in race trim.

The worrying thing for me is how the Red Bull looks from onboard cameras. It looks loose on the brakes, a lack of turn in at high speed and a tendency to let go rather than slide all point to deficiencies in the chassis. If you compare to the Ferrari for example that car is like a rock under braking; so incredibly stable, more so than the Mercedes in my opinion.

This chassis from RBR is not as good as they will say it is and the onboards show it. Red Bull have failed to capitalise on a rule set designed partially by themselves and partially by McLaren (but thats a whole other story :p)


I think they can improve but I think challenging for 2nd in the constructors is not an option this year, they'll lose too many points in the opening rounds to make it back up. Unless we see a b-spec chassis (very soon) that abandons this clean, minimal extra surfaces philosophy and they start bolting on all sorts of winglets like the best two chassis on the grid.
 
Too early in the season to say anything but if the speed difference translates to other races RB will have to fight about third place this year.
But anyways as i understand from all Max fans, that kid is already world champion:rolleyes:
 
D

Deleted member 113561

  • Deleted member 113561

Max and World Champion - he has talent - but I really hope he wont get World Champion until he got his manners under control (namely his extremely dangerous battle skills). I find it worrying that people just ignore that and are fans of him. If he keeps fighting like this, one day he will kill a driver.
 
Max and World Champion - he has talent - but I really hope he wont get World Champion until he got his manners under control (namely his extremely dangerous battle skills). I find it worrying that people just ignore that and are fans of him. If he keeps fighting like this, one day he will kill a driver.
How else are they, the drivers, suppose to make a pass with all that dirty air, one of the only options is to be somewhat aggressive as Max was when he 1st steered the RBR, I agree he was a little extreme at first, but it was exiting to see.
I think you will find he has matured substantially as far as his race craft goes, and lets not forget he is still a teenager and teens tend to be fearless.
Your statement that, "one day he will kill a driver" is absurd, I fail to understand how you came to this conclusion, if anything he may kill himself, but I doubt that even this would occur due to the level of safety in the F1 mono-cock chassis design.
 
but I doubt that even this would occur due to the level of safety in the F1 mono-cock chassis design.


Aehm, you remember Jules Bianchi? The safety level is really high in the F1 but they have a limit. What matters is the rate of decceleration (depends on speed and angle of impact) and the resulting g-force in a certain amount of time when it comes to a crash.

Bianchi crashed at a speed of 212km/h with a force of 92g. No chassis in the world can absord that amount of energy.
 
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Aehm, you remember Jules Bianchi?
Jules died due to hitting a crane that should never of been on track. Plus it was the freak combination of the high ground clearance of the crane and the low height of his F1 car and the point at which he hit the crane, that contributed to his massive neck and head injuries. Sadly, he never had a chance due to zero head protection other than his helmet, hence the "Halo" discussion and design, which has been postponed till next year.

Jules death was a freak accident, the likes of which we will never see again, I hope.

Cheers
 
Do you really think a F1-chassis is a guaranteed life saver? When you are a driver in F1, you risk your life and no technology can eliminate that risk. Maybe in the far future Scottie can beam you out before the impact happen, but until then nobody can guarantee you are save at all.
 
Jules died due to hitting a crane that should never of been on track. Plus it was the freak combination of the high ground clearance of the crane and the low height of his F1 car and the point at which he hit the crane, that contributed to his massive neck and head injuries. Sadly, he never had a chance due to zero head protection other than his helmet, hence the "Halo" discussion and design, which has been postponed till next year.

Jules death was a freak accident, the likes of which we will never see again, I hope.

Cheers
The halo isn't designed to stop a freak accident like Bianchi's. It wouldn't do anything if a driver were to crash into a crane. It's there to stop debris like that which killed Justin Wilson.
 

F_B

Premium
Halo wouldn't have saved Bianchi. Never ever.

Regarding Red Bull: I hope they become stronger in several races. The more competition for Merc and Ferrari the better.
 
Max and World Champion - he has talent - but I really hope he wont get World Champion until he got his manners under control (namely his extremely dangerous battle skills). I find it worrying that people just ignore that and are fans of him. If he keeps fighting like this, one day he will kill a driver.

People who do not like Max always say the same......:)
If Max had misbehave the FIA did have punished him..

I think it is more the problem for people that they can not stand it that a young man is knocking on the door of the sleeping kindom for years of F1 the kindom from Vettel, Hamilton, Raikonen...Some things change and new tallent stand up

Max makes the borring F1 shine ;)
and I think there is still more tallents to come
 

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