RayInTorontoCanada
Banned
This debate has been clearly won ... and it wasn't even close.
I said I'd wait til after Germany to make my next comment and Q2 and Q3 at Nurburgring fully confirmed the hypothesis.
At Silverstone, Alonso's lead Ferrari was within 1.5-tenths of Red Bull Pole man Webber's Q2 and Q3 times and, more importantly, Alonso's Ferrari was anywhere from a full 5-tenths to more than 1 second faster than the lead McLaren in Q2 and Q3. Not only was Alonso faster by that amount but their second driver, Massa, was 6- to 7-tenths faster in those two sessions as well.
[Let's pretend that Hamilton had 'issues' at Silverstone and is, on average, faster than Button. Data suggests that, on average, Hamilton is about 2 to 3 tenths faster than Button. So, even if Hamilton didn't have issues, he STILL would have been out-qualified - even by Ferrari's historically slower Number 2 driver in this pairing, Massa. The facts, however, are that Hamilton was even further away from Ferrari at Silverstone in Q2 and Q3...and those are the only facts we have available so speculating anything else is moot and would not be backed up by the hard data.]
Further, Ferrari's most competitive customer cars, Sauber, qualified well - in 8th and 12th...whilst Mercedes GP themselves (the 2nd most competitive Mercedes-engined car) qualified a sub par 9th and 13th. That's was an unusual relative occurence (Mercedes GP to Sauber) in the two or three races directly leading up to Silverstone.
In addition, Renault GP (the 2nd most competitive Renault-engined car) qualified a horrible 14th and 16th. That was their worst average qualifying of the year.
At Nurburgring, we're back to 'Valencia spec' levels on the OTEBD front...and guess what happens?
Suddenly the gap between Red Bull Pole man and the lead Ferrari is no longer as small (on average) in Q2 and Q3...but, most significantly (especially pertaining to this arguement), both the Ferraris are out-qualified by the lead McLaren. In BOTH Q2 and Q3, Hamilton put up faster times than the two Ferraris...so, it wasn't merely a 'lucky', 'one-off' lap in Q3 only.
Hamilton was 1.5-tenths and 6-tenths faster in Q2 than Alonso and Massa respectively...and then 3-tenths and 8-tenths faster in Q3 than Alonso and Massa respectively.
Button, the 2nd fastest McLaren driver, had 'issues' at Nurbugring...but inspite them, he still was slightly faster than Massa in Q2...and just 3-tenths slower than Massa in Q3. This was a much better comparative performance than what he (Button) was able to do against Massa at Silverstone.
Further, Ferrari's most competitive customer car (again, Sauber) qualified a miserable 15th and 18th...whilst Mercedes GP did much better compartively and were back to 'normal' pre-Silverstone levels in 6th and 10th.
In addition, Renault GP were also back to pre-Silverstone levels - at 9th and 11th.
These are HARD CORE facts which quite clearly illustrate that the Ferrari engine was the benificiary of the OTEBD ban...and the Mercedes engine, in particular, was the bigger loser.
If anyone can argue against that hypothesis, then let's hear it.
