The McLaren is faster than the Red Bull

Brogan

Legend
Staff Member
So after the Spanish GP, David Coulthard still thinks the McLaren is quicker than the Red Bull?
I just don't subscribe to that theory at all.

The qualifying sessions, race results, WDC, and WCC standings speak for themselves.

Over a whole lap, the Red Bull has the advantage, KERS or no KERS.

I hear a lot of comments about how the Red Bull doesn't always have KERS, but that is more than compensated for by the flexi-wing and superior downforce.

Even without KERS, Red Bull are still able to qualify and finish ahead of McLaren.
 
Agreed. Might have had the edge on power today but McLaren still have a downforce/grip deficit. If you haven't got the handling on the corners then very few of the current circuits allow pure frontline speed to compensate.
 
It depends where the lap is. In Barcelona, Suzuka, Silverstone etc., Red Bull will have an advantage. I imagine McLaren will get back at them in Montreal, Spa, Monza etc.

But, overall, Red Bull will be faster most of the time.
 
I think it is faster on the harder tyre compared to the Red Bull, and in race trim it is obviously way closer to the Red Bull.

The only advantage Red Bull has is qualifying...McLaren are similar on options and they seem to be similar if not faster on the harder tyre.
 
I was a bit slow there. this in reply to Bro' a moment ago:

I think they're all busy digesting what they saw and visiting the practise, quali and race thread. Looking forward to the statisticians take on this.:)
 
I agree with Sly on this one. Webber finishing 4th behind Button makes pretty clear that the superiority of the RB is marginal at best in race conditions.
 
I think it might be a "tortoise and hare" situation. I'm sure there will be lots of stats telling us which car is the fastest, but this year, especially, a lot of other things are as equally important.

Unlike MCLS, I always travel in hope :)
 
Well in qualifying Red-Bull clearly blitzed them

But in race pace - and I can hardly believe I am saying this - the McLaren did at least in Lewis Hamiltons hands have the advantage.

He was right on Webber in the 1st stint stated setting fastest laps in clear air. And stayed with Vettel on both hard stints and was actually pushing him.

Granted on the straight he had the advantage of Slipstream, KERS and DRS to help the laptime but Red-Bull clearly weren't dominating.

edit: I also believe Hamilton set the fastest lap?

Monaco is a completely different track where traction and low power torque will be key along with downforce so I expect Red-Bull will be back to their usual dominant gap there.

If only there wasn't a high downforce corner before the main straight Hamilton would imo have won.
 
The red bull is still the fastest car especially in clean air (wondering if it is so aerodynamically advanced that following other cars closely hurts it more than most), but given the advantage the red bulls have, I would have to argue that Lewis in particular is absolutely driving the wheels off the thing and Webber is very much failing to get the most from the car.

However, as has been said, Mclaren will likely suit some of the other tracks like Spa, Monza and Canada.
 
I think, had Lewis passed into clean air he would have gone! Clearly faster on the day, but DRS was not enough for him to make a serious move as couldnt get close enough after that last corner where Vettel could pull ahead again. Fantastic Race, and we only have to wait till next weekend for hopefully, a Monaco GP to remember!
 
Mclaren to me seem to have compromised speed in Qualifying, to be closer to Red Bull in race trim. I think Red Bull is still the fastest package on the whole plus they rarely use KER's every lap of the race because their can't.

Agree that Mclaren could well at Monaco next weekend, but as last season proved Red Bull were also good. So it's anyones race really.
 
It was frustrating to see Hamilton would not use all his KERS boost on the straight at the end though. He kept saving some I would image for the run to turn 10. But it would have been good to see how close he could have got with the whole 6.7 seconds plus the 1ish second at the beginning.
 
During a number of critical moments of the race Lewis's McLaren demonstrated that it was quicker, his fastest lap was blistering and took a full second out of Sebastian. The problem we have evaluating the comparative race pace is that Sebastian wasn't able to use KERS all of the time and Lewis benefited from the DRS zone most of the time.

I would say there was a lot of evidence that Lewis' McLaren was faster the Sebastian's Red Bull, running in dirty air is particularly exhausting on car and tyres and a slower car should have lost touch eventually. The times they were setting were relentless and relative to those of Mark Webber and Jenson Button demonstrated that a t no time was either holding anything back.
 
It was frustrating to see Hamilton would not use all his KERS boost on the straight at the end though. He kept saving some I would image for the run to turn 10. But it would have been good to see how close he could have got with the whole 6.7 seconds plus the 1ish second at the beginning.

Lewis had to save his KERS as he would have lost an extra half a second through the middle and final sectors and lost the benefit of the DRS activating down the straight.
 
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