2014 Pre-Season Testing

[Tazio]

Have Renault and Ferrari been asleep,or complacent or both.We all knew long ago about the new engines for 2014,as all the F1 competitors.Lewis knew Mercedes where going to have a lead in engine development in late 2012,when he left McLaren ,for Mercedes .So how could these French and Italian motor manufacturers be caught out so badly ? There is a possibility there could be some sandbagging by the Italians ,but were Renault SO confident,after the last 4 years ,that they could lie in bed so late and long as to be caught out ?You reap what you sow ! I have NO sympathy !

Who'd you call a psycho?

[AndyL]

What I really can't get my head round is how Red Bull even tried to build and package a car without knowing the engine and ERS cooling requirements

The start of the season is not going to move, what else could they do? They had to build a car even if they didn't have all the info they needed from Renault. They could have gone down Caterham's route, and made conservative assumptions about what the cooling requirements would be, resulting in a car that's reliable but slow. But Red Bull aren't coming at it from the same direction as Caterham of course. Finishing two places ahead of last is not a satisfactory day's work for them. Given their position in the pecking order I can quite understand why they would not choose to build a car that's too slow to win. I think a season with a lot of DNFs and a handful of wins once Renault get things under control would be more acceptable to Red Bull than a season of consistent mediocrity.