rjbetty
31st July 2015, 18:37
Recent threads have got me thinking, which are the best cars on the grid, or which would be if all had equal PU performance and drivers?
We think Toro Rosso have a bit of a gem, and I think McLaren's chassis, now led by Newey's former deputy Peter Prodromou might actually be a pretty tidy car. So I will have a go:
Taking just the quickest from each team this year, I get approx. this:
1.Hamilton
2.Vettel +0.7
3.Bottas +1.2
4.Ricciardo +1.5
5.Sainz +1.8
6.Grosjean +1.8
7.Hulkenberg +2.1
8.Nasr +2.4
9.Alonso +2.9
10.Stevens +5.9
1.MERCEDES - Whatever else works, their basic car also does.
2.FERRARI - Seems that the team led by James Allison have also produced a very nice car, especially in race trim, to go with that big power boost they're enjoying this year.
3.TORO ROSSO - Rookie Carlos Sainz has only qualified about 1.7-1.8s off Hamilton this year, despite the same awful Renault engine as Red Bull. How much are Renault still lacking? It was like 100bhp at the start of the year, worth about 1.5s probably! The drivers have also said on more than one occasion that the car is just about the best at going through corners at times. Suffers in race trim compared to Ferrari and is less reliable too I think, so they rank just below.
4.RED BULL - Not up to their usual exceptional standards now they pretty much lost their 2 main technical guys. But I still believe the chassis is pretty good, if not always consistent.
5.I WILL HAZARD A GUESS MCLAREN - I have no idea what the current Honda power figures were, but in Australia it was said to be 200bhp down on IT'S own potential. I reckon that's worth 3sec, and I'm not sure how much development they have done on the chassis seeing just running has been an achievement.
6.WILLIAMS - Not bad and seem to be getting quicker. A top engine and decent drivers save them however,
7.SAUBER - Looking at the times, considering they have 2 rookies, one pretty good, and both have run in the points several times, I'd say Sauber are next. The engine takes a good chunk of credit, but the lead Sauber is no further from the lead Ferrari than last year, even though we can see Ferrari's chassis definitely improved too.
8.LOTUS - It appears the figures show my assertion that the Lotus chassis is actually nothing special looks pretty true. Still an improvement on last year, but they owe it mainly to the engine imo.
9.FORCE INDIA - With the same engine as Lotus, they are definitely lower on average. But the car has improved lately with Hulkenberg running 5th in Hungary. I'd expect them to overtake Lotus before the year is out.
10.MANOR - Last but not least. The 2015 engine is reckoned to be 1sec faster than the 2014 version, so deduct that from average quickest driver Stevens' time. That leaves about 4.8s. I would guess then that the chassis is about 3.5s down on Mercedes, somewhere around there. Maybe about a second slower than last year then.
We think Toro Rosso have a bit of a gem, and I think McLaren's chassis, now led by Newey's former deputy Peter Prodromou might actually be a pretty tidy car. So I will have a go:
Taking just the quickest from each team this year, I get approx. this:
1.Hamilton
2.Vettel +0.7
3.Bottas +1.2
4.Ricciardo +1.5
5.Sainz +1.8
6.Grosjean +1.8
7.Hulkenberg +2.1
8.Nasr +2.4
9.Alonso +2.9
10.Stevens +5.9
1.MERCEDES - Whatever else works, their basic car also does.
2.FERRARI - Seems that the team led by James Allison have also produced a very nice car, especially in race trim, to go with that big power boost they're enjoying this year.
3.TORO ROSSO - Rookie Carlos Sainz has only qualified about 1.7-1.8s off Hamilton this year, despite the same awful Renault engine as Red Bull. How much are Renault still lacking? It was like 100bhp at the start of the year, worth about 1.5s probably! The drivers have also said on more than one occasion that the car is just about the best at going through corners at times. Suffers in race trim compared to Ferrari and is less reliable too I think, so they rank just below.
4.RED BULL - Not up to their usual exceptional standards now they pretty much lost their 2 main technical guys. But I still believe the chassis is pretty good, if not always consistent.
5.I WILL HAZARD A GUESS MCLAREN - I have no idea what the current Honda power figures were, but in Australia it was said to be 200bhp down on IT'S own potential. I reckon that's worth 3sec, and I'm not sure how much development they have done on the chassis seeing just running has been an achievement.
6.WILLIAMS - Not bad and seem to be getting quicker. A top engine and decent drivers save them however,
7.SAUBER - Looking at the times, considering they have 2 rookies, one pretty good, and both have run in the points several times, I'd say Sauber are next. The engine takes a good chunk of credit, but the lead Sauber is no further from the lead Ferrari than last year, even though we can see Ferrari's chassis definitely improved too.
8.LOTUS - It appears the figures show my assertion that the Lotus chassis is actually nothing special looks pretty true. Still an improvement on last year, but they owe it mainly to the engine imo.
9.FORCE INDIA - With the same engine as Lotus, they are definitely lower on average. But the car has improved lately with Hulkenberg running 5th in Hungary. I'd expect them to overtake Lotus before the year is out.
10.MANOR - Last but not least. The 2015 engine is reckoned to be 1sec faster than the 2014 version, so deduct that from average quickest driver Stevens' time. That leaves about 4.8s. I would guess then that the chassis is about 3.5s down on Mercedes, somewhere around there. Maybe about a second slower than last year then.