Quote Originally Posted by Nitrodaze View Post
We can't blame Mercedes if their rivals have drop backwards in the development race. Redbull has noticeably slipped backwards in the last ywo races. Ferrari simply are not in it at all. Even the Pink Mercedes is faster than them at the moment.
And the Mclaren and Renault are probably pretty solid in there too.
As Mercedes said, it was actually the Ferrari shenanigans (in terms of their apparent engine improvement) that forced them to work twice as hard to catch up to the Ferrari that has brought about their improved engine performance in 2020. I'd say the car's pace is right about where the ferrari was in the latter half of 2019. Now the mercedes still struggles following cars and in higher ambient temps, which should make some of the upcoming races very interesting. As to RedBull, I think that they are close but seem stuck with a particular overall design philosophy which is holding them back slightly IMO. They need a fundamental shift in their approach because it isn't the honda engine holding them back at this point.