Seanspeed wrote: ↑07 May 2024, 13:48
Given Norris was likely just running his own pace at the end rather than pushing hard or anything, I'd guess the real gap to have been more like a quarter second a lap at least, had Norris had anything else to push for. We could see earlier in the race once Norris was in clear air and pushing harder, he was quite a bit quicker.
I have no doubt Mclaren made a sizeable improvement with the new package, but we'll have to see how much this weekend was down to things all just lining up for them or whatever, too. Mclaren say they should be better at other tracks, but given Red Bull was nearly superglued on for the win by most reckoning before the weekend, it wasn't a usual situation. I'm certainly not buying into any specific '4 tenths' claims or anything as that's gonna be impossible to know from external analysis.
Still, that is two races in a row Mclaren were faster than us, so there's definitely gonna be plenty of pressure for the Imola update to be big and perform well.
Charles had to restart his Hards 1-2 times (if you count VSC) and had 10 lap older tires. Max had to restart his once and had "floor damage".
The standard discussion about the race leader not pushing (usually around Ver) is a what if. No one knows, but surely Norris would want a safety car window if he could get it, so he probably pushed up to the last 2/3 laps. Regardless without the Safety Car, Ver wins. So RBR as still the pack leader Ferrari are targeting. McL might have jumped Ferrari but RBR is still the target imo.
As you said Imola update is important. Given how well the base has performed, how it was criticized at launch as being aero simplistic and the fact Fred and the team have been pointing to this "aggressive update" since testing, I am excited. It is the hopes that kills but hopefully the team produces.