Fernando Alonso - has he lost his edge?

how about Vettel, has vettel lost his edge?.

i haven't seen him as "super fast" as he made himself to be the last couple of seasons. did he get used to driving an "easy car", did he forgot how to speed without blown diffusers?, at the beggining of the year it seemed he just needed time to adapt to the new rules (ironically in a 4 times WDC) but Ricciardo is becoming more and more difficult to beat.

The longer Vettel continues to struggle next to Ricciardo, the worse it looks for him. It's not looking great already. It's odd, because I still struggle to convince myself Ricciardo is anything special, which would make Vettel average, and he isn't. It can't be that clear cut.

It probably is a tendency towards adapting to the blown diffuser-less regs. He was the master of getting the most out of the exhausts, so to go from stamping on the throttle at an incredibly early stage to feathering the throttle with all this torque must make it harder for him to adapt than others.

I'm not convinced his heart is quite where it was last year either. He was flying home at the earliest opportunity during testing, understandably with a newborn, but perhaps it demonstrates his sole priority isn't F1 now?

Regardless, I expected a 4-times champion to have adapted a bit quicker than this.

Exactly, what's also interesting is that even if Ricciardo isn't as anything special as he seems at the moment, i'm sure there's still room for improvement considering he's only in his first season with Red Bull

You've also got to consider that Webber over the season probably had the beating of the rookie Rosberg and Rosberg is perhaps a shade slower than Hamilton (granted Hamilton would be miles ahead had he not retired in Melbourne, but Rosberg has looked the quicker in 3 of the events so far and had he been a bit more aggressive might have been leading the championship on merit alone). Webber meanwhile was comprehensively outclassed by Vettel overall - again due to Vettel owning the rules that Webber struggled with. All in all, I still think Vettel can easily be classed as a great - 4 times champions don't just luck into them - but a combination of circumstances has conspired against him, and all of a sudden he's on the back foot.

Let's put it this way - if Red Bull clearly had the fastest car, or a genuine shot at the title, would you be putting your money on Dan or Seb to win the title? I wouldn't hesitate in going for Seb.

how about that?