Ali Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Honestly, I don't know if they are so closely
> tight. We'll see. But there are signs in all
> directions.
>
> Hamilton did an astonishing long run in his last
> day of testing...
> Alonso was amazingly fast and consistent in his
> long runs and besides, he didn't do a qualifying
> run setting three 1.20s in Montmelo in a 5 lap
> stint...
> And in all those cases, I didn't see any
> spectacular run from Red Bull and they were
> considerably slower than the two big ones and more
> unreliable (although they may be hiding
> something).
>
> In my opinion, according to what I did see:
>
> 1. Ferrari
> 2. McLaren close (1-2 tenths?)
> 3. Red Bull a little bit far from them (3-4
> tenths?)
> 4. Mercedes close to Red Bull
> 5. Sauber not too close, not too far from 4th
> spot.
> 6. Toro Rosso & Force India & Williams (difficult
> to tell)
> 8. Renault (terrible year ahead again...and it'll
> be worse than 2009)
> 9. Lotus & Virgin far behind (2 sec from
> Renault?)
>
> What do you think?
very close, according to Turun sanomat, order would be similar and differences very close:
1. Ferrari
2. McLaren about 0,1seconds behind
3.RedBull about 0,2 seconds behind
4.Mercedes about 0,25 seconds behind.
but while Ferrari,McLaren and RedBull have tested already with their Bahrain package, mercedes has not and it should be about 0,1-0,2 seconds faster than the current package. So the fight is very close and differences can be made by weather,drivers etc... we should also remember that RedBull didn't seem so fast last year either before the season started but then they were the ones who challenged Brawn's.
about Lotus, Heikki Kovalainen said they are much more behind than Minardi was in year 2002, so they are quite much behind.