"Cato Batista" 16/03/2013 13:24:07 ID #370

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Red Bull is the car to beat, and yes, they were sandbagging during winter testing. If they were lapping 2.3 slower than anybody else back then now they are almost half a second clear of second-fastest Mercedes.

And on top of that it seems they are looking after their tyres better than the rest.

Vettel was ahead on both sessions trading fastest times with Webber in P2. Mercedes is showing great pace although they had got some issues; Rosberg stopped with ‘box failure and HAM went off track twice, at least one of them due to a mechanical problem. Lotus and Ferrari are in the same level as the German team but McLaren is nowhere near, they are seriously struggling. The new MP4-28 is a handful, “inconsistent, very hard to drive at the limit” says Perez, its understeering is making its heavy tyre degradation even worst, “We are 1.4 seconds away from Q3” said Button. They will be battling for the lower points with Sauber and Force India...

The only glitch in Red Bull’s performance was their common KERS-related problems, this time on Vettel’s car, but as we know that didn’t stop them from winning in the past.

P1- VET (1.27.211) MAS  ALO  HAM  WEB  RAI  ROS  SUT  BUT  GRO

P2- VET (1.25.908) WEB ROS  RAI  GRO  ALO  HAM  MAS  SUT HUL

After the early flurry of fast times in the early part of P2 the teams went to work on long run/full loads simulation, and here the Ferrari closes the gap to Red Bull with similar lap time, matched by GRO’s Lotus. If the Lotus looks like a silver Mercedes is no coincidence, they were both designed by Mike Elliot who was recruited from Lotus a year ago.

Now the relevant stuff, our Championship starts right here:

QF picks for the Australian GP – Cato  - VET  WEB  HAM

Showers are in the forecast at the time of qualifying and that could produce some surprises.

The CFA Web is up and running waiting for your entries, good luck on your first points of the season!