Where Everyone Stands

Quite interesting to see how the teams have developed over a season. Mercedes being the bench mark as they have the best car with the results to match. Every team has improved bar one which is not how things are meant to be. Over a season teams generally improve by 1 or 2 seconds from their first testing session before the season starts.

What is going to be interesting is Red Bull having lost the supply of the Honda engine for 2022. They look as though they will have to use a Renault engine as Renault are obligated as part of the Concorde agreement to supply them as they have room for allocation unlike Mercedes and Ferrari.

Mercedes added McLaren to their stable of clients fairly recently along with Williams and Racing point, counting themselves that would make 4 teams and no more room for others. Even if they could why would they supply to Red Bull as they are their closest rival. The amount of money they make from the engine would shade into significance with the amount they would lose if Red Bull started winning races.

Ferrari were dabbling in the grey area of engine development which was deemed illegal and have had to restart along a more law abiding development plan. They have lost so much compared to all the other teams and would never be an option. Unless they make drastic improvements soon they could be a season behind everyone else.

Renault have a love hate relationship with Red Bull and the one thing going for them is they are on an upward trend. Things are coming right for the French team and at this rate will be challenging for the top spot by 2022. Time is on their hands right now having 18 months of developing before bringing Red Bull on board which would also include Alpha Tauri. This would help dilute the development costs allowing them to do far more than what they had intended.

Technology never stops for anyone and this highlights how bad things really are with Ferrari. I believe it is going to take years to get them back on track unless they get lucky. Not only is this a setback but an embarrassment to a company that should or expect to be seen as a front runner especially with the power unit side of things. This impacts on their commercial sales for their road cars which they are known for. Winning races generates into more sales and this will have an impact on them as a company.

Arrogance has put them in this position by thinking they were better than everyone else. How can they explain that the two other teams they supply engines to have improved yet they have gone backwards. This makes no sense and tells me it is more than just an engine issue.