Poll | Does Red Bull have more speed than they're showing?
F1 News
- GPblog.com
The results of the first two free practice sessions in Spain painted a remarkable picture. Red Bull Racing, especially in the second practice session, was not as high up the grid as expected. Mercedes looked strong as ever, but the lead may not be as big as the times suggest.
Normally it is Mercedes that is accused of sandbagging, or not showing what they actually have. Now the eyes are on Red Bull Racing, who according to analysts have much more speed than we saw on Friday.
Have Red Bull and Honda scaled back the engines?
This suggests that Red Bull and Honda have scaled back the engines. The fact that both Honda and Red Bull say they are very happy with Friday's result, while no Honda was in the top ten of the speed trap, underlines this. Red Bull's long runs didn't look bad at all either: Sergio Perez in particular set a strong average pace.
It is a possibility that Red Bull wants to save power for Saturday's qualifying session. This would be a logical explanation, as the track is difficult to overtake and qualifying could prove to be very important. Is this indeed a deliberate decision by Red Bull, or have they lost the advantage?