A quick recap of the European leg of the F1 season so far: First we had Spain, a hugely aero-dependant circuit where the Red Bulls turned up and crushed everyone.
That was followed by Monaco, a mechanical grip-dependant circuit ... where Red Bull turned up and crushed everyone.
Now we have Istanbul Park, a track where Red Bull rolled up last year with the second-best car on the grid, and ended up with both drivers on the podium. Suffice to say that Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel could have been forgiven for walking around with an ever-so-slight swagger this week.
Who can stop Red Bull? © LAT |
The law of averages suggests that someone has to break Red Bull's stranglehold sooner or later, as Red Bull itself proved by closing what had threatened to become an uncloseable gap to the Brawns last year. Now the hunter is the hunted, and it's McLaren and Ferrari leading the chase.
McLaren in particular demonstrated its developmental prowess last season when it honed the MP4-24 into something respectable, but with three races in a month, have the pursuers had enough time to made any inroads yet?
It's not just about those three, though. Mercedes, and particularly Michael Schumacher, have been looking demonstrably sharper in recent weeks and they'll be working to keep that momentum rolling in Turkey, although Monaco's surprise package Renault is already warning that it face a tough task in replicating that pace across the Bosphorus.
Williams faces an even more difficult weekend as it has been forced to take a backwards step with its aero package and revert to an older-spec front wing after running out of time to replace the new ones that were destroyed in Nico Hulkenberg and Rubens Barrichello's Monaco accidents.
On the flip side, Lucas di Grassi will be back on equal terms with team-mate Timo Glock when he takes delivery of an updated VR-01, the twin to the upgrade that Glock received in Spain.
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