Trackside at Barcelona: Red Bull vs McLaren
On the second day of testing at Barcelona, Edd Straw took a close look at how the leading cars handle on every corner of the circuit. The conclusion? The fight between Red Bull and McLaren is too close to call...
...But what was the bottom line? Well, it's pretty difficult to choose between Red Bull and McLaren right now. While it's hardly front page news to say that the best two teams of 2011 look like they could start this year in the same position, that's what the on-track evidence suggested.
No wonder Vettel has already cast an envious eye at Hamilton's race pace and the McLaren man was so happy today. Right now, if you had to put money down for Melbourne, it would be on one of those two teams. As for which one, it's looking close enough to make a race of it.
As for the rest, the Ferrari still doesn't look right. As mentioned earlier, in the transition from the exit of Turn 2 into Turn 3, Alonso was having to work hard on the throttle to get the car to do roughly what he wanted and there were plenty of wobbles that suggest that the car is not giving him enough consistent grip. As he admitted himself, there are other faster cars out there, and again the evidence suggests that Ferrari needs to make a big step very quickly if it's to be in the mix for victory at Melbourne.
