The development race between Red Bull and McLaren

RED BULL V MCLAREN

Red Bull and McLaren are locked into a frantic development race at the moment and the work of their engineers will go a long way towards deciding the 2010 World championship. McLaren fell behind its rivals at Silverstone and will be introducing another update this weekend to recover some of the lost ground.

McLaren and Red Bull are fighting for the championship thanks largely to the new innovations they introduced at the start of this year. Red Bull became the first team to successfully implement an exhaust blown diffuser whilst McLaren invented the concept of an F-duct. These design features gave both teams a distinct advantage but they are now in a struggle to get the two systems working together.

THE FIRST SIX ROUNDS

Red Bull had the fastest car at the start of 2010 and the RB7 was consistently half a second quicker than the McLarens in qualifying. The gap between the two teams was even larger in Bahrain and Spain where the Red Bull drivers had an advantage of a full second. Sebastian Vettel had the speed to claim maximum points in the opening races but missed out due to a string of reliability problems.

It was actually Fernando Alonso's Ferrari that offered the strongest challenge to Red Bull's pace early in the season. He should have scored podiums (if not wins) in five of the first six races and it was only in Turkey that McLaren emerged as Red Bull's biggest rival.

ISTANBUL AND MONTREAL

McLaren appeared to have caught Red Bull at the Turkish Grand Prix thanks to their aggressive development strategy. Hamilton qualified on the front row and was just two tenths off pole position. Both Lewis and Jenson were able to put a lot of pressure on the Red Bull drivers during the race and forced a situation where Vettel and Webber had to fight each other.

McLaren's performance took another notable step forward in Canada where Hamilton commandingly took pole position and won the race. Although tyre strategy flattered McLaren’s pace in Montreal, and the circuit was never going to suit Red Bull, the team had made genuine made progress.

VALENCIA AND SILVERSTONE

Red Bull responded to the challenge with a big development at the European Grand Prix and this included their own version of the F-duct. The team had been testing the system during practice sessions but only raced it or the first time in Valencia. Both Red Bull cars qualified half a second ahead of Lewis Hamilton which was an impressive margin considering the circuit didn't particularly suit the RB7.

McLaren had no major updates in Valencia but aimed to introduce more performance to their car for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Unfortunately for the Woking team, their exhaust blown diffuser was not ready to race. They ran with the new kit during Friday practice but found that it made the car too unstable to reap the benefits of extra downforce. Hamilton was still happy to race with the new diffuser but Jenson wasn't so keen and the team ran without it.

HOCKENHEIM

McLaren’s engineers will be desperate to get their blown diffuser working in Germany, but may find this focus will result in problems for the team. Even if they get the system to work perfectly on Friday, it will have been at the expense of valuable practice time that could have been used to work on setup.

It could also cause tension if the two drivers continue to disagree on whether it should be raced.

Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault and Williams all have an F-Duct combined with an exhaust blown diffuser. McLaren has now slipped behind their rivals in the development race and are playing catch up, a situation that will surely play into Red Bull's hands this weekend.

McLaren may be leading both championships, but Red Bull is still the team to beat in 2010.

Posted by Martin Porter. - Follow him on twitter @mpondaweb.

Like us on Facebook! »

More F1 Posts »

• A little update from enterF1 – and a look to the 2012 F1 season
• Why do the 2012 F1 cars feature stepped noses?
• Christmas: 2012 F1 Tickets – What's on sale and which are currently discounted?
• Merry Christmas! Get yourself some free Johnnie Walker and signed McLaren goodies
• Webber at last in Brazil
• Sebastian Vettel takes the final pole of 2011
• Lewis brilliant in Abu Dhabi
• The 2011 Abu Dhabi GP Race Log - Lewis Hamilton is the MAN
• Good Evening Mr Mansell: Vettel takes his 14 pole
• I'm off to Abu Dhabi – but will the racing get the juices flowing?

Last Comment Posted »