FormulaFun wrote:
Not sure what relevance you think comparing '09 to '12 cars has cosidering rule changes, tyre changes etc
Also, you seem to just be saying that the McLaren was only 0.100 off Button's time, but that isn't the case, Hamilton was 0.100 off Buttons time, but Heikki (who i would probably regard as maybe even a better qualifier than Button) didn't even make it through to Q3, which if anything once again shows that Hamilton outperformed the car.
Also we should take into account that on average Hamilton is about 0.200 or something (maybe even more) faster than Button over a lap, as well as the fact that Button said this "We don't have the pace of the Red Bulls and the Toyotas. It's good over long runs but not in one lap." Which shows that the quali pace of the Brawn was not their actual pace so, once more the McLaren was not just 0.100 slower the Brawn.
But yeah if i just looked at the figures only, in the most myopic manner, as you are so fond of doing, then i would have probably would have come to that same conclusion as you as well.
The relevance is perspective. In Bahrain '09 the McLaren was closer to the front runners than the McLaren in'12.
Different rules tyres etc doesn't come into it Because I'm not on about total lap times but the difference between the cars. If you remove the 3 backmarkers not racing in 2009 the fastest lap difference between the front and rear of the field was around 2 seconds in both years. So the spread remained pretty much the same.
If the lap time difference in one year is 1 second and in the next is 2 seconds then the latter car is comparably slower. As is the case here.
As for the quali times not being Brawns real pace thats why I also included fastest laps in my post.
Incase you missed them
2009 fastest laps
1 9 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:34.556
3 22 Jenson Button 1:34.588
6 1 Lewis Hamilton 1:34.915
Difference of 0.359 Between Lewis and fastest lap
2012 fastest laps.
1 1 Sebastian Vettel 1:36.379
7 4 Lewis Hamilton 1:37.733
difference of 1.354
Hence why I say the McLaren in '09 wasn't the whole 2 seconds off the pace it is claimed. Around Bahrain the MP24-27 was closer to the 2 seconds a lap slower than the MP4-24. So the MP4-27 was comparably slower to the front runners than the 24.
Heikki also wasn't getting the upgrades at the same time as Lewis. I showed that earlier in the thread so the likely hood is he was on a different older spec car is high and therefore not a decent comparison to show how fast Lewis car should have been. Or how much he was "Out performing it"