Formula One pundit and former driver Martin Brundle believes it’s close between Red Bull and McLaren as to which has the fastest car.
Brundle spent Thursday watching the cars trackside and whilst Red Bull impressed, he is of the opinion that they won’t enjoy the dominance they did at the start of the 2011 season.
“The teams are doing a lot of long runs with high fuels so I don’t think the absolute lap times are that important, but I have to say I’ve had a couple of hours right beside the race-track this afternoon and the McLaren is looking very good,” he told Sky Sports.
“The Red Bull looks good, like the McLaren, but it is not glued to the track like it was last year,” he added. “You can see Mark Webber working quite hard at the wheel so I can understand why some of my mates in the paddock, who I would trust to tell me about these sort of things, are saying it’s looking really close. The Red Bull doesn’t look head and shoulders above the other cars like it did, say, in the second half of last year.”
Whilst last years champions and runner up are impressing, Brundle isn’t so sure about Ferrari who, according to him, is still getting to grips with its car, the F2012.
“The Ferrari looks a bit of a handful, especially when it’s coming out of a corner trying to put the power down. Instead of doing long runs, like the Red Bull and McLaren, they are still trying to sort their car. There’s time yet, and they will put a lot of new parts on before Melbourne, and it doesn’t look as bad as the McLaren did last year, but they’ve got some issues – there’s no doubt about it.”
