BBC_Top_Gear_South_Africa_June_2017

Ferrari is faster
than Mercedes
At last, there’s a battle to
savour at the sharp end of the grid
Vettel back on the
podium. Expect to see
much more of this
S
o Sebastian Vettel is the first F1
winner of 2017 – his first win since
Singapore in 2015. And no, it
wasn’t down to either of the
Mercedes clonking out, or particularly poor
strategy from the German champions... Ferrari
was simply faster over the full distance in
Melbourne, looked after its tyres better and
applied enough pressure to force an opening
from Mercedes. Then although he lost out to
Hamilton in China, Vettel used his race craft to
claim another win a week later in Bahrain.
How much faster has Vettel been than
Hamilton? It’s hard to say, but the fact that he’s
maintained a constant gap despite the dirty air
from Hamilton’s car costing him downforce,
speaks volumes. Ferrari’s relentless pace over
the longer runs is attributed to superior tyre
management although Mercedes is getting to
grips with their own understanding of the new,
wider tyres. A front row start for Ferrari at the
Russian Grand Prix suggests we could see
tougher duels on Saturdays.
Team mates will influence the outcome as
will team orders. Bottas grabbed his first pole
position in Bahrain but in the race became an
early casualty of team orders to allow a faster
Hamilton chase down Vettel. Over at Ferrari
Raikkonen’s constant bickering over the radio
not to mention his mercurial pace is not aiding
Ferrari’s quest.
What we’ve witnessed are two teams neck
and neck in terms of pace – setting up what
could be the best season in years... especially if
Red Bull can sort its reliability issues and drag
themselves into contention. - JR
GTC irons out the issues
GTC enforces new engine rules for reliability
South Africa’s premier GTC series
the grid with better reliability from
continue to juggle the interests of
has come under heavy criticism of
the turbocharged 2.0-litre engines
manufacturer teams and
late with daily vitriolic social media
and closer racing across the field.
encourage privateers to race with
posts directed at the small grids,
Speaking with Gary Formato,
equal machinery. While it’s still
reliability woes and muted noise.
TopGear learned that the rev
early days to gauge the
Indeed the new series which
limiter has been pulled back by
improvements, TopGear is
replaced Bridgestone Production
300rpm and strictly regulated
pleased to note that GTC
Cars has, by management’s own
while a slight decrease in boost
management is actively
admission, been inadequate and
has improved reliability. New
addressing the situation because
the situation unacceptable. At the
aftermarket rods and pistons have
patience between fans and
Gennaro claims
third win of the
season
second round at Kyalami a
much-improved GTC formed up on
arrived and are now available for
teams to use while GTC will
manufacturers will not last
forever. AL
22 JUNE 2017