How fast are the teams?

[bosch!]

Jordan 5/10 - Budget considered, Jordan didn't do too bad a job. Heidfeld showed well, and the Jordan team definantly have not slipped from last year. Of course, they only finished 9th last year, but they will definantly defeat Minardi again in '04, and may even match it with the Sauber's and Toyota's on occasion.

I watched Heidfeld climb from 14th to 11th overtaking teams with budgets of $110(jag), $140(sauber) and $340m(toyota) greater! 5/10? Well no-one said F1 was suposed to be fair


EJ's emotions

[Knowlesy]

I know Jag are skint, but a $110 budget?

[bosch!]

Sorry, I was talking about the lunch budget and Toyota really should have had a better spread for $340m!

[Knowlesy]

[Armco Bender]

but a $110 budget?

Isn't $110 million MS's salary?.......

[deeks6]

Originally posted by BootsOntheSide
You can't draw too many conclusions aout how far ahead Ferrari are from just one track, especially as it suits them so much. But, my guess would be:

Ferrari
gap
Williams
Renault
gap
BAR
gap
McLaren
Jaguar
gap
Sauber
gap
Toyota
Jordan
massive gap
Minardi

This almost a perfect summation. People are forgetting the driver difference as well as the cool conditions. I'd suggest the Williams is a lot better than the drivers, who made mistakes. Alonso would make anything quick as would Webber. The Sauber drivers were wild and woolly - suggest that the car is at least as good (probably better) than both the Jag and the McLaren at this stage - remember which car was the fastest on straight (Fisi). They will quickly find some settings for the McLaren but HP seems to be the problem there. Webber finds the limit in the Jag so reliability will continue to be a problem.
* BAR was impressive and will get better. I'd suggest that Bunson backed off a bit to get to the finish...if they press on and test the limits of reliability it will be even closer.
* Minardi - no surprises there - bad car, bad drivers.
Toyota - even I could make a better car than that for the $$$ they've spent.
* Jordan - slow...gee, I feel sorry for Nick Heidfeld - good driver, drove the absolute pants off it and its still slow.

So I'll rank them:
100 Ferrari
97 Williams
96 Renault
95 BAR
92 Sauber
90 McLaren, Jaguar
80 Toyota
75 Jordan
50 Minardi

[bosch!]

From the in car shots the sauber (and williams OK, and minardi) looked like a handful to drive. We assume that a bit of set-up experience will help iron that out and that they will get faster.

Heidfelds Jordan by contrast seemed to handle just fine! It was just slooooooooooooooow.

[Dani Filth]

i'm gonna take in consideration the performance of both drivers .. so

1.Ferrari
gap
gap
2.Williams
3.Renault
4.BAR
5.McLaren/Sauber/Jaguar
8.Jordan/Toyota
gap
10.Minardi

and the sauber is not that slow .. Fisi was only 3 tents of Webber fastest lap .. wich i don;t think is that bad .. and i think it has a better potential of developing then Jaguar, and probably even BAR ... they are still learning the car