[KC native]

Originally Posted by Dylan

It is over for Red Bull and McLaren this year - back to the development lab. None of the other teams is going to beat Mercedes for the championship.

Teams have the following tokens left to spend for development:

Mercedes: 7 tokens
Honda: 9 tokens
Ferrari: 10 tokens
Renault: 12 tokens

Why Red Bull switched to Renault this season is beyond stupid. Love Ricciardo - He is a superstar in the making. However, Ricciardo already has one engine down.

Why did Scuderia Toro Rosso have better reliability in qualifying than Red Bull? From the current pace, both Renault's engine and Red Bull's design seems to be the problem.

In addition, Alonso should have remained with Ferrari since their performance has shown the most improvement over the winter months.

According to BBC, after winter testing the pace of the cars ranking:

Fastest – Mercedes
+0.8-1.0s/lap – Williams
+1.0-1.2s/lap – Ferrari
+1.2-1.5s/lap – Red Bull Racing, Scuderia Toro Rosso
+1.5-2s/lap – McLaren, Force India, Sauber, Lotus

Red Bull has been using Renault. Toro Rosso made the switch from Ferrari to Renault this year.