Quote Originally Posted by wes4dbt View Post
They got a way to go to close the gap. Max still won by 13 seconds. The others seem to be getting closer on qualifying pace but not race pace. Unless Max is just that much better than everyone else. Hard to say for sure because Perez's runs have been wildly inconsistent.

Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren are all very close. The other six are also close to each other. Aston Martin have slid down into the bottom six.
Right. I should have been more detailed.

Red Bull may not win the constructor's championship next year with a dominant Max and a struggling Sergio.

Red Bull had a runaway season this year because of the massive performance swings (from good to bad, or bad to good) by teams like Aston Martin, McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes.

Mercedes can win the constructor's championship next year even if Max has another season like he did this year.

Hell, spot Max P1+fastest lap in each race (26 points) and give Mercedes a mix of P2+P3 (33 points), P2+P4 (30 points), and P3+P4 (27 points) finishes each race. Mercedes has a chance to lead the championship points, depending on how Perez scores.

In the last 5 races this year, Sergio has scored something like 17 points, or slightly over 3 points per race. That's not good enough for car #2 from the best team in the field. And it's not good enough for Red Bull to win the championship next year, in my opinion.