http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/84537

This seemingly unimportant article contains a quote that I think may signal a return to the pre 2005 wars.

Quote:

Now I am sure that by 2013 something will come in to ruin it, but the thought of returning to the big V10's with 1000bhp, is something I would welcome. Nothing wrong with the v8's, but the noise and the power of the V10's was something else.

The Merc engine is considered the most powerful on the grid, its also bulletproof, and the most workable. The Renault engine is 30bhp down on power compaired to the others, and the Ferrari engine doesn't have the reliability that it once did. It's also notoriously difficult to work with as the torque curve is much lower in the band from what I understand. If Renault sorted themselves out and got a more equalised powerplant, I can only imagine how much faster both the factory team and RBR would be.

I would dearly love to go back to the old days of nonstop development, engines screaming, and tyre wars. But common sense will prevail come 2012.

Who Mercedes?
I think last year took all their resources up, despite being a factory team now, Merc have not put in the sort of money that Ferrari or Renault currently do. So this years car has suffered from the fact that Brawn had to put most of their money into winning last years title. This year Merc have steadily increased budget, and since they will switch towards next years car soon, I would expect to see them much more competitive, Both Nico and Michael have said they are looking forward to next season.
The best selling point for the Merc engine is the Mclaren, look at the performance it has, couple it with the F-duct its usually a good few kph faster in the speed traps. Now they have sorted their cars out it would seem, I would expect to see RBR have a much tougher time from here on out.

from a season perspective i'd say yes its definitely a car thing.  from a montreal perspective. Michael drove horribly. Nico did nothing. The team came up with a poor strategy.

I'm not saying rbr wont win races lol i just think they will struggle to match the dominance they had. Canada helped macca because its a low downforce  track which took away some of red bulls advantage. When you consider we still have silverstone, monza, spa, hockenhiem. Valencia and singapore all to come which are as much low to medium downforce tracks. The red bull grip advantage is taken away. I'd expect them to walk it at tracks like japan abu dhabi brazil and hungary for instance