Its Hulkenberg. Shame for the clickbait

Max is an excellent driver and is driving RBR probably close to its performance ceiling. And that ceiling is lower than Mclaren, and likely close to Mercedes and Ferrari. Yuki is also a good driver, and probably extracting most of RB, but that is still not enough to catch top 4 teams.

No, RB is not faster than both Ferrari and undamaged Mercedes at the race pace. P8 is more or less RB’s ceiling (of course, rain, bad strategies and DSQs happen). 2nd RBR car, if tamed, should take away WCC points from other Top 4, and help Max in WDC, e.g. holding up a McLaren back after mistake.

I believe it is not something that comes out of nowhere as a surprise to the teams. All the teams are in constant back and forth with FIA, and likely are prepared for this rule change.

Looking at Bologna airpot logs, one private jet landend from London at 3:09, another at 3:22 AM. Little sleep between that and test start at 9 AM.

It is both one-on-one communication and part of the show, and even part of the race itself - as other teams listen to make their own tactical decisions. Public radio is part of the sport now, making it private would drastically change the sport.

Hearing human emotion in real-time makes it much more exciting to watch, it would be dull without that.