qually lap versus fastest lap in china

[lebesset]

just been looking at the official FIA site

we are all well aware what happened to mark webber in china , being able to charge through the field thanks to the fastest car and lots of new tyres

so it is no great surprise that he set fastest lap ; however it is also no great surprise that his fastest lap was slower than the pole lap ....by the time he was down to qually fuel levels his tyres were slower due to wear , but bear in mind he was flat out to catch button

BUT MORE THAN 5 SECONDS SLOWER ???

I don't know how many laps before the end he pitted for fresh rubber , but I find it hard to believe that the tyres were that much slower or that drag reduction contributed than much in qually

what have I missed here ?

[Robbobnob]

I am not surprised by this fact, i believe that the DRS is adding a considerable amount to the quali pace, as well as the comparative tire wear.

Also bare in mind that red bull are rumoured to have a "qualification" engine map that gives them more exhaust flow

[raymondu999]

I think at the very optimistic most though, DRS will get 1 second. And that's stretching things massively. Let's take another optimistic view on KERS and claim 0.5 seconds. And another 0.5 for qualifying engine map. Heck for the sake of it let's take 1 second. That's 2.5 seconds total. Then take in an optimistic 0.5 seconds from "full power" (not from ignition overrun) engine mapping.

meaning that, tyre wear alone accounted 2 seconds of the thing. But Mark only did what? 11? 12? laps on his last set?

[Hangaku]

All the figures are arbitrary.

First of all, qualy laps are special due to the drivers being on the absolute edge of "too much". Driving like that is only sustainable for a short time - if you try and drive qualy laps throughout the race, you're going to a) burnt yourself out b) crash c) destroy your tires.

Generally qualifying is done earlier in the day, when the track is warmer. You start driving on a cooling track, and you are going to be slower.

[Ciro Pabón]

...
BUT MORE THAN 5 SECONDS SLOWER ???
...
what have I missed here ?

This, taken during testing, for example:

Degradation: not only for masochists

[lebesset]

thanks ciro , managed to find a graph of tyre changes and it looks like webber did 13 laps on his last set of tyres which seems to have been about 2 to 3 seconds depending on how you read your chart [ look at the numbers on the left ]

[PlatinumZealot]

You can't use the DRS as you please in the race. That is one of the factors.

[lebesset]

You can't use the DRS as you please in the race. That is one of the factors.

well that is already acknowledged here

but the difference between between restricted use and unrestricted use looks to be about 0.5 from the comments I have heard ...there is still a gap as I see it

[Hangaku]

The gap is due to drivers not driving as fast in the race. Geez.

[raymondu999]

Yes, but not solely because of that.

[Hangaku]

Do we have lap data from last year for comparison?

Edit: and I don't mean that in a funny way, it's just that I've tried to find it but every link is dead.

[raymondu999]

China last year was semi-wet

[Hangaku]

Not just china, but what I was looking for was an average % differential between qualy and race throughout the whole of last season. I understand that wet races would ruin any kind of model, so they could safely be discounted.

What I'm getting at is; is the differential that much bigger this year than last? If it is, fair enough, but interested to find out.

[raymondu999]

The differential isn't much bigger this year (I don't think) but from 2009-2010 it was.

[hollowBallistix]

Things I can think of are :

Tyre Wear
Fuel Weight
Driver Fatigue
DRS
KERS

isn't 1 kg of fuel about a 0.1s penalty on lap time ? if so, with 15 laps of fuel remaining based on a average fuel consumption of 2.75 kg fuel per lap, that's 41kg of fuel, which adds 4.125 seconds onto the laptime, in qualifying I bet they could run with the equivelent fuel for 2 race laps, due to better fuel efficiency because the car weight is a lot lighter & the fact they take it easy on the out & in laps, it's only the 1 flying lap they really need to turn the wick up ! so 5 kg of fuel in qualifying is a penalty of only 0.55 seconds.

so it's about 3.5 seconds estimated due to fuel weight alone