2020 Spanish Grand Prix - Catalunya, August 14 - 16

[godlameroso]

So analyzing race pace

https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files ... es_v01.pdf

The midfield is incredibly close, LeClerc and Riccardo have the best race pace out of the midfield. McLaren is looking decidedly average. Most teams have their lap times in the 24's and high 23's.

Mercedes, Bottas is off the pace in race trim, Verstappen and Hamilton are extremely close. We might have a cracking duel between the two.

[GPR-A]

Quick work of race pace. Removed the anomalous laps due to the traffic.

[Morteza]

Thought I would post this here too

[godlameroso]

Quick work of race pace. Removed the anomalous laps due to the traffic.

https://i.imgur.com/sEdRGnP.png

Hamilton looks to have .2 gap to Verstappen looking at the individual lap times. Average pace doesn't tell the whole story. This is good though, it's better than .4 in cooler circumstances.

[zibby43]

The FIA can make Merc use a pedal-by-foot Fred Flinstone car in qualifying at Spa, and I still think Merc would have a 1s gap to Verstappen in qualifying trim.

In terms of race pace, Verstappen is driving the wheels off his Red Bull. He is over-delivering compared to that car’s inherent pace in the hands of someone like Albon.

TL; DR - Merc performance light-years ahead of the RB over a single lap, irrespective of engine modes.

Verstappen is impressing the hell out of me. If Merc have to shift more of their maximum PU usage from quali to the race, that might make Merc better off in the long run (pun intended).

[Morteza]

Via @albertfabrega

[Racer X]

Quick work of race pace. Removed the anomalous laps due to the traffic.

https://i.imgur.com/sEdRGnP.png

Well these numbers are very promising. I hope Max remains competitive on Sunday. With a good qualifying Sunday might be another awesome Max Vs. Hamilton race. Poor Bottas imagine being on the same car as Hamilton and trailing so far behind. Only to watch a rival catch up to Lewis.

[GPR-A]

The FIA can make Merc use a pedal-by-foot Fred Flinstone car in qualifying at Spa, and I still think Merc would have a 1s gap to Verstappen in qualifying trim.

In terms of race pace, Verstappen is driving the wheels off his Red Bull. He is over-delivering compared to that car’s inherent pace in the hands of someone like Albon.

TL; DR - Merc performance light-years ahead of the RB over a single lap, irrespective of engine modes.

Verstappen is impressing the hell out of me. If Merc have to shift more of their maximum PU usage from quali to the race, that might make Merc better off in the long run (pun intended).

If the performance advantage was ONLY in qualifying, one could have argued this ruling might make the playing field a bit even. Mercedes also has the advantage on race pace. Ultimately, every PU manufacturer have to find a compromise between their quali modes and race modes. It's not like, when Mercedes makes a compromise, they will fall back compared to Honda and Renault. Ferrari are safe. Both their quali and races modes are almost same now.

I have a hunch, based on FP2 long run numbers for this race, Mercedes are setting up the car for one stop (M-H), whereas RB seems like they are aiming for 2 stops (M-M-S). Mercedes did not spend more laps on Softs and were quick to jump to Medium (Lewis) and Hard (Bottas) and did longer stints, wheres Verstappen spent longer and equal laps both Softs and Medium, but neither Red Bull tried the Hard. Both teams were practicing different lap times delta. Depending upon when the safety car situation would arise, if arises, Mercedes might then switch to M-H-M (early SC) or M-H-S (late SC).

Yesterday's FP2 track temp was around 50 degrees and in Silverstone, it was 44 degrees on race day. The same C2 (white marked hard tyre in Silverstone) that blistered in a handful of laps in Silverstone, seems to have been working fine for Mercedes (yellow marked medium tyre here).

[Phil]

Good point. I think it will be a battle between 1 stop and 2 stoppers and track position.

[Unc1eM0nty]

Good point. I think it will be a battle between 1 stop and 2 stoppers and track position.

It was a two stopper for everyone last year, do you really think anyone make a one stop work in these temps ?

[Laserguru]

Good point. I think it will be a battle between 1 stop and 2 stoppers and track position.

It was a two stopper for everyone last year, do you really think anyone make a one stop work in these temps ?

Looks feasible. Notice according to Pirelli hard is only 0.3 sec slower than meds. If you can make the hards to work it will pay off. Last week one stops was very rewarding, this weeks track is less hard on the tires. Pit stop time is 22 seconds, so 73 laps on hard matches 2x 37 laps on mediums plus extra 22s pitstop. The race lasted 66 laps in 2018 and was a 1-stop race.

It will be a procession dictated by tire strategy.

[edit] Pirelli changed the graphics from hard to mediums from 0.3 to 1.0 seconds, that changes everything.

[GPR-A]

Good point. I think it will be a battle between 1 stop and 2 stoppers and track position.

It was a two stopper for everyone last year, do you really think anyone make a one stop work in these temps ?

Last year, it was a two stopper for Lewis on C3(used, 26 laps)-C2(new, 20 laps)-C3(used, 20 laps). There was a VSC on lap 46, where Lewis pitted for his second stop.

This year, they can potentially do a 28-30 Laps on C2 and then switch to C1 for the remaining 38-36 laps, if it is a normal race. Like I mentioned, they can still respond to a SC with another set of Mediums or Softs, depending on when a SC would happen.

[siskue2005]

If the FIA wanted to make the races more exciting, they would ban car to pit telemetry. Lots of series do this and it puts the strategies more in the hands of the driver and makes the strategists do more guess work, which induces higher chances of human error.

A lot of the time, the drivers are just robots hitting time targets at the behest of the strategists. Excitement does happen when humans, who are unpredictable, have more input into the decision making. The less involved (ie: not a team of engineers), the more an individuals decision is weighted and has the tendency to be more error prone as there are no checks.

It also might mean the driver age might tick up a hair as it would put more reward on the driver’s experience.

Didnt they already do that in 2016?

[siskue2005]

Good point. I think it will be a battle between 1 stop and 2 stoppers and track position.

It was a two stopper for everyone last year, do you really think anyone make a one stop work in these temps ?

Last year, it was a two stopper for Lewis on C3(used, 26 laps)-C2(new, 20 laps)-C3(used, 20 laps). There was a VSC on lap 46, where Lewis pitted for his second stop.

This year, they can potentially do a 28-30 Laps on C2 and then switch to C1 for the remaining 38-36 laps, if it is a normal race. Like I mentioned, they can still respond to a SC with another set of Mediums or Softs, depending on when a SC would happen.

Yeah i do think it will be 1 stopper
with starting of mediums and then going to hard

[Unc1eM0nty]

Ummm, I'm not convinced, track temp will be +10 higher that last year and its very abrasive here.

It does open up lots of possibilities though, looking forward to the race.