atanatizante wrote: ↑06 Nov 2023, 12:27
I don`t know why everybody at the Merc is hiding around the bush and not talking about the importance of the car`s window setup hence the tyres that need to work in their optimum setup range.
The RB19 is built around this strategy not the other way around as almost everybody is doing nowadays with these ground-effect cars. This is something that even all W cars after 2014 didn't achieve. Everybody is talking about the aero part of the car but ignores the increased importance of the tyres, especially when they went to the 18-inch format and the more and more robust tyre shoulder to cope with yearly increasing lateral loading due to cars being faster from one championship to another.
The simple fact is that the RB19 car is not just the efficient car on the grid due to aero but due to how can manage to work in the sweet spot/working temp window of any kind of tyres from C0 to C5 at any track but most of all at any track temps, as we could see from the 6 month ago. That`s why they have the best tyre management. And regarding what happened in Singapore we all know by now that it was about the ride height rather than a tyre-related issue ...
Now just imagine for a second what if the RB19 car would have the smallest working window and maybe you could realize what W14 and other cars have to endure at the present. In FP1 the track temp was almost constant throughout the session at some 43 degrees Celsius:
http://postimg.cc/kDH2LkNg
Then in the Sprint race, the track rose by almost 10 degrees (from 43 in FP1), which effectively lent over the tyre operation window for the
C4 soft tyre, a tyre which after C5 has the lowest temp working window and smallest working temp range. Yeah, at the end of the race the track temp went to 40 degrees but the tyres were long gone by now ...
http://postimg.cc/Y42cntS9
In the race, the track temp went from 47 degrees at the start to 36 at the end of it but after yesterday they knew that they needed a lot of tyre management, knowing that they`ll start with a car on a full tank.
http://postimg.cc/jCypbMFP
Indeed the ride height didn`t allow them to increase downforce hence a better tyres management but this wasn`t the most important factor why they failed in this race. And regarding their slowest top speed there was a reason to do that for both having last year RUS`s experience from last year when he went for a higher DF setup than HAM and also in order to compensate for rising the car ...
Very well observed and put here in detail.
Most commentary has centred around the aero and visible elements of that, while almost completely ignoring the shift in wheel rim size and it's affect on tyre performance.
It was "projected" long before it took place, that the shift in tyre's size and how they would compromise by narrowing the optimum operating window in comparison to their smaller rimmed predecessor.
Notably, I recall projection of lower absolute peak grip along with the need to present the tyre to the track in a more considered manner by the suspension characteristics. This to avoid "spiking" the tyre structure straight through its aimed for optimum and out the other side completely. Looks accurate as we can see it now.
The leader, in RB chassis, is acknowledged by observers and designers to have the most comprehensive review of a suspension system approach, without which the aero has little chance of consistently enacting its desired forces to be readily interpreted by the team running it in practical terms.
We have in effect got here, in MB chassis, the worst case scenario in being able to generate load, but unable to consistently refine that ability into running the tyre in their narrow band of high performce.
One easily recognised element of this is to look at the rear tyres when new and just started to roll, or spin at a race pitstop. With the camber wear mark coming onto tread area to see what static camber they are running.
Notable in the RB is that they are essentially flat, near zero camber, which may not favour absolute lateral load peak, but pay out handsomely in durability in race stint. Probably giving that close comparison in pure qualli with MB chassis often getting close in perfect single lap pace, only to give huge detrimental variance during a stint.
This MB chassis needs a complete root and branch rethink, nothing else will ultimately get it there.
