2022 Mexican Grand Prix - Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Oct 28 - 30

[search]

What were the long runs like?

not much data available, and today the track obviously was in much better condition than during FP1:



Russell did a longish run in FP3 as well, but 2s quicker than the Ferrari, so at some kind of mid-fuel level.

[Artur Craft]

Anyway, I think the tire blanket ban might have the opposite effect to what F1 imagines. Tire blanket ban will simply encourage more edge case races to become 1 stoppers because you lose too much time on cold tires.

This is commonly seen in IMSA and WEC racing. Team will elect to pit for fuel only and stretch the tire stint because they lose too much time on the cold tire. It will just weaken the undercut and strengthen the overcut. In a circuit like Monaco, undercut will not exist.

I stopped following WEC once the VAG teams got out. Didn´t even knew that tyre blankets became forbidden there.

BTW, I was looking into the speedometers in these FPs and, even on fast laps(with low fuel and new tyres), the cars are very slow on the tighter corners. Pirelli tyres are terrible, to say the least. Michelin´s WEC tyres were around 7cm narrower(or more, don´t remember exactly but I think the rears were 330mm in those LMP1s and the rears on F1 are 400mm), lasted far longer than any Pirelli compound and had to cope with a car 150-200kg heavier than the current cars.
Reference :

How can these 800kg cars, with wider and softer tyres, be cornering(with low fuel and fresh rubber) at the same speeds as the LMP1s (on old tyres during the race) ?
At 0.45s and 1.16s of that video, you see Porsche taking those corners at the same speeds as today´s F1 on fresh rubber

And, apparently, next year tyres are even worse

[GrizzleBoy]

Just want to say, it is AMAZING to listen to Max and all the commentators talking about how max won't help Checo to win and that it's the right way to go about it.

Max literally owes his 2021 WDC to Checo sacrificing his drives to keep Max in the lead or in contention against his main rival.

Yet one year later the paddock are all talking about good ole max won't and should not help Checo get his own landmark achievement.

If ever you needed any further proof that there was a hierarchy of drivers in this sport, that's pretty much it.

[Mogster]

The Pirelli guy gave a nice segment on how they are adapting to the tire blanket ban for 2024, with the reduction for 2023, but other than that, FP2 was too boring to stick around for.

FP1 wasn't bad but no one was really pushing with such low grip.

As a general theme, the tires are too hard this weekend.

Isola gave the impression that in addition to reducing understeer thay want more race strategy options probably in the interest of artificial entertainment

I didn't catch that part. I thought he was simply explaining that the reason for the different compounds laptime difference was to increase the race strategy options.


Anyway, I think the tire blanket ban might have the opposite effect to what F1 imagines. Tire blanket ban will simply encourage more edge case races to become 1 stoppers because you lose too much time on cold tires.

This is commonly seen in IMSA and WEC racing. Team will elect to pit for fuel only and stretch the tire stint because they lose too much time on the cold tire. It will just weaken the undercut and strengthen the overcut. In a circuit like Monaco, undercut will not exist.

Agree. It’ll just extend the time lots in pit stops. FOM and the FIA should be looking to minimise the time lost in the pits, to enable strategy, not making the pit delta greater.

But hey ho, we’ll have lots of Indycar style wheel sawing action from cars on cold tyres which will look great on D2S…

[organic]

If the track grips up I expect RB and Ferrari to profit more than Merc. But I still have Mercedes locked in for a 1-2 with Ham taking pole

[Big Tea]

This seems to be another track that the soft tyre will not even last a lap at full whack, does that make sense.
What is the point of having a tyre you can do nothing with?

[dans79]

This seems to be another track that the soft tyre will not even last a lap at full whack, does that make sense.
What is the point of having a tyre you can do nothing with?

several drivers did multiple laps with cooldowns between.

IMO this is a track where you must balance how you setup the car, and use the tire from sector to sector. If you try to push at 100% for the entire lap you will pay for it in the end.

[search]

This seems to be another track that the soft tyre will not even last a lap at full whack, does that make sense.
What is the point of having a tyre you can do nothing with?

what makes you think so? The longruns looked completely fine. They can probably even still do a one-stopper when starting on softs.

[chrisc90]

Wonder who will be the first to stack it through the esses during quali. I imagine these cars will be on the literal edge though there.

[organic]

decent chance of rain for maybe q3?

[BlueCheetah66]

This is probably the least excited I've been for a Qualifying. It feels weird when you know that the pole is probably the worst place you can qualify in the top 4

[Big Tea]

This seems to be another track that the soft tyre will not even last a lap at full whack, does that make sense.
What is the point of having a tyre you can do nothing with?

what makes you think so? The longruns looked completely fine. They can probably even still do a one-stopper when starting on softs.

(and dans79)

Lando was saying that he could not 'use' the tyre on the first part of the lap or there was none left for the last part.

[organic]

Has the circuit gripped up ? I was onboard with Hamilton and nothing looked terrible in sector 3

Most teams are slower than fp3 so maybe wick isn't turned up

[dxpetrov]

I think the track is warner and slower.

[AR3-GP]

Bottas's time is insane for an Alfa Romeo.