mkay wrote: ↑24 Feb 2023, 16:11
JPower wrote: ↑24 Feb 2023, 16:00
In terms of performance characteristics, it doesn’t seem like much has changed among the top 3 to be honest. Red Bull still fast, easy on tires and very efficient, Ferrari quick but still sorting through tire deg, Mercedes good on long runs but still lacking outright pace.
Might change next weekend though.
HAM's race sim at dusk was slower than Sainz's race sim in the afternoon by a wide margin. HAM's car may not have been setup optimally, but a 1s/lap delta would be hard to bridge, even with better setup.
Ferrari have not done a race sim yet.
Generally speaking long stints should not be looked at as stints out of a race sim. Some people look at a stint of for example 10 laps with a lap time difference of over a second from first to last lap and call it a big tyre wear problem. In reality teams just test various things.
Only proper race sims of a whole race distance in similar conditions can be compared. But even then we can’t be entirely sure of PU modes and fuel levels .