Quick Telemetry Analysis comparing the MCL60 and the MCL36… This time in Qualifying with the cars not hiding anything, of course usual caveats always apply in this type of comparisons, since Track Temperature, Wind (speed and direction) and Track Evolution are a factor… But I believe there are still some insights we can get from looking at it.
MCL60: Orange Trace
MCL36: White Trace
First a look at mini sectors during the lap to get a quick overview on where each car had an edge:
The results are as expected, the MCL60 has less drag than the MCL36 and is faster in the second half of the straights, difficult to tell if it’s only because of drag reduction or if improvements in the Mercedes PU play a larger factor.
On the main straight the MCL60 reaches 321 km/h while the MCL36 was capped at 313 km/h, a 7 km/h delta versus last year… But we do have the effect of the DRS that impacts the numbers and therefore a better section of the track to look at drag difference is in the last straight, here the MCL36 reaches a top speed of 287 km / h and at that point the MCL60 reaches 294 km/h, even though is the same delta as the main straight, interestingly the MCL60 maintains that Top Speed for longer, by the time Lando applies the brakes on the MCL60 it is still at 294km/h while the MCL36 was at 274km/h.
It is interesting also that even when the MCL60 is overall faster through the corners with higher minimum speeds (with the exception of T13) but the MCL36 has better corner exit out of them… This could be attributed also to a difference in the driving style needed for each car and torque / deployment strategies in the PU… What is clear is that Lando is capable of braking later in almost every braking zone and even though throttle application was slightly earlier in the MCL36, the difference is marginal.
Looking a bit into the difference in lap delta between the 2, it seems that Lando left at least 4 tenths on the table… Apparently he had an small mistake at the exit of T2 (forcing him to lift and correct), which cost him 2 tenths on the run to T4 and he also lost 2 tenths in the last corner, where he may have had too much braking input, extending his braking zone too deep and going through the corner 16km/h slower than in 2022
Overall the MCL60 is indeed an improvement over the MCL36 and arguably Lando missed Q3 due to a couple of mistakes more than just lack of pace from the car… But that’s easy to say sitting behind a keyboard
