2023 gearing

[hollus]

So... any analysis of 2023 gearing after Q in the first race?
While mostly I think there is enough overlap between gears to hardly matter... I know, I know, others dissagree...

But I digress, there is a point that has me intrigued, and it is the AM in 2023. With that pile of downforce and low top speeds... did they gear lower than the others in 8th? Much lower? So much lower at to hut in Baku or Spa or Monza?

Anyways, please post links to any good analysis you have seen. I might try to hunt down all team's 8th gear otherwise.

[organic]

This Twitter user put together an analysis based on pre-season testing of the gearing. They said they'd be doing another after the first race but may have had to put their time into other things

I have just asked them if they would be keen on doing a follow-up analysis with the data from the first 3 races - waiting to hear back. Will edit post or make another post when I do.

[Juzh]

Williams switched to mercedes gearboxes, no? Of mercedes powered cars only mclaren remains with their own, so they all should have same shifts.

Same with AT and RB. Fastest car on straights and almost the slowest one using same gear ratios.

[saviour stivala]

In 2022 only five teams produced their own gearbox, Mercedes, Ferrari, RBR, Alpine and Mclaren. Sauber used FERRARI internals in their own produced casing.

[AR3-GP]

Williams switched to mercedes gearboxes, no? Of mercedes powered cars only mclaren remains with their own, so they all should have same shifts.

Same with AT and RB. Fastest car on straights and almost the slowest one using same gear ratios.

There are differences between AT and RB (according to the twitter calculations posted above).

AT:
Gear Ratio
2 87.900000
3 72.200000
4 60.200000
5 51.400000
6 45.100000
7 39.900000
8 36.300000


RB:
Gear Ratio
2 88.300000
3 72.300000
4 60.100000
5 51.200000
6 44.900000
7 39.700000
8 35.700000

AT ratios are shorter.

[Juzh]

Williams switched to mercedes gearboxes, no? Of mercedes powered cars only mclaren remains with their own, so they all should have same shifts.

Same with AT and RB. Fastest car on straights and almost the slowest one using same gear ratios.

There are differences between AT and RB (according to the twitter calculations posted above).

AT:
Gear Ratio
2 87.900000
3 72.200000
4 60.200000
5 51.400000
6 45.100000
7 39.900000
8 36.300000


RB:
Gear Ratio
2 88.300000
3 72.300000
4 60.100000
5 51.200000
6 44.900000
7 39.700000
8 35.700000

AT ratios are shorter.

Yeah I seen it, but I find it strange. Usually when gearboxes are shared ratios remain the same between teams. Could be an error in data?

[saviour stivala]

The use of different gearbox ratios used by AT and RBR is wrong news. AT is supplied with the same gearbox and rear suspension as used by RBR. "In the event of a manufacturer supplying a customer team with a gearbox, the teams must each use the same design - whichever one the supplier has homologated.

[gruntguru]

Yeah I seen it, but I find it strange. Usually when gearboxes are shared ratios remain the same between teams. . .

Why would that be. The gearboxes would be designed with interchangeable gearsets.

[AR3-GP]

Yeah I seen it, but I find it strange. Usually when gearboxes are shared ratios remain the same between teams. . .

Why would that be. The gearboxes would be designed with interchangeable gearsets.

Same PU. Why would AT want to operate the Honda in a different power band to the title winning team?

This might also explain some of the more frequent issues with the AT power units. Lower RPM puts less physical wear on the engine and less vibration through the components. Now this is likely not the dominating factor for the gear ratio selection, but it's an interesting side effect I reckon.

[saviour stivala]

Yeah I seen it, but I find it strange. Usually when gearboxes are shared ratios remain the same between teams. . .

Why would that be. The gearboxes would be designed with interchangeable gearsets.

Why would that be (usually shared ratios)? Because the rules says so as regards supplied gearboxes.

[padajacaba]

I grabbed full race data for all drivers from Jeddah and it would appear there have been no gearing changes over what everyone was running in the last half of 2022. In the charts below, 1st and 2nd gears are best fit to time rolling in/out of the pit lane; 3rd & 4th include a lot of longitudinal slip in the data, so I targeted somewhere near the top of the cloud (assume there will be less long slip on engine braking than on power); 5th-8th have much cleaner data.

Still appears to be the situation with 5 unique gearing sets: Ferrari, Alpine, Honda/RBPT, Mercedes (standard set shared by MB, AM, & Williams), plus McLaren doing their own thing.

EDIT: Image links didn't seem to work. Trying again.

[Juzh]

I grabbed full race data for all drivers from Jeddah and it would appear there have been no gearing changes over what everyone was running in the last half of 2022. In the charts below, 1st and 2nd gears are best fit to time rolling in/out of the pit lane; 3rd & 4th include a lot of longitudinal slip in the data, so I targeted somewhere near the top of the cloud (assume there will be less long slip on engine braking than on power); 5th-8th have much cleaner data.

Still appears to be the situation with 5 unique gearing sets: Ferrari, Alpine, Honda/RBPT, Mercedes (standard set shared by MB, AM, & Williams), plus McLaren doing their own thing.

Looks to be confirming my suspicion about original post being off with their analysis (f1 data analysis from twitter).

[AR3-GP]

3rd & 4th include a lot of longitudinal slip in the data,so I targeted somewhere near the top of the cloud (assume there will be less long slip on engine braking than on power); 5th-8th have much cleaner data.

Well done to notice this

[hollus]

Awesome awesomeness, thanks. So Alonso (and all Mercedes'ed cars) will struggle above 320 km/h.

[Rodak]

I wasn't sure about this, so looked it up. From the 2023 Technical Regulations:

9.7.2 Each Competitor must nominate the forward gear ratios (calculated from engine crankshaft
to drive shafts) to be employed within their gearbox. These nominations must be declared to
the FIA technical delegate at or before the first Competition of the Championship.
In the event the Competitor obtains the Gearbox from another Competitor as a TRC, the gear
ratios used must be the same between those two Competitors.