f1316 wrote: ↑21 May 2023, 21:26
I often think there’s a part of this (certainly not all or even the majority) that we might call the “Trulli effect” - ie both Charles and Carlos are very good qualifiers and so over flatter the car in quali in a way that’s just sustainable in races (at least not with current car/tyre/fuel formula - back in the day, someone like Michael’s strength was being able to do 50 quali laps in a race; current tyres don’t allow that kind of pushing).
If you think about it, Carlos has always been very good in quali - he out-qualified Max in their one season together (but was generally not as good in race pace/craft) and similarly vs Lando who we now know to be a very good qualifier. This is further emphasised by the fact that Charles - who is arguably the best qualifier in F1 - was often only a tenth or so quicker than Carlos in quali last year.
Charles is more capable of sustaining this level over long distances - I suspect if he raced in, say, 2004, he would be great at being on the limit for race distances (the ‘feel for the limit’, occasionally going over it, is something I think he has in common with Michael, albeit Michael would generally save his errors for practice sessions) - but that kind of driving just isn’t possible with the Pirelli tyres and actually can lead to higher deg as he tries to keep up with a faster RB.
So tl:dr I suspect the delta between quali and race would be lower if you had a driver in one of the cars who was less good over one lap.
This is not correct. It's absolutely clear that there is something wrong with the car in race trim.
This is not the first time something similar happened. Check out the 2013 Mercedes for instance:
Look at the difference between quali and race for Lewis and Nico. Lewis has always been considered a super consistent driver in the race and especially in a track like Spain.
The car accounts for probably 99% of the overall performance. You can be one of the best and still being demolished by drivers with similar level of skills or even lower if their car is faster.