organic wrote: ↑22 Feb 2024, 07:50
LionsHeart wrote: ↑22 Feb 2024, 07:48
These are just tests. It's too early to read the lap analysis. Verstappen did his best lap when the track conditions were optimal. The road surface is clean, there is enough rubber, optimum conditions in cooler conditions, there is a lot more grip. Lando showed his lap in the first laps of the outing. That's roughly speaking. Then he just switched to working on a long series of laps. Conditions are different, plus by that point, Lando hadn't had time to get used to the new car. Maybe today and tomorrow we'll get tighter results in the same conditions.
Max did a lap a couple of minutes after Lando's 1.32.5 that was a 1.31.7. So that was with comparable conditions. However it's obvious that McL are running with lower engine than RB on day 1, and like you say Lando would've been less up to speed
Top speeds for the fastest laps of Max and Lando.
Max (1.31.344) : S1-239 --- S2-269 --- S3-283 --- SpeedTrap-314
Lando (1.32.484): S1-235 --- S2-266 --- S3-281 --- SpeedTrap-310
Max did his best lap almost 2 hours after Lando's lap, towards the close of the day.
There was another lap that Max did (1.31.662), 15 mins after Lando did his best lap.
Max (1.31.662) : S1-238 --- S2-269 --- S3-282 --- SpeedTrap-315
I would say, the engine modes are similar, based on last year's drag differences between the two. If we assume, McLaren continues to carry a bit more drag than Red Bull, then the top speed differences represent similar engine modes for these quali runs.