As for complaints and claims after my brief analysis of RB-Ferrari laps in a few occasions, I see Perez is used as some kind of proof of different mappings etc. What these claims fail to note is a decent difference in top speeds of RB cars in different laps during the same exact stint which extends beyond harvest-lap/push-lap switching. I've posted a few times about it last year, pointing out that Max was usually the one exhibiting bigger differences in Top Speed during any race - the later the race went on the higher the TS figures.
What emerged during 2023 is RB actually perfected with Honda some deployment strategies that extend the tyre life. Ferrari hired some engineers and started doing this as well in the second half of the season, but it wasn't as visible. The usual signs were and still are slower acceleration and lower TS figures at the beginning of each stint and highest figures in the lap before the in-lap. On Soft tyres, the effect was more pronounced (more often than not) than Mediums and Hards in each weekend.
Therefore, the following are comparisons of C3-compound stints of Perez 2023 race, Perez 2024 Day 2 1st stint and Verstappen Day 3 1st stint. Verstappen was only slightly more conservative during 1st stint in 2023 to keep in check any gearbox issues, so I'm not looking at that stint now. These are all 1st stints, Perez was running a full-race simulation on Day 2, so the only potential outlier concerning starting weight is Max on his stint.
Obvious outliers:
1) Perez was immediately pushing on SF straight in 2023 Race as he was overtaken by Leclerc in Lap 1 and was forced to push to stay ahead. He was also 1-1.5s away from Leclerc the whole time, so there was a notable draft from Leclerc on every straight.
2) Max' lap 18 on Day 3 was 2nd lap of the stint and he was harvesting the most during that particular lap. TS figure is the same as Perez Lap 24 on SF straight, but other straights show Max was harvesting more.
3) Max' figures on straights I noted as cases 2 (T3-T4) and 3 (T10-T11) are very much the same as Perez' figures on his Lap 31, while 4th straight (noted as case 5) is slightly slower for Max
4) Case 4 is Turn 12. This was a massive outlier for Max as I noted yesterday, while comparing with Aston, McLaren and Ferrari. Even in 2nd lap of 2024 Day 3 simulation, he was pushing a lot more than Perez was at any point we are observing. How much power does T12 consume at those speeds? How much power was consumed on his Lap 31 when he went in full throttle and kept accelerating all the time? Does this require extra deployment?
Some very good question we can't answer. One thing is clear - having the car, setup and skill to do it, Max was gaining 0.5-0.6s over Perez on every occasion in T12. Would it be worth harvesting more on straights and use the extra power available to pull this off? Absolutely. Is this what happened? Only RB can answer that.
The point of this post is not to argue that Max was using full-race-level power available during his stints. It wasn't the case for every lap in his simulated stints, just as it wasn't the case on every lap in any race last year. RB is doing things differently regarding deployment and this has been happening even in 2022 to a lesser extent (not sure if it was also there before). Their figures are spread far more during 1 stint and also the whole race more than their direct competitors (at least) even when they are leading unopposed. Which is why we can't take any 2 laps of RB cars at different times in different stints and compare them 1-on-1 and conclude that 1 lap showing lower TS figures and more harvesting as evidence that the whole stint (let alone race/sim) was performed at lower power levels.
On other hand, AD 2023 race shows pretty much the same difference as Bahrain 2024 Test. You can check the lap numbers on traces and you'll see they are quite comparable. Other than typical difference for both cars due to alternating more or less harvesting in push/harvest laps, you won't find anything else. That's all from my side on this topic.
