venkyhere wrote: ↑23 May 2024, 21:40
bananapeel23 wrote: ↑23 May 2024, 00:46
Undercutting doesn't work in Monaco because you will just come out of the pits behind a car that is going long. Monaco is THE overcutting track.
Although I wouldn't put it past the Ferrari strategy team to so something as outrageously stupid as attempting to undercut from the lead.
you are assuming that there wont be 'trains' formed. The gap between Ferrari/Redbull/McLaren as a group, and the rest is huge. I expect an Alonso train. Undercutting might actually help get in front of such a train, rather than into it. Trying to overcut may result in bottling up behind it, where you end up with 1.5 fast laps, when you really wanted 2 fast laps of squeezing out the last bit of pace left in your first tyre.
No I'm totally expecting a train, which is why undercutting isn't viable.
I'm expecting a car that undercuts to catch up to a train and get stuck in said train. Yes, if there is a massive gap between trains that opens up between, say, Alonso and Russell, you might be able to pit into said gap and catch back up to the first train, making an undercut viable.
The problem is that you can't overtake in Monaco. The car that is in the lead can always simply back the "fast train" up during stint one to prevent the gap between the "fast train" and "Slow train" from forming in the first place, meaning that undercutting never becomes viable. If the cars behind pit, they end up in the train. If they go long with the leader, the leader keeps backing them up so they can't pit without getting stuck. If the cars behind pit, the leader goes for a mad dash on tyres that are still in good shape because he never pushed, opening up the gap between the "fast train" and the "slow train", then pits into that gap, while the others were forced to pit into the slow train.
The only way this doesn't work is if the entire "slow train" pits before the cars fighting for the lead do, which is unlikely, because going long is viable in the slow train for the same reasons.