organic wrote: ↑24 Aug 2024, 15:57
Hard to see anything but a McLaren pole. Far more balanced than the Red Bull
Absolutely. MCL38 is on rails even with wind, RB20 is understeering like a pig, waiting to snap at any moment. Redbull have lost the car, McLaren have nailed their car. It's a no brainer that Mclaren will win constructors, and winning drivers is a big possibility.
Juzh wrote: ↑24 Aug 2024, 16:02
Real strange shift in relative performance in S1 and S2 from Q1 to Q3. in Q1 and Q2 RB seemed faster in S1 and slower in S2, but in Q3 it went the other way around. In any case it seemed troughout it was mclaren's to lose, and they delivered.
The english commentators are saying 'but the McLaren is gaining so much in the straights' as if the MCL38 is running a smaller wing than RB20 and hence has lower drag. No. Both are running very similar DF levels and both are having similar drag (btw, Russel and Perez seem to have gone for lower DF than their team mates, sure to suffer with deg in the race). It's because MCL38 is rotating much much better than the RB20 and it's best shown in the two 'tight' turns T1, T3 and T12. In these three corners. the exit MCL38 has, is 'a class above' RB20, which in turn affects the time gained in the three 'straights' 1-2-3 and 4-5-6-7 and 13-14-1. Verstappen was driving like a god through 7-8-9-10-11 and pulled back some time, but lost more than what he pulled back, at the exit of T12. Since lower fuel load in Q trim means faster acceleration, the McLaren reaches Vmax earlier than the RB20 and further enhances the gain a little bit. This 'gain' wont be similar in race trim when fuel load is much higher and acceleration much slower. So expecting the McLaren laptime advantage to be something like 0.2s (rather than the 0.35s in Q) in race trim,
before the deg kicks in.
Anyway, the point was, the "Mclaren gaining in straights" isn't really true. The gain is coming from the exit of corners before the straights. Which in turn means Mclarens are going to carve like knife through butter, with their DRS when they come out of the pits after a tyre change tomorrow. Morover, even if Max gains a place at the start, this exact advantage will ensure he is eaten in the pit straight by lap3 or lap4.
Anything other than P1-P2 for Mclaren will be a disaster. The car is that good. It's a class above. Just like the RB19 in 2023.