CjC wrote: ↑23 Sep 2024, 23:49
Has any consideration been taken for Lando loosing time lapping over half of the field on his hard tyre stint?
Verstappen at one point was 29.3 seconds behind Lando but officially finished 20.9 seconds behind- gaining a whopping 8.4 seconds in 9 laps!!! Maybe Red Bull wasn’t as slow as we thought?
Also when Lando wasn’t lapping cars or setting the fastest lap on his hard stint he was consistently lapping in the mid 1:36s which would suggest to me he was driving to a delta because he didn’t need to drive flat out to gain as many positions as possible.
I mean, he was literally told to drop the pace and bring the car home to avoid and mishaps around lap 50. But the good Doctor knows better.
And yes, dirty air from backmarkers, of which Lando came across more, will also affect the car.
And if there's still any misguided belief that Lando was pushing on the hards...
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/mclar ... /10657334/
"In fairness, in the second part of the second stint, our attention was drawn on the fact that as soon as you got behind the backmarkers, the car started to feel tricky,” he explained.
“So, it was all about no issues, no mistakes, no lock-ups. We had seen already in practice that as soon as you are behind a slow car, things look like there's something wrong with the car: it's just the effect of the dirty air.
“The focus was entirely on bringing the car home. We suggested to Lando to have an attempt at the fastest lap, which he achieved. But after that, we didn't want to talk about fastest lap anymore.”