McLaren MP4-26 Mercedes

[Mchamilton]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula ... 701124.stm
is lewis' speed up the straight very slow considering he had his DRS open?
jenson was hittin 318 with his DRS open i think

[raymondu999]

Does anyone have the end of straight speeds for Hamilton? How do you even get that?

[Richard]

Dunno - there's some bloke who puts the race data in a thread somewhere around here viewtopic.php?p=274662#p274662

You have to use the quali speeds because then you know they are trying their hardest with hardly any fuel. The max race speeds are variable, for example Hamilton's fastest would be with a lot more fuel than Button's fastest when he was hunting Alonso in the final laps.

Code: Select all

Qualifying speed trap

POS NO DRIVER KPH TIME OF DAY
1 17 S. PEREZ 300.9 15:02:46
2 1 S. VETTEL 299.5 15:03:18
3 2 M. WEBBER 298.8 15:04:46
4 5 F. ALONSO 298.6 15:02:52
5 6 F. MASSA 296.0 15:04:57
6 8 N. ROSBERG 295.6 15:05:37
7 9 B. SENNA 293.9 15:05:29
8 19 J. ALGUERSUARI 293.5 15:05:18
9 3 L. HAMILTON 292.7 15:05:02
10 10 V. PETROV 285.5 15:01:58
11 12 P. MALDONADO 282.7 14:14:05
12 4 J. BUTTON 282.5 14:13:59
13 14 A. SUTIL 281.3 14:10:22
14 18 S. BUEMI 280.5 14:47:48
15 15 P. DI RESTA 277.1 14:17:08
16 11 R. BARRICHELLO 277.1 14:46:12
17 16 K. KOBAYASHI 274.8 14:47:10
18 23 V. LIUZZI 266.2 14:16:44
19 20 H. KOVALAINEN 260.1 14:10:48
20 24 T. GLOCK 257.2 14:16:52
21 22 D. RICCIARDO 255.9 14:16:45
22 21 J. TRULLI 252.8 14:10:18
23 25 J. D'AMBROSIO 250.5 14:14:24
24 7 M. SCHUMACHER 180.6 14:00:34

[raymondu999]

The speed trap in Spa isn't end of straight though; so not really representative of overall drag levels. It's on the exit of Raidillon

[HampusA]

Speeds will creep up towards 320-330 at the end of the straight.

My guess is the gaps you see in the speed trap is the same gaps you see at the "real" speed trap just before hitting the brakes.

[raymondu999]

true I goes. The trap itself is in a fairly "straight" bit already where the cars will be flat out anyways. But that raises the question of the Red Bulls. If you noticed they were gearing their cars for good acceleration but low top speed, so that they could out-accelerate the others to that top speed to defend better. They were on full revs half the way to Blanchimont, and just stayed there through the whole sequence.

[PlatinumZealot]

Does anyone have the end of straight speeds for Hamilton? How do you even get that?

Jenson was full dry. Hamilton was mixed setup. He got eaten alive by the Ferrari's but his tyres were lasting that little bit longer. Strange gamble.

[raymondu999]

Yes but how did you know that, for example? He was quite a bit quicker in S1 and S3 than Jenson. In fact, looking at the max speeds in Sector 1 qualifying, Hamilton (with DRS, it has to be said) got up to 316.6 and Button got to 302.6 without DRS.
In the race, where I believe both had the opportunity to use DRS; Button was able to achieve 321.2 and Hamilton 319.2

[SiLo]

Does anyone have the end of straight speeds for Hamilton? How do you even get that?

Jenson was full dry. Hamilton was mixed setup. He got eaten alive by the Ferrari's but his tyres were lasting that little bit longer. Strange gamble.

It's Spa, it was probably more sensible than Jensons full dry setup, which would of been the gamble, not the other way around.

[Richard]

Not forgetting that quali was partially wet

[ell66]

Yes but how did you know that, for example? He was quite a bit quicker in S1 and S3 than Jenson. In fact, looking at the max speeds in Sector 1 qualifying, Hamilton (with DRS, it has to be said) got up to 316.6 and Button got to 302.6 without DRS.
In the race, where I believe both had the opportunity to use DRS; Button was able to achieve 321.2 and Hamilton 319.2

It was mixed conditions, button went out in q2 when they ran on slicks.

[PlatinumZealot]

Yes but how did you know that, for example?

In interview after Q2 Jenson said he was full dry. In the interview after Q3 Hamilton said he was on a mixed set-up.

Passed By Ferrari and almost repassed by a Sauber.

I am really wondering what the L-pods can really do in Monza because I defended the aero efficiency of the design earlier in the thread.

[raymondu999]

Ah. I must've missed the Hamilton interview. Do you have maybe a youtube link somewhere you could point me to?

[PlatinumZealot]

Ah. I must've missed the Hamilton interview. Do you have maybe a youtube link somewhere you could point me to?

Q: Yesterday you talked about wing testing, is that what it’s all about, is it a huge amount about how quick you can be up the hill?

LH: It’s just about trying to find the correct balance. You can take off all your downforce and have good end-of-straight speed, but then you struggle in the middle sector. It’s just about making the compromise. It was still wet – we don’t know what the weather’s going to do tomorrow even though it says it’s dry, so we didn’t fully go for the optimal downforce level for the dry but I think tomorrow will still be dry.

Q: So it’s still a bit of a compromise, neither one thing nor the other.

LH: Yeah, absolutely.

There was another interview where he said mixed but I cannot find it. Besides we could see his downforce level was very high in the race.

[Richard]

No worries - The quote you found says he didn't go for a dry set up.