Spanish GP 2012 - Barcelona

[raymondu999]

I was more talking about this:

Last year after this race some teams were setting up their car with less-than-optimal-laptime wing AoAs

I was talking about that too. If you run the wing at less AoA (angle), that means you're going quicker in the straight, but you have less downforce. Running less wing AoA IS running less downforce.

[Nando]

Nando-The McLarens were a bit quicker on the prime tyre towards the end last year though. Vettel may have been quicker on the options - but it didn't have much effect as they were bottled up behind Alonso then anyways.

Not by much though. Vettel still had the upper hand in the last corner where he could do KERS through the whole corner.
Something if i remember right Hamilton could not do, i think he could activate it as he was coming out of the corner.

This created enough of a gap to keep Hamilton behind despite the long straight.

[raymondu999]

He could Kers through the last corner - it was DRS he couldn't do.

The McLarens were quicker through the lap in that last stint, but onto the straight, the McLaren lost out on traction. While it gained through the straight via better topspeed, by the time Lewis was up to Seb, Seb was braking into 1 already

[Nando]

I´m pretty sure he could not engage KERS while going through that corner.
entry-mid corner.

I remember there was talk that Vettel could do this, which allowed him to get away enough to keep Hamilton clear before they started braking for T1.

[Nando]

He could Kers through the last corner - it was DRS he couldn't do.

The McLarens were quicker through the lap in that last stint, but onto the straight, the McLaren lost out on traction. While it gained through the straight via better topspeed, by the time Lewis was up to Seb, Seb was braking into 1 already

And now that i think about it.
It can´t be DRS because you could not activate DRS until you were on the main straight.

As you can see here the DRS zone starts long after the corner is finished.

[raymondu999]

He could Kers through the last corner - it was DRS he couldn't do.

The McLarens were quicker through the lap in that last stint, but onto the straight, the McLaren lost out on traction. While it gained through the straight via better topspeed, by the time Lewis was up to Seb, Seb was braking into 1 already

And now that i think about it.
It can´t be DRS because you could not activate DRS until you were on the main straight.

I was talking about qualifying. The two Red Bulls were using KERS and opening DRS before the last corner.

I´m pretty sure he could not engage KERS while going through that corner.
entry-mid corner.

In the race - Hamilton could deploy KERS out of the last corner; but he kept using a lot of it on the pitstraight AFTER the startline, while Vettel just wasn't using it after the startline; saving it all for the last exit.

Here's a grab off one of the ending laps. You can see Vettel's KERS has a fully unused charge as he was saving it for the exit of the last chicane, while Hamilton has used around 40% of his. His DRS is open as you can see - which means it's after the startline.


Here's a shot of the end of the lap immediately preceding this - as you can see Hamilton's used up half his charge earlier in the lap, and so only had half left to catapult him into the straight.


Hamilton was using about 50% on either side of the startline, while Vettel just saved it all for the last corner.

[Nando]

Could you show me three pictures entry-mid-exit of Turn 16?

Onboard Hamilton,

[raymondu999]

I'll try to find them - can't promise though. I was scanning through the video and just happened to land on that shot in particular. Will have a lookie-see and post what I can find.

[Nando]

Thanks,

[raymondu999]

Interesting. I had thought both cars were deploying it off the chicane exit, but look:

*Vettel on the apex of the last corner


*Vettel on the exit of the last corner

Vettel's charge stays at 100%, and neither Hamilton nor Vettel's KERS meters have the yellow highlight to signify that they're deploying it.

Sorry about all the shots being off lap 63 - my copy I have on file is basically the FOM feed, plus the BBC commentary. I don't have the fancy selected-onboard footage, so I can't show specific onboards of specific times. There might be another shot with such graphics of Hamilton's and Vettel's KERS usage - but I'm going to have to look for them later on. I'll limit my search to the last 14 laps (the laps when Hamilton was a constant 7 tenths off Vettel)

[Nando]

Nice but still we need better pictures showing KERS being used through that corner.

I´ll see if i can find an onboard file of the race.

[raymondu999]

For the RBR though it did open DRS and KERS through the last corner in quali - as you can see in the pole lap video I posted in the opening post

[Nando]

For the RBR though it did open DRS and KERS through the last corner in quali - as you can see in the pole lap video I posted in the opening post

Yea i´m not debating that. I never talked about Qualifying in any of my posts.

All i ment was in the race, when the battle was going on.
That Vettel could deploy KERS in that corner while Hamilton could not. At least not through the whole corner. Just exit.
This allowed Vettel to get away and stay ahead down to T1.

I might be wrong but i´m downloading onboard feeds from the race from two different sources so hopefully there´s some laps there showing Hamilton vs Vettel.

[Nando]

Just got Alonso´s lap downloaded and he pulls KERS through the whole corner easily and engage DRS at the very exit of the corner.

But this is with fumes in the tank and fresh tires.

Right now it´s about 1 year of waiting for the race-onboard feed............


Unimportant fact:

Hamilton argued with his engineer about the gearing. He wanted longer gears but his engineer told him not to.
Had Hamilton used slightly longer gears he might possibly have catched Vettel at the end of the straight as he was hitting the limiter pretty quickly according to himself.

[Unc1e_M0nty]

What are the track temps likley to be this time of year?
Mercedes see to like it cold as per China, Macca seem to like it hot - temps dropped on race day in Baraihn which I think is why they suffered, Red Bull & Lotus somewhere inbetween ?