2019 Aston Martin Red Bull Racing - Honda F1 Team

[loner]

Albon from p17 to p5
notice kvyat start seems spec 4 fixed the previous specs start stall...

[diffuser]

I knew kind of wish max too the penalty and got spec 4. Spec 2 would be of no good in spa

Of course you do when you saw that he crashed out on the 2nd lap. Would you have said that had Vettle taken out LeClerc and Hamilton at the star and max had won the race?

[ispano6]

I too would have given Max the Spec4. It's a bit of being unlucky and conservative. At least next race Max can use it knowing it won't blow up, and Alex has a real shot at a podium.

[Alexf1]

Interesting to hear info on use of engine specs. On friday in Spa Max and Honda said they downtuned the engine in FP2 due to very high milage. If this engine is spec1 and has been their regular friday engine it now has over 4.500km.

[NL_Fer]

So what is causing the bad starts? Inconsistent torque delivery?

[Jolle]

So what is causing the bad starts? Inconsistent torque delivery?

Could be, in race mode the ICE can be very rough, because they can use the K to smooth everything out, at the start they don't have the K and I don't know if they can use the H...

[godlameroso]

They didn't have their power unit turned down, they just have a lot of drag on the car. Apparently Albon was still on an older spec engine, so still a good sign.

[hasika]

If they want to finish the season with 4 engine,maybe they will use Spec2 or Spec3 to race at Monza again.

[GhostF1]

There are some positives to take away from today. Honda's new power unit is a success, Albon was much quicker than Leclerc late race. If we assume Verstappen to be .3 seconds faster than Albon, which was a similar gap to Riccardo then it stands that once the new fuel is introduced the fight is seriously on. We may get our 5 victories.

You forgot that he was on Softs while leClerc was on Medium? So what's that -1 sec per lap to LeClerc's/Hamilton's numbers for a true lap time to lap time compare?

What if you compare to Vettel?

What about Merc having their PU turned Down?

He was on very used softs by then, let's also remember that... by the time he overtook Kvyat and got a bit of free air he was on Lap 37, where he quickly got to lapping at more or less the same pace as Lewis (low-mid 1:47s), within a few tenths each lap, and slightly faster than Leclerc. His softs were near 15 laps old at this point. Vettel is not a fair comparison, he pitted for new softs on lap 34 and immediately started doing pacey laps, low 1:46's.

Now, I doubt anyone is actually suggesting he's quickest on the field, but he displayed some top racecraft and for his first race in the car, did a very solid job, with an old engine to boot. I think that deserves a fair amount of kudos for that weekend..

Also, Merc "turning down the engine"... this is something we've come up with, they've never once said they had, and based on Lewis's speed trap figures in the closing stages, they most definitely did not have it turned right down..
I'm all for the logic on why they should pull back the engine, but they didn't and still haven't said they had it turned down which subsequently hampered their race.

[diffuser]

There are some positives to take away from today. Honda's new power unit is a success, Albon was much quicker than Leclerc late race. If we assume Verstappen to be .3 seconds faster than Albon, which was a similar gap to Riccardo then it stands that once the new fuel is introduced the fight is seriously on. We may get our 5 victories.

You forgot that he was on Softs while leClerc was on Medium? So what's that -1 sec per lap to LeClerc's/Hamilton's numbers for a true lap time to lap time compare?

What if you compare to Vettel?

What about Merc having their PU turned Down?

He was on very used softs by then, let's also remember that... by the time he overtook Kvyat and got a bit of free air he was on Lap 37, where he quickly got to lapping at more or less the same pace as Lewis (low-mid 1:47s), within a few tenths each lap, and slightly faster than Leclerc. His softs were near 15 laps old at this point. Vettel is not a fair comparison, he pitted for new softs on lap 34 and immediately started doing pacey laps, low 1:46's.

Now, I doubt anyone is actually suggesting he's quickest on the field, but he displayed some top racecraft and for his first race in the car, did a very solid job, with an old engine to boot. I think that deserves a fair amount of kudos for that weekend..

Also, Merc "turning down the engine"... this is something we've come up with, they've never once said they had, and based on Lewis's speed trap figures in the closing stages, they most definitely did not have it turned right down..
I'm all for the logic on why they should pull back the engine, but they didn't and still haven't said they had it turned down which subsequently hampered their race.

We weren't speaking about Albon specifically. More about RBR pace. Godlameroso was trying to paint a rainbow on it. I thought he was pulling the paint from where the sun don't shine. So I poked holes in his theory.

[Capharol]

You forgot that he was on Softs while leClerc was on Medium? So what's that -1 sec per lap to LeClerc's/Hamilton's numbers for a true lap time to lap time compare?

What if you compare to Vettel?

What about Merc having their PU turned Down?

He was on very used softs by then, let's also remember that... by the time he overtook Kvyat and got a bit of free air he was on Lap 37, where he quickly got to lapping at more or less the same pace as Lewis (low-mid 1:47s), within a few tenths each lap, and slightly faster than Leclerc. His softs were near 15 laps old at this point. Vettel is not a fair comparison, he pitted for new softs on lap 34 and immediately started doing pacey laps, low 1:46's.

Now, I doubt anyone is actually suggesting he's quickest on the field, but he displayed some top racecraft and for his first race in the car, did a very solid job, with an old engine to boot. I think that deserves a fair amount of kudos for that weekend..

Also, Merc "turning down the engine"... this is something we've come up with, they've never once said they had, and based on Lewis's speed trap figures in the closing stages, they most definitely did not have it turned right down..
I'm all for the logic on why they should pull back the engine, but they didn't and still haven't said they had it turned down which subsequently hampered their race.

We weren't speaking about Albon specifically. More about RBR pace. Godlameroso was trying to paint a rainbow on it. I thought he was pulling the paint from where the sun don't shine. So I poked holes in his theory.

and GhostF1 answered your "poke-hole"-questions which means there are no holes to poke even not in the godlamerosos post, maybe a bit to enthausistic , but thats ok .... read the McLaren topic

[Marti_EF3]

Interesting was too, that Honda made on SPA a huge PU test. They were racing Spec 2 (RBR), Spec 3 (Gasly) and Spec 4(Kvyat). Huge amount of data to compare specs (power, efficiency, mapping, driveability, etc)

No one did it before (that we know). Having 3 different spec PU racing on the same GP

[dxpetrov]

Poor starts - mainly engine issue.

https://www.verstappen.nl/en/article/3805/

"Verstappen got poorly off the line during the race at Spa-Francorchamps, causing him to drop back a few places. Max explains how the starts generally take place: “We have a certain procedure which needs to be as steady as possible. I have been doing that for four years now at Red Bull, but we are struggling this year to keep the wheel spin steady. There is even a difference with every engine. So it’s always a mystery if it will be okay or not. This year it’s gone wrong quite some time, so we very well know what we need to work on. At this moment, we haven’t been able to keep it steady yet.”

According to the youngster, it also has to do more with the power unit itself than it has to do with the driver: “Looking at the entire season, we were the second best team regarding the starts last year. The year before that also, so I really don’t think that we are suddenly unable to do a good start. The procedure with the clutch is the same. We are talking millimeters here, it’s that precise. But apart from that, it’s still always unknown how the engine will handle your input. Sometimes there can be a delay or vice versa. How aggressively the clutch is set can also be controlled by the team. I just need to focus on following the same procedure every time, but you are also dependent on things that are also involved with it.”

Can starts be practiced and do you need to practice it? “You can try out a lot during testing and Honda is currently busy with that. They can see things that need to be improved, but it takes time. That is because it has to do with some characteristics of the engine.”

[aran.vtec]

Poor starts - mainly engine issue.

https://www.verstappen.nl/en/article/3805/

"Verstappen got poorly off the line during the race at Spa-Francorchamps, causing him to drop back a few places. Max explains how the starts generally take place: “We have a certain procedure which needs to be as steady as possible. I have been doing that for four years now at Red Bull, but we are struggling this year to keep the wheel spin steady. There is even a difference with every engine. So it’s always a mystery if it will be okay or not. This year it’s gone wrong quite some time, so we very well know what we need to work on. At this moment, we haven’t been able to keep it steady yet.”

According to the youngster, it also has to do more with the power unit itself than it has to do with the driver: “Looking at the entire season, we were the second best team regarding the starts last year. The year before that also, so I really don’t think that we are suddenly unable to do a good start. The procedure with the clutch is the same. We are talking millimeters here, it’s that precise. But apart from that, it’s still always unknown how the engine will handle your input. Sometimes there can be a delay or vice versa. How aggressively the clutch is set can also be controlled by the team. I just need to focus on following the same procedure every time, but you are also dependent on things that are also involved with it.”

Can starts be practiced and do you need to practice it? “You can try out a lot during testing and Honda is currently busy with that. They can see things that need to be improved, but it takes time. That is because it has to do with some characteristics of the engine.”

I don't agree with this being a Honda issue, Why don't the other 3 Honda power cars have these inconsistent starts ?

[etusch]

If they want to finish the season with 4 engine,maybe they will use Spec2 or Spec3 to race at Monza again.

At monza one spec 4 change at friday and one more for sunday. 1 race penalty and two power units in the pocket is more logical for me.