2020 Sakhir Grand Prix - Sakhir, Dec 04 - 06

[Moore77]

I wonder how much downforce change Russell will experience?

In my opinion, he would probably experience immense change in traction, more than downforce, along with other usual things related to cornering stability.

[NathanOlder]

I don't think he will struggle at all, It will be like going from the Hard tyres to the Soft tyres. 1 lap and your up to speed. The controls will be what takes a little time to get familiar with.

[NathanOlder]

Merc simulations re: cornering speed differences between Bahrain and Sakhir (via @SmilexTech).

Cars will go from medium to low downforce specifications.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EoYISGsWMAA ... me=900x900

Interesting, although how can the car be 35kmh slower in turn 2, but 5kmh faster in turn 10 which seems very odd to me.

[henry]

I wonder how much downforce change Russell will experience?

In my opinion, he would probably experience immense change in traction, more than downforce, along with other usual things related to cornering stability.

How much of traction is unrelated to downforce levels? I thought downforce was a significant contributor to traction. Given that Russell is going from the lowest downforce car to the highest might he not experience similar traction and be cornering at similar speeds to last weekend on at least corners 1, 2 and 3.

[Moore77]

I wonder how much downforce change Russell will experience?

In my opinion, he would probably experience immense change in traction, more than downforce, along with other usual things related to cornering stability.

How much of traction is unrelated to downforce levels? I thought downforce was a significant contributor to traction. Given that Russell is going from the lowest downforce car to the highest might he not experience similar traction and be cornering at similar speeds to last weekend on at least corners 1, 2 and 3.

I was more specifically pointing out for exiting out of slower corners (not many here and I agree he would feel the downforce difference quite heavily) where more than downforce, the mechanical grip that allows going on throttle earlier than most other cars on the grid. One hardly hears wheel spins in W11 when the drivers nail the throttle, whereas I have observed even RB16 isn't that great on traction (relative to W11). So, George moving from worst on the grid to best, he would be surprised on most aspect, but my personal feeling was more that, he would shocked to see the traction.

[Morteza]

[63l8qrrfy6]

His helmet seems to partially cover the roll hoop air intake!

[Morteza]

His helmet seems to partially cover the roll hoop air intake!

That has always been the case. You could see it when he was testing for Mercedes in the previous years

[matt_b]

Interested to see how strong the tow is around here, must essential given how short the track is.

Also would it be worth the lower teams taking a fresh engine and turn it up given that most cars have already done 5 races will go through 87 laps of punishment?

[MtthsMlw]

Wow already sub 57s.

[LM10]

Russell used DAS in his first warm-up lap.

[Mattyw]

This isnt going to be straight forward at all for merc

Doing 56's already - most the field will be within a second I bet come quali

I assume they can adapt the energy usage to burn it all up in the 56 secs instead of spreading it out - might come down to who has best energy deployment?

[matt_b]

This isnt going to be straight forward at all for merc

Doing 56's already - most the field will be within a second I bet come quali

I assume they can adapt the energy usage to burn it all up in the 56 secs instead of spreading it out - might come down to who has best energy deployment?

and who has a nice tow from the car ahead nobody will want to cross the line first come Q3

[Fulcrum]

The W11 that Russell is driving has already secured the WCC & WDC. When was the last time a driver drove a car that had mathematically already secured them.

Probably Ricardo Patrese in 1987, replacing Mansell for the final round of the season. Williams had already won the WCC, Piquet the WDC.

Mansell helped to secure the WCC title in 1994, but both titles were still on the line when he drove as a replacement for Coulthard, and Hill didn't win the WDC.

Interesting. So that’s as close as we get to this (Just the WCC title in that car).

I’m not being a pedant I’m just trying to highlight how utterly unusual this kind of situation is.

Considering you're limiting it to the EXACT car, rather than just the team, that is hyper specific.

What you're effectively asking is, how often has a driver won the WDC, then not attended a race; with the added restriction being that the team had won the WDC as well.

1961 is an interesting case. Ferrari won both WDC and WCC, then decided to skip the last race. No replacements, so it doesn't count.

If Lauda had won in 1976, Reutemann would have driven the eventual WDC and WCC car. At the time he drove it, it was neither.

Gilles Villeneuve took Lauda's place at Ferrari for the final two races of the 1977 season. Lauda had already won the WDC, and Ferrari won the WCC by the final round, so this may satisfy the conditions, provided Villeneuve drove in Lauda's chassis. I can't verify that, but if true, it seems like the only instance where this set of circumstances have occurred before.

[El Scorchio]

Russell is much taller than Hamilton and Bottas, isn't he! (about 12cm) I wonder if that's a struggle or disadvantage for him/the team seen as clearly you want as little drag as possible on this particular circuit.