2021 Portuguese Grand Prix - Portimão, Apr 30 - May 02

[godlameroso]

Just like last year, the soft tire is useless, it doesn't last, it overheats halfway through the lap. The medium tire is good for a few push laps, the hard tire is hard to get the temperature in the fronts so they grain like crazy.

[dans79]

Just like last year, the soft tire is useless, it doesn't last, it overheats halfway through the lap. The medium tire is good for a few push laps, the hard tire is hard to get the temperature in the fronts so they grain like crazy.

what's interesting is Lewis thinks Pirelli should have brought even softer tires.
https://f1i.com/news/403720-hamilton-ty ... riday.html

"We came here last year and the tyre was too hard," he pointed out. "And we’ve come here again this year with the same tyre – or actually, they’re even harder this year.

"It feels like we’ve come with too hard a compound in my opinion, I think it should have been mid-range," he said. "But everyone’s on the same one so we’ll get through it somehow.”

[Cassius]

Yep, and I think that is why Max was progressively worse in sectors 2 & 3. He took to much life out of the tires or over cooked them in sector 1 depending on how you want to think about it.

Max did not go full throttle just before the finish straight. He lost 2 tenths there. I already noticed it on tv, but I was not sure. He definitely took his foot off the pedal somewhat, this didn't look like an empty battery.

If he can improve turn 14 a bit where he was struggling with the balance of his car all day, it will be a close fight with Mercedes for pole.

[dans79]

Max did not go full throttle just before the finish straight. He lost 2 tenths there. I already noticed it on tv, but I was not sure. He definitely took his foot off the pedal somewhat, this didn't look like an empty battery.

That's not what the throttle trace at the bottom of the graph shows. He was actually at full throttle ever so slightly before Lewis coming out of turn 14, and held it all the way to the line.

If he can improve turn 14 a bit where he was struggling with the balance of his car all day, it will be a close fight with Mercedes for pole.

I don't think that's a balance issue. If you look at the throttle trace for turn 8, 11, and 14, you will see he had to get off the gas. That looks like tires that have overheated and are struggling to provide the grip demanded of them.

Lewis was the opposite, he had a moment in turn 1 and a decent sized 1 in turn 4, so most likely he didn't have the tires up to temperature yet.

[zibby43]

Per The Race, Merc slightly ahead in Portimao. But it’s close!

Haven’t seen/heard about any upgrades for Merc this week (they usually have their biggest upgrade of the season in Barcelona), so it appears the W12 likes slow corners a bit more, and Merc are starting to understand the better as well.

https://the-race.com/formula-1/mark-hug ... -portimao/

[godlameroso]

They had Merc slightly ahead in Italy and Bahrain and we all know how that turned out.

[PlatinumZealot]

This telemetry seems to be interpolated from the onboard video. It's definitely not high resolution so don't look too much into those weird blips and squiggles.

[zibby43]

They had Merc slightly ahead in Italy and Bahrain and we all know how that turned out.

The Race actually had Red Bull ahead in both Italy and Bahrain.

[Just_a_fan]

Just like last year, the soft tire is useless, it doesn't last, it overheats halfway through the lap. The medium tire is good for a few push laps, the hard tire is hard to get the temperature in the fronts so they grain like crazy.

So there's a challenge for the drivers to get the best out of them. That's a good thing, in some ways, as tyre management is as much a driver skill as going flat out everywhere.

[Just_a_fan]

This telemetry seems to be interpolated from the onboard video. It's definitely not high resolution so don't look too much into those weird blips and squiggles.

Agreed. Look at the brake trace, for example. It has Hamilton braking much later than Verstappen at a number of places but the speed traces follow each other at those same places. Definitely some weird stuff in that "telemetry".

[search]

They had Merc slightly ahead in Italy and Bahrain and we all know how that turned out.

The Race actually had Red Bull ahead in both Italy and Bahrain.

their long run analysis is idiotic though, as they 1:1 compare 1st stint averages with 2nd stint averages, without taking into account the fuel effect. Bottas had already burned ~3 tenths worth of fuel when he started his long run on mediums.

[zibby43]

They had Merc slightly ahead in Italy and Bahrain and we all know how that turned out.

The Race actually had Red Bull ahead in both Italy and Bahrain.

their long run analysis is idiotic though, as they 1:1 compare 1st stint averages with 2nd stint averages, without taking into account the fuel effect. Bottas had already burned ~3 tenths worth of fuel when he started his long run on mediums.

But Red Bull didn't do a Soft tire stint, so you have no way of comparing fuel loads, correct?

Or am I missing something? I was under the impression RB didn't do 2 stints. And I know Merc did a Soft stint.

[Sieper]

Merc came out early, finished their program and indeed did 2 long runs, one on each compound. Lewis was less than amused by the red tire’ performance in a long run. Why do you guys think Merc attempted that? It will not be raced (I guess, unless they run into trouble in Q2, maybe that is the reason, to at least have some data for that possibility). Redbull usually comes out later when the track is less green and only runs the preferred tire.

[search]

The Race actually had Red Bull ahead in both Italy and Bahrain.

their long run analysis is idiotic though, as they 1:1 compare 1st stint averages with 2nd stint averages, without taking into account the fuel effect. Bottas had already burned ~3 tenths worth of fuel when he started his long run on mediums.

But Red Bull didn't do a Soft tire stint, so you have no way of comparing fuel loads, correct?

Or am I missing something? I was under the impression RB didn't do 2 stints. And I know Merc did a Soft stint.

sure, we don't know what fuel load anyone started with (The Race assumes it's similar for Red Bull and Mercedes), but we do know that Bottas did 7 laps on Softs before switching to Mediums. And those 7 laps equal about 3 tenths of time gain due to burning fuel.

So if The Race's assumptions about equal fuel loads are correct, Mercedes started its run with a significant head start, and I would think there's much more reason to take that into account than not

[maxxer]

Merc came out early, finished their program and indeed did 2 long runs, one on each compound. Lewis was less than amused by the red tire’ performance in a long run. Why do you guys think Merc attempted that? It will not be raced (I guess, unless they run into trouble in Q2, maybe that is the reason, to at least have some data for that possibility). Redbull usually comes out later when the track is less green and only runs the preferred tire.

Guess they were done quickly didnt bring anything new compared to RB brought alot of new toys