2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Yas Marina Circuit, Dec 11 - 13

[SmallSoldier]

Single Lap Pace

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Cornering Performance (Merc dominant in the low-speed corners)

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Race Pace

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When I see slow-speed cornering performance like that from the W11, it makes it readily apparent to me that the car is extremely adaptable on set-up, and that while they may have stopped developing the car a while ago, they also started adhering to the “only win by as much as you need to” philosophy after the FIA tried to clip their wings with the quail mode ban.

It’s amazing how wrong the One Lap Pace analysis can be some times


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I don’t think it was wrong, TBH.

And they’ve been pretty accurate (they’re not in the business of fortune telling) all year, within a few tenths.

It was wrong as far as Merc’s pace on the Softs was concerned.

It’s pretty easy to see that was the issue today, when a McLaren was within 2 tenths of pole and the entire midfield were much closer to Mercedes.

The Race Pace metric has lagged a bit. Hamilton usually ends up looking faster (with ease) compared to what the data projects.

I could give the under performance from Mercedes, but McLaren was supposed to be around 7 tenths of Redbull and that didn’t happen either... If they are going to post expected lap time deltas from the teams, they simply shouldn’t be getting it this wrong


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[Steven]

Talk about Alonso's demo run in the R25 has been moved here:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29543

[ispano6]

Mercedes went with a wrong setup or what? They've alway dominated in this track, now they lost the pole, and lost S2 particularly. WTH?

S2 both Mercs were quicker than Max, what were you watching?

infact all the purple sectors today went to Mercedes I believe. Their final runs I think Max was faster by 0.007, it was Sector 3 where Lewis lost pole. Lewis lost nearly 2 tenths to Valterri in S3.

Tomorrows race should be a good one. hopefully Lewis clears Bottas and then we can have a Max vs Lewis

Max went purple Sector 2.

[214270]

Mercedes went with a wrong setup or what? They've alway dominated in this track, now they lost the pole, and lost S2 particularly. WTH?

S2 both Mercs were quicker than Max, what were you watching?

infact all the purple sectors today went to Mercedes I believe. Their final runs I think Max was faster by 0.007, it was Sector 3 where Lewis lost pole. Lewis lost nearly 2 tenths to Valterri in S3.

Tomorrows race should be a good one. hopefully Lewis clears Bottas and then we can have a Max vs Lewis

Merc have PU problems, MGU-K tuned down.

Yes. I think it’s connected to the PER failure a few weeks ago in Bahrain, so Merc are running detuned. Same for customer teams as far as I’m aware.

[PlatinumZealot]

This race will be fiya. Lets see how Max handles being chased this time around. He got passed on track the last time he lead the Mercs on equal footing.

[dans79]

This race will be fiya. Lets see how Max handles being chased this time around. He got passed on track the last time he lead the Mercs on equal footing.

He will have to be clearly faster, because unlike Hungary it's not that hard to pass here, specially when drs is available.

[godlameroso]

S2 both Mercs were quicker than Max, what were you watching?

infact all the purple sectors today went to Mercedes I believe. Their final runs I think Max was faster by 0.007, it was Sector 3 where Lewis lost pole. Lewis lost nearly 2 tenths to Valterri in S3.

Tomorrows race should be a good one. hopefully Lewis clears Bottas and then we can have a Max vs Lewis

Merc have PU problems, MGU-K tuned down.

Yes. I think it’s connected to the PER failure a few weeks ago in Bahrain, so Merc are running detuned. Same for customer teams as far as I’m aware.

So detuned that they outdragged RB16 on both long straights, and the corners implying the Mercedes is carrying more drag and more downforce. I wish I could detune my engine to let me run MORE downforce and still be faster on the straights.

[Racer X]

It's my understanding that when you set YOUR engine it must stay in THAT mode during Qualifying and Race. Which is why it makes it interesting because you've got to set it up right. If you set it too high and burn out like Racing Point did in Bahrain you will look fast for a minute but then boom. Or you could miscalculate and be too slow.

But the engine modes are each teams to lock in during Qualifying and Race.

I don't know, also AMuS was pretty clear back then that also team mates had to use the same modes - but it never made any sense to be, and the full ruleset was not published accessible for the public. It may have been just a misunderstanding, which was then copied by different outlets.

Yeah we would need clarification.
But I don't think all the engines are set to the same mode by Manufacturer because then Williams would have a lot more speed just by having a Merc Engine. Or is their chasy and aero package so bad not even a Merc Engine can save them?

[Moore77]

It's my understanding that when you set YOUR engine it must stay in THAT mode during Qualifying and Race. Which is why it makes it interesting because you've got to set it up right. If you set it too high and burn out like Racing Point did in Bahrain you will look fast for a minute but then boom. Or you could miscalculate and be too slow.

But the engine modes are each teams to lock in during Qualifying and Race.

I don't know, also AMuS was pretty clear back then that also team mates had to use the same modes - but it never made any sense to be, and the full ruleset was not published accessible for the public. It may have been just a misunderstanding, which was then copied by different outlets.

Yeah we would need clarification.
But I don't think all the engines are set to the same mode by Manufacturer because then Williams would have a lot more speed just by having a Merc Engine. Or is their chasy and aero package so bad not even a Merc Engine can save them?

By regulations, all modes have to be exactly same. Both hardware and software has to be same. So the new "quali/race" race mode would be similar across all, factory and customer teams. The only difference in actual performance would be the age of PU.
As for Williams, it's not just aero, but the whole vehicle dynamics would be pretty poor compared to Mercedes, which is why they are so far behind.

[zibby43]

Merc have PU problems, MGU-K tuned down.

Yes. I think it’s connected to the PER failure a few weeks ago in Bahrain, so Merc are running detuned. Same for customer teams as far as I’m aware.

So detuned that they outdragged RB16 on both long straights, and the corners implying the Mercedes is carrying more drag and more downforce. I wish I could detune my engine to let me run MORE downforce and still be faster on the straights.

Translation:

"Still staying at Mercedes, the factory team opted for a more 'conservative' use of their PUs after the problems Russell had yesterday and the PU change on Perez. It would appear that they are concerned about the hybrid side of their units."

Combine that with Merc's struggles on the Softs (an issue that first popped up on Hamilton's first deleted flying lap on Softs in FP2), and you have today.

Solid lap from Max though. He saw the opportunity and capitalized upon it.

Going to be very hard for Merc to do anything about it tomorrow, and I'm sure Max will get a good start from pole.

[Moore77]

It would mean, they aren't using the STRAT 2, which is the highest hybrid power delivery mode. Would they have dialled down the ICE configuration too? I guess not, because that would make them mid field on performance.

[BosF1]

By regulations, all modes have to be exactly same. Both hardware and software has to be same. So the new "quali/race" race mode would be similar across all, factory and customer teams. The only difference in actual performance would be the age of PU.
As for Williams, it's not just aero, but the whole vehicle dynamics would be pretty poor compared to Mercedes, which is why they are so far behind.

I am quite sure the regulations state that both the same hardware and software must be available to factory and customer teams. That is something different than actually using the same (software) specification. Teams can choose to run different setups, i.e different deployment strategies, but also different power outputs.

For example:
If I were Racing Point, I would let Perez' PU set to what was formerly known as a Q1 engine mode, so that he has more power available to him in the race. If they see that the engine can not sustain this for the whole race, they are allowed to set it to a lower output level during the race. He is not allowed to dial it up afterwards, though. But it has to deliver that output for just over 300km instead of 2000km.

[tangodjango]

Merc have PU problems, MGU-K tuned down.

Yes. I think it’s connected to the PER failure a few weeks ago in Bahrain, so Merc are running detuned. Same for customer teams as far as I’m aware.

So detuned that they outdragged RB16 on both long straights, and the corners implying the Mercedes is carrying more drag and more downforce. I wish I could detune my engine to let me run MORE downforce and still be faster on the straights.

Just shows how strong that PU is. Also a bit of a masterstroke at getting Honda + RBR's hopes up.

[Schuttelberg]

Lewis does not look well. I hope he's fine.

[Phil]

What did you see Schuttel? Or was that just based on interviews yesterday after qualifying?