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F1 2019

At the end of the day, that great team of Mercedes did what they do best and won the race. Yes, Lewis moaned on the radio in a car with a bite out the floor and the prospect of almost 50 laps on the same tyres.
James Vowels was deployed in the absence of 'Bonno' to reassure him, but, I'm sure even he was not certain at that stage that the hard tyres, on that day, on that track would survive. At half distance the winner could have been any one of 4 or 5.....
But he was right! Lewis drove just a slowly as he could (!) within the space in front that the strategy had found him and still had enough tyres left to set his personal best lap within a spit of the race end, to hold off Seb.
If truth be known, I suspect that the 2 second 'force field' around the leading cars which could not be penetrated without overheating at least one element of the cars was stronger yesterday in the thin air of Mexico than almost all expected......except James Vowels?:dk:
 
Not forgetting that along with Ferrari, Mercedes have had a fair share of strategy calls question marked. Just not as many or as often as Ferrari.

It's still quite sad to see Williams so far behind. Surely at some stage the Management have to shoulder the blame and make way for a fresh leader?

I'll leave this clip here which I'm sure will get some MV fans frothing -

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Mactech said:
At the end of the day, that great team of Mercedes did what they do best and won the race. Yes, Lewis moaned on the radio in a car with a bite out the floor and the prospect of almost 50 laps on the same tyres.
James Vowels was deployed in the absence of 'Bonno' to reassure him, but, I'm sure even he was not certain at that stage that the hard tyres, on that day, on that track would survive. At half distance the winner could have been any one of 4 or 5.....
But he was right! Lewis drove just a slowly as he could (!) within the space in front that the strategy had found him and still had enough tyres left to set his personal best lap within a spit of the race end, to hold off Seb.
If truth be known, I suspect that the 2 second 'force field' around the leading cars which could not be penetrated without overheating at least one element of the cars was stronger yesterday in the thin air of Mexico than almost all expected......except James Vowels?:dk:
Click to expand...

It would appear that the secret of a successfull race strategy is to produce a plan that fits with the performance envelope of the car and its available tyres. With the current emphasis on the technical aspects of the car we forget that each driver has a "performance envelope" too. I would suggest that Mercedes race strategy successes may be down in some measure to Hamiltons wider "performance envelope" ability to rescue race plans with marginal success prospects . A lesser driver might have failed to keep Vettel at bay yesterday driving a car with aging tyres and a damaged undertray
Some drivers appear to have an "enhanced performance" button as well as the cars?:cool:
 
grober said:
It would appear that the secret of a successfull race strategy is to produce a plan that fits with the performance envelope of the car and its available tyres. With the current emphasis on the technical aspects of the car we forget that each driver has a "performance envelope" too. I would suggest that Mercedes race strategy successes may be down in some measure to Hamiltons wider "performance envelope" ability to rescue race plans with marginal success prospects . A lesser driver might have failed to keep Vettel at bay yesterday driving a car with aging tyres and a damaged undertray
Some drivers appear to have an "enhanced performance" button as well as the cars?:cool:
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm sure you are right. Mercedes and Lewis know each other well and are fully aware of each other's strengths and weaknesses.
On the surface it didn't look like the absence on 'Bonno' made a huge difference to the overall result, but I'm sure that is because the Mercedes team work so well together as a unit, with James stepping in to re-enforce the strategy calls to Lewis.
I addition to the car performance envelope and the driver performance envelope there is also the driver to engineer relationship. A crucial factor.
I know from personal experience they have got to build up a solid trust in one another so that can they perform as a unit.
It is no coincidence that I managed to win 3 championships with drivers I had worked with previously.
It's perfectly possible to engineer 'by numbers', but so much better with a close working relationship.
 
From reading that it seems to me that if they want closer racing then getting rid of aero would be the answer.
 
agreed - head back towards mechanical downforce (i.e. tyres) and reduce the wings at the front/rear and all those little tiny fliplets and turning vanes around the cars (and the underneath too) to reduce the cost of aero modelling as well.
 
artyman said:
From reading that it seems to me that if they want closer racing then getting rid of aero would be the answer.
Click to expand...
Difficult to hang on to the 'pinnacle of motorsport' tag without aero and F1 cars would have nowhere near their current pace without the aero derived downforce they have now. Not sure I want to watch that.
 
GeeJayW said:
Difficult to hang on to the 'pinnacle of motorsport' tag without aero and F1 cars would have nowhere near their current pace without the aero derived downforce they have now. Not sure I want to watch that.
Click to expand...

Yep, it goes unreported that F1 is in a battle to be the pinnacle. It will never play technological second fiddle to any USA format.
Also, if aero was banished, it would have to be jettisoned in the lower feeder formuale also.

Noticeably though, on tracks with wide corners, cutting back under/behind a car only momentarily deprives the following car of downforce. Once on a different line with downforce restored, an overtaking bid is viable.
 
....seems like we need "active aero" bits on the car the driver can push a button to change them on the fly - i heard rumours they were wanting to bring back ground effect and also active suspension to offset the aero issue too - all banned in the past for variety of safety and cost reasons ....
 
aye - but used anytime by the driver and with a variety of settings say LOW to HIGH or something like it - to give us a bit more room for driver skill/error, unlike now where its on the straight and just off/on for easy pass
 
aj_clc said:
aye - but used anytime by the driver and with a variety of settings say LOW to HIGH or something like it - to give us a bit more room for driver skill/error, unlike now where its on the straight and just off/on for easy pass
Click to expand...
They banned 'active' aero on the basis that if it fails in the wrong mode, the driver can attempt to take a corner at a speed that is impossible due to an unexpected absence of downforce. I'm actually for the same reasons. still quite surprised that DRS is allowed.

Bottom line is that turbulent air isn't good for generating lift/downforce and it doesn't work well for radiators, oil coolers or brakes. Minimising or managing the wake so as to minimise the impact on closely following/adjacent cars does look like the way forward.
 
New regs are all over the internet this morning - i take them with a pinch of salt, as it comes closer i suspect minor tweeks come in as the big guys exert their force - i also suspecet the aero-bods in the teams will have made the new regs look foolish when then claw back all the lost downforce and find some grey-area in order to create the wake behind them to stop cars following.
perhaps i've watched F1 too long ;-)

one serious question - looks like the new regs concentrate and downforce from the floor of the car - as we have seen last week, any damage to the existing floor from debris/grass/kerbs can cause a lot of issues for the driver - are we going to see drivers simply going backwards as their car loses a lot more downforce from these incedents?
 
aj_clc said:
one serious question - looks like the new regs concentrate and downforce from the floor of the car - as we have seen last week, any damage to the existing floor from debris/grass/kerbs can cause a lot of issues for the driver - are we going to see drivers simply going backwards as their car loses a lot more downforce from these incedents?
Click to expand...
Probably not. Current regs restrict the profile of the floors very severely. The result of this is that they have resorted to kinds of ‘frills’ which are easily damaged to act as virtual ‘skirts’ to hold the low pressure under the car. The new regs rely on much bigger generic shape akin to the old ground effect and creates the low pressure in a much cleaner and damage tolerant way......we think!
 
Are the new floors still flat with a scaffold plank, or can they now be wing shaped?
 
"Cost cap

For the first time ever, F1 will introduce spending restrictions. A cost cap will be set at $175m per team, per year, and applies to anything that covers on-track performance."

I'm looking forward to how the teams interpret that regulation....
 
The introduction of low profile tyres might change how drivers treat kerbs. Sausages and sawtooth edges won't be sidewall friendly.
 
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