How was a fastest lap possible on a worn out hard tyre?
Discussion
Deesee said:
In round numbers a kilo of fuel is worth a 9/1000th per lap, so it’s a decent advantage to have.
For a GT car that figure isn't too far off, but you're underestimating by quite far for an F1 car. Around Silverstone a figure of around 0.33s/lap for 10kg is closer to the mark. Even more decent than you are thinking, in fact.My number is from the narrow tyre era though so I guess it's a little lower now as I think the cars are heavier.
I'm not convinced there are as big/consistent a pace gap between the tyres as Pirelli claim, either. How often do we see odd or unexpected pace comparisons when drivers pit and then outpace others emerging on supposedly slower tyres?
I suspect Mercedes had a significant pace advantage over the rest and Hamilton cruised for most of the post-safety car race. The speed on the final lap was maybe engine turned up, but that would give you what, 3 or 5 tenths?
The combination of the car being damned quick, tyres not as slow as they're presumed to be, Hamilton cruising beforehand and the engine being turned up has allowed the lap we saw at the end.
I suspect Mercedes had a significant pace advantage over the rest and Hamilton cruised for most of the post-safety car race. The speed on the final lap was maybe engine turned up, but that would give you what, 3 or 5 tenths?
The combination of the car being damned quick, tyres not as slow as they're presumed to be, Hamilton cruising beforehand and the engine being turned up has allowed the lap we saw at the end.
My thoughts are:
If you don't have to do another lap on them. You can push the tyres hard and you'll overheat them by the end of the lap, but it doesn't matter. That "1 lap over performance" is probably faster than the "multi lap" performance of softer tyres. But you get 1 shot at it. He took that shot on the last lap.
The next lap, with over heated tyres, would have been terrible as the grip is reduced, then they go cold, and you're driving a Williams/Haas all of a sudden. But on the last lap...that doesn't matter.
Bottas pushed his new tyres hard right away to see if he could catch up, and had lost the benefit of that tyre, before getting to the last lap, and was also impacted by fuel load.
If you don't have to do another lap on them. You can push the tyres hard and you'll overheat them by the end of the lap, but it doesn't matter. That "1 lap over performance" is probably faster than the "multi lap" performance of softer tyres. But you get 1 shot at it. He took that shot on the last lap.
The next lap, with over heated tyres, would have been terrible as the grip is reduced, then they go cold, and you're driving a Williams/Haas all of a sudden. But on the last lap...that doesn't matter.
Bottas pushed his new tyres hard right away to see if he could catch up, and had lost the benefit of that tyre, before getting to the last lap, and was also impacted by fuel load.
TheDeuce said:
But he beat Bottas who was on fresh softs. I'm sure he was chuffed to bits with his car setup and maybe that did give him a little extra which is why he was reeling Bottas in early on. That's fine - but it's not (in theory at least) enough to make 30 lap old hard tyres remotely as quick as fresh softs.
People need to stop repeating this. Bottas' Softs were previously used. I don't know how 'used' they were, and I'm sure they still should've been quicker than Hamilton's well-used Hard tyres, but the fact remains that Bottas' tyres had a heat cycle on them which would've made them harder. Hamilton had the freedom to manage his tyres, fuel and energy deployment. He generally had clean air. He probably charged up his ERS system for the previous two laps and turned the PU up to 11. He effectively did a qualifying run on the very last lap of the race when the circuit was in the best condition it has been in all weekend and his fuel level is at its minimum.
Bottas probably thought he'd done enough. At any other event it probably would've been enough.
HDJ100 said:
Listening to the end of the radio messages posted earlier, the Engineer tells Lewis RS Magic off on the cool down lap. Anyone know what RS Magic is?
Race Start mode. For building a 1s gap in the first 2 laps to break the DRS of a following car.It's what Rosberg forgot to enable in Barcelona 2016, allowing Lewis to get a run on him before Rosberg punted Lewis off the track :-)
If pole position was 1.25.093 then Hamilton doing a 1.27.369 on the last lap with low fuel load, magic party mode on, and the track at it's best condition and grip all weekend it's not that amazing to be fair.
It's still 2.276 seconds off pole lap and just shows how much he was cruising in the race beforehand.
It would have out him 18th on the grid just in front of both Williams.
It's still 2.276 seconds off pole lap and just shows how much he was cruising in the race beforehand.
It would have out him 18th on the grid just in front of both Williams.
Kraken said:
It just shows how far below the limit they drive in the race most of the time. For me the difference in speed between qualifying and the race is one of the worst parts of F1.
I agree, Takes the edge off for me. All this engine mode trickery and knowing they have reserves, You never know when the driver or car are pushing to the limit which for me is what this type of racing is all about IMO. krismccloy said:
Kraken said:
It just shows how far below the limit they drive in the race most of the time. For me the difference in speed between qualifying and the race is one of the worst parts of F1.
I agree, Takes the edge off for me. All this engine mode trickery and knowing they have reserves, You never know when the driver or car are pushing to the limit which for me is what this type of racing is all about IMO. You can't get away from cars with 3 laps of fuel being lighter than when they are full for the race. In the refueling era you'd have closer times, but that was because they were lighter for longer.
London424 said:
krismccloy said:
Kraken said:
It just shows how far below the limit they drive in the race most of the time. For me the difference in speed between qualifying and the race is one of the worst parts of F1.
I agree, Takes the edge off for me. All this engine mode trickery and knowing they have reserves, You never know when the driver or car are pushing to the limit which for me is what this type of racing is all about IMO. You can't get away from cars with 3 laps of fuel being lighter than when they are full for the race. In the refueling era you'd have closer times, but that was because they were lighter for longer.
London424 said:
krismccloy said:
Kraken said:
It just shows how far below the limit they drive in the race most of the time. For me the difference in speed between qualifying and the race is one of the worst parts of F1.
I agree, Takes the edge off for me. All this engine mode trickery and knowing they have reserves, You never know when the driver or car are pushing to the limit which for me is what this type of racing is all about IMO. You can't get away from cars with 3 laps of fuel being lighter than when they are full for the race. In the refueling era you'd have closer times, but that was because they were lighter for longer.
Pachydermus said:
On Rosberg's race summary interview with Lewis' engineer he let slip that "we let him turn the engine up to almost the max" (the comment has since been edited out of video so I guess we weren't meant to know that)
Still it does appear to confirm Rosberg didn't seem to know what was needed - or he wouldn't have needed to ask the question would he? 
2nd rate driver and mediocre TV pundit - thankfully English isn't his first language!
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