Eleventh round of the F1 a Spielberg: Ferrari didn’t do well in qualifying but at least seems to have chosen a set-up centered on maximum long-distance performance. Although there have been complaints from the drivers and modifications to the car to fix the behavior of the slow speed, the pace shown is promising. In general, the simulation carried out during the recently concluded free practice sessions is unrealistic in relation to the performance that the cars are actually capable of producing.
Everything is fine team carried out the test high fuel with different fuel loads simulating sprint race or race. Ferrari carried out a high fuel test in line with its competitors in terms of length. In terms of performance, the drivers completed most of the laps with the “engine 4” engine map. Only on their penultimate lap, on the engineers’ instructions, did they set the “engine 1” map to give feedback on performance with maximum thrust. In terms of times, however, we note that the average is the best of the group.
However, considering all the variables listed above, and the driver pack packed into less than a second, this data is just a good starting point on which to build the weekend. Mercedes is keen to gather as much data as possible on how the car will behave on long runs. This is demonstrated by the fact that Hamilton ran the longest simulation at a pace just under 70 seconds per lap, most likely simulating tomorrow’s sprint race.
F1, Austrian GP: Ferrari showed a very good pace with a lot of fuel on board
Lewis said on the radio that he was satisfied with the behavior of his car, trying, like the Ferrari drivers, different maps to validate the data. At Red Bull, Verstappen practically did not run the high fuel simulation, due to the time lost due to engine problems and the laps spent to verify that everything was in line. From the times recorded by Perez, it seems that the home team has loaded a greater quantity of fuel in the car, to simulate the start of the race on Sunday.
We must also consider how Red Bull was the only top team to carry out the first part of free practice on the medium tyre. This tire guarantees better performance but is more prone to wear.
The degradation graph shows that the hard tyre used by Mercedes does not show much degradation, even though Hamilton’s stint was particularly long. Aided by the harder compound, Lewis confirmed that the Austrian track is not as aggressive on the tyres, particularly with low fuel load.
The shorter stint completed by Ferrari and McLaren postpones the final judgment on the tire management of these teams until tomorrow. From the minimum simulation, it seems that the two cars have a similar degradation with Ferrari able to maintain a better pace. However, the degradation line, especially if the drivers have completed few laps, undergoes variations due to the possible traffic that the drivers have encountered during the simulation.
Author and graphic designers: Leonardo Pasqual – @PasqualLeonardo
