SmallSoldier wrote: ↑24 Nov 2022, 09:16
Spoutnik wrote: ↑24 Nov 2022, 08:39
djos wrote: ↑24 Nov 2022, 01:19
One that is predictable and fast is usually a good start!
He doesn't have a driving style ?
I know Carlos liked a lot the 2019/2020 McLaren because it was very understeery
Maybe Lando would like a McLaren with a very strong front end, unlike in the past few years
He has not make particular statements in that regard… He has extracted the most of every car McLaren has given him and the fact that the previous McLaren cars may have been “tricky” is a great learning experience from him… If he was able to get the most out of a difficult package, a simpler one would make his life that much easier and therefore you could expect more performance.
At the end of the day, the team’s job is to make the fastest car they can make… If it has a strong or lose front end (or rear end) is meaningless if the car is intrinsically fast… That’s what differentiates the likes of Verstappen, Lewis or Alonso versus their team mates, they manage to drive around the weaknesses in the package and extract the most our of their strengths and that’s why they have been successful.
The teams don’t design a nose or rear biased car, they design a car that gives them the most amount of DF / Speed at a range of corner types (and straights), they try to build a car with the most efficient DF levels… If the car is naturally under steering or over steering it’s a second thought and is expected for the drivers to manage it… No team creates a car that craters to a driver philosophy if that (on paper) is an slower car.
Furthermore, in racing it is all about compromises… There isn’t such a thing as the perfect car (although, I will argue that the W12 was close to that for that particular regulation era)… The RBR’s in order to extract that most out of their package tend to be nose heavy with a loose end, they are successful because someone like Max can drive around that and extract speed from it, while the Gasly’s, Perez’s and Albon’s of the world struggled.
Thank you all for your answers. I understand he likes a strong front end and is not afraid of oversteer. We could clearly see that from his onboard but I was not sure.
Ofc a driver has to adapt whatever is the car. Lando did his best seasons with a lazy front end.
Regarding how to approach design relative to a driver style. I style think there's some design (suspension, before 2022 the rake...) which made a choice, for a driving style over an other. We've seen it this year with the drama around Ferrari developing and understeery car fors Carlos while Charles prefer neutral/oversteer on the front end. Same for Red Bull favoring Verstappen.
