2023 United States Grand Prix - COTA, Oct 20 - 22

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Max seemed under pressure here. Sign of things to come when the cars are more equal.
I think the redbull could have been on pole in the hands of a qualifying specialist like a leclerc or hulkenberg or a truli or russel.
The redbull seemed less dominant here but i would not say the ferrari was head and shoulders the most deserving of pole. It could have gone to mclaren or even Mercedes.
Max's error into T1 made him over drive. Otherwise pole was his.

Under pressure from who?

Even in a 'less dominant' RB this weekend (from 1 sessions running) and fairly big error from Max into T1 - he was still about on par for pole. Track limits at T19 probably worth half a tenth to a tenth at most.

His T19 excursion was a lot more than half a tenth - probably a tenth - and Leclerc made errors like at T11 that probably added up to a similar amount of laptime as Max's T1, on top of leaving 1.5-2 tenths on the table at T19 on his final Q3 run (max was 3.5 tenths quicker through that corner and Lando 2.5 tenths)

RB weren't the quickest over a lap yesterday. We'll see that again in sprint quali imo

But it's not hugely dissimilar to Hungary.

[chrisc90]

Quite embarrassing that they are so slow in removing cars in F1 Academy. They will take half the race.

Not just that....the track limits on these cars/drivers was amazing. Who needs a white line!

[Wouter]

Max seemed under pressure here. Sign of things to come when the cars are more equal.
I think the redbull could have been on pole in the hands of a qualifying specialist like a leclerc or hulkenberg
or a truli or russel.

.
Thanx for putting a big smile on my face!

[dialtone]

Max seemed under pressure here. Sign of things to come when the cars are more equal.
I think the redbull could have been on pole in the hands of a qualifying specialist like a leclerc or hulkenberg or a truli or russel.
The redbull seemed less dominant here but i would not say the ferrari was head and shoulders the most deserving of pole. It could have gone to mclaren or even Mercedes.
Max's error into T1 made him over drive. Otherwise pole was his.

Under pressure from who?

Even in a 'less dominant' RB this weekend (from 1 sessions running) and fairly big error from Max into T1 - he was still about on par for pole. Track limits at T19 probably worth half a tenth to a tenth at most.

I think the error in T1 ultimately only cost Max about the same as LEC's terrible T19. Max was 10kph slower at apex, LEC was a shocking 31kph slower than his previous attempt, lost 0.3s just in that corner. LEC's lap wasn't that good actually looking at the onboard.

[chrisc90]

Max seemed under pressure here. Sign of things to come when the cars are more equal.
I think the redbull could have been on pole in the hands of a qualifying specialist like a leclerc or hulkenberg or a truli or russel.
The redbull seemed less dominant here but i would not say the ferrari was head and shoulders the most deserving of pole. It could have gone to mclaren or even Mercedes.
Max's error into T1 made him over drive. Otherwise pole was his.

Under pressure from who?

Even in a 'less dominant' RB this weekend (from 1 sessions running) and fairly big error from Max into T1 - he was still about on par for pole. Track limits at T19 probably worth half a tenth to a tenth at most.

His T19 excursion was a lot more than half a tenth - probably a tenth - and Leclerc made errors like at T11 that probably added up to a similar amount of laptime as Max's T1, on top of leaving 1.5-2 tenths on the table at T19 on his final Q3 run (max was 3.5 tenths quicker through that corner and Lando 2.5 tenths)

RB weren't the quickest over a lap yesterday. We'll see that again in sprint quali imo

But it's not hugely dissimilar to Hungary.

I disagree there. He was only 1/2 a line over the line in total so barely worth any notable time at all.

Compare the telemetry from Max's 1:35.081 run and the deleted run and you'll see he gained next to no time at all.

[chrisc90]

Max seemed under pressure here. Sign of things to come when the cars are more equal.
I think the redbull could have been on pole in the hands of a qualifying specialist like a leclerc or hulkenberg or a truli or russel.
The redbull seemed less dominant here but i would not say the ferrari was head and shoulders the most deserving of pole. It could have gone to mclaren or even Mercedes.
Max's error into T1 made him over drive. Otherwise pole was his.

Under pressure from who?

Even in a 'less dominant' RB this weekend (from 1 sessions running) and fairly big error from Max into T1 - he was still about on par for pole. Track limits at T19 probably worth half a tenth to a tenth at most.

I think the error in T1 ultimately only cost Max about the same as LEC's terrible T19. Max was 10kph slower at apex, LEC was a shocking 31kph slower than his previous attempt, lost 0.3s just in that corner. LEC's lap wasn't that good actually looking at the onboard.

Interesting looking at Max's deleted lap and Charles pole through T4/5/6. Charles is on the brakes compared to Max being flat. Probably the lack of downforce on the Ferrari Vs the Red bull.

[ringo]

Max seemed under pressure here. Sign of things to come when the cars are more equal.
I think the redbull could have been on pole in the hands of a qualifying specialist like a leclerc or hulkenberg
or a truli or russel.

.
Thanx for putting a big smile on my face!

Saudia Arabia 2021...the lap that never was.
He is not immune to pressure when the stakes are high like some think. Good lap from him of course, ignoring turn 1 and last corner, but there are more "clutch" qualifying guys out there like Charles who would have eeked out pole in the rb19.
All in all this is good for the sport. The fact we are here discussing minute details on a qualy lap between 2 different cars.
I know Max knows how to drive a race nonetheless, so I am placing my bet from now. He will be in P1 by lap 16 on Sunday.
Hamilton to be P2 on sunday if he survives lap 1. He could give Max a little trouble but i see Max growing the gap in the last stint to throw cold water on any hopes of being challenged.

[avantman]

Max seemed under pressure here. Sign of things to come when the cars are more equal.
I think the redbull could have been on pole in the hands of a qualifying specialist like a leclerc or hulkenberg or a truli or russel.
The redbull seemed less dominant here but i would not say the ferrari was head and shoulders the most deserving of pole. It could have gone to mclaren or even Mercedes.
Max's error into T1 made him over drive. Otherwise pole was his.

lol! take of a Mercedes/Hamilton fan I guess? Not only Max compensated most of his deficit in T1 in the rest of S1-beginning of S2(he came to T11 just 0.06s off his previous best), but it is very clear on the telemetry, Max left a lot less on the table than a 'qualifying specialist' Leclerc.
By the way Hamilton threw around 0.13s of advantage he gained(to his previous best) in the S1 of his final lap away in one single corner (T9) and another 0.2s in between T15-T19. Ironically, Mercedes had more than enough pace for pole as well.

[ringo]

Max seemed under pressure here. Sign of things to come when the cars are more equal.
I think the redbull could have been on pole in the hands of a qualifying specialist like a leclerc or hulkenberg or a truli or russel.
The redbull seemed less dominant here but i would not say the ferrari was head and shoulders the most deserving of pole. It could have gone to mclaren or even Mercedes.
Max's error into T1 made him over drive. Otherwise pole was his.

lol! take of a Mercedes/Hamilton fan I guess?
it is very clear on the telemetry, Max left a lot less on the table than a 'qualifying specialist' Leclerc.
By the way Hamilton threw around 0.17s of advantage he gained(to his previos best) in the S1 of his final lap in one single corner (T9). Ironically, Mercedes had more than enough pace for pole as well.

Why does everything boil down to fandom?

It's circular logic to use telemetry to know what was left on the table. The telemetry is a record of what he did.. so it cannot be used to know what he could have done. You just cannot know what the celing of performance is.
It's the same pit fall of mark Hughs. He uses telemetry of speed into turn 1 without accounting for the fact Max went in too deep then use that to make a conclusion.

As a neutral observer of Max and Charles i just think the turn 1 incident compromised his confidence for the rest of the lap. It's just my opinion. Telemetry cannot analyze that. As i said you cannot use data of what someone has done as a basis to sat they could do no more.
Visibly major errors were made to took pole away from Max. He's human and there is nothing wrong with that.

[avantman]

you are anything but a neutral observer. max lost just 0.1s in T1 and the following straight compared with his previous best. It wasn't a major error. He gained lap time by going a bit too fast and over the track limit in T19 - not lost time! that was a driving mistake, but not one that costed him lap time at the end. Leclerc lost almost 0.2s in T19(compared to his own previous best) and another 0.1s in T12. maths too hard I guess.

[ringo]

Looking on the lap reply.. it just didnt seem "on the boil". Apex speeds seem low, throttle pick seems sloppy, he had a few counter steer moments on corner exit. The lap seemed underwhelming. Hence my thoughts on his confidence after the error.
A side by side with him and charles and lando would be good.

[ringo]

you are anything but a neutral observer. max lost just 0.1s in T1 and the following straight compared with his previous best. It wasn't a major error. He gained lap time by going a bit too fast and over the track limit in T19 - not lost time! that was a driving mistake, but not one that costed him lap time at the end. Leclerc lost almost 0.2s in T19 and another 0.1s in T12. maths too hard I guess.

Your numbers are right for the error corners. But why do you assume he was getting most out of the other corners?
Watch the replay. Max seemed unusually tentative in the corners where he stayed on track.
He seemed to use too mutch curbs as well.

[chrisc90]

FWIW - Charles last 3 quali laps telemetry.


Edit: Compared Norris and Lewis. It looks like Lewis' tyres were gone at the end of the lap. He was a decent bit faster than Lando through the 1st two sectors, then the advantage dropped like a stone. During the long straight and the rest of the lap Lewis dropped nearly 5-6tenths to lando.


upload

[ringo]

https://ibb.co/PQF4YCL

FWIW - Charles last 3 quali laps telemetry.

Nice post. Charles was better on lap 20. Higher corner speed apart from thr third from last corner where he came off throttle a little later.
He was braking later in the last laps so his confidence was there.

Do you have Max's?

[chrisc90]

Heres Max's last 2 laps.




PS- I did a edit above your post to compare Lewis and Lando.