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

[Joe Hudson]

after the sprint yesterday I think the top two will be Verstappen and Norris the order depending if Norris can pass Leclerc at the start and pull a decent gap in first stint because if he can I fancy Norris to win this if can't its Max's race to lose.

[PlatinumZealot]

I am also not confident yet Max can still win it. But I almost never have super big up front confidence. Max thinks he has about 0.3 0.4 on the others, but he is unsure if that is enough delta to make a move. I had hoped for Perez to come more through the field today and that wasn’t really happening.

Might be a very good race tomorrow.

His unusually shaped "violin plot" shows Max is not telling the truth. Naturally it should be elongated to account for wear, track rubberizing in and fuel burn-off. Instead we are looking at a deliberately truncated chart. He has a second in his back pocket if he really pushed.

Naturally that makes no sense, the factors you mention work opposite one another. Track improvement and fuel burn combat wear. So if you have good wear it's perfectly possible to maintain roughly the same pace throughout the whole stint. Pushing hard early (like LH) will not gain you time over the entire stint, a measured effort is the fastest.

The violin plot has two ends... I can't be biased to only positive factors. I have to mention tyre wear. You work it out. No point in explaining more to you.

[Wouter]

after the sprint yesterday I think the top two will be Verstappen and Norris the order depending if Norris can pass Leclerc at the start and pull a decent gap in first stint because if he can I fancy Norris to win this if can't its Max's race to lose.

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I agree to that. I hope Lando will win this race. The pace is there and he is good for his tires. Max second place.

[Wouter]

Leclerc had as usual a high tire degradation.

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I wouldn't really say "as usual" anymore. Since Zandvoort, Ferrari has had far less problems with degradation than before.

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I think that is for Sainz but not for Leclerc, but maybe I am wrong about that.
Sainz is far more better with his tires than Leclerc, he always was.

[Cs98]

His unusually shaped "violin plot" shows Max is not telling the truth. Naturally it should be elongated to account for wear, track rubberizing in and fuel burn-off. Instead we are looking at a deliberately truncated chart. He has a second in his back pocket if he really pushed.

Naturally that makes no sense, the factors you mention work opposite one another. Track improvement and fuel burn combat wear. So if you have good wear it's perfectly possible to maintain roughly the same pace throughout the whole stint. Pushing hard early (like LH) will not gain you time over the entire stint, a measured effort is the fastest.

The violin plot has two ends... I can't be biased to only positive factors. I have to mention tyre wear. You work it out. No point in explaining more to you.

So if tyre wear and track evolution/fuel burn are similar to one another in positive and negative effect, what would you expect to see? You'd expect to see a condensed plot with similar lap times across the entire stint. What sort of driver/car combo might show that kind of performance? A car with very good tyre wear and a driver who knows how to pace a stint optimally. Do we have such a combination in the sport? I think we do.

This is really not that difficult, but I'll be patient with you.

[Mogster]

Taken away some excitement for tomorrow. Nobody touching Max. McLaren and Ferrari slow.

A boring 0stop race is all we get for giving away all strategy & pace intrigue for tomorrow

Aye, this separate Saturday now has little interest. This is reflected in ticket sales being down at COTA and visible empty seats.

Now it is separate I see no reason not to be more radical. Reverse grid? Heat races? I wouldn’t advocate these usually but the perfect environment to try things out has been created and yesterday’s “race” was so dull after L3.

[search]

Aye, this separate Saturday now has little interest. This is reflected in ticket sales being down at COTA and visible empty seats.

in that regard, COTA has always been a bit special though, with people just turning up for the concerts in the evening. Yesterday's headliner was Queen

[AMG.Tzan]

Joining the game of potato footage of max in Q2.

Max was perfectly on the white line there! No violation!

It’s pretty clear that 1 Angstrom of his wheel is touching the white line! It’s “on the edge of the rules” not over it as always with Max!

[Seerix]

Joining the game of potato footage of max in Q2.

Max was perfectly on the white line there! No violation!

It’s pretty clear that 1 Angstrom of his wheel is touching the white line! It’s “on the edge of the rules” not over it as always with Max!

except for quali, but ok

[chrisc90]

Perfectly calculated.

I do wonder though....for this track limits thing (given its a bit OT here, but we have seen a solution at COTA), Would making the white line 2-3x wider actually help with the track limits. Drivers have a bit more to aim for from the edge of the tarmac, and less likely to run out wide. Gives them better sight of the line aswell and a little more leeway.

It sounds stupidly simple, but it could actually be a very good solution.

[AMG.Tzan]

Perfectly calculated.

I do wonder though....for this track limits thing (given its a bit OT here, but we have seen a solution at COTA), Would making the white line 2-3x wider actually help with the track limits. Drivers have a bit more to aim for from the edge of the tarmac, and less likely to run out wide. Gives them better sight of the line aswell and a little more leeway.

It sounds stupidly simple, but it could actually be a very good solution.

Isn’t that exactly what they did at Turn 19? Widen the white line!

It truly is a simple solution that they should have implemented in Austria too! It makes life easier for the stewards too…

[chrisc90]

Perfectly calculated.

I do wonder though....for this track limits thing (given its a bit OT here, but we have seen a solution at COTA), Would making the white line 2-3x wider actually help with the track limits. Drivers have a bit more to aim for from the edge of the tarmac, and less likely to run out wide. Gives them better sight of the line aswell and a little more leeway.

It sounds stupidly simple, but it could actually be a very good solution.

Isn’t that exactly what they did at Turn 19? Widen the white line!

It truly is a simple solution that they should have implemented in Austria too! It makes life easier for the stewards too…

They did it at a few corners, 9 and 12 aswell I believe?

Also, I think they should paint the white on the kerbs, with a difference colour of paint, Maybe a yellow line at the leading edge of the white which would make it much simpler to see if the tyre is over the white line. White on white - hard to see. If you saw yellow between the white line of the track and the white section of kerb - its guaranteed over.

[chrisc90]

Tyres/strategies for today.

[Spoutnik]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9C0Q5MWUAA ... me=900x900

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9C0RE-WcAA ... name=large



Tyres/strategies for today.

So Norris will have to go for M-H-H ?

[search]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9C0Q5MWUAA ... me=900x900

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9C0RE-WcAA ... name=large



Tyres/strategies for today.

So Norris will have to go for M-H-H ?

Russell said it's on the edge between one and two stops. I'd think Norris will try to go for one only.