ringo wrote: ↑04 May 2024, 03:37
Your hypothesis is way off.
All the winning redbulls even in vettel's time were very planted and predictable. None were nervous.
I am open to disagreements and debate. But please dont change the context. I never said "that's how Redbull cars have always have been". I only claimed that a car 'on the edge of rear grip, with a rock solid front end' (oversteery car, which I call 'nervous') is the way to setup the car as near as possible to it's theoretical laptime limit. Whether there is a driver who can actually use it as is, or whether the car needs to be 'dialled back' inorder to be practically usable, is the question.
I am sorry if the use of the word 'nervous rear' is conjuring up images of rally cars on gravel roads. In the F1 world, nervous rear doesn't mean wagging tail, just means the rear tyres spend a handful of chunks of time with high slip angle, instead of several more chunks of time with low slip angle (total time spent with rear tyres slipping is lesser in the former case) AND the front tyres suffering the least amount of slip that's physically possible.
ringo wrote: ↑04 May 2024, 03:37
Watch any of Max's pole laps and see how planted the car is overall. He is not fighting the car and he is not doing micro corrections.
It only looks like that because the onboards show him applying smooth inputs to steering. It's because he is extremely precise with his foot inputs and their timing, such that the car doesn't 'spill over' beyond the grip available. It's something Schumacher did as well. To the cameras, the car looks 'rock solid' with no corrective inputs by the driver. It's a testament to the skill.
It's a high-risk strategy to setup the car like this, as the tiniest of mistakes with inputs will be unforgiving, where the driver 'loses the car'. We have seen this happen so many times with LeClerc and less with Sainz, it's precisely this point, leClerc's car is setup closer to the theoretical limit (however far away it is) than Sainz's. On current form, Max isn't making the mistakes with inputs that LeClerc is making. Doesn't mean Max is immune from making the same errors with his inputs. I am sure we have seen Max make mistakes in qualifying and not make it to Q3 or make a hash of some corner and fall to something like P7 or P9 in Q3, at corners where no one else has any trouble at all.
When there is fuel in the car and when the tyres are not at their 'peak grip' and the drivers are not trying to extract the fastest laptime , a.k.a in the race, the room to accommodate tiny mistakes widens slightly, with a car setup this way. But the car is still far away from being 'predictable'. It's still a nervous car that needs to be driven in such a way as to look 'smooth'.
I am fully open to my theory being blown apart. In fact I welcome it. I will get to learn where I am wrong. My only request is to not do so with 'oh this is a Max fanboy' because I am not.
