organic wrote: ↑30 Jun 2024, 18:59
Sergej wrote: ↑30 Jun 2024, 18:56
second stint was ok-ish, not optimal but neither bad, Max lost also some time with backmarkers
last stint difficult to judge because he had used tyres vs new tyres for Norris, my impression though is that McLaren is faster towards the end of the race, this is a trend now starting from Imola
in hindsight another mistake was to save a hard tyre instead of a medium, among the top teams they were the only ones to do this so quite a big mistake
anyway, a quite positive weekend performance wise, despite what many thought I was right in thinking this would not have been a disaster, curiously I am less optimistic for Silverstone
Without the backmarkers and without the bad pitstop it would've put max at least 8s clear of Lando for start of stint 3. Even with the bad stint 3 with the used tyre I doubt it would be enough to lose the race. We will see about Silverstone but I assume it should be better than Austria with the high speed corners and efficiency importance. Hopefully upgrades are okay as well
I don't know if final stint pace difference can be accounted for by the used tires. The Spanish GP final stint does not agree (ver had new, and was slower). Sure it didn't help, but I don't think this explains why Mclaren was faster at the end. Norris recovered 8-9 second margins in Imola and Spain in the final stint and it looked like he would do the same here because Verstappen said the tires had no grip. Every race cannot go like this.
Ver was also unlucky with backmarkers. He was losing a lot of time with backmarkers in Sector 3, but in the first part so he didn't get any benefit of DRS. Norris on the other hand was getting the backmarkers in the right places to get DRS.
They were also unlucky with the pit position because in addition to the slow stop, then they lost time waiting for Norris to pass. I think pitlane is reversed in Silverstone.
A lion must kill its prey.