bananapeel23 wrote: ↑27 Oct 2024, 18:06
Fakepivot wrote: ↑27 Oct 2024, 17:48
bit of tech question, how comes other team running less cooling outlets compared to Ferrari.
From what I read more cooling outlets = more drag, but Ferrari still ended up with a pole. are other team running less power ?
Ferrari also had much better top speed than McLaren. I read somewhere that they were about 5kph faster than McLaren in the speed trap.
I remember also hearing murmurs on F1TV yesterday about the Ferrari engine possibly coping better with the high altitude than the competition. The Ferrari engine is known to be pretty different from the other 3 engines, with it having a smaller turbo and not a split turbo concept. If the rumours of the Ferrari engine performing extra well here are true, it would likely have something to do with their unique turbo.
Remember that Mexico was one of the 3 races Ferrari could have conceivably won on merit in 2023, along with Vegas and Singapore. Their engine being good in Mexico doesn't appear to be a fluke. (Disregard 2022 where they didn't bring enough cooling)
Based on nothing other than intuition/correlation, I have the sense that the Ferrari might be coping better. Consider:
(1) relatively good performance for Haas and even Sauber (vs how competitive they normally)
(2) the fact that going into Q3 both Ferraris took a leap in performance vs Q2 for the second consecutive year. I have a suspicion that they are holding back a bit of engine mode here (on the electrical side, since they can’t change ICE modes during quali) which in turn allows them to go harder on it for short bursts
Might be complete rubbish - and certainly hearsay - but I just get the sense that they took a big lesson from 2022 and came back with a better approach for Mexico than other PU manufacturers.