Finally the race thread, thnx rbirules !
Really wonder what the weekend will bring.
Seems to be a decent chance on rain, espicially friday. But I guess it's still too early to really tell.
This WDC is in dire need of a shake-up ..
It'll be hard to predict, based on the shift that happened between McL & RB, after the last two races we've had.
I'd like to see the championship close up further to then witness a tense end of year.
The winner of WDC should be ready to properly hang it on the line, right to the raggedy edge of their car performance to earn this one.
Its going to be interesting as we see the first laps and related pace amongst the front runners. There's not one that has much breathing space with the cars being, relatively, close together in pace from one to another across many teams.
I was looking at the 2024 data b/w NOR in McL38 and VER in RB20.
The difference (in both Q and R) really was that VER had to brake much harder in all of the slow 90 degree turns, inorder to combat understeer, which meant that even if he got onto the throttle earlier at the exit (as it happened in some corners), he was always losing the dash to the next corner, because he started with much lower speed, a.k.a the typical metric of lower min-speed through the corner (all around 100-150 kph , except the final T18-19 long corner before the pitstraight). These are all corners where it isn't really downforce that is coming into play, but mainly mechanical grip and the RB20 was understeering like a pig.
This year, the McL39 is vastly improved over the McL38 (strengths strengthened into weapons grade, and weaknesses resolved to become par) and the RB21 with it's new Monza floor has dialled out the RB20's main understeer weakness (as seen from the chicanes in Monza and the 90 degree slow corners in Baku). So although the main narrative is about 'high downforce' nature of the track, the real usefulness of the 'big wings' is only for braking before the slow turns and the sweep through the final corner(s) before the pitstraight. It's really a game of mechanical traction through and at the exit of the corners. And this is where I think the Redbull team is quietly confident of matching (even if not surpassing) the McLaren. I wouldn't be surprised if Redbull go for a smaller rear wing & bigger front wing than the Mclaren, and look to scrape any advantage from the four DRS zones for the quali laptime.
All said and done, if the Friday practice sessions are washed out by rain, it will be a slam dunk pole and win for one of the McLarens (most likely Norris), because Redbull depends heavily on 'reprocessing practice data' to arrive at the optimum setup, rather than being optimal right out of the box from sim-driven-setup, like McLaren are. That's my take - friday practice washout => McLaren clear winners, Friday practice normal => Redbull in the game.
McLaren needs to score 13 points in order to clinch the WCC.
I think the Mclaren fans should concern themselves on this for this weekend
Hypothetically, if McLaren wins the WCC but Max wins the race. Will there be more celebration or concern?
A lot of celebration. We're still a McDouble DNF and a few poor results for Max to be in the hunt. If he wins Singapore and Austin then we can think about it more.
@Basti and @Badger
I will certainly be celebrating if they do it. It’s a huge accomplishment for the team to be back to back WCC considering 2022
Well, they have truly earned it and I sincerely hope they can enjoy and celebrate it.
I myself am quite bored of this season and I fear as others here, that the strange atmosphere will go on.
