F1RAM wrote: ↑24 Aug 2026, 01:32
Bisonas wrote: ↑23 Aug 2026, 23:08
Thank you KimiRai for the chart. I do believe though that in a race that is really hard to pass with faster cars getting stuck behind slower cars is hard to see the true pace in any laptime oriented data visualization chart. It gives you an indication, yes, but we have to watch and analyze the race lap by lap, not only with data visualizations that are lap time oriented, but also adding to the equation the circumstances effecting those lap times and then compare them to other drivers circumstances at the same time.
As i said in the earlier post,i do believe that the final positions (of the best of the rest group) had mostly to do with tyre deg and strategy flexibility and on which driver managed (through starting position and strategy) to do the most laps on free air, than getting stuck behind another car that was dictating his pace while unable to pass.
Through data and analysis of the circumstances, i do believe that ALO true pace for example was much closer to HUL than this chart suggests but circumstances prevented him to demonstrated or to be visualized in such a chart.
Lets not forget that Alonso was the only driver that did (due to circumstances and strategy choices) a one stop race (not counting the early red flag) and that heavily affected his pace visualization compared to other drivers in the Middlefield.
We can take for granted non the less that this race demonstrated the low tyre deg of the AMR B-spec car along with the flexibility that this low tyre deg provides on strategy calls.
Other races coming (not Monza at this stage as you said) will also demonstrated the true pace of the car which i think very very soon will be de facto the 5th fastest car.
While it's very optimistic to see the tyre deg and all, I would still say Alonso was like 0.2-0.4s behind the Audi of Hulk. We would never know the exact situation corrected picture, but I do believe if Alonso started towards the front of the midfield that is ahead of Albon, Ocon and did a 2stopper like Hulk, I would say he would have been way closer.
Then you have to also consider the horrible first 5laps or so when Alonso was struggling with deployment/recovery and lost valuable time there.
So yeah the race pace is way better than the quali pace, that would probably be down to peak energy recovery and management needed in quali. Need handling issues sorted and get those full available hps asap.
I do agree with what you say about the pace compared to HUL and it’s true that we can’t know for certain the exact situation corrected picture as you said, meaning 2 cars being on same strategy and having the same circumstances in order for us to compare the pace more accurately, but I have to point out that ALO did had a shot to beat HUL for 8th place at some point in the race, maybe small shot, but a genuine shot in beating him, and that alone, with ALO starting 18th having a shot to beat HUL for 8th reveals a lot about the pace, the potential and how good the ALO race execution was.
Let me explain.
With all that happened in the race, we came down at lap 35 with HUL and ALO fighting in the track for position, but with the 2 of them being on different strategy. ALO was on 31 lap old softs and HUL on 14 lap old softs. Tyre difference was big and HUL pace at that time was much better BUT.. they both theoretically had to do one more stop so the fight was real.
When ALO pitted at lap 35 IMO he had a small but genuine shot to beat HUL.
Believe it or not, in his fight with HUL after he pitted, he was unlucky!!
After ALO pitted for new hards, in his out lap and the first laps of the stint ALO was unlucky in multiple ways.
First at the pit exit he had to slow down a bit more, because Antonelli and Norris were coming along side him to lap him while he was exiting. Antonelli passed him while exiting and he got blue flags immediately after his exit for Norris.
Then he lost time behind Albon for 2 laps until he overtook him, and after a few laps, the HAM LEC train came to lap him and he lost almost 3 seconds slowing down to let them pass even though he had quite similar pace to them (0,3s to 0,5s off LEC pace behind him just before he slowed down not wanted to risk a blue flag infraction penalty.
All this time lost at his first 10 laps of his hard tyre stint allowed HUL (who was running on free air alone at the track) to slightly extend his stint on soft with no risk of losing track position after his pit stop. When ALO, after all the delays he had, started lapping 0,6s to 0,8s faster than HUL, AUDI comfortably took no risks and pitted HUL bringing him 2 sec in front of ALO after his pit.
The delays ALO had, made AUDIs strategy choices more comfortable and HULs life easier.
If ALO didn’t had those circumstances that delayed him in his first 10 laps after his pit, and he had the chance to run in free air with his new hard rubber, he would be able to close HUL pit window very fast making sure he had track position after HUL pitted, and slowly start closing the gap to HUL, thus creating a buffer between him and HUL after HUL had pitted. That would make AUDIs strategists a bit uncomfortable, knowing they would have to catch a and pass Alonso on track, even if they had a 10 or 12 or 14 tire advantage.
So, without ALO delays after his pit, we were looking in a scenario that Alonso would be able to lap faster than HUL from early on in his stint, not allowing HUL to comfortably extend his soft stint without losing track potion and probably forcing AUDI to bring HUL a few laps earlier than he did, bringing him 2-5 seconds behind Alonso with 8-14 laps on tyre life advantage, depending on what exactly lap AUDI decided to pit HUL.
So in that scenario the fight would be on. We could see HUL stuck behind ALO with a tyre advantage, that maybe was not great enough to allow him to pass ALO on track.
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