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Yes, 9kph deficit.willmesquita wrote: ↑05 Sep 2026, 19:13Well, at least we have straight line speed to recover from p6 and p8... oh wait
I do understand that but he had to be aware that by cutting the corner he gained time and would be able to easily continue the tow.
Same here, I was upset because I fell we've lost a chance of a P3/P4 from where a win would be more feasible. Pace surprised me a lot.mwillems wrote: ↑05 Sep 2026, 19:51Yes, 9kph deficit.willmesquita wrote: ↑05 Sep 2026, 19:13Well, at least we have straight line speed to recover from p6 and p8... oh wait
The McLaren with the shorter gearing will reach the top of its useful rev range earlier, whereas the Mercedes has a bit more headroom to keep accelerating. That means the Merc ICE can keep contributing more effectively for longer down these straights even if the gearing lowers acceleration potential from the Merc ICE.
And this is why I think we went with the tiny wing, rather than it being evidence of some huge extra downforce contribution from the floor. There just aren't enough corners here to make back large straight line losses, and several of the faster corners feed directly onto another long straight, so you're continually asking the ICE to work in the higher and highest gears and having great load through shorter gears is not that helpful.
I didn't think we'd overcome the gearing before we came here.
I actually think we have the car to win here apart from that, so take heart. I don't think this is a true reflection of the chassis, aero or the engine. It's a very specific limitation of the gearing at this circuit.
people = me, in the MCL40 threadmwillems wrote: ↑05 Sep 2026, 12:39People were talking about tbe wings saying "look how much downforce the floor makes", whereas in fact there's a good chance that with shorter gears they are forced to make the car as slippy as possible as power loss on the straights will cost more than speed in high speed corners, where we are already good.
Kindly look at the below pic, all cars are in 'wing fully closed' mode here and there isn't a huge speed delta like in teh straights. If the McL40 is able to 'keep up' with the others in these corners, with that skinny rear wing, it has to mean that they have the 'best' floor. Yes, they had to cut their wing due to the short gear ratios, but they wouldn't have been 'allowed' to make that choice if their floor didn't 'compensate the deficit' in such a manner as you see in the below speed traces. The 'speed' that they have to carry whilst rotating the car, would have been far lesser if the floor wasn't superior. That despite all this they still lack Vmax, is another ball game altogether, but in these corners, my guesswork about the floor stands somewhat vindicated.
OK Small caveat, I didn't say what the floor was generating. I just said that the wing itself is not indicative of that. The wing is indicative of a solution to address a much greater problem at this track.venkyhere wrote: ↑05 Sep 2026, 20:33people = me, in the MCL40 threadmwillems wrote: ↑05 Sep 2026, 12:39People were talking about tbe wings saying "look how much downforce the floor makes", whereas in fact there's a good chance that with shorter gears they are forced to make the car as slippy as possible as power loss on the straights will cost more than speed in high speed corners, where we are already good.
Kindly look at the below pic, all cars are in 'wing fully closed' mode here and there isn't a huge speed delta like in teh straights. If the McL40 is able to 'keep up' with the others in these corners, with that skinny rear wing, it has to mean that they have the 'best' floor. Yes, they had to cut their wing due to the short gear ratios, but they wouldn't have been 'allowed' to make that choice if their floor didn't 'compensate the deficit' in such a manner as you see in the below speed traces. The 'speed' that they have to carry whilst rotating the car, would have been far lesser if the floor wasn't superior. That despite all this they still lack Vmax, is another ball game altogether, but in these corners, my guesswork about the floor stands somewhat vindicated.
https://i.ibb.co/S4xFQdp4/MCL40-in-monz ... r-wing.png
OK, we 'read' with different coloured glasses. My claim is that the 'wing itself IS indicative of a strong floor'. Because, with SLM mode in play, if a team has to put on a skinny rear wing, the reason has to be only one of two things - either the rest of the car is too draggy OR they hit the revv limit (due to gearing) much before other cars and hence have to 'cut any marginal drag even in SLM mode'. The latter is the more likely reason. And no car would be setup to just have straighline speed and give up laptime in importnat corners like Lesmo2 and Ascari, because post there two corners there are long straights and exit from these corners is super important (applies to parabolica as well).
"gasly" will be the test animal that will either prove my point, or have egg on my facemwillems wrote: ↑05 Sep 2026, 20:49I think the speed difference here is such that having a slightly bigger wing is not going to gain more time on the corners than you'll lose on the straights if your car is a fair bit slower in straight line compared to your competition. The straight to corner balance is massive. And with many of them being fast corners, there's not much time to be found anyway. At Turns 1 and 2 and then the chicane, it's more mechanical than it is aero. But it is opinion and we'll agree to disagree.
Slahinki wrote: ↑05 Sep 2026, 21:44Piastri in his post quali presser said he was .2s down on his previous lap heading into T1 so he pushed the braking point a bit further, and then he locked up. My brother in Christ, why are you even trying to beat a lap time you set with a massive tow when there are no cars infront of you and you're there to give Norris a tow? He can't really be that stupid can he?