How much is a team's setup influenced by other cars?

[Javert]

As example, take RB10 .. Would it be set up differently if there were only Ferr&Renault engines on the track? I mean, with less top speed and more df?

Assuming that this year is 710 bhp vs 785 bhp, and next year may be 760 vs 850, it means RB11 would have to be set-up for even less drag?

Or the set-up is not influenced so much by other cars?

[Juzh]

RB ran less than optimal aero in way or another almost every race this year. So yeah, other cars do matter.

[Jersey Tom]

RB ran less than optimal aero in way or another almost every race this year.

Says who? And how are you defining "optimal"

[Juzh]

Plz man.. Says a thousand images od near non existent wings, running spa setup in austin, taking DF off the car in bahrain, russia, brazil. Rb ran full RW maybe 3 times in a whole season, while every merc team ran as much as possible nearly all the time. Must be coincidence, right?

[Moose]

RB ran less than optimal aero in way or another almost every race this year.

Says who? And how are you defining "optimal"

Presumably "optimal" aero would be the aero setup that causes that car to be capable of the fastest lap time. Choosing something other than optimal would imply that you're choosing (for example) skinnier wings to be able to overtake, or fatter wings on a bet that it's going to rain on Sunday.

[ParkerArt]

RB ran less than optimal aero in way or another almost every race this year.

Says who? And how are you defining "optimal"

They were giving up lap time so they wouldn't be caught standing still on the straights at Spa onward.

[Jersey Tom]

Plz man.. Says a thousand images od near non existent wings, running spa setup in austin, taking DF off the car in bahrain, russia, brazil. Rb ran full RW maybe 3 times in a whole season, while every merc team ran as much as possible nearly all the time. Must be coincidence, right?

I have no idea what you're saying or getting at.

[-Felix-]

You can't compare the setup of a frontrunner to one who presumably will race in traffic. Of course your grid position and where you will be in the field during the race will influence your race strategy and also the setup.

[Javert]

You can't compare the setup of a frontrunner to one who presumably will race in traffic. Of course your grid position and where you will be in the field during the race will influence your race strategy and alas the setup.

Good point

If your downforce or power can put you in front, then you can run full downforce to go faster possible from front row

Otherwise you have to change the set-up to a one that is less effective on lap times, slower set-up, but presumably more efficient to go up the rankings

[Greg Locock]

Why not simplify it, to just two cars. they are identical in every respect except they can modify their wing angles to different settings. Car A chooses the optimum single car setup for that track. What should car B do?

If you can't answer even that then how can you answer the more complex case?

[ian_s]

if car A is running the optimum setup for the best lap time, the only thing car B can do is run the same setup otherwise it will get left behind.
getting more complicated:
if they both start side by side, you want to get to the 1st corner, 1st. so car B needs less drag/downforce so it accelerates better. from then on Car B will be defending in every breaking zone. if car A gets passed, and can hit its optimum lap times it will pull away while Car B struggles to keep up.

[Moose]

if car A is running the optimum setup for the best lap time, the only thing car B can do is run the same setup otherwise it will get left behind.

Not necessarily true.

Suppose Car A qualifies extremely well, but car B is faster in the race. Car B should choose a lower downforce setup than the optimal, because the team know that they will be beaten in qualifying, and hence need to pass during the race. Thus, the fact that car A exists as a quick qualifier requires that car B's optimal setup changes.

[Greg Locock]

ian_s's second para is right, well done. Note that inevitably in a 2 car race B will qualify second, since A has the optimum setup. So he has to start from the less favoured starting position on the grid, AND get to the first corner before A, otherwise he loses the race immediately.

[Moose]

ian_s's second para is right, well done. Note that inevitably in a 2 car race B will qualify second, since A has the optimum setup. So he has to start from the less favoured starting position on the grid, AND get to the first corner before A, otherwise he loses the race immediately.

No, ian_s's second paragraph continues to make an implicit assumption - that if a car is fast in one circumstance, it's fast in all. That's not necessarily true. We've seen plenty of cars that are fast in qualifying, but slow in the race for example.

[Greg Locock]

and I specified that A was the optimum setup for that circuit.