McMika98 wrote: ↑01 Nov 2019, 17:59https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/red- ... d/4589800/
Here we go again. Just when you think they learn their lesson.
Red Bull brought a lot of updates, the Mercedes updates are more obvious, but not more numerous. Red Bull develops in a different way, mostly making small subtle adjustments to the body work. Maybe a few mm on the leading edge of the boomerang wing, or a slightly different profile, or slight change to the curvature of the "scimitars"/chicken wing on the bargeboard. 8 or 9 subtle changes like that can alter the aero of the car in profound ways. So yes they have been updating the car, perhaps they've devoted more resources to next year, but you shouldn't simply assume they've stood still.
Max was stuck behind one of the alfa’s and at least one other car that I saw.godlameroso wrote: ↑01 Nov 2019, 19:35Good start to the weekend so far. Although long run pace seems kind of sluggish, although I haven't seen other's times yet. Mid 1:40's aren't going to cut it vs Mercedes or Ferrari.
At least the tires seem to be working well, with the medium tire probably being the ideal race tire. It'll be tough this weekend, the hard may work well but with only one set, they'll likely leave it for the race. The soft tire is likely only good for about a dozen or so laps, likely we'll see the first stops around lap 15, then go to the end on the hard or medium. The hard will be slightly slower in the initial part of the stint but should hold up all race, the medium will require some management to go to the end, but should be faster in the opening part of the stint.
The hard part will be to drive around the graining, one aspect of this track is that it puts a lot of energy through the tires in that first sector, but sector 2 with the long straight and slow speed corners, cools the tires down, then they're heated again at the final sector.
I don't think this lap would stand in qualifying.
It's possible but the last few races, Spec 4 has had a unique sound especially off throttle when compared to earlier specs, so far today they've all sounded identical to Spec 3 and have lost that rougher edge Spec 4 has had.
Max concludes by reviewing the first two practices: “Personally I am not quite happy with my long runs. I think we are falling short there compared to Ferrari and Mercedes, so we have some work cut out there.” Regarding the pace, that seemed to be quite fine: “I think that compared to Ferrari we are running somewhat short, but all in all it didn’t look too bad.”
“The first corner is now a meter-and-a-half lower than when the track was built, so that’s an indication of how much movement there is. You see, I don’t think there is anything wrong having some bumps. That’s all in the game, especially on street circuits.”
The situation is somewhat different this weekend: “You’re almost airborne when braking for Turn one. Turn two is flatout, but even there you’re also almost off the ground. Negotiating Turn nine there is also an enormous bump, where you will hit the limiter if you don’t shift gear on time. These are things we need to look at. It’s actually too extreme.”
