Wynters wrote: ↑12 Oct 2020, 17:21
godlameroso wrote: ↑12 Oct 2020, 15:17
You may be on to something, it is a fast chassis but hard to get the performance consistently. Perhaps the Mercedes being more on rails has similar potential but is easier to extract. This was obvious in the race where Verstappen could hang at the start of the second stint, towards the end he started dropping back. Possibly lapped traffic, but perhaps also a shift in balance as the tires wore out.
I think I must be missing something?
The first 9 laps of the 27 lap second stint saw Verstappen dropping back at an average of 0.31 seconds per lap. The final 9 laps of the second stint saw Verstappen dropping back at an average of 0.36 seconds per lap. In the middle 9 laps of the second stint, Verstappen dropped back an average of 0.39 per lap. The last two laps of the middle portion (laps 34 and 35) did see an uncharacteristic drop in pace*. Excluding those, we see that Verstappen was best able to stay with Hamilton during this middle phase (gap only growing from 4.379 to 5.434). The difference between the opening of the stint and the closing seems to be insignificant (5/100ths a lap)? Especially compared to the middle stint?
I'd have to rewatch the footage but this drop in pace is not likely to be due to traffic. Hamilton had cleared Giovinazzi on lap 32 and then cleared Vettel on lap 36. I don't think either of these would have hindered Verstappen to that extent on laps 34 and 35.
http://en.mclarenf-1.com/index.php?page ... Verstappen
I think those laps where Hamilton could pull a second plus per lap was him expending the battery, which means that he has a pace advantage that allows him to save battery, then he expends it on his 5 laps before pitting. Both Verstappen and Hamilton had a slowdown lap before the 5 laps where they made their first stop. Hamilton was able to pull out 1.3 seconds on the slowdown lap meaning he didn't have to charge his ERS as much as Verstappen. After the first stop Hamilton with DAS was able to turn the tires on quicker which let him pull out a second over two laps. Then Verstappen went faster and the next few laps had Hamilton a few tenths quicker until Verstappen went .6 faster and then Hamilton responded by pulling 2.4 seconds in two laps.
Here is where I question if it is the tires going off, Verstappen making a mistake or ERS deficit of the Honda power unit. From there he is consistently slower than Hamilton by an average of .4 until the final pitstop.
When the final stint started DAS helped Hamilton turn the tires on and he set 4 consecutive fastest laps, no doubt by then his battery was drained because the next 3 laps had Verstappen goes faster by an average of .2, after lap 57 he sees he can't make any inroads on Hamilton so he saves battery on the next two laps to try for fastest lap at the end.
As of this race, the chassis is certainly up there, but the deficit to the Mercedes power unit is apparent. It's frustrating because only the chassis can improve due to the frozen power unit concept. Honda could have likely improved along with the chassis and the situation would be even closer now. We will have to wait until next year, and by then both the Mercedes engine and chassis will have improved.
From what I hear Mercedes is making another nice gain for next year's power unit, but it will come at the expense of some aero performance.
Honda is making a modest increase in power, but their biggest gain over this year's power unit is said to be in ERS stamina.
Mercedes seems to always be one step ahead, so the quality of the steps RB and Honda have to take have to be higher.
