zibby43 wrote: ↑04 May 2021, 20:34
godlameroso wrote: ↑04 May 2021, 19:19
Bahrain showed us Mercedes lost 2 seconds, and RBR 1.3. If we compare 2020 qualifying and add those numbers we get 17.5 pole. Just interesting to see. I have a feeling Verstappen will knock this one out of the park though.
It doesn’t work like this, for a number of reasons.
In Portimao, Red Bull lost 1.677s, whereas Mercedes only lost 1.502s.
The track itself makes a difference, and teams’ understanding of cars and how to set them up with the new rules/tires has changed since Bahrain.
Bahrain was historically one of Merc’s worst track in the hybrid era because of the rear-limited nature, whereas Barcelona has historically been their strongest because of its propensity to award aero efficiency and not peaky downforce/a particular type of corner.
With engine parity it comes down to aero efficiency, remember that RB tacked on their update, and it takes a bit to dial in properly and for the drivers to get used to it. I agree though, Portimao was a low grip surface, and Mercedes had a better time of getting the tires to work for them.
In any case, as long as there's no track limit violations I can't see any reason why Verstappen can't put it comfortably on pole. There are fewer low speed corners in Barcelona now, and sector 3 has never really been a traction sector, it's a carry speed through the chicanes kind of sector.
There weren't many corners like this in Portimao, as most of the high speed ones were either brief lifts or easy flat.
If Mercedes were losing .1 in the high speed corners, and gaining .3 for a net pace gain of .05 seconds per lap? Bottas was .06 slower than Verstappen and might have been just as fast had he not had that sensor issue that cost him 3 seconds.
