The idea is flawed from the start. Lap time is principally found in the corners. Corners are the slow parts of the track and the less time you spend in the corners, the better your lap time. If they sacrifice corner speed for straight line speed, lap time won't improve but the tyres will suffer.zibby43 wrote: ↑29 Jun 2021, 00:58Good points.cooken wrote: ↑28 Jun 2021, 23:38Could play out differently if the purported radical/experimental setup issue is rectified. I guess maybe setups will need to be slightly different across the board in order to baby the tyres, and that may slightly shift relative performance (in either direction).
Having said that, not sure how much scope there is for protecting tyres any more than what they would have done this last race.
I think Merc need to take the risk and spend some actual time on track trialing a lower-downforce RW configuration. Their simulations say such a choice costs too much time in the corners, but they should still be able to protect the tires over a race distance (with more fuel in the car, the rear instability is mollified somewhat) with a decent setup because the option with less "dirty" downforce doesn't take quite as much life out of the tires in the corners.
It's a fine line between extra downforce protecting tires, and extra downforce taking life away via more robust engagement in the corners. And there's plenty of time to "rest" the tires with the straights in Austria.
Gary Anderson pointed this out on The Race's podcast, as well.
Red Bull are faster because they have the same total downforce as the Mercedes (perhaps slightly more, actually but not by much) and they have lower drag. So they are as quick in the corners and quicker on the straights.
Reducing the rear wing won't help that situation. The issue is fundamentally baked in to the cars thanks to the changes made to the rear aero by the rules. Mercedes are further hampered by the new resource limitations. It's a perfect storm and one from which they can not reasonably recover.
I think they have decided it's not worth the resources. They also benefit from the rule that allows them slightly more resources as their position worsens. Red Bull being ahead means Mercedes get a few more % time in CFD and the tunnel. Red Bull lose out in the same way.