mrluke wrote:Apologies to resurrect the fuel usage discussion,
Is lift and coast the only way teams seek to conserve fuel?
Is it possible / likely that teams are running at say 90kg/hr for periods of the lap / race rather than at the full 100kg/hr?
If this is true then it would be possible to see Mercedes say running at 85kg/hr, letting their chassis advantage deliver the laptime while other teams are running at 90kg/hr + to maintain their target laptime? Knowing the constraints of the Mclaren chassis and associated drag, maybe this puts Honda into the higher bracket therefore giving a more "thirsty" engine?
If we watch Mercedes onboard from the races they are quite happy to pull from 8krpm or even 6krpm between chicanes rather than dropping it down a further gear, I dont think the power bands are anywhere near as narrow as suggested in this thread. They also tend to be very careful with throttle application in 4th and don't even rush to 100% in 5th.
Using 100kg/h and lift and coast at the end of the straight is generally speaking faster than running at a lower rate and not using lift and coast (so that you use the same amount of fuel for the straight). But those cars are grip limited for a long time. I think Bottas said in 2015 when they use full power they can spin their rear tyres until 4th gear. So it could well be that they are not using full power at those lower gears at all.
