dialtone wrote: ↑29 Jun 2024, 01:07
People complaining about strategy here… every team did this, for once the strategy dept isn’t at fault.
Lack of car performance is the problem.
Every team did it ("going out late"), but it was to varying degrees. When the track is so short, there is a large difference between say, going 1 minute and 30 seconds before the session ends and 1 minute and 50 seconds seconds before the session ends. Scenario B means you can comfortably do an out lap and then the hot lap, Scenario A (which Leclerc's timing was going to put him on anyway) means you have to do a suboptimal out lap to make it to the flag in time. Then there's also the fact you can easily hit traffic here, etc.
I really doubt the 30 seconds they waited was worth the track evolution. It would have been too close for comfort and there's no reason to risk it that closely. Even Verstappen, who left the pits a few seconds before the bottom 3, complained that he didn't have enough time for a comfortable out lap.
* Edit: For comparison's sake, I got the exact session time remaining as it appeared when each driver exited the pit lane. Leclerc was behind Perez in the queue.
HAM: 2:10
RUS: 2:05
PIA: 1:55
NOR: 1:44
SAI: 1:39
VER: 1:25
OCO: 1:15
PER: 1:06
GAS: 1:05