Mexico City GP - Wing Thursday!

💡Rear Wings

Mexico’s paradox: teams reach record top speeds despite the very loaded rear wings.

The reason? Altitude decreases air density by 20%, reducing drag and downforce by the same amount.📉

Similar wings➡️baseline drag-downforce matter!

[ 📸 @AlbertFabrega ]

Weirdly enough, 🟢Aston is the only team not running a Gurney Flap🤔

The Gurney flap is a small lip mounted on the trailing edge (the most rearward part) of the upper plane, which helps prevent flow separation💨

It was invented by a racing driver! (Dan Gurney)🏎🛠

Here is a comparison between no Gurney (left) vs Gurney Flap (right)

Today you learned something new!😁

Weekly reminder that you can JOIN the CHAT channel to discuss my analyses OUTSIDE of the 'comments'!
👇Use this link👇
https://news.1rj.ru/str/FDataAnCHAT

What are your predictions for the Mexico GP? 🤔

1) Pole🥇

2) Race Winner🏆

3) Disappointment of the weekend😢

Hard to get a better shot at Ferrari’s underbody! 😳

📸 @xavigazquez

Last year, Ferrari’s performance was disappointing as they had to tune down the engine due to reliability concerns induced by the less dense air.

We’ll know soon enough whether they’ve fixed the problem!

Minisectors - FP2

🔵 RB: Quickest in the second sector, thanks to time gained in corners 6 to 11.

🟠 McL: Excellent in the first chicane.

🔴 Ferrari: dominated the main straight. Low drag➡️Excellent top speed (350km/h) and high-speed acceleration.

It's looking tight!

Best Sectors (FP2)

S1 - ⚪️Haas😳(352km/h on the long straight!)
S2 - 🔵RB
S3 - ⚫️Mercedes

Norris was 2nd quickest, but the car was not quickest in any sector ➡️Very balanced performance.

Top Speeds! - FP2

13km/h difference between Haas and Aston 😳
⬇️
⚪️Haas quickest in Sector 1, but lost A LOT in S2;
🟢Aston lost time in all sectors: no setup change that can fix everything

🔴Ferrari: low drag
🟢Merc: reasonable drag

What impressed you?🤔

Long Runs - FP2 #F1

🟨Mediums:
🟠McLares looks very competitive!
🔵But RB might have pushed less, as their laptimes improved throughout the stint

⬜️Hards:
🔵Williams' pace is 'interesting'!
🟠McL had excellent wear

Want more data? I got you covered😏👇

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/f1dataanalysis/mexico-gp-analyses-repository

Max could stay full-throttle for 5.2% of the lap more than Norris: that's 4.0s! 😳

🔵RB: excellent grip, but their PU might have been slightly more turned down than others, too🤔

🟠McL can gain significant pace IF they can put down their power better💡

Which compounds are best for the race?💡

🔴Softs (C5): best potential grip (76.5s laptime), but drop-off is too high.

🟡Mediums (C4): very quick in the first 10 laps+good wear over 20.

⚪️Hards (C3): not as quick as Mediums, but wear is minimal!

Teams will use M/H.

Ferrari lacked downforce compared to McL and RB

🔴SF-23 never exceeded 4gs of lateral acceleration.
🟠McL reached the highest peaks, but🔵RB could sustain high lateral acceleration for longer➡️purple Sector 2.

Ferrari needs more downforce to manage their tyres well.

Top Speeds - FP3

RedBull recovered the 3km/h gap to Ferrari they had in FP2

Compared to FP2:
-Aston gained 7km/h
-McL gained 3km/h
-Mercedes lost 3km/h, going to the bottom of the standings

Haas straightline missile confirmed!

Hear me out: Williams was fastest in Sector 2, consisting of high-speed corners that require a lot of downforce! 😳

Weirdly enough, Williams was uncompetitive in Sector 1, made of 2 straights, which have been the car's main strength this season.

What's going on?🤣

Sector Times

Ideal lap: Leclerc's S1 + Verstappen's S2 + Ricciardo's S3 / 77.046s (-0.120s vs the Pole)⏱

Alpine was slowest in sector 1: their high drag (and underpowered engine, going by the team) cost them dearly📉

Aston struggled in S2💥