Chinese GP: Medium-high load wings

✅Downforce CRUCIAL from T1 to T13.

❌The 1.4km full-throttle section will punish excessive drag, especially if caused by the (fixed) lower plane!

🔵RBR maximizes DRS effectiveness through an unloaded lower plane + very loaded upper plane.

Significant differences among the teams: Mercedes. Ferrari, Alpine and Williams have a less loaded wing compared to Aston Martin, for example.

Compared to RBR, McL has a less loaded upper plane and more loaded lower plane, which should make their DRS less powerful.

MINISECTORS - FP1 ChineseGP
🟢STR was quickest on the main straight, and out of T3/T8/T12
🟠PIA fast in the twisty S1 and S3
🟡VER quickest in S3 (long straight)

Laptimes still very slow (almost 5s to last pole)➡️Hard to guess the running order!
Aston: 324km/h (+4km/h vs McL)

FASTEST SECTORS - FP1 ChineseGP

Mercedes/ALO on Hards
Others on Softs

🟠NOR quickest in the twisty S1 by far:
-McL is showing excellent grip
-Most teams are probably still far from the limits
He aborted the lap while in Sector 3

🟢STR: quickest in S2
🟡RBR: quickest in S3

Visualizing the effect of flexible wings!👀
(Collab with @justf1car 🤝)

Downforce and drag are proportional to the speed squared: they are very small at low speeds, and become huge at high speeds.

This is a problem: cars have less grip at lower speeds (when they need it the most) and face a lot of air resistance at high speeds (on the straights)!

The clever F1 engineers invented flexible wings to get a better compromise:
-As much downforce as possible at lower speeds➡️Cornering improves;
-Reduced drag at high-speed thanks to the flexion of the wing➡️Top speed improves!

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TOP SPEEDS - SPRINT SHOOTOUT

Nine teams were in a narrow 3km/h range:
-Fastest (322km/h): Aston, Haas and Williams
-Slower: (319km/h): McL and Ferrari
-Slowest (just 315km/h): Alpine (high drag and, despite that, the drivers had to brake sooner than most!)

RACE PACE - Chinese GP SPRINT

🥇No one could match VER: 0.74s/lap quicker than anyone else!

🥈LEC was 2nd quickest, then🥉PER (+0.79s/lap) and ALO (+0.80s/lap). HAM was in the mix, too (+0.82s/lap)

McLaren was uncompetitive

What's your prediction for the race?🤔

Highest top speed in the Sprint: 348km/h for Stroll.

Leclerc was close (347km/h), and his average top speed was the highest together with Ricciardo's (337km/h for both).

Highest top speed without DRS: 324km/h (TSU).

📈START ANALYSIS - Chinese GP SPRINT

Best Starters: HAM and LEC
Worst Starter: PIA (0.4s slower than HAM and LEC to reach 200km/h).

The two Williams struggled, too (0.3s lost to the best start).

Despite the Softs, Russell's start was just average.

🗒Notes on Chinese GP!

🔵VER won and made the difference: PER couldn’t gain over NOR on the last stint
🟠NOR was MVP: he needs a win now
🔴Solid race by LEC; Ferrari limited the damage waiting for the upgrades
⚫️Good recovery by HAM
⚪️HUL in the points!

What’s YOUR take?🤔

RACE PACE - Chinese GP

🟡VER 0.67s/lap quicker than PER. A lot, even taking the traffic into account!

🟠McL (NOR) was 0.88s/lap behind but with one pit less.
🔴LEC: +0.31s/lap vs NOR➡️McL was clearly quicker.
🟢Aston's pace aided by the additional pits.

Mercedes: no pace.

TOP SPEEDS - Chinese GP

Stroll reached 348km/h as in the Sprint, the highest top speed once again: Aston reached the highest top speed in qualifying too, which confirms their low drag here.

McL was the slowest car when the DRS was inactive: only 314km/h.

AVERAGE TIME IN PITS - Chinese GP

🥇🟡RBR was fastest: flawless execution by
@F1mech and his crew!
🥈🟠McL: +0.06s slower
🥉🔴Ferrari: +0.10s

🟢Sauber desperately needs the updated wheel nuts to fix their troublesome pit stops.

Aston’s average was high due to STR.

TYRE DEG
(PIA excluded due to the damaged floor)

Aston: 4 tyre sets
RBR/Mercedes: 3 sets
NOR: 2 sets (M-H)
Ferrari: 2 sets

🟠NOR: excellent pace on the Hards (same as 🔵RBR); very good on Medium with low deg.

🔴Ferrari slower than NOR on both compounds.

Merc lacked pace on all compounds.

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📊Positions gained in the Chinese GP

📈Hamilton gained the most (P18 to P9).
📉Bottas lost the most (P10 to P20 due to his retirement).

Ferrari recovered well after a disappointing qualifying (4 places gained in total).

The opposite for Aston: ALO and STR lost 4 places each.

Via @JMP_software

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REMEMBER WHEN REDBULL WAS UNDERPOWERED?

Their '17 car was held back by Renault's low power (and unreliability):
-Competitive in street circuits
-Unsuitable for fast tracks

Still, Newey's team trimmed the rear wing significantly while retaining good downforce: P4 by Daniel Ricciardo in Monza!