Stroll strongly complained about his straight-line speed, yet he set the highest top speed in the race🤔

The reason?

When in free air his top speed was low indeed. As he couldn't overtake, he got a powerful tow while using DRS, reaching 356km/h.

Ocon's low-drag wing worked: he was fastest on average, and never below 317km/h at the end of Kemmel.🚀

LEC was the only driver who didn't use DRS: that's why his best speed was 'just' 326km/h.💡

Made via @JMP_software

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In FP2, Verstappen tested a (budget-friendly) lower-drag wing, but he went back to the more loaded one for the GP.💡

RedBull sawed the DRS plane to reduce its drag: this is an inefficient solution, used to save the money needed to design an entirely new wing. 💰

The top speed gain was:
- Moderate (4km/h) when the DRS was closedé
- Very modest (2km/h) when the DRS was active, as the upper plane's drag is minimal in these conditions anyway!

VER lost 5km/h to PER in the fast Pohoun corner, where he was quicker on most laps on the same setup: the downforce loss was deemed excessive, and they used the more loaded option for the race. 🚫

Maybe we'll see it again in Monza!

(Values from two long-run laps very close in laptime; Photo by @lukemotorsport)

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Russell's excellent 34-lap stint would have earned him a sure podium if not for the missing 1.5kg.

RUS's second stint was quicker than HAM's: the former was running less fuel on average, but also much more worn-out tyres.

Look how RUS started pushing again as HAM caught him!

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AVERAGE QUALIFYING GAPS (Only Dry Sessions)

Red Bull has been the best car in qualifying this year
Big gap between RedBull and McL, and between Merc and Aston

Fastest Quali Laptimes:
🥇RedBull: 7
🥈McL, Ferrari: 2 (LEC did the fastest time in Bahrain)
🥉Mercedes: 1 (Canada)

QUALIFYING GAPS EVOLUTION (Only Start-To-End Dry Sessions)

Red Bull's pace slumped after VER's 7 consecutive poles at the season start*: in the dry, it was only quickest in Austria since! 📉

After Monaco, Ferrari went from 2nd to 4th quickest on average. ⚠️

McL was just the 5th fastest car in Bahrain! 😳

*Notice that LEC set the best time in Bahrain.

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Did you know that F1 cars produce incredibly HIGH drag? A Bugatti Veyron has a 60-100km/h higher top speed using the same power! 🤔

F1 top speeds vary between 301km/h (High-downforce trim, no DRS) to 342km/h (Low-drag trim + DRS)*. In contrast, a Veyron has a 407km/h top speed 😳

Drag is higher for the F1 car, but how much?
The POWER required increases with the CUBE of speed:
-Monza + DRS: (407/342)^3= 1.69 (69% more drag)
-Hungary, no DRS:(407/301)^3= 2.47 (147% more drag)
So it can easily be over twice that of a supercar. The Bugatti would only need 404hp [1000hp*(301/407)^3] to reach 301km/h, vs the RB19's ~1000hp!

"So why is drag so high, if F1 teams spend millions to minimise it?" Because the laptime is the focus, and not the top speed: adding downforce will inevitably produce significant drag, but the overall effect will still be incredibly beneficial to laptime.

Comment with the name of your car: I will choose a few and tell you how it compares to an F1 car!

*Top speeds are evaluated at sea level, on the straights where the car approximately reaches its terminal speed (the one it would get on an endless straight). Gear ratios don't impact it, due to the PU's almost constant power above 10500rpm.

More about drag by @FDataAnalysis :

'Which has a more slippery shape: a road car of a F1 car?'
https://reddit.com/r/F1DataAnalysis/comments/1dim0tm/which_has_a_more_slippery_shape_a_road_car_of_a/

Drag Reduction | A Tech Discussion Post
https://reddit.com/r/F1DataAnalysis/comments/166ilv3/drag_reduction_a_tech_discussion_post/

Which Parts of a F1 Car Produce the Most Drag?
https://reddit.com/r/F1DataAnalysis/comments/1464xbj/which_parts_of_a_f1_car_produce_the_most_drag/

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CONSTRUCTORS STANDINGS AFTER 14 GPs:

🟠McL more than TRIPLED their 2023 points: a 251pts gain!

🔵 Red Bull lost the most points (175): +468 vs McL in 2023, but only +42 now. McL can win the WCC, especially if PER continues to underperform.

🔴Ferrari's season has been better so far, but their trajectory is concerning (the car got progressively better in 2023, and progressively worse this year).

⚫️Mercedes achieved similar points in 2023 (but won 3 of the past 4 races, vs no wins in 2023).

🟢Aston's demise has been spectacular: only 73pts so far after challenging VER at the start of last year.

Who will win the WCC between Red Bull and McLaren?

Will Mercedes win several other races this year?

Can Ferrari and Aston set an end to their struggles? 🤔

🔴Ferrari has scored less than half the points per GP post-Monaco compared to the season start ⚠️

31.5 pts/GP up to Monaco (roughly a 2nd + 3rd/4th place, Sprints excluded).

15.5 pts/GP after that (roughly a 5th + 7th place).

It went from a solid WCC contender to 4th fastest car. 📉

Considering RedBull’s clear decline in form starting from Monaco, Ferrari could have been probably on par with them by now, had their upgrades been more successful.

In the past few years, the team didn’t strike me like lazy at all (they’ve introduced many revolutionary cars, like the SF70 and F1-75, and brought countless updates), but they seem not to have a clear and effective development plan most of the time.

🔵 Red Bull looked unbeatable up to Monaco but has scored fewer points than McLaren and Mercedes afterwards! 📉

34.5 pts/GP up to Monaco (roughly P1 + P3 + FastestLap, Sprints excluded).

22 pts/GP after that (Analogous to P4 +P5) [McL: 30.3pts/GP, Mercedes: 28.3pts/GP].

Their advantage over McL in the WCC is just 42 points now, less than the points awarded for a 1-2 finish (43).