2016, Baku: Valtteri Bottas reached 378km/h (235 mph), the highest speed ever recorded in any official F1 session! 🚀

All stars aligned:
✅ Longest straight in F1 (2.2km !)
✅ Last year with narrow-track (1.8m, vs current 2.0m) V6 cars ➡️ Little drag, yet powerful
✅ Most powerful engine on grid
✅ Least draggy car on grid
✅ Tow
✅ DRS

Insane!

AZERBAIJAN GP - WING THURSDAY!

🟣 Alpine's choice is radical: they installed their Monza rear wing! Must minimise drag to compensate for the weaker engine, but this will hurt them significantly in the first 2 sectors.

⚪️ Haas: most loaded wing.

🔴 Ferrari: most loaded top team.

🔵 RBR similar to 🟠 McL.

⚫️ Mercedes' unique design is hard to gauge.

📸 @AlbertFabrega

Baku is the track where McL's 'Mini-DRS' drama started:

💡McLaren has a "Mini-DRS", which acts on top of the "Flexy wing":
- Wing flex: McL > Ferrari >> RedBull.
- McL has a never-seen-before lift of the upper plane leading edge: it's as if the DRS opens partially at high speed, providing a further advantage.

The effect is measurable: McL had the highest top speed when the DRS was inactive despite being slowest when the DRS was open (Data from quali).

Is this legal? 🤔
- The flexy wing is, as it passed the FIA's load tests. A wing that flexes are 'against the spirit of the rules', but until the load tests change to avoid that such a thing is perfectly ok.
- I'm not sure about the deformation of the DRS plane: I expect Ferrari to protest that, but the outcome is hard to predict.

Photo and idea: @brakeboosted; @multiviewer

BAKU - PRACTICE 1 | TOP SPEED

347km/h in FP1 already... 😳

AZERBAIJAN GP - PRACTICE 2

1) BEST SECTOR GAP:
19km/h top speed difference between LAW and PIA: the largest difference in a FP session since... ages? 😳

🟠 McL is suffering from high drag (slowest team in S3: a straight), and PIA has a more loaded setup than NOR (-6km/h top speed). McL lost a lot on the main straight, yet was no quicker than 🔴 Ferrari in S1 and S2: Ferrari is looking good. ✅

As I predicted yesterday, 🟣 Alpine's minimum load rear wing is making them suffer in the first 2 sectors. 🚨

LAW had a slipstream on his best lap, yet still reached 349km/h without it!

2) TOP SPEEDS:

LEC is running a less loaded aero setup than HAM; likewise NOR vs PIA, ALB vs SAI etc.

Teams are still trying to understand which wing configuration is most suitable for the weekend.

AZERBAIJAN GP - QUALIFYING | VER vs SAI Telmetry:

In the quali session with most red flags (6) in F1's history, 🟡 VER edged a fantastic 🔵 SAI partly thanks to... way lower drag! 💡

With a 7km/h top speed advantage, VER gained ~0.3s on the main straight alone... even though SAI had a better exit! 🚀
SAI, on Mediums, was quicker in T5 and T15, too.

Best session sectors:
S1: VER 0.006s quicker;
S2: SAI 0.003s quicker;
S3: VER 0.080s quicker.

SAI downshifted aggressively: 8th->3rd gear in way less time than VER!

AZERBAIJAN GP - RACE | RACE PACE 📊
(Impacted by traffic!)

VER quickest (could manage his pace).
RUS was a close 2nd (+0.15s/lap) despite traffic following a bad start.

SAI and ANT bridged the gap between the top 2 and the 'others' (NOR, TSU, Ferrari and Racing Bulls).

Alpine was dead last.

Per team:
1) RBR quickest
2) Merc +0.15s/lap
3) Williams +0.38
4) McL +0.55
5) Ferrari +0.59
6) RBs +0.60
7) Haas +1.12
8) Sauber +1.20
9) Aston +1.24
10) Alpine +1.92 (‼️)

How much did LEC’s ERS issue (2kW, or 2.7hp) affect top speed? Just 0.3 km/h…

So Vasseur’s statement seems off.

Vasseur "We lacked, I think, 2kW, not much, but enough to make Charles unable to overtake".

Let’s check the numbers:
🔋 PU power: ~1000hp, or ~735kW;
🪫 With issue: ~733kW.

- Drag coefficient unchanged;
- Drag POWER grows with the CUBE of speed:;
🔋 Top speed: ~350km/h;
🪫 With issue: 350km/h*(735kW/733kW)^1/3=349.7km/h... 0.3km/h reduction.

Possible explanations:
1) He meant 20kW → ~3 km/h loss;
2) Downplayed the issue;
3) It was 2kW, but irrelevant for overtaking;
4) It was 2kW but mattered via compounding: less acceleration→farther back→weaker slipstream→even less accel. ... (unlikely).

The only certainty? The physics. 🤣

AZERBAIJAN GP - RACE | TOP SPEEDS

Bearman hit 361 km/h, while Leclerc’s deployment issue stands out!

BEA reached it on L11 with:
✅ DRS;
✅ Double tow (STR, HUL).

For all DRS users (e.g. ANT), top speed shows a bimodal distribution:
- Low in free air;
- Very high with DRS + tow.

The only exception? LEC: His ERS issue meant DRS + tow resulted in just “medium” top speeds! 🚨

Made via @JMP_software

AZERBAIJAN GP - RACE | FERRARI'S WING CHOICES

Ferrari opted for the less loaded wing after comparing it to a more loaded one in FP2, gaining 6km/h in top speed! 🚀

The difference in acceleration (graph below) was significant at any speed above 240km/h. ✅

Braking/cornering/traction were slightly worse, as expected. ❌

In the race, Ferrari struggled with overtaking (esp. LEC with an ERS issue), not with tyre wear or in the first 2 sectors: they made the right call, imho. 👌

Made via @JMP_software

🗒 SINGAPORE PREVIEW

The C6 (softest) compound WON’T be used: cannot sustain extreme temperatures + max downforce! 🔥

C3-C5 used, instead: deg on the C3 will be minimal.

- ⏬Max Downforce (despite sector 3 double chicane removal).
- ⚠️Traction > Braking > Cornering.

Very similar to Baku’s sectors 1 and 2, where VER and SAI were quickest overall! 👀

Comment with YOUR prediction!

📸 @pirellisport

SINGAPORE GP | WING THURSDAY!

SINGAPORE = MAX DOWNFORCE! ⚠️

Still, some teams have a more extreme max downforce wing than others:
- Aston has a deeper and wider lower plane spoon compared to Alpine; the upper plane looks more vertical, too.
- Mercedes’ lower plane is much more cambered than Ferrari’s.

📸 @AlbertFabrega

Have you ever wondered which track lets #F1 drivers stay full-throttle the most?
I wrote code to find out! 😏

Monza & Jeddah: over 75% of the lap full throttle ➡️ MENTAL! 🔥
Monaco: lowest, but still not far from 50%!

But look at this:
- Singapore: ~315km/h top speed, 55.1% full throttle.
- Mexico: ~350km/h top speed, only 48.3%!

Why?
Mexico’s 2285m altitude cuts drag and downforce by ~20%: higher top speed, but way less grip

Which one surprised you the most? For me, it was Australia.

Made via @JMP_software

SINGAPORE GP | RACE PACE! 🏁

Four drivers had a pace within 0.1s of RUS's, whose brilliant first stint let him cruise in the second one!

Ferrari designed an issues-filled car: you’d expect them to fix them over the season, yet they’ve worsened. Both drivers had to run at backmarker pace at the end!

PACE PER TEAM (Fastest one-stopper)
1) Merc;
2) McL +0.04s/lap;
3) RBR +0.06;
4) Ferrari +0.42;
5) Aston +1.07;
6) Haas +1.42;
7) Williams +1.55;
8) RBs +1.82;
9) Sauber +1.99;
10) Alpine +2.14;

[Note: abnormally slow laps (e.g. HAM’s final ones) excluded from pace calc.]

RACE PACE LAST YEAR

NOR was quickest, by far (0.41s/lap advantage vs VER).

Ferrari and Mercedes fought to be the 3rd best team, but were 1 second off NOR.

Compared to last year, 🟩Mercedes took a massive step forward at the expense of 🟧McL. Still, 🟦VER and 🟥Ferrari got closer to the race winner, pace-wise.