Formula 1 - 2021 Season

Interesting explanation of how the McLaren likes to be driven: https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/...in-his-brain-to-get-the-best-from-mclaren-mph

In a Sky TV interview there, he explained how he’d bumped into his McLaren predecessor, Carlos Sainz, who asked Ricciardo, ‘What do you think? Strange eh?’ talking of the car. “I said thanks for telling me!” What they were referring to was how the McLaren likes to be driven with what for a Pirelli car is a lot of overlap in the braking and cornering phases, especially into slow corners.

There’s another interesting driving style note (relatively early, IIRC) in Nico’s Monaco track guide. He highlights the difference in how he and Lewis brake. Nico basically slams on the brakes and bleeds off, whereas Lewis brakes to the available grip.
 
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Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Mercedes' late-night overtime pays off - BBC Sport

Hamilton described the situation he was in after qualifying second following a troubled two days in Baku as "a bit overwhelming". Starting the race at the front when for much of the weekend he and the team had not even been in the top 10, he said, was "one of the greatest feelings".

How did they do it? By what team boss Toto Wolff said was "a really thorough engineering programme and we were not shy of trying extreme things, which were as extreme as we [have ever] experienced".

The car simply lacked grip, and the drivers and team were in a quandary as to what to do about it. It was only towards the end of that final hour that Mercedes finally got the car "in a decent place", as Wolff put it.

"It didn't feel too bad in first practice but second and third practice were pretty much a disaster," Hamilton said. "We did some changes overnight which didn't rectify it. We tried a few different things in P3 and then tried something right at the end and it unlocked the set-up.

"We hadn't been able to get the tyres to switch on like the other cars and the difference was all of sudden the tyres started working and we were back in the game.

"It was the biggest jump we have [ever] been able to make between P3 and qualifying, for sure. It was literally night and day, the car."

Having made the decisive set-up change for the final run in final practice, when Hamilton was third fastest, a position assisted by a slipstream that the team said was worth 0.6secs, they continued down that path for qualifying.

"I had a lot of anxiety," Hamilton said, "because you don't know whether you are going to get it right or wrong.

"Eventually, you just have to let it go. We were here last night until 11 o'clock and then 10 minutes before the session we were still making small changes and you just have to shake it off and go all out."

Team-mate Bottas did not fare so well. The two Mercedes have different set-ups, with Hamilton running lower downforce than the Finn, but Wolff said that was not an explanation for the fact that Bottas was 1.2secs slower and down in 10th place.

"[In the race, the wing level] might have an effect," Wolff said, "but the difference was the car was very tricky and Lewis found the confidence and Valtteri didn't."
 
I'm not sure we want to see blowouts at 300kph, but it made for an interesting finish.

'What does this button do?'
-Lewis Hamilton
 
scary crashes, but fantastic for the championship that lewis f'ed up

great to see checo on the top step, also my boi alonso did well at the restart :)
 
What is definitely not helping Merc is Perez is proving to be a better #2 driver now than Bottas. Maybe they need to do a Red Bull and replace him with young George.
 
Minutes earlier he was reminding the team on radio that "this is a marathon, not a sprint" :D
He is always lying at the radio hoping the Red bulls would hear him and react. I know they couldn't hear him here but I think he is so used to lie at the radio that he can't prevent himself, Like:

Lewis at the radio: "My tyres are gone"
1mn later: "best lap by Lewis Hamilton !"
 
Formula 1: Pirelli say tyre failures caused by 'running conditions' - BBC Sport
Pirelli says the two high-speed tyre failures at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix were caused by the way in which they were being run.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen lost the race victory and Lance Stroll's Aston Martin crashed out of fourth when their left rear tyres failed at close to 200mph.

Pirelli said an investigation found the tyres suffered "a circumferential break on the inner sidewall".
...
Pirelli sets the starting figure assuming the pressure will increase by a certain amount when the car is out on track. If the tyres run at a lower pressure than Pirelli intended, then they can be prone to failure because the company's calculations as to what is a safe way of running the tyres will no longer apply.

The implication is that a number of teams have been finding clever and legal ways to limit the rise in tyre pressure when the car is running on track, despite following all the stipulated starting guidelines.

Pirelli will now set a minimum pressure for the tyres after running on track, and cars will be checked at random throughout the race weekend.

It will be interesting to see if there is any impact for some teams in races going forward.
 
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So why the hell were they 'assuming' regarding a minimum safe pressure? And did they make the teams aware of that assumption?
Yeah. I didn't include that quote from the article ... implication is some teams found "legal" ways around Pirelli's previous mandate.

Pirelli mandates a minimum starting pressure and a maximum starting temperature as a way of trying to control the conditions in which the tyres behave when the cars are on track.

The level of the minimum starting pressure is set as a means of controlling the structural integrity of the tyres. The higher the pressure, the less strain is put on the tyre's sidewall, but raising the tyre pressures has an adverse effect on car cornering performance.

Pirelli sets the starting figure assuming the pressure will increase by a certain amount when the car is out on track. If the tyres run at a lower pressure than Pirelli intended, then they can be prone to failure because the company's calculations as to what is a safe way of running the tyres will no longer apply.
 
Make 'em run these
hpim3176_10343607.jpg
 
Did Hamilton make a mistake with about 4 laps left? I glance away he has about 5 sec advantage, when I look back it's a 3 sec advantage. :confused:
 
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