FORMULA 1 ARAMCO UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX...Austin...PRACTICE 1/2/3..▄▀▄▀▄▀ SPOILERS▄▀▄▀▄▀

Just what he said in the interview, that the changes they made before FP2 made the car worse, he's done this numerous times this season tbh.

 

Groucho, Grouchy and Ginger Spice.

 

Further evidence of Max's newfound maturity. Road rage at COTA.

 

Max "Deliverance" Verstappen is an entitled spoiled brat. Likely due to Jos' great parenting skills and sound moral compass.

 

You know it!!!!!!!

 

LULU is far far more entitled than Max. Just look at the signage on the cars and track and pit straight and t shirts and blah blah . And what does this have to do with Jos anyways?

 

LOL DC gave MS the finger and the JO gesture. LOL

 

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No, the F1 cars need more compliance in the suspension department,
AND:: FIA should have never banned active suspension technology.

 

"Ha, stupid idiot". Seems he was more chuckling at it than "road raging". But sure, blow it out of proportion if it makes you feel better.
Max Verstappen calls Lewis Hamilton stupid idiot during FP2 | USGP - YouTube

 

Greg Moore flipping off Montoya at 230+ mph is my all time favorite

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Now that it is on everyone's radar it is painfully obvious.

 

'Don't know about that.....

Even Jeff admitted he got the better "ride" when swapping with Juan.

 

More compliance just because of one or a few tracks are bumpy?

 

All these drivers are just exploding with newfound maturity. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Are Ferrari using the old engines on Friday practice; thats atleast what teams usually do. Would be quite nice jump in pace coming up for Saturday if they do.

 

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/whats-behind-mercedes-f1-straightline-performance-gains/6702848/

What's behind Mercedes' F1 straightline performance gains?
By: Jake Boxall-Legge
Oct 23, 2021, 4:13 AM
Mercedes has dismissed the idea that it is running a ride-height control device on its W12 Formula 1 car, although the rear has been seen lowering during the straights.
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Having shown excellent straightline speed in recent rounds, particularly at the Turkish Grand Prix, Mercedes came under fire from Red Bull team boss Christian Horner – who suggested that the team was “obviously optimising a straightline device” to Sky F1.

Those claims were refuted by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, who said that the team’s performance on the straights were a culmination of “all the small gains, marginal gains that have been added and bring performance.”

However, video footage of the Mercedes W12 shows a marginal squatting of the rear during the high-speed areas of the track, with the ride-height rising as the car brakes for a corner.

Mercedes already runs a low-rake package, which means that the rear is raised significantly less relative to the front compared to cars like the Red Bull, which runs at a very high rake.

PLUS: The six critical factors that could hand F1 2021 glory to Hamilton or Verstappen

Although a higher rake is an advantage in the corners, in which the airflow under the floor can be accelerated and the effective diffuser space opened up to reduce the pressure under the car, it is a hindrance in the straights.

This is due to the greater amount of drag it produces, as the air is worked harder by the floor – and the frontal area of the car increases as the rear of the bodywork runs higher.

If a team can reduce the rear ride-height, then it can reduce the drag as a result, and thus unlock greater straightline speed.

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Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

It appears as though Mercedes has found a set-up which allows the rear to drop as the car accelerates, thus yielding that effect of reduced drag which means the car’s maximum velocity is greater.

Although it is currently unknown how the car produces this effect, one method of running a passive system is to install a spring setting that allows the rear of the car to compress as downforce at the rear increases, and then relent as the downforce reduces.

Using a softer spring will also cope with the changes in elevation experienced at the Istanbul Park circuit, and thus prove useful for delivering consistent grip around the bumpy Circuit of the Americas surface.

It can also produce a stall in the diffuser, which is something that teams often try to employ at a certain speed to improve acceleration, owing to the lower position.

One difficulty to consider is that when the car returns to its natural position in the braking zones, the airflow must reattach sufficiently to ensure that the diffuser works to produce the downforce required for the corners.

It seems that the W12 makes a gradual return to its regular rake once the driver gets off the accelerator, ensuring that the airflow has plenty of opportunity to assume its desired position.

Mercedes seems incredibly confident in its set-up changes and, given the pressure placed on the team by its need to introduce new engines in the previous few rounds, it seems that the straightline gains tally with the team’s claims that it has found a “sweet spot” with its suspension configuration rather than finding extra performance from the powertrain.

 

A in-depth assessment of yesterday for Prac 1 and 2 - Predictions for Qualy etc. -- https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/why-long-run-times-should-please-red-bull-despite-mercedes-one-lap-austin-pace/6701657/

How Mercedes went from Austin practice domination to "very tight at the front" with Red Bull
By: Alex Kalinauckas
Oct 23, 2021, 6:42 AM
Mercedes has been on a roll of late in the ultra-tight fight to win the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It started off well in practice at Austin for this weekend’s US Grand Prix, but Red Bull got closer as Friday unfolded and even seemed to find an edge in one critical area of what seems set to be another close contest

Ever since Max Verstappen’s dominant victory on home soil at Zandvoort, it has been Mercedes comfortably leading the way on the opening days of track action at the following three Formula 1 events.


And when FP1 at this weekend’s US Grand Prix ended at Austin, it looked as if the Black Arrows squad was going to saunter to another comfortable practice position. In that session, Valtteri Bottas led the way on a 1m34.874s, with Lewis Hamilton second and Verstappen a massive 0.887s adrift of his 2021 title rival and 0.932s slower than Bottas in third.

But yesterday in America, Red Bull ended an F1 Friday on top for the first time since Spa.

There were several reasons for this – the first obviously being that Lewis Hamilton actually set a quicker time than Sergio Perez’s 1m34.946s in FP2, by 0.104s. But Hamilton lost his 1m34.842s on the soft tyres for going too wide through the penultimate corner and incurring a track limits infringement.

But, as ever in F1, things are more complicated than just that.

Overall FP2 order
1. Sergio Perez (Red Bull) 1m34.946s
2. Lando Norris (McLaren) 1m35.203s +0.257s
3. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m35.310s +0.364s
4. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m35.561s +0.615s
5. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m35.572s +0.626s
6. Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) 1m36.138s +1.192s
7. Esteban Ocon (Alpine) 1m36.158s +1.212s
8. Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1m36.242s +1.296s
9. Mick Schumacher (Haas) 1m37.041s +2.095s
10. Nicholas Latifi (Williams) 1m37.254s +2.308s

From Red Bull’s point of view, Perez was leading the way in FP2 (above) because Verstappen pulled out of his qualifying simulation run on the softs after encountering traffic. The Dutchman had already had to do a second preparation lap after being frustrated at having to start a flier in the pack at the final corner, but backed off without setting a time on the softs after lighting up the timing screens in sector one.

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Verstappen backed off when he was on course to improve, but Red Bull was satisfied by what it saw in the data

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“We would have had enough information, that he had gone purple in sector one, [and] he aborted at Turn 12,” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said after FP2. “So, we had enough info with what we’d seen so far.”

Given Verstappen is typically quicker than Perez to the tune of a few tenths, we can surmise that he would’ve been there or thereabouts with Hamilton’s deleted lap.

Going back to FP1, the large gap between F1’s leading teams is chiefly thought to be down to Red Bull running its Honda engines in a lower power mode compared to Mercedes, with Horner also suggesting his team’s rival “ran hard” in that session.

But Mercedes was also just slower overall in FP2. One team insider suggested this was because it had made a "negative improvement" – set-up changes that did not work as hoped, and will likely be removed from the W12s for today’s action. It is understood that neither Hamilton nor Bottas reported feeling particularly happy with their car balance in either Friday session.

The frontrunners are likely to try and get through Q2 on the mediums. At the same time, some Q3 contenders must be wary of the bigger than expected delta between the softs and mediums logged yesterday – 0.6s-0.7s
“It seemed like we'd lost a bit of pace,” said Mercedes’ director of trackside engineering, Andrew Shovlin. “Perhaps we'd not adapted to the hotter conditions well, others may have improved, or it could be that some of our changes haven't worked as expected. It's useful to have found a few issues that we can get stuck into [over Friday night] as there's plenty we can do to improve.”

What all of this points towards heading into FP3 and qualifying on Saturday is that at this stage it appears as if the fight for pole at Austin is going to be very close.

When it comes to comparing Perez’s legal FP2-leading time and Hamilton’s deleted lap, which apparently ended up being slower than it might’ve been because he’d gone a fraction wide at Turn 12, Mercedes suggests neither driver had a particular advantage on straight line speed or in the corners.

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Hamilton lost time on the FP2 topping time that was subsequently deleted for track limits

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Now to the great straight line speed debate, which is being much discussed this weekend after Horner told Sky F1 during FP1 that "Mercedes are obviously optimising a straightline device" as an explanation of its strong form in Turkey. It’s worth noting at this stage that Mercedes’ position is unequivocal: it is not deploying a new or clever system to lower the W12’s rear on the straights.

The team insists nothing has changed on its rear suspension in recent races and neither is there is anything unusual about what has been spotted happening. Mercedes says such action is standard practice across all teams and that its rear suspension is the same design that it first deployed at the start of 2020.

Tearing ourselves away from the off-track squabbling as we must, let’s consider the tyres for a moment. Very much from the sublime to the ridiculous, but bear with us given this next bit could have a key bearing on the outcome of the first US GP for two years.

As Shovlin notes, it was very hot at the Circuit of the Americas yesterday – with track temperatures in FP1 a massive 18°C hotter than in the same session back in 2019.

That event reached the 28-29°C temperatures hit on Friday on the race day where Bottas was triumphant and Hamilton clinched his sixth world title, so the data the teams gathered yesterday is considerably more valuable given Sunday is set to be similarly hot, although predicted to be perhaps not as sunny.

Amid the sweltering temperatures, the soft tyres are also being overheated on Austin’s abrasive surface. There’s nothing unusual there, despite 40% of the track being resurfaced since 2019. It just means, as is typically the case here, that the drivers are finding grip is gone by the track’s final corners.

All of this means the frontrunners are likely to try and get through Q2 on the mediums. At the same time, some Q3 contenders must be wary of the bigger than expected delta between the softs and mediums logged yesterday – 0.6s-0.7s. This means some could be at risk of being caught out if a rival opts to take softs for the middle part of qualifying.

This is an option because Sunday’s race will mostly likely be a two-stopper given the heat, but such an approach does depend on being able to keep the red-walled rubber in shape for a lap’s duration.

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Gambling on the soft tyre could vault midfield runners up the order in Q2

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

Medium tyre averages
1. Red Bull 1m41.474s, 11 laps
2. Mercedes 1m41.775s, 12 laps
3. Alpine 1m42.200s, 8 laps
4. McLaren 1m42.339s, 9 laps
5. Ferrari 1m42.342s, 11 laps
6. Aston Martin 1m42.414s, 13 laps
7. Alfa Romeo 1m42.615s, 10 laps
8. AlphaTauri 1m43.345s, 10 laps
9. Williams 1m43.605s, 15 laps
10. Haas 1m45.240s, 11 laps

Red Bull should be very encouraged that starting on the mediums looks to be the way to go at this stage. Not only does that offer the team greater strategic flexibility, but also Verstappen’s late-FP2 long run on the yellow-walled rubber was excellent.

Hamilton did produce a slightly faster average for Mercedes (1m41.035s), but that was done over a much shorter stint (six laps) and these were interrupted. Data Autosport has seen also suggests he started off slower than Bottas's longer stint included above and the world champion tracked his team-mate’s times at that difference before backing off and eventually abandoning his run on the mediums.

"There are some areas we can feel we can improve the car quite a bit. It’s a different challenge: it’s bumpy, it’s hot. It’s going to make it really interesting" Christian Horner
Mercedes insists it didn’t have a long-run edge on Red Bull on Friday. But it can take heart from the data showing Bottas being able to get right back to the best times Verstappen and Perez were doing at the end of their respective data-gathering efforts in FP2.

“The overall feeling from the second session is that it's going to be very tight at the front and both Red Bulls are looking like they are in the fight for pole,” concluded Shovlin.

“Mercedes are quick here, you can see that,” said Horner. “It depends what they’ve still got left in the pocket and what we can respond with. There are some areas we can feel we can improve the car quite a bit. It’s a different challenge: it’s bumpy, it’s hot. It’s going to make it really interesting.”

Judging by what was witnessed yesterday at Austin – where Autosport witnessed the Mercedes cars riding the considerable bumps at Turns 4 and 5 slightly better than the Red Bulls (although not by much, with Ferrari appearing very unstable by comparison, as evidenced by Charles Leclerc’s FP1 spin) – it appears things are set to be once again very tight for both the pole fight and Sunday supremacy.

That’s been said a lot this year in this Red Bull vs Mercedes slugfest, and of course all the usual practice caveats on engine modes, fuel loads and overnight improvements apply. But given Red Bull arrived in the US under something of a cloud given Mercedes’ recent pace and victories, it should be smiling that things seem as closer as they do right now in the Texas sun.

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The battle for pole is set to be closer than the headline Friday practice times appeared