2023 Belgian GP: Post Race Analysis

Perez vows to complete 'deep analysis' during summer break

 

I was struck by the ease at which the RB19 circulates this track. When they would show in-car with Max, there was no sawing at the wheel, he just set his line through a corner and didn't move the wheel an inch.
I agree with the OP...today, I think Max was driving 80-90% of the car's ability.
Obviously, Max is great. But this car is something so special it's almost unbelievable.

 

It is unbelievable, because Max clearly has different equipment than Perez.

After the first pitstop, something happened with Max, where he took a second and a half out of Perez's lead, then pulled away by 1.5 seconds, before his lap times returned to being only a few tenths faster than Perez again.

I'm coming around to the opinion that it's not fully aero that Red Bull have over the competition. That Honda PU is definitely part of this equation. Today, it looked to me as if Max had a more powerful PU than Perez, and was able to go to a higher engine mode when he wanted to pass him. If you watch the onboard, Max reels Perez in mostly on the straights and high speed corners, which, again, points to higher PU energy to me.

FYI, it's not a crazy idea. Schumi, Vettel, and Hamilton all different equipment than their teammates.

 

Interesting. Can you substantiate this?

 

Sure. It's a matter of record that Schumi got new car specs before Rubens, Ham got them before Bottas, and Senna got them before Prost.

What I saw from Max today at Spa looked like Hamilton in Brazil 21', where we could visible see the difference in power to Bottas.

I mean laps 9-14, the gap to Perez and Max held steady at around 2.8 seconds. After the pit stops at lap 15, the gap went from 2.5, to 9 tenths in less than a lap! And Max had colder tires. Now, where did that sudden burst of speed come from?! Don't tell me Max is just better. He's better, but not that much all of the sudden that he's just driving away from Perez on the same tires, after starting 5th. I don't buy it at all.

IMHO, a more sensible explanation is that a higher power mode was available to Max that wasn't to Perez, and Red Bull had him conserve in the early stint.

That the teams may be driving themselves crazy with the idea that Newey has some magic aero trick they can't even contemplate seems wrong to me. I think his aero is part of the equation, but that the Honda PU has been underestimated as potentially having more power than people ever thought was possible.

For me, it's process of elimination, too. It just makes the most sense.

 

sounds plausible re different power levels since the pit is controlling power output. last race hamilton asked pitwall if they can give him more power.

 

Slows down for tire management, wins by 20+ sec over Checo. From 6th = Max victory.

Happy Summer Break F1.

 

A lot if not all of the quips on the team radio is for media effect and elevate themselves to a cult status all started by Kimi Raikonnen. Sounbites and basically taking the pee out of the other drivers and teams.

The RB19 is a faultless car so far but Newey hasnt had it easy for many a year so he is not the guru of all things F1, just has a lot of experience, highly skilled and motivated.

The way that car breezed past Leclerc was unbelievable, cars dont have that much over performance as SF found out when investigated. Even the Mercedes in the early years was not that dominant.

 

Leclerc didn't have DRS though when Max passed him. When Perez did it at the start, it was a classic ''sit in the vacuum and pull out last moment'' move, the speed wasn't that different considering that.

This graph is race pace to the next fastest car in the field in 2014 and 2023, RB19 v W05, on tracks they both raced at:

 

It was the RB speed advantage over the whole grid that was and is surprising. We are not talking about a slipstream advantage or a few horses extra. This is a low drag car that basically has the same frontal area as all the others.

Really interesting to see the cars in the rain and the vortices and air movement around and especially under the front wing.

 

I think the difference is in the very small details.

I remember the 2007 honda for example which had a really narrow nose, reducing the frontal area massively but it was a total dog on the straights.

RB has incredible flow management it seems.

 

SAI - "I was just about to overtake HAM when someone hit me on the right"
Reality - braked too late and locked front right, then dived from center of the track straight to apex taking out the car that he hadn't even seen in the process.

Mind you, had that been HAM on the inside, pretty sure he would have got a 5 sec penalty.

 

Result: Max Verstappen gains half a second.

 

It certainly does have that , interesting article here:-

https://www.f1dataanalytics.com/blog/uncovered-the-secrets-of-red-bull-rb19-f1-part-ii

Ferrari need to bring in huge developments and evolve this years car for 2024, I'd say they are at least 1 year behind RB at the moment.

 

My prediction back in 2020 has come true!

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/honda-to-quit-f1-after-2021-season.629836/page-11#post-147479765

 

Ferrari is several years behind RedBull.

1) They need a good strategist.
2) They need a good pit-crew. (RedBull did a sub 2 sec pit stop with Checo 2023).

3) They need a reliable and potent engine for quali and race pace.

4) They need a car that can work on ANY tire i.e. soft, medium or hard AND intermediates and extend the "life" of any tire.

That's if you're comparing to RedBull. I'd say 5 years time......that's also IF Vasseur doesn't get sacked within those 5 years otherwise it'll be 10 years time.

 

John Elkann did set Ferrari's next appointment with success in 2026, not before.
So, according to you it could be 2033 ? Fred Vasseur won't be there at attend, then ...

 

Totally agree, I was being optimistic if the current crop in Maranello can get their act together. The pit crew arent the problem, they do sub 3 secs pitstops already

I find it annoying that all of the technical guys employed over the years have failed at SF but find success elsewhere. So

5) they need to change the structure and that should leapfrog to No 1 priority.
6) Designate a clear No1 driver.


Strategy will win or lose races when you at the top of your game, clearly they are nowhere near that so its not the end of the world if they screw up in their current state. Get the basics right and finish on the podium at every race should be the goal + develop this car as an evolution. That means testing on track not on a useless simulator.
Tony

 

I was looking at some in depth speed analysis of RB. They definitely something going on. If you look at the exit everyone has a distinct speed curve. RB is much shaper. I think they have a trick in the ERS.

 

Where do find this analysis?

Sent from my SM-A102U using FerrariChat.com mobile app

 

that will almost certainly be a more aggressive ERS setting, made possible by having efficient aero (therefore not need to use extra ERS power to gain speed, which at high speed is more ''expensive'', possibly better traction allowing them to use ERS earlier.

Saying that, it was the Merc's this weekend that had the advantage coming out of La Source and stavelot, with the Ferrari's being better in the middle of the straights, and RB on top end.

 

There is a former F1 engineer that produces various charts and graphs. He in on youtube