The Bahrain Grand Prix offered countless food for thought without however allowing time for in-depth analysis, as you immediately return to the track in Saudi Arabia on a track that is the opposite of conformation to that of Sakhir and which precisely because of this diversity will offer a more defined of strengths and weaknesses of the individual cars. The Arab track is characterized by the abundance of high-mileage bends and rapid changes of direction in succession in which the precision of the front is fundamentalin contrast to the Bahraini circuit whose numerous restarts from the hairpin bends have enhanced the traction qualities, placing itself as a track rear limited. The plant that hosted the inaugural round of the 2022 World Cup also placed the teams in front of one of the most abrasive road surfaces on the calendar, while fewer concerns are expected in Arabia regarding tire degradation.
The city circuit of Jeddah is one of the fastest in the entire championship. In 2021, the average qualifying lap speeds exceeded 250 km / h, in line with those recorded on tracks such as Spa and Silverstone, as well as the second highest of the year after Monza. It is expected that the 2022 single-seaters will not be far from similar performances, as the fast corners of the Saudi track are those best able to enhance the enormous downforce released by the underbody of the new cars. On the other hand, in Bahrain the new generation of cars proved to be struggling, particularly in the low-mileage hairpin bends, a type of curves almost completely absent in Jeddah.
The sequence of folds of over 200 km / character characterizes the Arab track more like front-limited, as the level of grip at the front is rewarded. The advantages of the individual cars are therefore enhanced as opposed to those that emerged in Bahrain, as well as requiring a radically different aerodynamic and mechanical set-up. The preponderance of long-distance bends and the almost total absence of slow curves facilitates the search for a stable balance along the entire arc of the lap, reducing the occasions in which any imbalances may arise between the mechanical behavior, prevalent at low speeds, and the aerodynamic one in the fast. The Gedda track therefore meets the teams struggling with a short blanket in terms of balance in the different types of curves, while it is particularly demanding in the compromise between cornering and straighta quality closely related to aerodynamic efficiency.
Lap averages around 250 km / h in qualifying inevitably pay great attention to the competitiveness of the power unit. In Bahrain, the Ferrari units have shown that they have returned to being the reference point, waiting to evaluate the constancy of performance as the accumulated mileage increases, certainly a strength in Saudi Arabia which, however, is not sufficient to attribute the role to the Scuderia di Maranello. of favorite. First, i The Cavallino’s engines have their strong point in traction and torque, with excellent performance in extension in the intermediate range between 220 and 270 km / h, as evidenced by the data collected by Federico Albano. However, the high travel and corner exit speeds in Jeddah almost completely eliminate slow starts, with the exception of the last corner and the first chicane. On the other hand, it becomes a priority to express high top speeds, to which an effective management of the energy of the hybrid over the lap contributes in order not to excessively resort to clipping, that is, in cutting the electric power at the end of the straight.
It should not be overlooked that, in spite of a less performing power unit, in Bahrain it was Red Bull that set the fastest straight line speeds, with a qualifying advantage of around 5 km / h over the Ferraris. The phenomenon can be interpreted from different points of view. On the one hand, it is plausible that at Sakhir the Milton Keynes team opted to unload the aerodynamics in order to compensate for the lack of cavalry compared to the Maranello engines, expressing excellent speed in extension, but sacrificing cornering and management with it. of the tires in the race. On the other hand the RB18 also presents itself as a car that basically expresses excellent aerodynamic efficiencya, managing to generate sufficient load from the bottom to such an extent as to be able to reduce the incidence of the wings, reducing drag and gaining significant km / h in extension. It is possible that what we saw in Bahrain derives from a concatenation of the two factors, but if the great aerodynamic efficiency of Red Bull were to prove to be a reality, this would turn into a significant advantage on a track like Gedda, as well as an important weapon over the course of the whole season.
In Bahrain Ferrari and Red Bull proved to be on similar levels in qualifying, with a gap of just over a tenth, while in the race the Red seemed more consistent, although before Verstappen’s third stop the gap between the two leaders of the race was struggling to rise above 4 seconds. Therefore, net of the affinity of F1-75 and RB18 to the characteristics of Gedda, the great balance of the current state means that the greater competitiveness of one or the other team will strongly depend on the goodness of the set-up choices. Great importance is therefore attached to the preparation work in the factory, with the awareness that in approaching the next Grand Prix the teams will not be able to use the data collected on the same track during testing, as happened in Bahrain.
In Sakhir Mercedes was severely slowed down by compromise choices on the set-up, necessary to mitigate porpoising. The resolution of the aerodynamic rebound is the absolute priority for the reigning champions, as until then it will not be possible to investigate any other limitations of the W13. The porpoising control highlights a subtle analogy with exploiting the stall of the diffuser on last season’s car. The latter was induced to reduce the aerodynamic drag on the straight, but it needed a calibration such that the loss of load did not occur in any curve of the track. The longer the cornering runs, the more the speed at which stalling could be induced had to be postponed and therefore the lower the straight line gain. In 2021, the high-mileage curves of Jeddah forced Mercedes to limit the exploitation of the phenomenon, thus benefiting from it to a lesser extent.
Although the triggering of porpoising does not correspond to a gain in terms of aerodynamic resistance, it still entails a loss of load. Pending aerodynamic updates to the bottom capable of preventing the phenomenon, the only alternatives available to the team are the increase in heights from the ground and the stiffening of the suspension, to prevent the underbody from getting too close to the ground under the thrust of the downforce by inducing porposing. The higher the cornering distances, the greater the speed below which porpoising is detrimental, as it compromises the load necessary to tackle the curve. In Saudi Arabia Mercedes will therefore be forced to make even more drastic compromise choices than in Bahrainprobably paying for a greater delay in performance, barring any progress during the last week in understanding the car.
Temperatures drop, pressures rise
The technicians Brembo they classified the Arab track with a severity of 4 out of 5 for the braking system, equal to the rating reserved for Bahrain. The most demanding braking is the one that precedes the last corner, where the cars reduce their speed by around 210 km / h in just 2.8 seconds, with deceleration peaks of 4.4 g. However, the high entry speeds in the other corners of the track relieve the load on the brakes, with the use of the system in the order of 11% of the lap time, against 19% for Sakhir. The high average speeds are also complicit therefore fewer brake cooling problems are expected, after several teams in Bahrain suffered from overheating, including Red Bull. Above all, McLaren was the team that most had to sacrifice pace in the race to avoid a terminal failure, so the wish for the Woking team is that in Jeddah we can see more of the potential of the MCL36, but above all, to better understand the other problems affecting the car.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4pGIBn6B90
For the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Pirelli has opted for the intermediate compounds of its range, the C2, C3 and C4, with the latter making its racing debut in 2022. Minimum static inflation pressures are 23.5 psi at the front and 21.0 psi at the rear, marking a 1 and 0.5 psi increase respectively over Bahrain. The main stresses for the tires derive from the lateral loads when cornering, with the limiting factor for the race pace represented by the wear of the right front. However, the strategies must be flexible to any Safety Car entrances, quite probable given the urban nature of the track.
In conclusion, in Jeddah Ferrari has the potential to once again aspire to something important, but, even with the most competitive power unit of the lot, the outcome seems anything but obvious. Red Bull is waiting for a prompt recovery after the Bahrain debacle, even more painful after having ascertained the goodness of the RB18 project, while Mercedes is once again called upon to contain the damage, awaiting the next updates expected between Melbourne and Imola.
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