A splendid qualifying on the Silverstone track undoubtedly filled the eyes of any enthusiast. The conditions weather forecast totally variable, with light drizzle and cold at the start and even sunshine in Q3 making the whole session a constant challenge for the pilotsforced to deal with ever-changing track conditions.
Front row within reach of the redhead
Eventually though, in Q3, the conditions were quite stable and the values on the track over the flying lap emerged clearly. Verstappen is always first, whether it’s sunny or rainy, the symbiosis with the RB19 is such that one continues not to see no chance to beat him under any conditions, at least in the recent future. The impression is that, however, the Red Bull, on the English track, has more than half a second ahead of all the others on race pacebut it was at the limit to be attackable on the flying lap. Leclerc spoke on the radio of a “pole car”, perhaps exaggerating a bit, but the front row was probably within reach with a nice final lap, which Leclerc didn’t succeed this time instead. The Monegasque showed good personal improvement in the more complicated conditions of Q1 and Q2, after the bad performances in Spain, Canada and Austria, but then he didn’t find a lap worthy of his best in the last attempt.
McLaren beautiful exploit
Surprise without a doubt of the day is the McLaren. We had mentioned it among the possible teams that could appear in the upper parts of the standings, but from there to find one such a consistent performance with Norris second and Piastri third, a certain amount of amazement passes. The updated version of Woking’s single-seater shows a number of remarkable characteristics, especially of load and stability and, at this point, it can no longer be excluded from the fight with Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin. Indeed, the Stroll team seems to be in one delicate regressive phase which leaves the door open to some results on very favorable tracks (such as Budapest), but it doesn’t seem, for now, to have made the same leap forward as its direct rivals with the first rounds of significant updates. Returning to McLaren, we have compared the data of Verstappen, Norris and Leclerc to have some more reference.
In the first sector it is Leclerc who is the fastest, thanks to an excellent approach both to the very fast corners and to a good transition to turn 3, with a line for the slower 4 but which allows him to go on the gas very early and to gain traction up to turn 6. The three are still within 83 thousandths at the first detection. The central sector sees Verstappen prevail above all in the fast changes of direction of Maggots-Becketts-Chapel, a section where the aerodynamic load added to the lateral stability and perfect reactivity of his RB19 make the difference. Norris is in any case very close, thanks to an excellent performance in the slow section of turn 6 and behavior similar to that of Verstappen also in the fast section. Leclerc does more hard to manage rear out of Chapel leaving important meters in traction for the subsequent Hangar Straight, and opening the doors to what will be the worst stretch for the Monegasque, the last sector. The transition to Stowe it is in fact dramatic, with Leclerc too long entering the corner which ends up passing even 19 km/h slower than Verstappen. Even the last chicane is not ideal for the Monegasque, who leaves almost 3 tenths behind Verstappen in this stretch alone and has to settle for fourth place overall.
McLaren and Mercedes very busy, Red Bull the most efficient, Ferrari unloaded but stable
We have also collected some data to have an idea of load and efficiency levels Of Ferrari, RedBull, McLaren And Mercedeswhich we summarize in this table
Full speed [km/h] | Average speed [km/h] | Standard Deviation Speed [km/h] | Aerodynamic Load Index | |
Verstappen | 328 | 241.8 | 68,344 | 0.737 |
Norris | 321 | 240.9 | 67,289 | 0.75 |
Leclerc | 326 | 240.9 | 69,513 | 0.739 |
Russell | 323 | 240.7 | 67.094 | 0.745 |
Let’s see how Verstappen still has the highest maximum speedbut that Ferrari tends to be close, unlike McLaren, which, since the process of massive car updating has begun, has increased vertical load so much so that you can see straight-line speeds practically collapse. The average speed is obviously higher for Verstappen, compared to a similar average between Norris and Leclerc, while they are interesting the last two columnsi.e. the standard deviation of the data and the load index. Both give an idea of the level of vertical load and grip of the cars, but in opposite ways. The standard deviation is inversely proportional to the aerodynamic downforce, while the aerodynamic load index is directly proportional to the vertical load (oversimplifying). Let’s see how both of these references indicate the McLaren and as the car with absolutely the most downforce, practically on par with Mercedes (which we saw the level of downforce increase a lot after a complicated first day). The impression is that these two teams are very focused on increasing the level of overall downforce even at the cost of straight-line speed, so they still have a lot of work to do on aerodynamic efficiency. Behind them the RedBull, which we obviously know thanks to its extraordinary aerodynamic efficiency and which “confuses” the algorithm, appearing to be less loaded thanks to the out-of-proportion speed. Finally there is Ferrari, which has found performance thanks to a low trim And rigidwhich allowed for improve efficiencyOf increase the load and to maintain the SF23 stable in the fast corners of Silverstone.
Behind Max, a fiery fight for second place in the world championship (not just manufacturers?)
Everyone different approachesbut, removing the Red Bull, with a very similar result which portends a second part of the season with a really fiery fight for the second place in the world constructors (and perhaps drivers, if Perez continues to have such embarrassing performances). There competition will be very complicated on the management front, with the front left which will need to be preserved for a long time and the cold temperatures which risk generating graining in the tyres. Mercedes is the favorite on the degradation front, even if Norris showed good references on hard tyres. Ferrari is called to one important check compared to the update work, and will have to demonstrate that he can keep a good pace without suffering a drop in performance due to the tyres. Obviously all behind Max, who, if he confirms expectations, risks not being seen much during the Grand Prix.
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