The Montreal qualifying with the wet track gives a nice and fun session, even if never really questioned for the most coveted position, the first. Too strong for everyone Max Verstappen and his RedBull, in wet track conditions with intermediate rubber. The Dutchman has been driving with one since he won the title serenity that we have seen a few times perhaps in the history of this sport, but at the same time shows with an unmatched continuity always high profile performance. The Canadian qualification is yet another example. From Q2 onwards, in fact, Verstappen has literally no longer had rivals, despite the difficult conditions, and has trimmed almost 1 second second place to second place. But the result is certainly neither the result of chance, nor of the car alone but of a series of aspects, including a perfected driving technique for the track and for these conditions that have made a huge difference in terms of lap time. To better understand what we are referring to, let’s look at the comparison between the telemetry data of Verstappen’s lap and those of a fantastic Fernando Alonso, author of the second time.
Mechanics still prevail over aerodynamics – Already from the first braking you can see where the number 1 car finds most of its performance: under braking. The set-up chosen by the Dutchman and his team guarantees an incredible performance stability braking for the RB18, both with straight wheelsthat at the entrance to the curve. In fact Verstappen finds a way to delay the braking point a lotand then to bring the braking phase up to the chord pointtackling the curves with a so-called “V-Style” technique. The lunge under braking leads the reigning World Champion to generally have minimum cornering speeds lower to those of rivals, but for much less time compared to them. Clearly this is only possible with a great level of grip to the ground, as the so-called “combined” braking is only feasible with both a lot of grip mechanicwith the suspension package which once again turns out very effective on the RedBull, either chemistwith the intermediate compounds which evidently find an ideal operating point on Newey’s car. We have pointed out many times as with the 2022 cars the braking phase make one noticeable difference on the final lap time, and on a track like the one in Montreal, where the curves are generally of short distancetry to always work at the stage longitudinal deceleration / accelerationinstead of lengthening the lateral load phases during cornering, it is one particularly effective techniqueand it was seen in the simplicity with which Verstappen improved his times, unattainable always for everyone. The consideration that is most curious and interesting to us is that, race after race, it continues to emerge in an increasingly significant way the key role of mechanics in the set-up of the car. The contemporary revolution of the aerodynamic conceptwith the reintroduction of the ground effect, and the switch to tires with 18-inch wheelsand then with a decidedly shortened shoulderforces engineers to manage the car’s key loads (and related unwanted effects such as the porpoising) through the height from the ground and a suspension system much more rigid than in the past. This causes it to find the right adjustments suspension makes a huge difference in performance, sometimes even to an extent greater with respect to the correct choice of the aerodynamic load to be brought to the track. The longitudinal axis performance of the RB18 is an example of this, with a car perfect in pitching during braking and tractionat the same time stable during the roll of the entry curve.
This doesn’t mean Verstappen walked the track anyway, and it’s nice to note, looking at the accelerator trackshowever both the Dutchman and Alonso were pushing to the limit in their lap. In fact, we easily see a glaring error in traction of Verstappen out of turn 4 which costs him almost 2 tenths and one “Snap” of the rear of Alonso shortly after, before the braking of turn 5. The snaps for Verstappen are also repeated at the exit of turn 7 and turn 9, even if they are practically instantaneous and very similar to those seen also for Alonso’s car. Curiously Verstappen opened on the radio after crossing the finish line complaining that he ruined his ride with errors (concept summed up in a single English swear word) but he was told that his ruined lap was easily worth pole. So the Dutchman is very good, showing once again his great talent and obviously he is the main candidate for victory stage, given the good dry race pace shown in free practice. Next to him will leave, as mentioned, one extraordinary Fernando Alonsoof which we note aggression literally from lion, with very high cornering speeds, however aggressive disconnections and clean traction phases. There Alpine he did see great things even in the dryalong with a notable top speed and it will be very interesting to see Alonso in the very first group with an important chance of a result.
Behind them will start the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard ran a good session, not always at the highest level, but finding the performance every time he looked for it, let’s see the data of his lap always compared with those of Verstappen:
Sainz could not have attacked pole even without the mistake – Like Alonso, Sainz is thick too much faster than the Dutchman in the cornersand thanks to a perfect traction phase out of turn 4, the Spaniard from Ferrari finds the absolute best time in the first sector. In the central sector, however, the balance is tipped towards Verstappen thanks once again to tractions with more grip and detached, albeit slightly, deeper. Finally Sainz commits a glaring mistake at the exit of the last chicane, with a large oversteer that compromises the entire subsequent traction phase. We have studied the situation a little more in detail and we understand that Sainz could not have attacked the pole time anyway. Late by about 70 thousandths after the second sector, the F1-75 number 55 had however accumulated almost another two tenths late before the last braking, and it is therefore likely that, without the mistake, Sainz would have closed second, about 3 tenths of a second from Verstappen. From our calculations the error costs the Spaniard about half a second. Sainz will leave in the midst of 10 world titlessince next to him he will have Lewis Hamiltonauthor of a good qualification, and probably more radiant to be able to stand ahead of teammate Russell (which at the beginning of the session seemed to be much superior to him) than for the position itself. Hamilton could become a dangerous customer for everyone in the first few laps because he chose a low load attitudemuch lower than for example Russell’s other Mercedes, and this should lead to it very high top speeds, which could come in handy in hand-to-hand situations. A very last note of credit goes to the Haas. Nice performance by Steiner’s team who hopes to be able to realize the car’s good potential and who finds the smile of Mick Schumacher, still behind his teammate but still the author of a good performance, at his best position on the grid in his career.
The race promises to be once again of great interest, with a leading package heterogeneous but that could reserve many surprises, while from the bottom they will try to climb Perez from 13th position and especially Leclerc from 19th position, on a track where the walls are close and the Safety Cars are normal. There may be a lot to enjoy.
#Telemetry #Canada #Verstappens #Prepared #Technique #Alonsos #Grit #FormulaPassion.it