Brendon Hartley says the biggest difference between racing in F1 and the World Endurance Championship isn’t the cars themselves but the rubber they race on.
Hartley, who won the World Endurance Championship with Porsche team mates Timo Bernhard and Earl Bamber last year, is three races into his first full F1 season with Toro Rosso. He says the change from WEC’s Michelin tyres to the Pirellis used in F1 has taken some getting used to.
“The biggest difference is still the tyre,” said Hartley. “It’s a completely different beast to get the most out of.“More sensitive, more tricky to get everything together because they’re very sensitive. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, it’s just a very fine line with Pirelli to get everything working.”
The Le Mans 24 Hour winner also found F1’s hybrid engines require less input from the driver than their WEC counterparts.
“The modern Formula One engine is amazing,” he said. “There’s very complicated things going on the back of the engine and the whole power unit but from a driver’s point of view it’s very manageable and not much to think about behind the car.”
The deployment of hybrid power is “almost invisible”, Hartley added. “Obviously there’s a few things to manage in the race and behind the scenes but generally speaking there’s not so much to manage for the driver. There’s enough simulation and enough engineers behind all the teams that they get it right from the word go. So quite a different characteristic as well – in LMP1 there’s a lot of energy management per lap where here’s it’s much less.”
Porsche recently demonstrated the potential performance of an LMP1 car when allowed to run outside the series’ tight restrictions. “Top speed in Formula One is a lot higher because we have a lot more fuel per lap,” Hartley said. “In LMP1 we were quite starved, especially at the higher end of the scale.
“Pure acceleration out of the corner was quite similar. [Having] four-wheel-drive and traction control in the LMP1 meant from a low-speed corner there was amazing drive, but a Formula One car keeps accelerating.”
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“An F1 car also has more downforce in high-speed, which also means better potential on the brakes. A lot of the lap time gain in Formula One is either high-speed [corners] and top speed. You’re braking from a much higher speed in Formula One and the stopping power is very impressive also due to the amount of downforce that we have.”
Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost has said Hartley’s experience with fuel conservation in WEC is serving him well in F1. Hartley said he’s “used to having to be very efficient because we were so restricted on fuel there.”
“So if we get to a race where we are very restricted on fuel I think it’s a good strength from my side. Obviously working on such a project is all valuable experience, working with Mark [Webber] and Timo and my other team mates, all experience is good experience.”
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2018 F1 season
- F1 feared “death knell” for Drive to Survive after Ferrari and Mercedes snub
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- ‘It doesn’t matter if we start last’: How Red Bull’s junior team aided Honda’s leap forward
- Honda’s jet division helped F1 engineers solve power unit problem
- McLaren Racing losses rise after Honda split
JimG (@jimg)
23rd April 2018, 12:13
Nice typo! :-D
Tommy Scragend
23rd April 2018, 12:21
Damn, you beat me to it!
Hugh (@hugh11)
23rd April 2018, 12:26
Or is it?
Strontium (@strontium)
23rd April 2018, 12:14
It was very interesting to read this.
It goes to show that tyres are a far too dominant factor in F1. Everything revolves around the tyres. Aren’t the tyres supposed to revolve around the car – literally
Formula1 (@s2g-unit)
23rd April 2018, 13:02
I hate Pirelli’s tyres, nothing but constant issues with temperature, overheating, tiny operating windows. I cant believe still today drivers cant prevent the tyres from going off in one lap im quali.
Franton (@franton)
23rd April 2018, 13:48
Can’t stand the tyres either, they’re like bubblegum. However .. it must be stated that Pirelli are delivering exactly what has been asked of them. I’m sure they could provide rock hard tyres that could last four races if they were allowed!
pSynrg (@psynrg)
23rd April 2018, 13:52
@s2g-unit It’s not that they can’t prevent it. They are focused on extracting that single laps worth of peak performance from the tyre, simply because that’s the only way to get grid position.
If they aggregated quali over, for example 3 laps – then they would manage the variables to suit and the drivers will oblige.
But as everyone says, this is not pure sprint racing – it’s endurance style management within sprint racing.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
23rd April 2018, 18:06
The tyres Pirelli supply to F1 are made to F1’s specifications. A different tyre manufacturer could be slightly different but not hugely different, because that manufacturer would have to construct their tyres to the same specification as what Pirelli build their tyres to. The impression I got was Pirelli would prefer to make more durable tyres, but that isn’t what F1 wants. As it is, F1 has rules that stipulate all cars must run two different specification tyres in a race. Even if the ultra-soft tyre could last the entire GP cars using them would still have to make a pit stop at some stage to fit a different specification tyre.
grat
23rd April 2018, 18:38
No, the tires are supposed to revolve around the axles.
bosyber (@bosyber)
23rd April 2018, 12:24
Refreshing to hear someone not harp on how complex and hard to understand the PUs in F1 are, but rather the opposite (in comparison to WEC).
I do hope we’ll see Hartley use that fuel saving savings to good success this year.
bosyber (@bosyber)
23rd April 2018, 12:24
*fuel saving experience /talent
kpcart
24th April 2018, 1:13
When I watch f1 now, it is almost like they have traction control again, all the driver has to do is put his foot on the pedal and the computers do the rest.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
24th April 2018, 10:30
There is just so much downforce. Any time they are above 100-130km/h on a dry track they can go flat on any straight.
They would need gigantic power to need TC with this downforce.
Jere (@jerejj)
23rd April 2018, 13:19
Hopefully, he’ll manage to open his points-tally in F1 rather sooner (Gasly has managed to do so with the same machinery, so he should be able to achieve the same as well) as it’s far from a given that he’ll get to keep his drive at STR beyond this season. I really like him as a person, so I hope he’d finally get some decent results (P13 from his debut race at COTA last season is still his PB F1 race-finishing position so far).
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
23rd April 2018, 15:12
Dude… 5 or 6 adds on this article alone to become supporter? Surely you must know it’s extremely anoying because you blackmail me by encouraging me to pay so that the adds will go away…
Dennis (@dennis65)
23rd April 2018, 15:22
You are seriously complaining about this?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
23rd April 2018, 23:34
@jeffreyj The simple answer is that the income rates brought in from advertising have dropped recently. They have fallen to a point where more ads had to be added to the page in order to increase the chance of bringing in the income we need to do what we do.
If it was possible to run the site, have someone attending almost every F1 race this year and bringing all the original content we have, and do it all without having to run any advertising that would be great. But that obviously isn’t possible.
So we have ads. We also offer an alternative for those who would like to support the site directly and, through doing so, not see ads.
I think this is reasonable and it’s the best way I’ve been able to think of so far for funding a site which produces original, independent content. I’m always open to suggestions for ways to do it better. I hope you agree this is far from “blackmail”.
Kyle Stephens (@kylestephens)
23rd April 2018, 23:39
Very reasonable.
Keep up the great work, Keith. Racefans is definitely my go-to site for insightful commentary and analysis on F1.
Tenerifeman (@tenerifeman)
24th April 2018, 1:02
Good to hear in one way, I always assumed that if I cli*ked on enough ads and left them open for enough time it would be better for Keith than paying a pound a month. Perhaps not now true? I realise that under Mr Goo … terms we must be careful what is said …..
MazdaChris (@mazdachris)
24th April 2018, 8:48
I mean it’s hardly a massive expense. I was paying four times the amount in order to subscribe to Autosport, and that was really only so that I could read the articles by @dieterrencken. Now I’ve unsubscribed I find that the whole of Autosport is a horror show of massive adverts that float around the screen, and restrictions that stop you from reading more than 15 articles a month. By contrast I’ve always found this site’s advertising very subtle and unobtrusive, and the yearly cost for subscription isn’t expensive considering the content put out on a daily basis.
bogaaaa (@nosehair)
25th April 2018, 0:30
@keithcollantine as a publisher also Keith , http://www.adbourne.com l feel your pain and frustration as advertising income has been in sharp decline throught out the media industry world wide.
This is a great site and l can see you operate it with great passion and long hours.
Pete (@petey84)
25th April 2018, 3:55
I was getting heaps of redirect ads yesterday on the round up article @keithcollantine on a android device. Not to become a supporter but more of those ‘Free iphone 7’ garbage ads.
Egonovi
25th April 2018, 8:06
There are ways to improve @KeithCollantine.
I was a paying member when you decided to delete a couple of my comments. I could not find any comment rule I broke and you were not willing to tell me why a specific comment was deleted.
I decided then, and told you so, that I would stop being a financial supporter.
When I discussed this openly with a few other members you even put a standard block on my account (every comment had to be reviewed first). This is when I decided to stop using my old login, and became anonymous.
In short. Great site, but mediocre treatment of your most active supporters (contributors). There are easy ways to resolve this if you are open to constructive feedback.
UNeedAFinn2Win (@uneedafinn2win)
25th April 2018, 9:58
Wait, there are ads !?
OMG, you mean this thing that I enjoy what I get for free, is still for free for me?
What next, I have the option to enjoy not seeing ads for what amounts to nothing a month ? SAY IT ISN’T SO, BY GAWD, SAY IT ISN’T SO!!
I RAGEQUIT THIS SOOO HARD !!
/s
geez ppl, welcome to the world…
Thank you KC
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
30th April 2018, 14:40
@keithcollantine I wrote that comment in the moment so it might have sounded unnecessarily rude. Sorry for that. I stand with the premise though. I get why you are doing it, I’m just saying it’s overdone imho.
As for having someone attending the races, what exactly is added value of this other than a few pictures and a diary piece? For news you’re still mostly referring to other websites and social media, no? (unless I missed something, in which case I apologize). Does it add to the quality of articles that it warrants the investment? I mean, if it does than it does of course but I think creating a good quality F1 podcast (+other series) will add more value to your listeners/readers while also providing you with an opportunity to cross match advertising (which, again, is fine but if not overdone)
Shimks (@shimks)
25th April 2018, 15:55
Hi @jeffreyj! You can be part of the solution by signing up and contributing a tiny amount to help run this fantastic site. Join us! The only reason we managed to get Dieter is from the contributions made by some of us. If you join too, and others like you, who knows what fabulous could happen to RaceFans in the future.
Join us! :O)
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
23rd April 2018, 15:32
I like this Hartley guy. He is awesome. To bad he has a lot of ground to make up.
dutchtreat (@dutchtreat)
23rd April 2018, 17:53
Hartley has Gasly as team mate. Gasly is a future world champion, he is amazing. The good thing it will raise Hartley’s performance but he will never beat him.
Markus (@aesto)
23rd April 2018, 23:28
I wouldn’t underestimate Hartley. He’s beaten Gasly 2 out of 3 times in qualifying so far this year, and ultimately, raw speed rather than points gathered is what matters to Red Bull (see Ricciardo vs. Vergne).
Theoddkiwi (@theoddkiwi)
24th April 2018, 0:05
Added to that the one time he was beaten in Qualy he was only behind by a small amount just missing Q3
Obster
23rd April 2018, 23:06
Very interesting article that highlights his skill and prior experience.
I’ll be keeping a closer eye on him during the races because of this article.
Thanks.
kpcart
24th April 2018, 1:16
Good article and a nice guy, but so far he hasn’t shown exceptional speed in f1. I think without 2 or 3 excellent results soon, he will be out of f1 forever after this season.
YellowSubmarine
24th April 2018, 11:04
And that, in a nutshell, is what’s wrong with F1. As told by someone who’s raced elsewhere. Spoken like a real kiwi – no sugarcoating. Thank you, Brendon.
John H (@john-h)
25th April 2018, 7:36
Isn’t that what’s right with F1? It’s not an endurance race.