In the round-up: Lando Norris says judging how much tyre-saving to do is harder in practice than it is in races.
What they say
RaceFans asked Norris how different real F1 races are to simulations:I think the hard thing in the practice and pre-season testing and everything is knowing how much to push and not to push. Especially for my first time doing a race sim in Barcelona, knowing how hard to push with a full tank of fuel, tyres that drop off a lot both in wear but also thermally, it’s always hard to judge. Sometimes you have loads of tyre deg and you think ‘oh no, this is going to be terrible’.
When you’re in a race you obviously gauge yourself much more of others drivers around and it’s easier to know what they’re doing and what you have to do to make changes and save the tyres more, save they tyres less. So it is very different.
As a whole experience the pressure is on a lot more. It’s what counts on the Sunday, rather than pre-season testing [where] you can do a lock-up, a little mistake, it’s like ‘that’s nothing’. But if you do it on Sunday you lose a place or you have to box for a flat-spot or something like that, then it’s a much bigger problem. So altogether it’s a lot more pressure, you have to think about a lot more things when it comes to the race itself rather than in pre-season when it’s a bit more relaxed.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Always fun to see recent single-seaters put to use in hillclimbs. Here's a Dallara F312:https://t.co/HKXDrC99mI
— Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) April 21, 2019
It can't come soon enough. Increase ERS and diminish ICE power for the next five years.
Then go electric final drive. What powers the electric motor is up to the teams (battery, wireless inductive charging, battery swaps, ICE generator)— Craig Scarborough (@ScarbsTech) April 21, 2019
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
2019 Super Formula round one race digest (Super Formula via YouTube)
Two big winners in Angerville: Taponen in Junior and Patterson in OK (FIA)
"With the 2nd fastest time of Qualifying Practice, the Sauber Karting Team Driver Dexter Patterson (GBR - KR / Iame / LeCont) was then extremely dominant. He did not take any risks by finishing fourth in his last heat, still knowing he was the leader in the OK category. He started the Final in pole position and kept his lead over the 26 laps."
WTCR electrification will take 'a few years' at least (Autosport)
"It's quite a tricky exercise to electrify a championship - we see (in) Formula E, the level of expertise, and how much the habits we have (must) be changed - safety level, security everywhere and then the way to provide the electricity, to manage the cars, single suppliers and everything because it would be crazy cost of development."
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Comment of the day
Instead of making either combustion or electric engines mandatory, should F1 try to find parity between different power units?
I have an idea… maybe a dream. Why not open the regulations and that the teams could decide which type of power unit they want?.
Like formerly when you can try between aspirated 3.0-litre engines and 1.5-litre turbos. That formula was very advantageous for the aspirated engines in the beginning, but when some teams set out to investigate and develop the turbos, they managed to surpass the performance of the aspirates.
I think to try to replicate that formula, making a regulation that is advantageous for the petrol engines but leaving a space for electric innovation is a (expensive) good idea.
Dani B Molina (@Esmiz)
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On this day in F1
- 30 years ago today Ayrton Senna beat McLaren team mate Alain Prost to pole position at Imola by 0.2 seconds, the next-closest car 1.4s adrift.
Ross
22nd April 2019, 1:21
I can’t help but disagree with Scarbs. When the majority of transport is based on Electric drive maybe, but currently if you want to watch FE the option is there, I respect the technology but there is nothing like explosion powered motion.
Mashiat (@mashiat)
22nd April 2019, 7:16
On COTD, it would be great for engineers, but we would end up with a situation that is far worse than what we had in 2014. One manufacturer is likely to get things right more so than the others, and it wouldn’t surprise me if we had a team that was 2-3 seconds clear of everyone else, and the field will be massively spread out. Perhaps some people who enjoyed the 60s and 70s may enjoy that spectacle, but I personally say “no thanks” to that.
Jere (@jerejj)
22nd April 2019, 7:16
Regarding the COTD: An interesting idea, which mightn’t be too bad if it were applied although how easy would it be to achieve in reality vs., in theory, that’s a different story.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
22nd April 2019, 15:14
COTD….
The reason they don’t do that is because recent history shows that one configuration always proves the best & that while you initially get different approaches once the best one becomes clear everyone moves towards that.
For example with the 3.5/3.0ltr N/A format from 1989-2005 you initially had a good mix of V8/V10/V12’s but eventually the V10 become the obvious best balance so everyone moved towards that by the end of the 90’s.
In locking down the formula the hope was/is that it avoids the expense of engine suppliers spending millions going down the wrong direction & then having to spend further millions shifting to the right one & then catching up.
The other aim was to try & have some level of performance parity without having to resort to any sort of performance balancing. Remember that in the 90’s it wasn’t uncommon to see the likes of Minardi running V8’s that were as much as 100hp (At times more) down on the V10’s.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
22nd April 2019, 15:46
We can only hope that Formula E is not going to race in the traditional track too soon.
When they did, F1 would be obsolete.
F1oSaurus (@)
22nd April 2019, 20:32
@ruliemaulana How so? Performance wise, Formula E is more comparable to Formula 3.
Gabriel (@rethla)
23rd April 2019, 5:30
And thats in free fall.
Gabriel (@rethla)
23rd April 2019, 5:31
That hillclimb looks great!
Shimks (@shimks)
23rd April 2019, 9:01
Yeah, @rethla! Pretty dangerous, eh. If he clipped any one of those corners…