2021 Spanish Grand Prix interactive data: lap charts, times and tyres

36 comments on “2021 Spanish Grand Prix interactive data: lap charts, times and tyres”

1. 

   Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
   9th May 2021, 22:26

   Fun fact: Leclerc’s and Sainz’s pit stops were equally fast – 2.2 at their first stops, 2.7 at their 2nd stops
   Nice to see Ferrari getting consistency on their pit stops, considering how bad they were last year.
   That new pit equipment seems to have helped them a lot.
2. 

   David BR (@david-br)
   9th May 2021, 23:37

   This is really interesting, though it will infuriate a lot of people. Peter Windsor talks about this Sunday’s GP as the first time he was able to watch Max and Lewis driving close together on track, on a ‘technical’ circuit, during the medium stint when they had the same tyres, allowing him to properly compare their driving styles. What he noticed (and was surprised by) is how much sleaker Lewis’s style is compared to Max (and he’s a Max fan), using less track to handle the car in and out of the corners, balancing the car quicker and putting less energy into the tyres while running at the same pace as Max. Over a race distance, that simply makes him faster as his rivals tyres run out of life quicker. I think that analysis is borne out in how Lewis now dominates races so easily through tyre wear control, quicker while using them less. The way he chased down Max faster than Mercedes (and Red Bull) expected also points to him totally dominating these end of races.

   PW has also recently been noting how Max brakes relatively early, early than most, which Lewis could have exploited at the start when Max braked about 10 meters before he did, giving Lewis the chance to switch to the right and control the corner (as was visually evident).
   1. 

      someone or something
      10th May 2021, 0:53

      The only infuriating aspect of that comparison is how it’s apparently based on the assumptions that both cars have identical characteristics. They don’t, as was almost immediately apparent to anyone watching the race. Verstappen made a comment or two to that effect over team radio. If he had tried to use the same lines as Hamilton, he would’ve either not made the corners, or needed to take them more slowly. Really, the whole argument just boils down to the fact that the Mercedes was visibly the faster car on that day, allowing Hamilton to lap at least as quickly as Verstappen at any given moment, without needing to wrestle his car.

      I’m not a fan of the implied tribalism, either. “Oh, X has said something positive about Y (even though X is a Z fan). Z’s fans are going to be so furious …”
      What are we, 14 years old? Do we need to choose our champion and rally behind him without question, and everyone who doesn’t toe the party line gets yelled at?
      It sure feels like that a lot of the time. I just don’t like the implication that it’s supposed to be that way.
      1. 

         David BR (@david-br)
         10th May 2021, 1:30

         I just don’t like the implication that it’s supposed to be that way.

         Maybe I’m just anticipating the reality that it is that way most of the time. I agree though, it shouldn’t be.

         As for the comparison, I don’t think Peter Windsor is naive enough to assume that the cars are identical, he’s been studying Formula 1 close-up for decades! It’s about driving style despite particular downforce or handling conditions. You’re implying Hamilton would have driven that Red Bull in the same way as Max. I don’t think so.
         1. 

            someone or something
            10th May 2021, 9:09

            @david-br

            It’s about driving style despite particular downforce or handling conditions. /blockquote>I’m not going to speculate why exactly he said what he said. It’s just not the first time an analysis of his didn’t strike me as particularly insightful.

            You’re implying Hamilton would have driven that Red Bull in the same way as Max.

            That’s not what I’m saying. My point is that the differences between both cars were very obvious in this race, and that every last thing Windsor said in his comparison sounds exactly like you’d expect them to handle under the circumstances. And unless he had access to classified information about the minutiae of each car’s setup and handling, it is doubtful his ‘analysis’ goes beyond scratching the surface.
      2. 

         Esploratore (@esploratore)
         10th May 2021, 2:44

         Indeed, I agree with this, I can consider hamilton among the best drivers of the grid with verstappen, leclerc, potentially russel and norris (give them a top car for more than 1 race), and ricciardo not far under, and still say he’s not this insane driver people keep talking about, and saying the car had a huge influence over his statistics, or would you say hamilton was this good back in 2012, before joining mercedes? Like you said, mercedes was a bit faster than red bull today as well, else verstappen would’ve built a gap, he did before, for people who forget, there’s malaysia 2017, verstappen on hamilton, built 10 seconds across the whole race, and there was also the 2nd silverstone race in 2020, there could be more but no memory.
      3. 

         David BR (@david-br)
         10th May 2021, 2:50

         @esploratore and @someone-or-something, here’s Hamilton himself then:

         “It was actually a really good day,” he said after taking the win. “I learned a lot about Max today and perhaps more than all the other races probably put together.” However, Hamilton remained coy when he was asked if he would like to elaborate on what he had learned about the Red Bull racer. He replied: “Not particularly, no [laughs]. It was just… when you’re with people on track… you get to see different things and you can follow closely.”

         So it wasn’t just Peter Windsor who learnt something about Verstappen’s driving in the Spanish GP with them driving closely. Hamilton himself did. So maybe you two are right and someone with decades of experience following Formula 1, and a 7-times champion, are both wrong, there was nothing to observe in their driving. It was all about the cars. I’m guessing it’s the other way round, though.
         1. 

            someone or something
            10th May 2021, 9:12

            So maybe you two are right and someone with decades of experience following Formula 1, and a 7-times champion, are both wrong, there was nothing to observe in their driving.

            In case you were wondering, that made me roll my eyes. I had a gut feeling it would go this way, it still annoys me.
            1. 

               David BR (@david-br)
               10th May 2021, 11:45

               In case you were wondering

               Not really, I’ve worked you out already.
            2. 

               someone or something
               10th May 2021, 12:28

               @david-br
               As someone with synapses? Good job.
            3. 

               David BR (@david-br)
               10th May 2021, 13:27

               As someone with synapses?

               I’m assuming that’s an entry-level qualification.
         2. 

            MCBosch (@mcbosch)
            10th May 2021, 9:18

            You’re not wrong here, but Hamilton said he learned a lot about how Max uses the Red Bull as well. I think the best drivers adept to the traits/handling of their cars to extract the most out of them. We do know that Max is getting the best out of the Red Bull compared to his teammates, so whatever he’s doing (racing lines and such) it’s probably the right thing. Could Hamilton do a better job than Max in a Red Bull? I don’t know, but my own (maybe faulty) logic tells me that Hamilton is one of the best (or the best) drivers in F1, who is a perfectionist and continuing to evolve everything that’s in his power to continue to be the best. So I believe he would do at least an equally good job Max is doing. I think it would be the other way around too for that matter.

            I think Lewis was implying that he learned a lot more about the traits of the Red Bull by how Max is driving it. I’m confident that it was discussed in the Mercedes debrief to further capitalise on that.
      4. 

         Gigantor (@kbdavies)
         10th May 2021, 2:51

         The issue is not really about Mercedes having a faster car, but about Lewis’s almost superhuman ability to preserve the tyres without compromising pace. This has been well noted up and down the paddock for a long while now.

         Irrespective of the respective pace inherent in each car, it is clear that Max’s driving style has always been harder on the tyres. This is why Perez, also known for his tyre preservation skills (minus the speed) has made the tyres last longer in races than Max Verstappen has.

         In a season where the pendulum is swinging back and forth, amd and both cars seems to have a preference for different tyre options, it is skills like this that can make the crucial difference.

         Basically, the ONLY reason for Mercedes’s race pace today was Lewis Hamilton ability go hard without taking too much life out of his tyres. This is partly what Peter Windsor was explaining.

         The Red Bull’s set the two fastest times in the race on equal low fuel and exactly the same tyres, but they couldn’t maintain the pace over a long stint.
         1. 

            David BR (@david-br)
            10th May 2021, 3:01

            @kbdavies Indeed. P Windsor has also noted in the past how Lewis is an excellent student of other drivers – it allows him to predict how they’ll behave on track, useful in passing, defending and avoiding collisions. Notably, his recent contacts were with Albon, a driver with whom he was unfamiliar. The Max case is interesting: although he’s always been there close to the Mercedes in recent seasons, Hamilton hasn’t had a chance to be following closely lap after lap before. It’s fascinating that he used the chance to study how Verstappen drives and store that in his racing bank.
   2. 

      Gigantor (@kbdavies)
      10th May 2021, 3:01

      @David BR – it infuriates them because it challenges the lie that Max Verstappen is on the same level as Lewis Hamilton.

      Sure he is good, very good in fact, but Lewis is just a bit better. And now that the cars are essentially equal (up until this moment at least), you can see the difference between both drivers.

      Peter Windsor’s analysis certainly counts for much more than some armchair experts.
      1. 

         David BR (@david-br)
         10th May 2021, 3:08

         @kbdavies Certainly that played out in the race. Max’s speed and aggression got him ahead. He’s also consistently fast, but at some point tyre wear over the race is bound to become a factor. Clearly the car, circuit, setup and track conditions all combine to affect handling and degradation too. But if most Formula 1 fans want it to be about the drivers, not the cars, what better than to study their driving styles more closely and see how they affect race outcomes? Defaulting to ‘the Mercedes was faster’ just seems simplistic and a bit facile. Especially when the other drivers, Perez and Bottas, were clearly slower than their counterparts in the same machinery.
         1. 

            MCBosch (@mcbosch)
            10th May 2021, 9:26

            Defaulting to ‘the Mercedes was faster’ just seems simplistic and a bit facile. Especially when the other drivers, Perez and Bottas, were clearly slower than their counterparts in the same machinery.

            and there you’ve hit the nail on the head. When there’s a clear 1-2 victory over another team (like in 2019), then there’s no doubt about faster and slower cars, but to me it’s always about driver/car combinations. The Redbull this year is clearly the faster car…… when driven by Verstappen…… compared to the Mercedes…. driven by Bottas.
            1. 

               ColdFly (@)
               10th May 2021, 13:27

               The Redbull this year is clearly the faster car…… when driven by Verstappen…… compared to the Mercedes…. driven by Bottas.

               ;) @mcbosch

               But then I checked the tables above and Bottas was exactly as fast as Verstappen between the pitstops.
               Bottas (being held up by Leclerc) was 9.8s behind Verstappen before they pitted the first time, and then 9.9s behind Verstappen when Bottas pitted a second time almost 30 laps later.

               Bottas must be the other driver at the Lewis/Max level, as I read in the comment section that the RBR was as fast as Mercedes in Spain (and one clown even claiming the RBR was 1.3s faster per lap) ;)
            2. 

               MCBosch (@mcbosch)
               10th May 2021, 14:34

               @coldfly:

               hahaha, nice one. You got me there. In my defence: I’m so used at always being right, it was bound to be proven wrong soon :P

               (by the way: did you factor in the 1,2 second slower stop of Verstappen?)
            3. 

               NS Biker (@rekibsn)
               10th May 2021, 18:49

               MCBoch, so nice to see someone recognizing that mistakes can be made by any of us.
               There was a time I too made a mistake, but naturally, it turned out I only thought I was wrong.
      2. 

         someone or something
         10th May 2021, 9:39

         @kbdavies

         it infuriates them because it challenges the lie that Max Verstappen is on the same level as Lewis Hamilton.

         Whom exactly does it infuriate? The full extent of infuriation so far was a cheap rhethoric trick that predicted as much, and it seems that you’ve taken the bait without a shred of evidence to this effect.

         A popular theory on why debates on the internet is so toxic assumes that the more reasoned, nuanced opinions of any side of a debate are drowned out by the more aggressive, louder voices, and that the debate deteriorates to a yelling contest between the most unrefined proponents on each side, which ends up shaping each side’s idea of what the other side is really like.
         I disagree with this theory for two reasons:
         – I really don’t like the fact that it assumes the existence of two sides for every debate. Not everything on the internet is American politics, there are more than two stances for everything, and a lot of views that don’t fit into any ‘side’.
         – The loud, unpleasant minority doesn’t need another side’s loud, unpleasant input to radicalise itself further. All it needs is the very same side’s loud, unpleasant minority’s word on what the other side of the debate looks, feels and thinks like, and they’ll radicalise on their own, not even needing another side that consists of more than strawmen constructed by their own people.

         Full disclosure:
         My side in this is the side that sees Hamilton and Verstappen as outstanding drivers of their generation, who firmly belong in the top three on the current grid. And I don’t particularly like them both. And I think Peter Windsor’s a bit of a windbag.
         1. 

            David BR (@david-br)
            10th May 2021, 13:17

            I think Peter Windsor’s a bit of a windbag

            Fun fact: biologists call that ‘intra-species recognition.’
            1. 

               someone or something
               10th May 2021, 13:52

               @david-br
               You have already demonstrated that your rhetorical toolset exhibits significant overlap with a fourth-grader’s. There is no further need to ram that point home.
            2. 

               David BR (@david-br)
               10th May 2021, 17:43

               Tip: If you don’t sign in too, the tags don’t work to advise signed in users that you’ve tagged them.
      3. 

         MattDS (@mattds)
         10th May 2021, 12:15

         And now that the cars are essentially equal (up until this moment at least), you can see the difference between both drivers.

         Come on then. There seems to be a huge contingent of mostly Hamilton fans that seems to want to persist in this belief that the cars are “essentially equal”, probably because that way their driver comes out clearly ahead, but come on.

         Bahrain: RBR probably a tad ahead on race pace. Max could, maybe should have won. No argument there.
         Imola: once it started to dry up, the Mercedes was a lot faster than the RBR. Lewis probably should have won that one.
         Portimao: not even a contest. Mercedes far ahead on race pace.
         Spain: again Mercedes clearly ahead on race pace. Let’s not kid anyone here. The way Lewis could just follow Max around in stint 1, closed the gap in stint 2 in no time as if it was nothing? Had Lewis aced the start yesterday instead of Max, there wouldn’t have been a contest to begin with.

         Red Bull switched to lower downforce setup on Saturday to give them more top speed. If they had not done that, they would’ve been vulnerable (more so) on the straights. The disadvanage of the lower downforce setup was that it used more of the tyres. They had to choose for the lesser of two evils and figured this was it. And given Max was able to keep the lead for as long as he did probably indicates they made the right choice.

         So Max doing what he did yesterday was more due to not having as much downforce and acting upon that.

         Overall, Max should’ve had no business splitting the Mercs these past two races. He can thank Bottas for not being up to par. But looking at the points standings between Lewis and Max, they probably reflect what is achieveable given their respective cars.

         No, they are not “essentially equal”. The Merc has been generally faster on race day, and it can overtake, so it is the car to be in for now. Let’s see if the next tracks will somewhat change this view.
   3. 

      F1oSaurus (@)
      10th May 2021, 9:21

      @david-br I know right, I was also surprised. He’s a 100% Verstappen fan, but he genuinely was impressed with how much better Hamilton was doing.

      On the other hand, he has always like seeing Hamilton go around Spain. Apparently it’s just something special in a few of the more difficult corners.

      Would love if the TV footage would somehow show comparisons like he makes over the weekend.

      They really don’t show these small but significant differences between the drivers. Hamilton even had to adapt his driving style and racing line for the different rear wing in Portugal compared to Bottas. None of these differences in the car spec or driving style ever seem to get picked up.
      1. 

         David BR (@david-br)
         10th May 2021, 13:26

         It’s a kind or level of analysis seldom seen in Formula 1 punditry sadly. It just seems easier to say ‘the Mercedes is faster than the Red Bull’ or ‘the Ferrari is faster than the McLaren’. But were Ferrari faster? Or was Leclerc faster around Barcelona? If so, why? The ‘faster car’ always comes unstuck when there’s a disparity between team mates. In this case, as PW pointed out, Max was just as quick, only his handling increased tyre wear. It’s a valid question how much that is down to the car dynamics and how much to driving style (when to brake, corner, what line to take, how and when to accelerate out). I’d just like to see this analyzed more in general.
         1. 

            F1oSaurus (@)
            10th May 2021, 18:18

            @david-br Agreed, at least it usually sounds sensible what he’s saying. I’d like some footage to go along with what he’s saying though since it might make sense, but would be nice to actually see it come alive.
      2. 

         David BR (@david-br)
         10th May 2021, 13:27

         @f1osaurus
3. 

   Gigantor (@kbdavies)
   10th May 2021, 3:10

   @David BR –

   Windsor has also noted in the past how Lewis is an excellent student of other drivers

   I remember a race where he was following Sébastian Vettel some time during the Red Bull EBD domination years, where he noted that Sébastian’s lines were all over the place, yet he managed to make up time due to the power of the Renault engine off throttle mapping and combined with Red Bull’s EBD.

   Well, we saw what happened once that was taken away in 2014 due to new rules. Vettel’s performance simply crumbled and he was essentially annihilated by Riccardo.
4. 

   Willem van der Brug
   10th May 2021, 15:01

   I must be missing something simple. Why did Max verstappen not change to softs right after Bottas pitted in lap 54? Hamilton was 6 seconds behind him, so he would have returned with brand new softs about 15 seconds behind Hamilton on older mediums, with 12 laps to go. Max’s fastest lap on those softs was 2.5 seconds faster than Hamilton. At that pace he would have been on top of Hamilton with 6 laps to go. Off course he cannot maintain that single lap speed for 6 laps, but still… it would have made for a much nicer ending, especially for Max.
   1. 

      Vish
      17th May 2021, 13:28

      I don’t think the difference would have been 2.5s then because HAM’s tyres would have been only 10 laps old instead of 20 when VER actually made the pit stop. That said, if they knew HAM would catch up and overtake, they would have tried, because they would have had nothing to lose, but at that time, they didn’t know that.
5. 

   NS Biker (@rekibsn)
   10th May 2021, 19:01

   Since a section of this discussion is about tyres …
   In the Q-2 session, Lewis set his fastest time and committed to start the race on a set of previously used (or scrubbed) Soft tyres. He ran these 28 laps. Somewhat strange and certainly different than anyone else that we saw.
   Then in the race, for his final stint on Medium tires, they too were previously used (or scrubbed) tyres. He ran these 24 laps.
   I can’t believe that Mercedes ran out of tyres and had to resort to old stock. There must be a plan and some reasoning behind pre-scrubbing tyres. If this is the case, why are not more teams doing it.?
   1. 

      David BR (@david-br)
      10th May 2021, 20:03

      @rekibsn I wanted to know more about that too.
      1. 

         Lotus_49
         12th May 2021, 2:16

         They get 8 sets of soft, 3 sets of medium and 2 sets of hard compound, this is the same for all races this year. Pirelli choose the 3 compounds for each race.
         I can’t remember for sure, but Lewis likely ran one set of medium in practice to establish the wear characteristics, and one set in one of the qualification sessions to set a time; it was commented during the race that Lewis was on a scrubbed set of mediums in the third stint, I’ve checked myself and they were indeed, scrubbed.
   2. 

      Postreader
      11th May 2021, 13:56

      Pre-scrubbed tyres left to rest overnight sometimes will work better than brand new tyres. It all depends on the type of rubber.

      Of course, though, you can’t run an entire race simulation with a tyre set and presume it’ll be fine sunday. But it works if it’s just a few laps or so.

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