#free practice analysis

[charles-leclerc-official]

A few observations from FP2 that I was looking at.

First Lewis' really good lap on the medium was interesting. I think it's likely he and Charles were on lower fuel or had a different engine mode for those early medium runs.

But to compare Lewis' best medium lap to Charles where he gained the time is pretty clear. Lewis employed a notably later braking into the turns which seems to have been more optimal in these conditions (especially in the low speed corners) so that's worth noting.

Lewis and Charles were on a different program today with Lewis mostly doing runs on softs and Charles getting in more on the mediums(making up for time lost in FP1)

The second stint Charles did on the mediums seems to be shooting more for the race pace, possibly with higher fuel or just aiming for a specific delta. Lewis also doing some interesting runs on the softs, possibly for a comparison to Charles on the mediums under similar settings/conditions.

Comparing Charles's and Lewis' best laps on the softs.

They were very close on pace until Lewis went wide in the final turn (pretty obvious on the delta) Charles was faster on straights and Lewis still had the edge in many turns. Overall a very similar pace without that small error at the end there.

A few comparisons to the other teams. Max would have been behind Lewis without Lewis losing time in the corner. At the moment both Ferrari's seem to have better speed and pace than the Red Bull this weekend. Mclaren make up most of their time on Ferrari in sectors 2 and 3, especially around the low speed turns.

The margin between George and Charles on the softs was pretty much nothing, it will come down to the smallest things to split the two if this is indicative of quali.

Given the number of soft runs we saw a lot of teams are putting a lot in on qualifying. This is a race where I could see the trend of win from pole overturned, deg is higher here with the heat and abrasiveness of the track, so we may get more of a contest of pace unlike previous rounds.

Hopefully this is hinting at an improvement to Ferrari from the floor and another step up in quali. There are still some unknowns so these are the observations I took from the session and the vibes.

[the-pitwall]

Friday Free Practice Data

Most of the teams are about 0.8 seconds slower than their 2019 times, however what is interesting is the fact that the lower midfield teams have lost the least amount of time, which shows how much closer the grid is this year.

In FP1 16 drivers were within 2 seconds of each other and the same in FP2, however in FP2 the top 11 drivers were within a second of each other, whilst in 2019 in each session it was only the top 4 or 5 within a second of each other.

[the-pitwall]

So far with the data from FP1 this is the average lap time differential for each team

Mercedes: 1.761 seconds

Red Bull: 0.778 seconds

McLaren: 0.599 seconds

Aston Martin: 0.775 seconds

Alpine: 0.833 seconds

Ferrari: 1.033 seconds

Alpha Tauri: 0.349 seconds

Alfa Romeo: 1.842 seconds (0.777 without Kubica)

Haas: 2.916 seconds (2.475 without Mazepin)

Williams: -0.014 seconds (they are the only team that are faster)

[the-pitwall]

FP1 Laptime Variation from 2020 to 2021

I've been recording and comparing the laptimes for both the 2020 and 2021 seasons and up until recently, the cars have been considerably slower at the tracks this year, up until now.

This first chart is the gap for each car from 2020 FP1 to 2021 FP1 at Silverstone, rather than using the drivers themselves the cars are just compared as the faster car from X team in 2020, compared to the faster car from the same team in 2021. As you can see the only team where both cars are slower this year than last is Aston Martin (negative bar indicates that the car is slower in 2021, and the larger the bar the bigger pace differential)

This is the average pace gap for each team between 2020 FP1 and 2021 FP1, as you can see both Aston Martin and Alpine are the teams that have lost time, with McLaren being the team that has found the most time between the two British Grand Prix, with teams on average being about 3 tenths of a second quicker this year.

[the-pitwall]

Free Practice Lap Time Differences at Portimao between 2020 and 2021

This appears to be a track where each team has lost approximately a second per lap between this season and last and so far in regards to Medium/High Downforce tracks as a whole, Haas have lost the most amount of time per lap, followed by Mercedes and Ferrari and Alfa Romeo seem to have taken the biggest step forward

Once again anomalies are calculated using the standard deviation of the data as it is the method that works best

[the-pitwall]

2021 Spanish GP - Free Practice Lap Time Analysis

All teams have lost time between 2020 and 2021 at Spain, with Haas and Mercedes being the worst affected but on the other end of the scale, Williams and Alpha Tauri have lost almost nothing, with Williams actually being quicker in FP3 this year compared to last.

If you look at the average time gap for all of the medium-high downforce tracks we have done so far (Imola, Portugal, Spain) this is the average time loss at the tracks that should be most affected by the regulation changes

With each team losing anywhere from half a second upwards to over a second and a half, except from Williams, although special commendations to Ferrari and Alfa Romeo for both making a massive step forwards