(Motorsport-Total.com) – Max Verstappen’s record-breaking season continues happily: with the 53rd victory of his career in Las Vegas, he equals Sebastian Vettel on the list of all-time winners, but he had to fight harder than ever. the usual for victory. in snowfall
In Las Vegas, Max Verstappen not only kept his nose slightly ahead of Charles Leclerc at the start
How good was the pace of the individual cars? What does the data for the 2023 season tell us? Who is good at qualifying and who is good at racing? Who has the best top speed? Who has the best tire wear and how much does it cost? How fast are the teammates with each other?
With the data provided by our technology partner ‘PACETEQ’, it is possible to gain insights into otherwise hidden data from Formula 1 teams and we can use it to answer all these questions.
Race pace: Ferrari narrowly misses, McLaren recovers
Judging by the data, Max Verstappen was the fastest driver at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, but only a tenth per lap ahead of Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc. While the Monegasse made a slightly stronger impression on the medium tyres, the Red Bulls were better on the hard tyres.
Surprisingly, third place was taken by McLaren (+0.43), so Oscar Piastri’s tenth place was not expected at all. However, the hard-hard-medium strategy, with no stop under the safety car, ruined Piastri’s race. Mercedes (+0.58) was also unable to exploit its full potential with seventh and eighth places.
Alpine (+0.77) and Aston Martin (+0.93) have benefited more from the problems of the best teams, although Alpine’s pace does not cease to surprise considering that the Renault is the engine with the lowest power. However, Esteban Ocon managed to get the tires to work perfectly in the race.
Williams (+1.42), Haas (+1.59), AlphaTauri (+1.88) and Alfa Romeo (+2.0) all had problems with tire temperature and grain in the race. Valtteri Bottas probably would have had the better pace, but after the collision at the start that damaged his diffuser and his underbody, his race was over.
If you look at the best times in qualifying, Ferrari and Charles Leclerc were the dominant force. Due to the few corners, the field stayed very close, with only AlphaTauri and McLaren disappointing as they simply couldn’t get their tires up to temperature.
Tire wear is not a problem with Ferrari and Haas
Leclerc deprived of a certain victory in the safety car race!
With the 53rd victory of his career in Las Vegas, Max Verstappen has tied Sebastian Vettel on the list of all-time Formula 1 winners.
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At the Brazilian Grand Prix, the teams mainly made two stops, although this was due to the safety car phases. If you extrapolate the tire data from the race, the medium-hard strategy without the safety cars would have been about four seconds faster than the two-stop medium-hard strategy. In any case, it was more about warming the tires and avoiding grain than protecting them.
Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari showed the best tire management in Las Vegas. Charles Leclerc’s first stint on medium tires was particularly impressive. There were no big differences between the teams at the back of the field.
The seasonal average shows a mixed picture. The Red Bull RB19 remains the car with the least tire wear, and the constant laps also indicate pace management. However, in theory the team should have advantages, especially on tracks with aggressive asphalt. Mercedes and Aston Martin also score points when it comes to tire wear.
Ferrari and its customer teams Haas and Alfa Romeo are a little further behind and wear tires faster and more intensely. This costs the American Haas team especially valuable time in the race and makes it almost impossible to score points on Sunday.
This is what the balance of power looks like all season long!
If you look at the averages of the first 21 races, it now seems that the chasers are slowly catching up to Red Bull. Especially in the standings, the Bulls are increasingly vulnerable to not occupying the first position.
If the average of the first 21 races is taken, Red Bull leads Ferrari by almost two tenths in the standings, followed by Mercedes (+0.38) and McLaren (+0.64). The problem boy in the standings is Williams: the Grove team is in last place, 1.21 seconds behind.
In the race there are major differences. Ferrari is now six tenths away, as is Mercedes. The gaps in midfield have also increased significantly. While the field was 1.21 seconds behind in qualifying, it is now 1.71 behind in the race.
The differences between qualifying and the race are sometimes serious. If Red Bull is taken as a reference point, Aston Martin falls behind in the race by about 0.082 seconds per lap and, therefore, remains the team that is closest to catching Red Bull in relation to the classification, although in the wrong direction.
The biggest loser is Ferrari: the Scuderia is four tenths behind Red Bull in the race than in qualifying the previous day. Alfa Romeo and Haas also appear to be performing significantly better on one lap, losing another three tenths to Red Bull in the race.
Team duel: Pérez and Paseo with clap
A similar difference between qualifying and the race can also be seen in the distances in the team duels. The clearest team duel in the classification occurs at Aston Martin with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, where the Canadian wins an average of almost eight tenths. Also notable are the duels at Williams, Haas and Red Bull, with Ferrari being the closest.
The clearest team duel in the race also occurs at Aston Martin, where Lance Stroll sees no rival against Fernando Alonso. Interestingly, one of the clearest qualifying duels is one of the closest of the race, where Magnussen in Haas is even faster on average than Hülkenberg.
In addition to Haas, other duels between teams were also played. In the race, Tsunoda is now faster than Ricciardo and Guanyu Zhou in Alfa Romeo, ahead of Valtteri Bottas. Based on the data, Daniel Ricciardo is also the best partner of Yuki Tsunoda, whom he had in AlphaTauri in 2023.
Which car has the best top speed?
The big question, of course, is where does Red Bull’s advantage come from? Of course, the car is perfectly balanced, but the RB19 can also show its strengths on the straights. If you look at the maximum speed values in the classification, no one is faster than Verstappen and Pérez.
On the one hand, the RB19 is once again aerodynamically efficient and generates less air resistance than the competition, but even with the DRS open, Red Bull apparently finds more time than the rest: with an average of 0.5 km/h behind , only Williams can keep up remotely, followed by Ferrari.
Mercedes is in the middle of the field in terms of top speed, while at the bottom of the field are McLaren and AlphaTauri, who still need to improve with an average of 5 km/h behind Red Bull. These cars have too much air resistance.
Who makes the most bluffs in Q1?
Have you ever wondered which team can improve the most from Q1 to Q3? We have the answer: Red Bull! The team gains more than a second during qualifying, which means that at the beginning of qualifying you often don’t have all the cards on the table, whether it’s the amount of fuel or the engine mode.
The smaller teams, which are of course in danger of being eliminated in Q1, have to go full throttle in the first qualifying segment and can therefore only improve further by generally improving track conditions.
Who makes the best pit stops?
An important criterion for a good race strategy is, of course, pit stops. On average, Red Bull and McLaren drivers spend the least amount of time changing tires. Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez only manage an average of 2.62 seconds when changing tires, which is the best value in Formula 1.
Alfa Romeo and Haas have bigger problems when changing tires with more than three and a half seconds per stop! And this excludes pit stops with front wing changes or similar. The unluckiest person in the pit lane is Guanyu Zhou. The Chinese take an average of 3.7 seconds to change tires.