Poll: Official 2023 Spanish Grand Prix Thread - Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona - Round 8

Rate the Spanish race out of ten

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Mr Jack said:
It also seems there is a direct trade off between quickly warming your tyres (good for Quali) and reducing tyre wear (good for the race).
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Yep, tyre preparation is a big part of getting the maximum out of the car. It doesn't take much, say another car in front, for the tyres not to be within their ideal temps, which is quite narrow..
 
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cuke2u said:
Simply that some teams, under certain conditions, can have better one lap cars than race cars. It's all to do with tyre degradation, tyre heat, track and ambient conditions.
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But it seems to be more the case since the new regs.

Before, the grid was mostly as you would expect every race.
 
Jono8 said:
What I don't get this season, is the ability for some of the much slower cars to really compete in qualifying.

In race pace analysis, the Mclaren was the second to last slowest car, yet Norris qualified 3rd. The Haas was the third to last slowest car in race pace but Hulkenberg got it in p8 for qualy. Kevin in the Haas qualified 4th in Miami, Albon 8th in Aus etc

It is just odd to see Norris out qualify Lewis and then to have Lewis a ridiculous amount faster in the race.

The Ferrari is (maybe was(!)) mega close to RB in qualy, but then rubbish in the race. Arguably now the 4th fastest car on the grid.

It is a phenomenon i have noticed with these new regulations more so than previous ones and it seems even more dramatic this season.

Is it mainly to do with tyre wear (seems that could be the case with Ferrari), or something else?
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Do you remember the days when MSc was at Mercedes and they would do well in qualifying because their tyres would be nicely heated up for single quali laps, but in the races they would fall backwards through the field because their tyres overheated and suffered big performance drops?
 
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The cars are so sensitive now and operating under such narrow windows of optimum performance. Arguably we should embrace that quali is less important now. You would almost always prefer a fast race car over a quick one lap car. The race distances being so long in F1, generally allow poor qualifying performances to be clawed back a little. Look at Redbull. They can start from the pit lane and most races expect to be pushing for podium spots. Gone are the days of setting up a quali bias car for track position - perhaps Monaco aside - as you will just get done on the straights under DRS once others reel you in.
 
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