The second triple header of the 2021 Formula 1 season has passed for a some days now. With a broader overview, there are different points of reflection. Thanks to the telemetry data in their possession, funoanalisitecnica.com has analyzed the information to draw some conclusions on the current situation and understand the values on track. To do this, let’s look at the speeds measured at certain points on the historic Monza track.
In addition, let’s take into consideration last year’s data without forgetting that, despite the general consistency of the regulation, the 2021 cars have been subjected to a couple of new technical standards. The most obvious one concerns the portion of the floor in front of the rear tyres. This modification significantly reduced the vertical load produced at the rear and at the same time produced a natural imbalance between the two axles of the single-seaters.
The technicians of the various teams, some more than others, had to work hard to recover part of the downforce and rebalance the cars. Although the lost downforce points have been recovered almost in their entirety, let’s see how we can quantify the delta between the cars examined. In the comparison, four cars are taken into consideration: Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren.
Taking a quick look at the table we can notice which are the Mercedes motorized cars. Hamilton and Norris manage to gain about 2 or 3 km / h in top speed. From this point of view, Ferrari is the car that has least improved compared to last year. The reason, however, is partly to be found in the setup. The deficit of horses of the past season was much more pronounced and to be able to obtain a good speed response, the Italian technicians had to use a low downforce configuration for the SF1000.
Among those examined, the only team to obtain a significant improvement on the first variant is McLaren. Compared to 2020, in fact, Norris is able to gain 4 km / h in the middle of the corner. While arriving at the strong corner of the Roggia, where almost everyone had the same performance as in the previous year, it is Red Bull that seems to make the difference. In the hands of Max Verstappen the Austrian car manages to bring a higher travel speed of 4Km / h.
Continuing the tour we arrive at two Lesmo corners. In this section of the track, although for different reasons, it is Mercedes and Red Bull who have lost the most. As for Hamilton, the worst of the two, there is a 9 km / h difference in both difficult right-hand turns. Considering that in the Monza circuit performance is limited precisely from the rear, this factor, for Mercedes, must be seen as a clear sign of lack of grip at the rear.
It is no coincidence that the Brackley engineers have worked heavily in this area of the car, a symptom that the vertical load points to be recovered were and remain several. As for Red Bull, however, the very low set-up has undoubtedly affected the vertical thrust generated. Nonetheless, at the first of Lesmo the number 33 shows a minimal gap compared to the previous year, with only 2Km / h of difference. While at the following bend the gap rises to 7km / m
McLaren’s performance is in line with the first sector which, despite excellent top speeds, maintains the loss in terms of driving speeds on values that are not too high. But in this case the interesting data concerns Ferrari. In fact, Charles Leclerc’s SF21 is the only single-seater capable of gaining the second of Lesmo 2, with 4km / h more to the center of the turn than in the previous edition of the Italian Grand Prix.
An element that is repeated in the third sector, where the Monegasque driver is able to cover the Variante Ascari and the Parabolica (recently named Alboreto) even faster than 3Km / h. Keeping in mind the handling problems suffered by the SF21 in this part of the track, we can still define the performance of the SF21 car as good, still limited by the lack of 20 horsepower as compared to Mercedes and Hona which narrow the set up window and at the same time limit the maximum performance of the Italian car.
The third sector was not completed to perfection by Max Verstappen showing a significant gap in both points mentioned, while Hamilton, at least, manages to minimize the losses in corners 8-9-10. Norris good at Ascari, less at Alboreto.
source: funoanalisitecnica.com
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