Relative car performance in 2012

Do we actually understand why certain cars are quick/slow on certain race weekends?

Why have lotus been no where for the last 3/4/5 races and then suddenly Kimi rocks up today and arguably had the second fastest race pace after Hamilton?

Why was Alonso's race pace so good in the last 2-3 races (right up there with Red Bull) and then suddenly today he was slower than Hamilton, Kimi and Red Bull?

Car upgrades, setup, track characteristics, engines

By the way, Kimi reckons that he had an equally competitive car in India, but he messed up the setup for qualifying and that's why he couldn't fight for podium. Lotus pace change for the better can also be traced to them making the new Coanda exhaust system work better.

And I can't see any abnormal changes in the comparative pace of Ferrari and Red Bull tbh. RBR is and has been just a bit faster, that's all.

Do we actually understand why certain cars are quick/slow on certain race weekends?

I think no - not fully. There have been wild swings in performance in the fist half - it seems unbelievable that Rosberg won a race in that car. Later on, McLaren looked like it could be the team to beat, then Red Bull. But things can still change rather quickly and it's not always very predictable - especially if you contrast it with other years in which you could pretty much tell which 2 teams would fight for the win.

Car upgrades, setup, track characteristics, engines

By the way, Kimi reckons that he had an equally competitive car in India, but he messed up the setup for qualifying and that's why he couldn't fight for podium. Lotus pace change for the better can also be traced to them making the new Coanda exhaust system work better.

And I can't see any abnormal changes in the comparative pace of Ferrari and Red Bull tbh. RBR is and has been just a bit faster, that's all.

Agree. Kimi claimed that only because they went totally full ****** with changes to his car, he drove a car during Q, that was SLOWER than in FP3 (by a lot). + as you can recall the race, he had a way superior pace to Massa's, but still was like 50 laps behind him watching every detail of Ferrari.

Also Ferrari is overhyped, it is still a car that is max 3rd. and that isnt Ferrari that performed well, it's Alonso that brings the car in positions that it shouldnt come in the first place (but it is due to mistakes from likes of McLaren, underperformance of Webber, and Lotus qualifications problems).

The next thing is also upgrades. Since Lotus introduced coanda exhaust, u can see that they clearly claimed some ground back, mostly in slow corners, their traction improved. They maybe lost a bit of v-max, but still if you start from top4, you wont overtake much during a race anyway.

McLaren has everything that should, except reliability, and reliable 2nd driver. Button today looked like he would drive different car from Hamilton.

RBR as mentioned, is probably on par with McLaren best car, but their team managment is far ahead of McLaren, + they have Webber that is "rather" better driver than Button {excluded today where he went full ******, I thought that he is driving a bumping car or smt}.

The cars are so optimized that performance varies "wildly" by track, ambient temp, tyre compound, fuel load, even point in tyre life cycle blah blah. In reality "wildly" is a huge exaggeration since the gaps are tiny, but fans have a tendency to overreact.

The cars are so optimized that performance varies "wildly" by track, ambient temp, tyre compound, fuel load, even point in tyre life cycle blah blah. In reality "wildly" is a huge exaggeration since the gaps are tiny, but fans have a tendency to overreact.

Exactly. It is funny that these changes are considered big when back in the day the comparative pace of different cars could change by multiple seconds on different tracks. Now we are talking about maybe half a second variations.

The solution to this problem is to have all the tracks designed by the same guy. Oh ...... wait.

The solution to this problem is to have all the tracks designed by the same guy. Oh ...... wait.

it really doesn't matter. The teams have the ability to gather so much data, and simulate any track so precisely before even turning a wheel there that no matter what you throw at them they will arrive with 99.7% of the setup already done at the factory and just chase the last 0.3% with tyre pressures and the like. Look at Abu Dhabi. P1 to P10 was 1 second. P2 to P5 was 3 tenths. From P6 to P10 it was 2 tenths The average fan can't really fathom how small a gap 2 or 3 tenths is in a 100 second lap.

Edited by engel, 05 November 2012 - 04:22.