[WEC Race] 6 Hours of Spa

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Ooo, thanks I will check that out. We used to have a user who posted some nice graphics on it. Rather than my amateur stuff.

Do you have a link?

Hey mate. Yeah from the link below your post you can sign up for free and it'll drop a PDF into your inbox right after each race.

[Coach Ep]

Originally Posted by kdr

I'm a bit of a boring pragmatist, i actually agreed with Ferrari's call to start on wets with the notion they're not going to learn much for LM if they're in a wall somewhere at Spa. I'm definitely enjoying all the other teams learning and gaining on Toyota, i recall when i first started going to LM in 98 the mantra always seemed to be, year one make your mistakes, year two begin to challenge, year three aim for the win...a la Bentley in 2001/2002/2003...now we seem to expect new teams to be challenging in race three, not year three. As for Eurosport, i too wondered what was going on, that piece with the weather man was surely an item for race build up, its almost like someone up high can't believe people are interested in watching a race for six hours, i really enjoyed that one, roll on LM.

Agreed. Which makes Ferrari's effort even more impressive (and almost to the same degree - so do Porsche's and Cadillac's).

Splitting their strategy could have gained them more, both in terms of result and data. The choice for the hard compound slick is the one that baffles me - why not put the softs on for the start and see how you cope? The hards made it extra challenging and basically robbed them of any chance to vie for the win.

The Spa weather should not be a surprise to anyone - especially not AF Corse who have extended experience of racing in the Ardennes. And didn't they test @ Spa recently under changing conditions? (together with Porsche)

[Adam43]

Rightly or wrongly (hopefully wrongly) there is a perception about Ferrari and strategy. Some is from their decisions so far in WEC, some from the legacy of F1 and the stereotypical Italian thing. Some fair, some unfair.

As you say they tested at Spa. Have they worked through managing the tyres, treating the tyres well through the weekend. Or has it been just on the speed, which they have.

Who knows, but the potential is there. Isn’t this fun!?

[Coach Ep]

The series has obviously gained a ton of entertainment with Ferrari's participation. Take that as you want!

[Mike E]

Lap 1 onboards from all the Hypercars

https://youtu.be/DBk8CfGc61Q

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Mike E

Lap 1 onboards from all the Hypercars

https://youtu.be/DBk8CfGc61Q

There were some close scraps there! Pretty clean for how cold the tires were

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by KlBD

1. Do you have data on hand about whether the 499Ps had any difficulty heating up their tires at Sebring? That is, did their times after pit stops get back up to normal pace more quickly than they did at Spa? I wonder if this may affect them at Le Mans, although Le Mans is in a different season and climate than Spa.

Had a quick look. There is some evidence for this, but it isn't as stark.

Sebring: The average improvement between 1st and 2nd lap
50: -2.4s
51: -2.8s
7: -2.2s (although this is skewed by some slow laps later in the race, otherwise it was -0.7)
8: -1.6s

Spa is a bit of an odd one as the first lap out of the pits. So I have looked at the 2nd to 3rd lap. Here the Toyota looked like it was up to speed, whereas the Ferrari was still finding speed. Which we saw without the need for a stop watch.

Spa:
50: -3.4s
51: -3.1s
7: +0.4s
8: -0.8s

This is not that rigorous. I'm not happy with it from a good measurement. I have removed laps influenced by SC and FCY as best I can and ignored the first lap of the race. Also removed some obvious rubbish ones (when Ferrari went off?!)- this was me just guessing.

I would say that there is some evidence for it in Sebring, but it wasn't as stark as Spa. No where near.

[Adam43]

Trying something here. Here is the battle between Toyota and Ferrari at Spa. The different drivers are highlighted by solid/dotted lines. The cars by color. FCY and SC are highlighted on the chart.

This first version has all four cars on it. I suspect that this works better if there is less of a gap between the cars and that is in the nest post.

However here you can see that apart from the time lost in the pits and the awful old tyre laps then the Ferrari was catching the Toyota.

Maybe the Toyota was taking it easier with the lead it got by strategy/pits/tyre management, but interesting nonetheless.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Adam43

However here you can see that apart from the time lost in the pits and the awful old tyre laps then the Ferrari was catching the Toyota.

Looking at this - it seems like it was doing it pretty much all the time apart from the bad times (ahem).
And when you see the comparison to the 8 which was always losing to the 7.

To help see that here is a two car version, just the 7 and 51. Didn't seem to matter what the conditions of driver.

It was only small bits sometimes, but it was in the right direction. So let's just ignore all the horrendous laps for 51:

Lap 17 to 27: 51 gained 6.2s on 7.
29-34: 6.4s
36-39: 3.2s
45-54: 2.3s
58-77: 1.3s (only!)
99-107: 6.3s
114-125: 8.7s
131-148: 23.8s

OK - all by eye, just ignoring big stints, but you get the idea. Certainly holding its own, maybe even inching closer.

PS- the charts look a lot better if you click on them!

[Adam43]

Race development for LMP2 - Battle of the grades!

Andrade loses out to Blomqvist. Pierson loses out to Deletraz. At the end Kubica/Jarvis and then Blomqvist and Deletraz battle it out.

There is a 4 car version too, but the chart is too mad. It does show Blomqvists against the silvers.

[Adam43]

And now for GTE.

Look - you're never out of it. Close at the end, but spread out as the conditions, stops and different drivers play out.

Two car chart is for 2nd and 3rd. Which was close.

4 car chart - too much right?

[Adam43]

"Look, so called 43, is that it with the charts? That all you got?"

Here is the last lot. Nothing because it is pleasing. Doesn't really teach us much. LMP2 not that far behind Hypercar at Spa ("yes we know, yawn").

But I was curious. Class spread and driver comparison for the three class winners.

[KlBD]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Had a quick look. There is some evidence for this, but it isn't as stark.

This is not that rigorous. I'm not happy with it from a good measurement. I have removed laps influenced by SC and FCY as best I can and ignored the first lap of the race. Also removed some obvious rubbish ones (when Ferrari went off?!)- this was me just guessing.

I would say that there is some evidence for it in Sebring, but it wasn't as stark as Spa. No where near.

That's interesting, this is close enough that we probably can't conclusively conclude anything about the 499P's treatment of tires, especially when you factor in different circuit setups, climates, and the news that AF Corse has been playing it conservatively with their program in these early stages.

I appreciate your time and effort looking into this!

[dwh43scale]

Gallery for your viewing pleasure ... https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjABVxh

[joeb]

Originally Posted by dwh43scale

Gallery for your viewing pleasure ... https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjABVxh

Thanks for sharing! Who was that driver seated behind the fence with head in hands?

[dwh43scale]

Ferrari #50 Fuoco after he spun on cold tyres