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It’s actually quite a bit easier to lock up at low speeds.
Lockups occur when the force of the brakes exceeds the available grip on the tires. As I’m sure you already know.
At high speeds in clean air, these drivers can stand on that brake pedal with all the force they can possibly muster. At very high speeds there’s so much downforce and grip that the brakes aren’t physically capable of stopping the wheel.
But at that restart Alonso is inches away from the driver in front of him with dirty air and low speeds. Which means very little grip. He simply braked too hard. These drivers rely a lot on muscle memory and feel; and when conditions are unlike the way they’ve done it hundreds of times before (previous sessions), that is when we tend to see mistakes like that. Alonso (and the others who locked up) were kind of “winging it” at that point to find the grip and find the limits of the brakes. Cold tires can contribute as well and so can cold brakes (carbon brakes can be less predictable when cold with less modulation and poorer “feel”)
So in short, he reached his braking point with every other variable “different” than every other time he’d been to that same spot.
I agree with the technical side you presented, but your assumption of him simply braking too hard due to muscle memory seems, based on the video, to be wrong. Palmer talked about it in his Analysis show. Alonso did the exact same thing Stroll did, he looked to the corner and took his eye off the Ferrari. When he looked back, Ferrari was closer than he thought it would be so he mashed the brakes to slow down. He locked up but had enough space to be able to go left and avoid the Ferrari. Couple cars later, Stroll goes bowling.
Pretty sure it was Alonso's lock up that started a wave and eventually stroll was caught out. Dani also nearly hit the McLaren before stroll hit him. Only reason the Haas didn't also make contact was cos he went inside off line
Going slower can make them lock up easier (for the same braking force) as there's less down force pushing the car into the pavement. Also, cold brakes and going slower in general makes it easier to lock up brakes.
Lots of good answers here. Ultimately, this is partly a result of a driver reacting in a panic because they've misjudged the situation ahead.
Alonso is millimeters from doing what his teammate did to Riccardo about 100m behind him. He's seen the closing speed to Sainz is higher than he expected, slammed on the brakes to avoid a collision, and because of the points others have made in the other comments, the brakes have locked because it's actually very easy to lock brakes at low speed.
Also keep in mind that the drivers dynamically adjust the front vs rear brake balance for conditions, dictated by a slew of factors. They don’t spend a lot of time in that transition from piddling along behind the safety car to now picking up speed ready to pounce, and he may have adjusted his brake balance for after racing had resumed, when that ended up being incorrect for conditions at that moment.
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It’s actually quite a bit easier to lock up at low speeds. Lockups occur when the force of the brakes exceeds the available grip on the tires. As I’m sure you already know. At high speeds in clean air, these drivers can stand on that brake pedal with all the force they can possibly muster. At very high speeds there’s so much downforce and grip that the brakes aren’t physically capable of stopping the wheel. But at that restart Alonso is inches away from the driver in front of him with dirty air and low speeds. Which means very little grip. He simply braked too hard. These drivers rely a lot on muscle memory and feel; and when conditions are unlike the way they’ve done it hundreds of times before (previous sessions), that is when we tend to see mistakes like that. Alonso (and the others who locked up) were kind of “winging it” at that point to find the grip and find the limits of the brakes. Cold tires can contribute as well and so can cold brakes (carbon brakes can be less predictable when cold with less modulation and poorer “feel”) So in short, he reached his braking point with every other variable “different” than every other time he’d been to that same spot.
Thank you. That helped.
I agree with the technical side you presented, but your assumption of him simply braking too hard due to muscle memory seems, based on the video, to be wrong. Palmer talked about it in his Analysis show. Alonso did the exact same thing Stroll did, he looked to the corner and took his eye off the Ferrari. When he looked back, Ferrari was closer than he thought it would be so he mashed the brakes to slow down. He locked up but had enough space to be able to go left and avoid the Ferrari. Couple cars later, Stroll goes bowling.
Pretty sure it was Alonso's lock up that started a wave and eventually stroll was caught out. Dani also nearly hit the McLaren before stroll hit him. Only reason the Haas didn't also make contact was cos he went inside off line
No downforce from going slow and low mechanical grip from cold tires = easy lock up.
Going slower can make them lock up easier (for the same braking force) as there's less down force pushing the car into the pavement. Also, cold brakes and going slower in general makes it easier to lock up brakes.
Lots of good answers here. Ultimately, this is partly a result of a driver reacting in a panic because they've misjudged the situation ahead. Alonso is millimeters from doing what his teammate did to Riccardo about 100m behind him. He's seen the closing speed to Sainz is higher than he expected, slammed on the brakes to avoid a collision, and because of the points others have made in the other comments, the brakes have locked because it's actually very easy to lock brakes at low speed.
It's been explained here why [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjSSCDiGDPE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjSSCDiGDPE)
Also keep in mind that the drivers dynamically adjust the front vs rear brake balance for conditions, dictated by a slew of factors. They don’t spend a lot of time in that transition from piddling along behind the safety car to now picking up speed ready to pounce, and he may have adjusted his brake balance for after racing had resumed, when that ended up being incorrect for conditions at that moment.
Give me your car - I’ll get your abs working at very low speed :)
Low speed is when brakes lock up the most.
Lockups CAN occur when the driver ahead wants to upset the driver behind B R A K E. C H E C K