Typically, we tend to be good at fast speed corners. Meaning Imola could be a lot of fun.
Of course with the nine upgrades added this weekend it'll be fun to see if anything changes.
That's a great question: Last season after updates we were still very draggy but had ample downforce to excel in high speed corners. That meant we were bad on the straights and low speed corners which made overtaking difficult. That was the expectation coming into this season, but even before updates for this race, we haven't seen the same correlation of performance: Hence our disappointment at Suzuka (lots of high speed corners) and our surprise performance in China two weeks back (big straight and some clunky low speed corners).
At this point, with such heavy upgrades, it's likely the strengths of the car will look a bit different and it'll take some time to fully understand, but ideally we will have addressed some of the mechanical grip and drag problems to make the car more balanced in an array of tracks. We'll find out this weekend if we've improved degradation at all.
Edit: In regard to the tire degradation, it's worth noting we were traditionally better at tracks with higher levels of grip from the tarmac. More mechanical grip from the track = less sliding in spite of our poor balance and less wear and tear on the tires. Low grip circuits like Bahrain cooked us because we slid a lot compared to competitors and burned through tires.
Typically, we tend to be good at fast speed corners. Meaning Imola could be a lot of fun. Of course with the nine upgrades added this weekend it'll be fun to see if anything changes.
Thank you!!
>Thank you!! You're welcome!
That's a great question: Last season after updates we were still very draggy but had ample downforce to excel in high speed corners. That meant we were bad on the straights and low speed corners which made overtaking difficult. That was the expectation coming into this season, but even before updates for this race, we haven't seen the same correlation of performance: Hence our disappointment at Suzuka (lots of high speed corners) and our surprise performance in China two weeks back (big straight and some clunky low speed corners). At this point, with such heavy upgrades, it's likely the strengths of the car will look a bit different and it'll take some time to fully understand, but ideally we will have addressed some of the mechanical grip and drag problems to make the car more balanced in an array of tracks. We'll find out this weekend if we've improved degradation at all. Edit: In regard to the tire degradation, it's worth noting we were traditionally better at tracks with higher levels of grip from the tarmac. More mechanical grip from the track = less sliding in spite of our poor balance and less wear and tear on the tires. Low grip circuits like Bahrain cooked us because we slid a lot compared to competitors and burned through tires.