2023 F1 Midfield Tales – Alpine Leads After Saudi Arabia

-


'F1 Midfield Tales' will be a combination of data and analysis that will aim to dissect the uber-competitive midfield of F1

2023 Saudi Arabian GP

Preface

The Jeddah Corniche Circuit, a fast and unforgiving street circuit designed by Carsen Tilke is the setting for the second grand prix of the 2023 Formula 1 championship.

With a dominating performance in Bahrain, Red Bull has established itself as the cream of the crop. The likes of Aston Martin, Ferrari and Mercedes have been deemed to be the challengers but based on the gap to the Bulls, calling them the ‘challengers’ is a stretch.

There was still hope that the dominance of Red Bull was an anomaly attributed to the very abrasive track surface of the Bahrain International Circuit but when the Saudi GP culminated in another 1-2 Red Bull finish with a Perez victory, the ‘challengers’ must have felt defeated because the Austrian team were just out of bounds.

This street circuit in Jeddah is low abrasive in nature and has its own challenges in terms of bringing the tyres to optimum temperatures, the opposite end of the spectrum compared to Bahrain. This caused a setup challenge for the teams and drivers ensuing in differences in performance between teams and drivers.

When it comes to our protagonists, the tightly knit ‘midfield’, the intriguing story continued for another episode in Jeddah.

Observations

For the comparisons, data with similar variables are selected to make a viable analysis. For instance, the fastest sectors by a team and not individual drivers are considered for qualifying analysis. Lap times are collected for the same tyre compound at identical periods of the race.

Qualifying

To completely understand how these teams stack up against each other according to the characteristics of the track, it is important to briefly look at the best sectors set by the teams.

  • Sector 1

This part of the track demands the cars to have a good mechanical grip for the first two corners and aerodynamic performance regarding downforce to maintain maximum grip through the high-speed corners.

Here’s a bar chart comparing the times set by the fastest car of each team and the observations made are:

    • Esteban Ocon’s Alpine was the fastest in this sector and had a significant advantage over the other teams.
    • Performance advantage in this sector turns out to be very decisive in overall lap times.
    • McLaren seems to have decent performance in this sector suggesting a good car with a working baseline.
    • The other teams seem to lack the above-mentioned characteristics with Williams being the slowest.
  • Sector 2

This sector consists of a slow/medium-speed corner in turn 13 and a couple of medium/high-speed corners in turns 16 and 17 accompanied by a straight. The other corners in this sector can be considered more or less a straight.

Here are some observations accompanied by a bar chart:

    • All the teams apart from Alpha Tauri are within one-tenth of a second.
    • The lack of pace in this segment may suggest an inefficient aerodynamic concept that results in high drag.
  • Sector 3
    • The last sector of this track is very similar in terms of characteristics to the previous one.
    • The performances and differences are pretty much the same with the Alpha Tauri again lagging behind a bit more from the other teams.

The Race


‘Points are earned on the Sunday of the race weekend’.

The majority of the drivers started the race on the medium tyres and continued on them until an opportunity arose for a free pit stop courtesy of a completely avoidable safety car resulting from a technically stricken Aston Martin of Lance Stroll. At this point, those drivers who pit, put on the hard tyres and the few who pit earlier were also on hard tyres but would have felt hard done by the untimely caution.

The McLaren drivers changed their tyres on lap1 and lap2, Piastri from the mediums to the hard ones, he had to pit after a collision with Ocon which left his front wing compromised. Norris changed from the softs to the hard compound as he too had a damaged front wing after running over his teammate's debris. Piastri managed to finish the race on those same sets and Norris took the opportunity to change to mediums at the safety car interval.

Logan and Zhou ended their races on the medium tyres with Norris. Bottas ended the race on softs, Bottas struggled for pace throughout the race and the Alfa’s seemed very uncomfortable with the hard tyres.

The low degrading nature of the circuit made for a fair comparison of race pace as tyre limitations could be ignored.

Here are a few observations:

  • Stint 1

Drivers starting on a medium set of tyres, ignoring the positional changes:

    • The Alpine of Ocon had a clear pace advantage.
    • The Alpha Tauri portrays a better performance compared to its one-lap pace.
    • The Williams also defied its one-lap performance.

  • Stint 2

This is a comparison of teams and drivers on the hard tyres after their first change, ignoring the age of the tyres:

    • The Alpine again stands out with the faster laps.
    • Oscar Piastri’s McLaren with its ageing tyres was impressively in the mix.
    • Haas and Alpha Tauri had similar pace in this stint.

  • Stint 2/3

This stint is the 2nd for some and the 3rd for some drivers but the comparison is done at the same stage of the race.

    • On medium tyres the Alfa Romeo seemed to have an advantage over the McLaren and the Williams.
    • The pace on the medium tyres dropped off slightly but noticeably over the hard tyres but the difference was not too drastic.


Conclusion

The 2023 Formula 1 season is two races young and the extreme differences between the two tracks didn’t alter the narrative, in terms of the pecking order, that much. The battle for midfield supremacy remains close and will continue to be fought meticulously until the end of the season but one team in this kerfuffle have shown signs of standing out and eventually creating a gulf between them and the rest. Alpine are that team, it will be interesting to see if they will continue in this trajectory, they are expected to do so and the paddock will be eager to find out. The land down under awaits us to add more layers to this developing season.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2023 F1 Midfield Tales – Alpha Tauri carrying all the chips to Vegas!

-
Image
'F 1 Midfield Tales' will be a combination of data and analysis that will aim to dissect the uber-competitive midfield of F1' 2023 United States, Mexico City, and São Paulo Grand Prix Preface Last Sunday was the culmination of what was the final triple header of the 2023 Formula 1 championship which began with the United States Grand Prix on the 20th of October. The triple-header proved pivotal in the championship resulting in a major reshuffle of positions in the standings. Let's take a look at how the three events unfolded. The United States Grand Prix The F1 paddock was treated with the usual but always extraordinary American flare. The weather was clear throughout the weekend and thus the Texan sun was beating down assisting the air and track temperatures to be on the higher end. Even though the layout is now familiar to the teams, the track always has something up its sleeve in the form of bumps on the surface. The geological phenomenon of subsidence had introduced...
Read more

2023 F1 Midfield Tales – Albon! The sole midfield challenge in Monza.

-
Image
'F 1 Midfield Tales' will be a combination of data and analysis that will aim to dissect the uber-competitive midfield of F1' 2023 Italian Grand Prix Preface 'Benvenuto in Italia'. Welcome to Italy, for us petrolheads, the land of Ferrari, for others the land of Pizza and Pasta. However you associate it, it is a place we all want to visit once in our lifetime. For the Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio D'Italia 2023, we return to a track that is etched deeply into the history books of motor racing. 'The Temple of Speed' is the oldest track in mainland Europe and has been part of the championship since 1949. The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, or just Monza is a race track located near the city of Monza, North of Milan, in Italy. The current iteration of the track consists of corners and chicanes that evoke a sense of awe in any motorsport fan. The motorsport complex has been active for 101 years and has held the second most Formula 1 races. It is a high-speed t...
Read more

2023 F1 Midfield Tales – The Midfield Pounce at the Dutch GP!

-
Image
'F 1 Midfield Tales' will be a combination of data and analysis that will aim to dissect the uber-competitive midfield of F1' 2023 Dutch Grand Prix Preface WELCOME BACK !!  The season is back in action and everything seems normal to us fans and enthusiasts. For the restart, the location at which the F1 carnival pitched its tent this week was in 'Max Land'. Yes, Circuit Zandvoort amidst the dunes of North Zandvoort in the Netherlands at the shore of the North Sea was the setting for the Formula 1 Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2023. This is a unique, the word used in every sense of it, a circuit where the track meanders around the natural dunes to create an undulating experience for the drivers. This is the only track in the current calendar with very steep and prominent bankings, the first at turn 3 and a fast one at turn 14. The lack of straights and medium to high-speed corners makes this a downforce-demanding race track. Here's a track map for your reference: Ther...
Read more