The AI that recalculates
The beauty of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit has drawn criticism from Formula 1 fans, between the astonishment for the exaggerated super clipping and the bewilderment for the electric power delivery that escapes even team simulations and has penalized some drivers more than others.
Above all, this last variable, very sensitive to driving style, led us to ask ourselves – provocatively – on Sunday morning whether the drivers were still drivers or passengers of artificial intelligence.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc also spoke about it at the Spa press conference.
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Antonelli: “Sometimes the system is strange”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli at the Spa press conference, recounted his personal experience with these mysteries related to electric power delivery: “It can happen. This weekend George had a slight power loss that sometimes you don’t understand. The same thing happened to me in Australia. It can depend a bit on the driving, but sometimes the system does something slightly different. It’s very complicated and you have to appreciate the team’s work, because the system is really complex. Of course, they try to simplify things, but sometimes it’s difficult to achieve perfection. Especially on tracks like this that require a lot of energy, if you start driving differently, it becomes a bit strange for the system.”
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Leclerc: “Frustrating, sometimes things keep changing”
And Charles Leclerc also experienced something similar: “Obviously I don’t know what George’s problem was, but the only thing I can say is that it happens. These power units are so complex that there are days when you scratch your head trying to understand why you’re losing so much power on the straights. It was a bit like that for me on Friday and in FP3. Then in qualifying, things went well again thanks to some small adjustments. It’s very difficult, but also very frustrating sometimes for a driver because, even when you do your best, there are things behind the scenes that keep changing. And that’s not very pleasant.”
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