Formula 1 arrives at the second qualifying of the season, valid for the Sprint of the Chinese Grand Prix, and finds a scenario in some respects not too dissimilar from what was seen in the opening weekend in Australia: Mercedes ahead with over half a second advantage over the first of the pursuers and a Ferrari in difficulty especially on the flying lap. This time, however, McLaren joins the fight, appearing already improved compared to Melbourne in numerous profiles, both engine and setup. Russell and Antonelli still take the entire front row almost walking, but looking at the data in detail, a particular aspect emerges that contains much of the wide gap recorded by the stopwatch.
Lap data: a continuous yo-yo for two sectors
The first premise of the day is that rarely like this weekend are we encountering such low quality of telemetry data transmitted by FOM, with continuous interruptions of signals from the control units of the various cars and noise in the data that we struggle to filter despite having deployed more than one algorithm. Anyway, looking at the data, it is still clear enough what happens on track. From the start of the lap, George Russell’s Mercedes is the fastest in the first stretch, immediately taking the first advantage. The two Ferraris and Norris’s McLaren, however, put up a fight in the corners and take advantage of a first lift and coast by Russell at the entrance of turn 6 to stay chronometrically attached to the train of number 63. In the second sector, “interesting” things begin: in the stretch that passes through the very fast turn 7, Leclerc and Hamilton have to leave 7-8 km/h of speed due to lack of energy, while both Russell and Norris can fully exploit the Power Unit. Despite this, in the progressive slowing down of turn 8, towards turns 9-10, it is precisely the two Ferrari drivers who prevail, containing the gap to no more than two tenths. The gap line is unfortunately approximated given the low quality of data, but we learned from the Shanghai paddock that beyond the specific values, the trends are correct.
The great harvesting and then Russell’s “mysterious” super clipping
Arriving at turn 11, we notice a huge phase of energy harvesting by Russell, who does not lift his foot from the accelerator but loses a good 16 km/h in a straight of just 6 seconds, doing a first phase of the so-called super clipping before the complicated main straight. Neither Norris’s McLaren nor the two Ferraris of Hamilton and Leclerc show similar signs; on the contrary, regarding the Maranello reds, we notice the opposite strategy, with a significant discharge of electrical energy in the short stretch and particularly high top speeds, evidently with the underlying thought of being able to recover the necessary energy for the demanding following section through the important braking of turns 11 and 12. This high-energy section of the Ferraris and Norris almost cancels the gap from Russell, with the four appearing with times all within a couple of tenths on the very long back straight. And here, after a very similar first phase, the super clipping mode begins, in which the internal combustion engine is also used to recharge the electrical part. We immediately see that Leclerc has some serious energy deployment problems, leaving a good 15 km/h to Russell and 10 to his teammate, and ending up cut out of any game immediately. Unfortunately, for both Russell’s Mercedes and Norris’s McLaren, the data flow stops right at the beginning of the super clipping phase (we wonder if electromagnetic interference at the maximum recharge phase ruins the signal from the control units), but the confirmation we received is that precisely in this phase Russell opens the gap from all pursuers. Therefore, of the six tenths we see at the finish line over the first of the pursuers, at least 3-4 come from the different exploitation by Russell and Mercedes of the clipping and super clipping phase.
The feeling: a longer blanket combined with a unique strategy
Seeing these data, the considerations that come to mind are essentially two. On one hand, it seems clear that Mercedes has a surplus of energy to manage compared to the competition. A long blanket to be spread in the points where it matters most. Not surprisingly, in the yo-yo seen during the lap, Mercedes arrives at the entrance of the last straight on par with the others but with, evidently, much more energy to spend. The second is that for Mercedes everything is carefully calibrated (as, on the other hand, it should be) to maximize the gain from this situation. A longer and more effective energy delivery precisely in the section where the other cars go into the greatest crisis means a potentially huge chronometric advantage, which is what we then find on the finish line. It also seems clear, however, that knowledge of this very particular superclipping mode, of which we hope to finally have the data to analyze tomorrow, is precluded to customer teams, with McLaren, for example, appearing to discover session after session how the power unit produced in Brixworth can be exploited.
Tires, load and … Party Mode
In all this, there is little talk of tires, load, and setups and, to close, here are the impressions in this regard. Ferrari continues to prove fast in all corners where the chassis is important. The aerodynamic load seems absolutely up to the level of the rivals and, after a practice session with some difficulties, the car seemed at ease on track, with Hamilton even showing great confidence at the last corner, the fast section that saw him leaving tens of km/h to the competition due to lack of confidence with the car. McLaren seemed much improved in terms of setup, although not with the level of load generated by Ferrari, but with the possibility of exploiting the torque of the Mercedes power unit in traction, which guarantees a certain peace of mind. All these differences appear maximized on the flying lap, confirming the impression of a return of the so-called Party Mode for Mercedes-powered cars. We will see what happens in the Sprint starting from the start and if we will finally manage to have a clean and complete data signal to analyze.
Read more Piastri: “The gap to the Mercedes is really impressive”
