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2023 Qatar Sprint Race Analysis

2023 Qatar Sprint Race Analysis

Oct 08, 2023

Hello Data Gurus,

Here’s a quick summary from yesterday’s sprint race. As much as I don’t really enjoy the sprint weekends so much, I thought this was a pretty exciting sprint, heightened by a lack of tyre understanding… We saw a lot of teams splitting between the SFT and MED race tyre, and there were some advantages and disadvantages to each.

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Enjoy the data!

Cheers,

Blake

Race Summary

  • An interesting and somewhat exciting sprint race dominated by safety cars and tyre performance

  • About half of the grid decided to start on a SFT tyre and the other went for the MED tyre

  • In short - the soft tyre runners tended to have excellent race start grip, but suffered higher degradation - see the race traces below with only soft runners highlighted

  • As a result of 3 safety car periods, the SFT tyre showed excellent grip on the restarts relative to the MED (RUS had a few great plays here - well done George)

  • PER crashes out (sandwich with OCO and HUL) - and VER finishes P3 - which makes him a 3x Formula 1 World Champion - well done

  • PIA wins his first (sprint) race in Formula 1 - in classic PIA fashion, he was clearly outwardly emotional /s (I really like this dude)

There are plenty more details and a bit of analysis below, but it’s only a single stint sprint race - it’s going to be a short one!

Performance TLDR

  • SFT tyre high degradation

    • RUS managed a reasonable race on this tyre

    • SAI on a fresh SFT struggled substantially more than RUS on a 4 lap old set - even LEC on a 7 lap old set of SFT’s had no trouble keeping up with him

    • SAI pace held up the cars immediately behind him it seems

  • PIA VER NOR all medium tyres on the Podium

    • VER within 2s of PIA end of race, appears to back off or run into tyre deg

    • NOR still had more pace in hand end of race after passing RUS - he appears to have done a good job managing tyres while trying to overtake

  • Difficult to assess team pace order in high fuel conditions as so many drivers were in traffic, or on a highly degrading SFT tyre.

  • Expect the SFT tyre to be good for 8-10 laps maximum, unlikely to be a favorable start tyre, unless you gamble for race start advantage and early Safety Car - only expect this gamble for cars at the back.

Race Forecast

Here are some thoughts going into the race!

We still don’t know whether or not Pirelli are going to enforce a maximum tyre laps.

The number thrown around yesterday was 20 laps (or something), and it’s a 57 lap race.

That means if a tyre has 3 laps on it, you’d be limited to 17 further laps (based on the above)

I need to check used tyre age, but VER MED’s appear to have 3 laps on them.

He could do H(20) M(20) uM(17) (uM = used MED) - and use the other medium tyre to do a lap to the grid.

Starting Grid (Sprint)

Source: www.fia.com

Race Summary Charts

Tyre Strategy

Race Trace

Lap Times

Race Positions Gained

Results

Source: www.fia.com

Start Tyre Comparison

SFT Tyre Runners

  • Above is the drivers highlighted who started on the SFT tyres

  • NOR VER and PIA coming through - HAM trying to come through but stuck in traffic

  • SAI appears to be causing the train to fall off, as his degradation was much worse than RUS

    • SAI fresh SFT, LEC 7 laps old, RUS 4 laps old

    • Despite newer tyres, SAI not having a good time on this compound/conditions

  • RUS begged to pit for fresh rubber as he was struggling at the 3rd safety car, but look how close the field is - that would have been a guaranteed no points.

VER Pace End of Race

  • VER finished 2s behind PIA, but I think his tyres were absolutely cooked - you can see at L17 he either backs out of it, or starts to get some degradation

  • NOR spent quite a bit of time in traffic behind the Ferraris and others, but appears to have kept his tyres in decent shape, as his pace approaching RUS and after passing RUS is strong

  • Note: RUS on SFTS (+4 laps to the MED runners) is over 2s per lap slower

Weather

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